JHU rated high in black enrollee gain

A recent article in The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education stated that this year's undergraduate freshman class at Johns Hopkins showed an 82.9 percent increase in the number of African-American enrollees as compared to last year. The report said "Johns Hopkins ... [a school] with a heavy concentration in the sciences, posted impressive gains in black first-year enrollments ...[T]he number of blacks in the first-year class rose from 35 in 2001 to 64 this year. Blacks make up 5.7 percent of all freshmen... this year compared to 3.5 percent last year."

When asked to comment about the recent increase in black enrollees at Hopkins, Jerry Schnydman, Executive Assistant to the University's president, said, "We had been disappointed in the last couple of years with the downward trend for underrepresented minorities, so we were hopeful that that trend could change. We are happy that the trend has changed."

Dean of Student Life Susan Boswell said, "There were real efforts made to increase enrollments. The University is committed to attracting a diverse population. I know admissions employed a broad range of strategies. They did a lot of things to increase the number of students who choose to come."

According to Boswell, the Office of Admissions used many strategies to encourage black applicants.

"There were a variety of efforts made with local high schools to encourage more students to apply," Boswell said. "The kinds of strategies that I know have been successful have been alumni [calling] students to encourage them to enroll and visit the school, faculty calling the students... the things that attract people to apply and enroll have a personal touch."

When asked about the difference between last year's and this year's entering freshman class, Boswell said, "I know [the number of African-American freshmen] increased this year. Last year, in the freshman year, it was particularly low -- there was a drop."

Schnydman said of the difference between applicants and enrollees: "I used to be director of undergraduate admissions. When I took over, we were around 2.5 percent [in African-American applications], and we got up to six percent, but, six percent enrolled, and that number is down now."

He also said that students are generally accepted to multiple universities, and that those accepted to Hopkins receive financial aid if they need it. "Students who have need are receiving [aid]. I believe that students who qualify for highly selective universities have a much, much greater opportunity to attend schools all over the country. And that is the situation for all students," Schnydman said.

He spoke about the tendency in the past for students to want to remain near their homes, and how that trend has changed dramatically, as there are students that specifically set out to go to a college far away from their high school.

"It takes about... five hours to fly in from the West Coast. It takes about five hours on train from Boston. More and more, students are mobile with regard to where they go to college. That's true of majority and underrepresented minorities," Scnydman said.

"There is a much higher percentage of all kinds of students from all over the country [attending Hopkins]. Twenty-five years ago, that wasn't the case. It used to be 40 percent from Maryland -- now it's around 15 percent. Now, there may be marketing plans under way to get more area students to come to Hopkins. It's a bit complicated, and it's the kind of a problem that all schools have."

From the students' perspective, the general consensus is that Hopkins has been improving its efforts to recruit underrepresented minorities.

Angela Boyd, who is the undergraduate representative on the Diversity Leadership Council and is president of the Organizacion Latino Estudiantil (OLf), said, "Hopkins did have a big increase in terms of the number of black students, coming back from an extremely low number in the sophomore class. The Black Students Union and Latino Student Union are really trying to recruit students. There are 79 Latino students in this year's freshman class, and we hope that this [number] will increase."

Members of the Black Student Union (BSU) also felt that Hopkins has improved its minority recruitment.

"They are just beginning to be more effective and making a greater attempt to track down more minority students," said Gerald Rasheed, who is recording secretary for the BSU.

Boyd explained how the admissions office has changed to become more efficient in encouraging minority students to apply to and enroll in Hopkins.

"In terms of recruitment, in the admissions office, there has been someone who works directly with minority recruitment. The current person is [Assistant Director of Admissions] Jawaan Wallace," she said.

"They hired someone to work directly with Latino students: Jessica Hest. They are both doing great jobs in terms of recruiting students [and] putting together events.

There is also the Multicultural Volunteer Service, [which is] a team of students that [tries] to coordinate different hosting events and ... be proactive in terms of recruiting students. The BSU and OLf work very much with [Hest and Wallace]."

BSU Community Service Chair Shameeka Smalling said, "I think Jawaan Wallace is awesome. The admissions office has formed the Multicultural Volunteer Services (MVS), and I think it's awesome that they are trying to recruit more students and trying to make a greater effort to do so. I think that their job is not done in making the campus more diverse. I hope that the number continues to increase, for blacks as well as for Hispanic students."

In reference to the rise in minority applicants and enrollees, Boswell said, "I think any increase is important. I think we always want [it] to increase. You never want to get to a place where we are very just content with [a given enrollment]."

"We want to continue to attract and enroll the very best students. Enrolling a strong African-American component of a class, a strong Latino component of a class -- it adds to the strength of the University as a whole," she added.