tl htp://www.BusinessToday.com/editors/editors.htm The numbers don't tell the whole story ot mlnorities and college enrollment Friday, September 12.

Friday, September 12. 199;

Contributing Editors
The numbers don't tell the whole story of minorities
ie Today's Tcp Storles and college enrollment
l TPSaf's Gslumn Thursdal-, September 11, 1997

l': f,nntr|hsttng Edltors Bt John O. Harne'

I PsEillG When the natronal conversation on race begrns - if it er,er begins - New Englanders should be
talktng about minonty enrollment in higher education, Issues of social justice aside. the
region's knowledge-intensive economy will thrive or * ither based on thc educational attainrncnt
) Calerdar
oi its increasingly multiculturai workforce.
l, f*arhet lalk
Afncan-American enrollment at New England colleges and universities greu' by 25 percent
}, 0T Forumr
berween 1990 and 1995, while Hispanic enrollment greu,by'-15 percent and Native American
enrollment by 55 percent, according to a New England Board of Higher Education analysis o1
): Tecfi Undale
federal data. In percentage terms. enrollment among all three groups grew faster in New
England than in the nation as a whole.
l-, Su*slbaoft

) $latl There's little cause for bragging in this conversation. horvever. The region's roughly' 75.000
African-Amencan, Hispanic and Native American students still represent just 9 perccnt of Ncu
) Eopyrighi England's total college enrollment - significantly below their share of the region's l8- to-
21-year-old population, which was 12 percent in 1990 and -erowin-e.

E slil
Groups that were underrepresented on New England campuses in 1990 remain so today. And
new groups of students need help, as well. For example. while Asian-Americans. broadly
speaking, have not been underrepresented, very high percentages ol Cambodian, Hmong and
r:lohlirtd.cont
Laotran students have not even completed high school.
) fiP $r*akinfl ileur$
Moreover, mrnority underrepresentation has been particularly persistent in certain fields that are
l.lloorcrs critical to New England's economy. For example, African-Americans, Hispanics and Native
}.Busins$+Hllrs Americans combined earned just 6 percent of the nearl.v- 4,000 bachelor's degrees awarded in
engineering by New England institutions in 1995, according to data compiled by the National
F. $lcsk 0uotss Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME).

And although the number of engineering bachelor's de-qrees awarded nationally to minonties
reached a record 6,331 in academic year 1995-96. the rise wili probably will not be sustained.
Engineering enrollment among mrnority freshmen has dropped by l0 percent since peaking rn
1992-93. Unless "retention" rates are improved, these smaller freshman engineenng classes
will produce smaller classes of minority engineerin-{ graduates by the end of the decade,

Notably, NACME attributes the decline in freshman engineering enrollment among minoritic-s
to the high costs ofan engineering education and the tact thatjust 6 percent ofminority students
graduate from high school with the.equence of math and science courses required to enroll in
engineering schools.

tsut those barriers to minority participation - ever-increasing college costs and poor preparation
at the kindergarten through 12th-grade level - are by no means unique to engineering.

Wealthy, suburban school districts - mostly white - send well-educated. motivated students
rushing up the education pipeline. Their well-publicized college-going rates attract more
upwardly mobile, educated white homebuyers and taxpayers.
Page: 1
 Friday, Seplember 12, 'l
nttp://www.BusinessToday.com/editors/editols.htm The numbers dont tell the whole slory ol minorities and college enrollment

Poorer. urban school districts - mostl)' mrnorit,v - languish. as demoralized teachers and
guidance counselors too often track students away from the college-prep path and therelbre
au,a1' from the -eood.lobs in the knori'ledge econonty,

Once upon a time. affirmative action policies could be counted on to help address such an
histoncal inequity - and they surely played akey role in the minority enrollment gains olthe
past half-decade or so. Now, of course, these policies are under assault.

at Texas unrversities and a Califbrnia state poiicr

A federal court ruling to ban affirmative action
bamng consideration of race in graduate admissions at public campuses have had an imrnedtate
and chilhng effect on admissions of Afncan-American and Hispanic students in certain
programs.

For example. the University of California at Berkeley School of Law recorded an 81 percent
drop in African-American admissions and a 50 percent drop in Hispanic admissions in the tirst
year operatin_q under the new rules (with negligible increases in average qualifications).

Some commentators have suggested that the Clinton admrnrstration, which supports affirmatrvc
action in its rhetoric, should respond by withholding some of the vast federal support enjcyed
by those systems, but that seems unlikely.

In the meantime. college administrators rn the alfected states - and across the nation - havc bccn
lelt to find creative ways to encourage minonty participation rvithin the law.

In this, they should have the support of white students and families and, above all, employers.
After all, pioneenng New England campuses adopted affirmative action policies before thcy
were required to, not only to give minority students a break. but also to provide a richer, more
diverse educational experience for white sfudents - a richness that may be found lacking in a
new batch of Berkeley-educated lawyers and who knows how many other future graduates.

John O. Harney is the executive editor oJ Connection: New' EngLand's Journal of Higher
Education and Economic Development. Corutection is the quarterlt' journaL oJ the New
England Board of Higher Edu:atton.

Fron! Plgei'lotlar's luo Sturres Arehrrc Iceh Lod.ite Toda]'s []oluntni('onirioiriinS tiiiturrs I Peoplei[]alendarlSlrrli
\lrrkct T.tlir
-ffi-
BTForunrsICucstbookIStaltlCop)'right StockQuotes APBrctkingNeu,sIHoortrs
-

Page:2