University plans to boost black enrollment

Statistics recently released in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education do not show high numbers of black students admitted choosing Penn, leaving many at the University to ask -- what can Penn do about it?

Penn ranked 19th out of 25 top liberal arts colleges in percentage of black students in the current freshman class. At Penn, only 5.9 percent of this year's class is black.

In addition, Penn's black student yield -- the percentage of black students who choose to matriculate at Penn after being accepted -- was only 40.8 percent. This is significantly lower than Penn's overall student yield of 62 percent and even Harvard's black student yield of 61.2 percent.

Administrators have developed several strategies to improve black enrollment numbers for the future.

University President Judith Rodin said she is interested in finding ways to "intervene if we identify areas where intervention strategies suggest themselves, but we're not going to do nothing."

"We are well aware of the competition for the top students in the country from under-represented minorities," Admissions Dean Lee Stetson said.

Stetson said Penn is competing with its Ivy League peers in recruiting students from a very small pool of interested black students.

In addition, Penn's large class size of about 2,500 freshmen puts it at a disadvantage when comparing black student percentages. For instance, Penn actually enrolled 34 more black freshmen than Yale this year. But Yale's class size of about 1,300 freshmen means its percentage of black students is higher.

As a result, Penn must attract a larger number of black students in order to produce percentages that are equivalent to those of its competitors.

"The absolute numbers are much more comparable across all of our institutions," Rodin said. "The percentages are more skewed because Penn and Cornell are bigger."

One strategy Stetson has identified to combat this problem is to increase the pool of prospective applicants by finding students who may not have considered applying to Ivy League institutions.

The Admissions Department has started to expand its outreach efforts which previously included traveling only to high schools.

"We've decided we need to go beyond that and do what we call non-traditional outreach," Director of Multicultural Recruitment Programs Canh Oxelson said.

As a result, Penn has recently started emphasizing visits to places like churches and community centers.

Still, increasing the number of black applicants will not solve all of Penn's enrollment issues. The institution still struggles with convincing accepted black students to enroll.

One approach is to persuade black students to apply to Penn early decision, a process through which they are bound to enroll once accepted. Currently, according to Stetson, a very small number of black students apply early because not only does it eliminate their chances of getting into another Ivy League school, but it also locks them into whatever financial aid package Penn can offer them.

In order to encourage black students to apply early, the Admissions Department has stepped up earlier recruitment efforts. Officials are meeting with freshmen, sophomores and juniors in high school, instead of waiting until these students become seniors. Also, the department moved its Multicultural Open House from October to September.

However, the Admissions Department has identified ways to attract those students who choose to postpone their decision as well.

Stetson said that the Admissions Department encourages black students, faculty members and organizations to be involved in the entire recruitment process.

One of the organizations that works with the Admissions Department is Makuu -- Penn's black student cultural center -- which was founded about two years ago.

Makuu Director Karlene Burrell-McRae said that the organization focuses primarily on black student retention once they are already on campus. However, she believes the presence of the black cultural center on campus could help to attract new students as well.

Burrell-McRae said that Makuu plans to work with students and other Penn departments to develop methods for attracting black students. She also said that Makuu's visibility at admissions events like Scholar's Weekend -- a spring minority recruitment program -- can help reassure prospective students that there is a strong black community at Penn.

"I believe that any parent or any student feels more comfortable when they recognize there are increased support systems for them," Burrell-McRae said.

She added, "It will increase people's level of confidence that this too is a place where they belong."

Makuu Program Coordinator Sean Vereen said that Makuu can also play a role in attracting prospective black students by influencing the lives of current black students.

"Our part of the job is to make sure that students -- when they leave and when they're talking to prospective students -- can truthfully say that their lifestyle and that their experience is good," Vereen said.

He said Makuu seeks to do just that by increasing student access to resources, ensuring support for student organizations and plugging students into University life while maintaining a cultural experience.

"The way we're going to compete is through word of mouth and by showing prospective students that the lifestyle here outweighs other financial issues," Vereen said.

Overall, administrators said they are optimistic that their efforts will increase black student enrollment.

Stetson noted that about 650 prospective students attended the Multicultural Open House this fall. That number marks a significant increase from averages of about 200 students in previous years.

Also, Stetson asserted that this year's high rank in US News and World Report magazine will make Penn more attractive to prospective students.

"During Multicultural Day, a number of students came up to us... and noted that we had established ourselves as a school in the top four and therefore wanted to take a look at why," Stetson said.

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