In the face of falling black enrollment, university staff and administrators reassured concerned students at Thursday night’s For Members Only meeting that Northwestern is committed to minority recruitment.
An eight-member panel, including administrators and admissions officials, answered questions from the audience of about 150 people in the Louis Room at Norris University Center.
The Class of 2007 is 4.6 percent black, compared to 7.2 percent of the 1999 freshman class.
Admissions staff cited increased competition among peer schools and a slightly smaller applicant pool last year for the lowered enrollment.
Keith Todd, Director of Undergraduate Admissions, assured students the admissions department was committed to minority recruitment, which he said was the only initiative that survived last year’s budget cuts.
Michael Powell, director of equal employment opportunity at NU and a panel member, said the number of minority students and minority faculty “have a symbiotic relationship” — the growth of one group depends on the other.
Recruitment efforts include e-mails, visits to high schools with large minority populations and an ambassador program that connects minority college students with prospective students through phone calls and overnight stays.
Pia Miller, a work-study employee specializing in black recruitment for the Office of Admissions, emphasized students’ role in encouraging minorities to come to NU.
“Once they admit people it’s up to (minority students) to convince them to come here,” said Miller, a Weinberg senior.
Ava Greenwell, Medill ’80 and associate dean at the Medill School of Journalism, also emphasized students’ role in making NU welcoming to minority students. Greenwell said she recalled a warmer atmosphere as a student when blacks made up 10 percent of NU’s population.
Some audience members suggested merit-based financial aid would make NU more attractive to minority students, who sometimes enroll at other top universities because of more generous aid packages. Todd defended NU’s policy of need-based rather than merit-based aid.
FMO member Nicole Joseph said the meeting was an effective way to discuss issues students had been considering for a while.
“Everyone understands that there’s a problem,” said Joseph, a Medill junior. “It’s things people have been thinking about for months and talking about with their friends.”
The group will conduct biweekly meetings with admissions officials to include student input on minority recruitment, said FMO President Tracy Carson, a Weinberg senior.
In other business, University Police Chief Bruce Lewis responded to the recent hate crimes on campus. UP rewrote its policy to investigate these crimes to include training with the antidefamation league and coordination with the FBI and the Evanston Police Department, Lewis said. A $2,500 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of individuals responsible for the hate crimes, he said.
Lewis also addressed concerns about racial profiling following robberies near campus.
“With regard to racial profiling, it is not a practice, it is not a policy,” he said. “I condemn it.”
Although FMO did not address the controversial affirmative action bake sale held Friday at The Rock, Carson said FMO thought officials responded appropriately.
“They demonstrated a strong concern for keeping a large number of minority students here,” she said.
