Total minority enrollment at MSU is estimated at about 16 percent of the student body, or 7,110 - up from 6,771 students a year ago.
These preliminary enrollment statistics for the 2001-02 school year, which were presented at the MSU Board of Trustees meeting Friday, also showed minority enrollment for the entering class is projected at more than 20 percent.
Rodney Patterson, director of the Office of Racial Ethnic Student Affairs, said he thinks the numbers coincide with a national trend.
“If you look at who’s in high school, the greater pools are coming from racially and ethnically diverse populations,” he said.
“If numbers of high school students are substantially increasing in racial and ethnic categories, specifically relative to African American, Latino, Asian and Native Americans, what stands to follow is numbers of students applying increasing, as will the number of people being accepted.”
Although Patterson said attracting a more diverse population to MSU will not be difficult, he said minority retention rates are an important factor to consider.
“The harder question the university is dealing with is how we keep them once they get here,” he said. “We’re more driven by retention than recruitment these days.”
Patterson said factors such as a lack of financial support and underachievement can contribute to minority students leaving MSU.
“It’s important to have support mechanisms to maintain success,” he said. “But if we continue to do what we are doing, we’ll continue to see the increase.”
Director of Admissions Gordon Stanley said he thinks there are various factors that contribute to a higher rate of minority enrollment - but support services on campus are very important.
“We have had a positive trend in the past several years in terms of students of color,” he said. “As more choose to enroll, more will come through word of mouth.
“What I have heard is that students appreciate support services on campus.”
Student organizations, faculty and staff that are involved in the process of recruiting increase minority enrollment, Stanley said.
“We are going to continue to work hard on it, in the university community and elsewhere, to find the best students we can enroll at MSU - as many good students of color as are interested in us,” he said.
History junior Anita Hunt said she isn’t surprised by the statistics.
“I think that there is more encouragement at the university for minorities to enroll,” she said. “There are different scholarships now for minorities.”
And communication freshman Amy Burritt said she likes the fact that MSU has a significant number of minorities.
“I think it’s good to have diversity,” she said. “It’s something I have noticed about MSU. I come from a town that isn’t incredibly diverse, so I like that a lot.”
