The retention of ethnic minority students is an issue that has been ruminating amongst the numerous different issues surrounding minority students at SMU. How do we ensure that students of ethnic minority are staying at SMU?

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said that “… there is strength in diversity.” He attributes the success of New York City during the post Sept. 11 era to the city’s diverse population. It is funny how in desperate times we revert back to the core values which sustain us as a people and as a indivisible nation. And diversity proved key to New York’s amelioration.

If SMU is to have an ethnically diverse population both within the students and within the faculty then it is imperative that we strive to recruit and retain students of ethnic minority. Minority retention has been a controversial issue at SMU these last couple of years due to its stagnation and expected decline. Why is this and what is SMU doing to counter this problem?

Those are two of the questions that will be the focus of the town hall meeting taking place at 12:15 p.m. in the Hughes-Trigg Student Center commons area. Key administrators will be there to field any questions that arise. There will also be a presentation of the statistics surrounding this issue and how exactly our school stacks up against other schools in our tier when it comes to the retention of minority students. This town hall meeting is being hosted by the student representatives to the Board of Trustees, who plan on making these town halls an ongoing series which will address key issues and concerns that face SMU students. We feel that this is an extremely important forum for all to attend.

There are those that say that it is not SMU’s fault that the students leave because it is out of SMU’s power to keep them here. That argument is just an escape from any responsibility that SMU has in ensuring that all students who attend the university are content with their college experience. It seems only right to say that SMU does hold a responsibility to provide a learning environment, which attempts to satisfy any and every type of student.

We know that it is impossible to please everyone but every effort should be made to do so, whether it is through specifically targeted extracurricular programs or through SMU’s academic arena. There should a definite niche that attracts and retains minority students.

Retaining students only aids us as we strive to build a community that represents what we will see as we venture out into the “real” world.

Currently 2.6 percent of full-time faculty at SMU is African-American, 3.5 percent is Hispanic-American and 7.3 percent is Asian-American. Does the lack of minority faculty factor into the equation of minority retention? A diverse faculty can only help cultivate a diverse community of students and may aid in the retention of ethnic minorities.

This university does not have any specific quota or mark that it has set as a goal for the retention rate of minority students. We believe that it is advantageous for there to be a quota of some kind that SMU strives for, so there isn’t just an arbitrary figure that is being presented each year.

Is happiness a factor in keeping the best students at SMU? For students of ethnic minority it may be a very persuasive feature of the overall decision whether to stay at SMU or transfer to a school that seems more ethnically pleasing.

Retaining all students is important and it should be the responsibility of the university to provide all students with a culture that encourages such. We challenge the administration to answer to this issue both honestly and effectively.