Based on Northwestern’s class of 2014 statistics, the University is continuing its efforts toward diversity.

The incoming class is expected to be 21 percent Asian-American, 9 percent Hispanic, 7 percent African-American and 7 percent international.

The socioeconomic diversity of previous years continues. The administration expects the class to include 250 Pell Grant recipients­-students from low-income families-and 150 Pledge Scholars-students with the greatest financial burden who receive grants instead of loans. An expected 12 scholars from QuestBridge, an organization that links high-achieving, low-income students with full scholarships to participating universities, will also enroll.

Most members of the incoming class have received their financial aid packages, which are “generous,” Associate Provost Michael Mills said.

The University won’t know the exact number of students in the class and the makeup of minority students until Fall Quarter, as deposits are still coming in and some students will rescind their acceptances of admission, Mills said. About 2,200 students have sent in deposits, and NU expects 2,100 to enroll, he said.

The incoming class’s minority numbers are up from the class of 2013’s, which was 6 percent African-American and 7 percent Hispanic.

“We’ve turned a corner,” Mills said. “We have momentum now.”

A National Effort

NU’s result comes from increased efforts by admissions officers as well as students and faculty, Mills said. The University has used direct mail, telephone calls and visits to high schools to encourage more low-income and minority students to apply, he said.

New efforts have been used across the country to increase diversity on college campuses.

According to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research, interracial roommate assignments at Berea College made students more likely to make interracial friendships.

The University of Pennsylvania began a new policy to reach out to students who identified themselves as gay in their applications by placing them in contact with gay students and organizations on campus.

Reaching out to gays and lesbians would be an interesting way to expand NU’s diversity efforts, said Communication freshman Rohan Lewis, who works in the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center. However, he said NU’s current efforts to attract a diverse community would be better served with different tactics that do not target specific groups.

“I have an issue with affirmative action,” Lewis said. “I feel (recruitment efforts) should just be based on socioeconomics. In terms of trying to diversify, you ignore the normative.”

Lewis said the NU community is “exclusive.” Instead of concentrating on recruiting certain groups of people, the administration should work more on making campus more inclusive, he said. Theoretically it follows that an inclusive environment will encourage a more diverse array of students to attend NU, he said.

“Northwestern needs to step back and reassess,” Lewis said. “Not necessarily its values, but how its values are presented to the community.”

One Class, One Community

Mills said NU has made “big strides” in creating an inclusive community, pointing out the forum on blackface held Fall Quarter that about 800 community members attended.

Creating an inclusive community is an issue NU has “really focused on in the past year,” Dean of Students Burgwell Howard said.

“We look at the incoming class as one class,” Howard said. “That’s why we initiated things like the ‘March to The Arch’ tradition.”

NU continues to refine Wildcat Welcome Week to create class spirit, he said. NU is also working on providing more singular class experiences, he said.

The University plans to continue the same efforts that worked for the class of 2014 to recruit a diverse class next year, hopefully gaining a “boost” from word-of-mouth, Mills said.

“No campus is perfect,” Mills said. “Some campuses will work harder than others to try to make everything seem like it’s perfect because they don’t want prospective students to have any hesitancy, but our stuff is pretty up-front. We acknowledge that we are not at the level that we think we need to be. … We tell them the truth, and it seems to be going really well.”[email protected]