The Search For Minorities

By Susan Tifft

At the top of just about every college president's "to do" list these days is a resolve to recruit more minorities. Although a growing percentage of black students are finishing high school, black attendance in college is dropping. In 1985 only 26% of black high school graduates went on to college, down from 34% in 1976, a year when the figure was slightly above that of whites. While minority college enrollment expanded slightly between 1980 and 1986, the gain was mostly because of increased numbers of Asians and Hispanics, not blacks.

These bleak statistics persist despite several decades of intense effort to attract and retain minority students. According to a study released last month by the American Council on Education, 8 out of 10 colleges and universities report either "a lot" or "some" activity aimed at boosting minority undergraduate enrollment on their campuses. At the same time, 60% give themselves only "fair" or "poor" success ratings in attracting black students; two-thirds give equally low grades for Hispanic recruitment.

One reason for the desultory pace is that many public schools are failing to meet the needs of minority students well before they reach high school graduation, leaving them academically unprepared for college-level work. Also, some 38 states have toughened admissions standards for public universities, raising the hurdle that minorities must surmount to get in.

In poor inner-city neighborhoods, family patterns and cultural barriers often make it difficult for minority students to view college as an option. Moreover, many potential applicants are frightened away by soaring college costs. Federal aid, which has shifted from grants to loans, has disproportionately affected minorities, many of whom are unable to make the financial commitment to borrow large sums for education.

Those minority students who do arrive on campus feel isolated. A resurgence of bigotry has caused many to drop out. Last summer, for example, arsonists at the University of Mississippi torched the school's first on-campus black fraternity house; last spring four black women at Smith College received racist notes. In the face of such hostility, the inducements to enroll -- scholarships, minority-student organizations -- seem pale. "Overt racial incidents can have a real psychological effect, even if they don't happen to you," says John Jackson, 23, a black at the University of Texas at Austin.

Although colleges in general have a lackluster record of attracting and holding minorities, a number of programs are starting to chip away at the problem. In some areas, college-public school partnerships seek to get minority students thinking about higher education at an early age and to nurture that goal through high school. "Once kids have the fever for college, you can do a lot of good," says Nathan Potts, principal of West Side High School in Newark, which was "adopted" by Ramapo College of New Jersey in 1985.

Many programs court only the academically gifted, but there are exceptions. Last month Connecticut College launched a program aimed at tenth-graders who rank in the top 30% of their class but fall short of the top 10%.

"Nobody is telling us to target only the top 10% of white students," explains Claire Gaudiani, the school's president. Public school teachers select the students and accompany them to the campus for two weeks of classes and counseling. In order to maintain the students' interest in college, professors and minority alumni will correspond with them throughout high school and hold twice-yearly "reunions."

Since 1984, Arizona State University has run an innovative program to recruit Hispanic women. Several times a year, Hispanic mothers and their daughters, ranging in age from 13 to 18, come to campus to take classes together. Although the purpose is to make parents advocates of college for their girls, 30% of the 234 mothers have been sufficiently inspired to continue their own educations. "Hispanic family values encourage females to get married and stay home," says A.S.U. sophomore Sonia Torres, 18. "I probably would not have gone to a four-year college without the program."

Although such efforts hold out hope for improvement, much more needs to be done. By the year 2020, 35% of the American population will be minority, with blacks and Hispanics making up the largest portion. For society's sake as well as for their own survival, colleges cannot afford to have more than a third of the nation view them as inaccessible or inhospitable. Many of the current programs seem to be on the right track, but they will take time to produce results. "If higher education is interested in the harvesting of minority students," says Judy Jackson Pitts, a former assistant dean at Cornell, "we have to get in on the planting."

With reporting by Joelle Attinger/New York and Jerome Cramer/Washington