(Jessica Betancourt)
SMU places a high priority on racial diversity. There’s the Student Activities and Multicultural Student Affairs office, the Diversity Education Program, the Multicultural Greek Council and the Association of Black Students. Each is designed to attract and retain minorities and further diversity.
According to the Official SMU Web site, the university has backed up its words with action: “Over the last decade, SMU has proven its ability to recruit, retain and graduate minority students.”
There’s just one problem: Over the past decade, SMU’s first-year class has become less diverse.
According to faculty senate records, the number of freshmen minority students dropped by almost 25 percent between 1999 and 2007. Enrollment of black students declined by more than 40 percent. Hispanic enrollment fell by 20 percent. In 2007, minorities comprised 16.6 percent of first-year undergraduate students at SMU. By comparison, minorities comprised almost 28 percent of first-year undergraduate students nationwide in 2008, according to UCLA researchers.
What’s happening on the SMU campus has not gone unnoticed.
“I’m constantly having to defend my decision to go here. It’s not exactly a welcome mat for minorities,” said Elzie Odom, a former diversity education program facilitator and current SMU graduate student.
Both Odom and Joe Carreon, president of College Hispanic American Students, said that SMU’s “rich, white and conservative” reputation is detrimental to recruiting minority students.
“The perpetuation of that idea affects Hispanic enrollment in the university,” said Carreon.
Some administrators also see the decline in minority enrollment as a problem. Pavielle Chriss, the coordinator for minority recruitment at SMU, acknowledges that there is a decline in minority enrollment. “The university sees the decline in minority student enrollment as a key issue and is taking steps to increase enrollment,” Chriss said.
According to Chriss, one such step is a committee created by Provost Paul Ludden “to discuss and implement ways to increase the quality and quantity of minority students on campus.”
The committee consists of key decision makers on campus, including: Chriss, Dr. Ludden, Vice President of Student Affairs Lori White, Marc Peterson, and the director of financial aid. There are no students sitting on the committee.
Other administrators, such as Jennifer Jones, the executive director of student development and programs, do not see the decline in minority enrollment as a problem. Jones pointed to SMU’s Web site, which states that minorities made up 21 percent of all undergraduate students in the fall of 2007.
But SMU is not just having problems recruiting minority students. According to the Registrar’s Office report on retention and graduation of first year students, 83.2 percent of white students who began their freshman year in 2006 were still attending SMU in the fall of 2008. Only 77.5 percent of minority students who started SMU at the same time were still attending SMU in 2008.
Odom, also a member of the Association of Black Students and Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, said SMU officials are failing to sustain strong minority programs because they do not have the numbers needed.
Carreon sees the difficulties SMU faces in recruiting and sustaining a healthy minority population, he also recognizes the recent steps the university is taking to recruit and retain minority students. “In a short amount of time a lot has been done,” Carreon said, referring to the addition of “people of color in positions of influence” and the addition of more minority-run campus organizations.
Carreon also credits the strong leadership of minority students. Of the 10 Latino-based campus organizations, three have been added this year. “This year’s class is an active group of students,” Carreon said. “We wouldn’t be able to add these three organizations if we didn’t have good leadership.”
Jones agrees, and does not believe minority programs at SMU are struggling. “If that were the case, we would no longer have [minority programs].”
In addition to the student-run minority organizations, the administration has recently enacted several programs to improve SMU’s “visibility and image within the minority populations, as well as find ways to reach out to these students,” according to Chriss.
With all the steps SMU is taking to recruit minorities, Carreon recognizes the challenges SMU faces. “If SMU is going to be the university of this area, which is becoming increasingly Hispanic, they need to be able to educate Hispanics in the community who will become leaders.”
This sentiment is mirrored on SMU’s Web site, which states: “Nearly 93 percent of the net additions to the Texas population between 2000 and 2040 will be members of minority groups. As a result, socioeconomic characteristics linked to minority status will create a new set of challenges for higher education in Texas.”
Carreon has a long road ahead for SMU. “Despite the outreach that has been done, if you go to any Dallas high school, and ask students if they know where SMU is at they usually say no, which is discouraging.”
