Wednesday, September 19, 2001

Freshman minority enrollment down
By Sarah McClellan
Staff Reporter

The TCU admissions office is concerned about the reduction in minority enrollment for fall 2001, said Ray Brown, dean of admissions.

Minority enrollment at TCU decreased from 13.86 percent of freshmen in fall 2000 to 12.38 percent of freshmen this fall, according to an analysis of university admissions statistics.

Calculations show that there is a 10.6 percent decrease in the rate of representation of incoming minority students.

“We have expended an extraordinary amount of effort to enroll more students of color and various backgrounds,” Brown said. “But students of color are applying to more schools. If they got into TCU, they could’ve gotten into some very good places.”

Based on a search he made using the PeopleSoft program this summer, Brown said that minority enrollment would increase to 14 percent of freshmen this fall.

“I had instant euphoria this summer when it looked like the minority numbers were up,” Brown said. “I just chalked it up to having written the query wrong.”

Brown said he couldn’t fully explain the discrepancy but the “summer melt,” the period in which other colleges finalize their waiting list and students decide whether to go to TCU or elsewhere, may have taken more minorities than expected. Even though minority applications are up at TCU, ultimately, fewer minority students are actually attending.

Darron Turner, assistant dean and director of intercultural education and services, said minority students are getting more educational opportunities, not just at TCU.

“I definitely think there are more options out there -— options students of color are hearing of for the first time,” Turner said. “As more schools start recruiting (for diversity) opportunities expand and numbers go down.”

Brown said one of the reasons for the optimistic calculations this year was an increase in applications from minorities, which is due in part to the Community Scholars Program.

The program began three years ago as a way to encourage students from Fort Worth high schools with high percentages of minority students to consider TCU, Chancellor Michael Ferrari said.

“The Community Scholars Program has exceeded our highest expectations,” Ferrari said. “Outstanding students have come to TCU who might not have considered the university prior to the start of this program.”

There were 24 applicants from these schools in fall 2000, but this fall, there were 76 applicants, Brown said.

Cornell Thomas, special assistant to the chancellor for diversity and community, said the Community Scholar Program has contributed to increasing minority enrollment from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but he can’t explain the overall decrease.

“I can’t figure that out,” Thomas said. “I don’t know what we can do about it. What we’re doing in the area is working and we need to incorporate that outside the area.”

Brown and Thomas said diversity is still a major goal of the university.

“People in higher education are constantly talking about diversity,” Brown said. “There aren’t a lot of institutions that are putting their money where their mouths are. But we’re whipping this diversity rhetoric and just flat out doing it.”

Thomas said 16 percent of new faculty members are minorities.

“We now intimately understand the value of diversity,” Thomas said. “It’s not just a movement here, it’s a movement in other cities and other college campuses.

Sometimes it’s just talk but I think here we really mean it.”

Sarah McClellan
s.l.mcclellan@student.tcu.edu