EDITORIAL: Glossing stats on minorities

The increase of Asian matriculants is unrelated to the minority permanence plan. When it comes to talking about University President Judith Rodin's minority permanence plan, which aims to increase recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities, Asians aren't included, as they already represent a sizeable 25 percent of Penn's population. When talking about minority matriculation rates, however, officials are quick to gloss over the decline in black- and Latino-student enrollment. Instead, they highlight the increase in Asian matriculants -- and attribute it to the success of the minority permanence plan, no less. It seems, then, that when it's helpful from a PR perspective, administrators are eager to embrace the Asian community as a minority. But when it's more inconvenient, such as in the case of allocating funds, Asian students and faculty are lumped in with the faceless majority. Fudging the numbers to demonstrate the success of the minority permanence plan is not only dishonest, but counterproductive. It negates what is in theory an important initiative. Especially given what many of our peer institutions have been able to do with their financial aid packages over the last year, luring matriculants from the black, Latino and Native American applicant pools has become an increasingly difficult task. There are only so many qualified applicants, and when other institutions offer them grants instead of student loans that must be repaid, they're likely to take up the offer. Penn, therefore, must continue to take minority recruitment seriously. The Asian population certainly shouldn't be ignored in this effort, since despite its large total presence, the category includes many underrepresented subgroups, such as Philippinoes. But recent success in that area shouldn't overshadow the need to further increase recruitment efforts aimed at other minorities, so at the very least Penn continues to enroll blacks, Latinos and Native Americans in numbers on par with previous years.