There's "New Optimism" Over DePauw's Efforts to Further Increase Its Diversity: Chronicle of Higher Education

July 6, 2006

July 6, 2006, Greencastle, Ind. - As the 2006-07 academic year approaches, "there is new optimism at DePauw," notes this week's (July 7) edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education. "Applications from multicultural students were up 31 percent this year. For the first time in over a decade, multicultural students will make up 17 percent of the freshman class, with most of the increase the result of a jump in Hispanic enrollment. (DePauw had reached 17 percent only once before in 1995.) This spring the gap in yield between white and multicultural students also narrowed considerably," writes Alvin P. Sanoff.

DePauw is one of three institutions (El Paso Community College and Bellarmine University are the others) featured in the Chronicle, which examines the schools' "strategies to identify and recruit particular groups of students for admission." The lengthy story on DePauw begins, "When Robert G. Bottoms assumed the presidency of DePauw University 20 years ago, the institution had just 29 black students and eight Hispanic ones among its 2,300 undergraduates." Sanoff reports, "Over the past decade, 'multicultural students' -- the term favored by DePauw -- have consistently accounted for 12 percent of the student body... In 2005 DePauw enrolled just over 130 black students, almost 70 Hispanic ones, and about 50 Asian-Americans. For those who tend to take a glass-is-half-full view, 12 percent represents a quadrupling in the number of multicultural students since Mr. Bottoms became president."

The article also notes the diversification of DePauw's faculty and admission staff, and quotes civil rights leader Vernon E. Jordan Jr., a 1957 graduate, on how his alma mater has changed in recent years. "Bob Bottoms has been passionate about this," Jordan says.

Sanoff explains the struggles DePauw and other liberal arts colleges face in recruiting even more multicultural students and faculty members. "University leaders would like to see multicultural enrollment eventually reach 18 percent to 20 percent," he writes. "'I am not satisfied with where we are,' says Mr. Bottoms, who remains as committed to diversifying DePauw as he was on the day he became president."

Read the complete text (a subscription to the Chronicle is required), "DePauw U. Pursues a 20-Year Quest for Diversity in the Heartland," by clicking here.

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