Minority population sees increase in 2008

After a four year slump-minority enrollment at GCSU is on the rise. Minority enrollment is up 20 percent among incoming freshmen in 2008.

Overall, GCSU received 152 new minority students this fall. This number includes transfer students as well as incoming freshmen.

According to the Spring 2008 Semester Enrollment Report, by the Georgia Board of Regents, the number of minority students at GCSU falls below the average among state universities in Georgia.

The average minority enrollment among black students in Georgia is 29.4 percent and 2.9 percent among Hispanic students. GCSU sits at 8.6 percent enrollment among black students and 2.8 percent among Hispanic students.

In the 2008 Convocation Address, President Dorothy Leland, described the efforts involved in recruiting minority students to GCSU.

“Four years ago, we noted declines in the recruitment and retention of minorities and we committed to reversing that trend,” Leland said. “That’s why we began to re-focus our admissions priorities with more emphasis on recruiting a geographically and ethnically diverse student body. Thanks to the work of Suzanne Pittman, Mike Augustine and their talented staff, these efforts are begin to bear fruit.”

The college went from a 16 percent increase overall last year to an 18 percent increase overall this year.

“We are moving in the right direction,” Suzanne Pittman, Assistant Vice President, said. “Our goal right now is to be where we were at before the mission change, about 20 percent,” Pittman said.

In 1996, GCSU began transitioning from a comprehensive college to a liberal arts focus. As the school’s mission changed, so did the student body.

As a comprehensive college in the 90s, GCSU attracted more minority students from the local area. The shift to a liberal arts focus caused minority enrollment to decrease. All the factors involved in this decrease are difficult to pinpoint according to Pittman.

As a liberal arts college, GCSU began to attract more students from around the region. It has taken a while for minorities interested in attending college to “learn about our role as a liberal arts college, and GCSU being attractive to them,” said Pittman.

“I think it’s necessary to have a more diverse campus-totally,” William Bridges, junior sociology major, said. “What can we do to attract more minority students to GCSU?”

The greatest actual increase is among Hispanic students this year.

Javier Fransisco, associate director of enrollment management and Hispanic recruiter, has helped with this increase.
“We are proud about the increase among minorities. We want a student population that is diverse and represents the real world,” Pittman said.

The Minorities in Higher Education Annual Status Report, issued Oct. 8 by the American Council on Education, found that the number of minority students enrolled in U.S. colleges increased from 2 million in 1981 to 4.3 million in 2001, an increase of 122 percent.

“Student diversity is vital to the quality of education at Georgia College,” Leland said. “This is because we are better able to prepare our students to live, work and lead in a pluralistic society when we provide them with sustained opportunities to interact with and learn from others with diverse backgrounds and perspectives.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 3 2008. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry