By Deanna Tran

An annual status report released by the American Council on Education shows total minority enrollment at U.S. colleges and universities is up by 50.7 percent, an increase of 4.7 million students nationwide between 1993 and 2003.

The trend isn’t exactly the same at the University of Louisville, however. Data collected by the Office of Institutional Research and Planning shows that while the school is meeting its diversity goals, overall minority enrollment is down.

The Minorities in Higher Education 22nd Annual Status Report analyzes 10 years’ worth of U.S. government and privately collected data concerning students of color and their college enrollment rates and the degrees they earned. Within the decade covered in the report, overall college enrollment among black students increased by 42.7 percent, totaling more than 1.9 million. Hispanic enrollment rose by 68.8 percent to 1.6 million students; Asian enrollment went up by 43.5 percent to 987,000 students; and American Indian enrollment grew by 38.7 percent to nearly 163,000 students.

Despite growing minority enrollment rates, the status report maintains that racial and gender gaps in higher education still exist. Report findings show that black and Hispanic students trail behind their white and Asian counterparts, especially when it comes to enrollment and graduation rates.

Asian students also led the way when it came to the number of degrees earned. The report shows 62.3 percent of Asians enrolled in four-year institutions earned a bachelor’s degree within six years, followed by 58 percent of Caucasian students, 42 percent of Hispanics and 36.4 percent of blacks.

And although high school completion rates of both black and Hispanic students increased within the last decade, the status report reveals significant differences in the number of students of different races who continue on to college after high school.

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The report found that 47.3 percent of white high school graduates ages 18-24 attended college compared to 41.1 percent of black high school graduates and 35.2 percent of Hispanic high school graduates.

U of L data collected by the Office of Institutional Research and planning reveals that enrollment of students of all races and ethnicities has increased since 2001, but minority enrollment had decreased as of 2005.

“Minority enrollment is slightly down this year, just slightly,” said Executive Director of the Office of Admissions Jenny Sawyer.

She said that each school unit of the university has devised a plan to recruit diverse students. And although university data shows that there is more diversity at U of L today than there was in 2001, the data reveals that five out of the seven U of L undergraduate programs experienced a drop in enrollment numbers for students of at least one minority group in 2005.

Black student enrollment in the College of Arts & Science dropped for the first time by five percent from 2004 to 2005, according to university data.

A downtrend in black and hispanic student enrollment was also reported at the College of Business. Numbers have slipped from 740 black students enrolled in 2001 to just under 675 in 2005.

The J.B. Speed School of Engineering reported a similar trend.

Still, enrollment for some minorities is on the rise for a few programs at U of L. University data shows that the undergraduate programs in the College of Education and Human Development and the School of Music have seen recent minority enrollment numbers increase, especially among black students.

On the contrary, university data reports that Asian, American Indian and Alaskan native student enrollment increased at nearly across the board in 2005, except at the School of Music which went from three students in 2004 to one American Indian or Alaskan Native student in 2005. The report did not indicate whether this was because the students dropped out or graduated.

Despite the recent “slight” decline in minority enrollment, Sawyer said U of L is one of the only two public institutions in the state of Kentucky that has met all eight diversity goals of the Kentucky Council on Post-Secondary Education.

“Since the three years I’ve been here, I’ve seen diversity grow on campus, but I think it’s died down a bit this year,” said junior Kevin Lam, a student in the College of Business.

Lam said he thinks events that promote diversity help the university recruit and sustain a student body of different racial and ethnic backgrounds. “Knowing there’s someone else who’s somewhat like you helps you feel at home,” Lam said.

Sophomore Michael Dobbs, a computer engineering major, said that while he also thinks campus diversity may be down a bit, he feels it isn’t really a problem that can be helped. “Diversification is really too big of an issue to deal with as a college since I think racial and gender gaps begin outside of education.”

Still, the university and its officials remain dedicated to maintaining a mix of students. “Diversity is one of our core values at the University of Louisville,” Sawyer said. “We’re an institution committed to building an educational community that offers and nurtures human diversity.”