The number of minority undergraduates enrolled at Colorado State University, CSU, this semester was at 13.8 percent, putting it at the highest percentage in the last five years. The entire student population at CSU is 22,723.
“For spring 2011, we had 2,906 undergraduates who identified as minority; that is 14.3 percent of the total undergraduate student body,” said Robin Brown, CSU’s vice president for enrollment and access. “For spring 2011, we had 436 international undergraduates, which comprised 2.1 percent of all undergraduates.”
Excluding international students, 962 students (4.7 percent) of undergraduates did not identify their race or ethnicity. International students comprised 2.1 percent of all undergraduates.
Brown said she saw the increase as a welcome development because it showed that CSU’s effort to diversify its campus was yielding positive results.
“We are doing a much better job at reaching out to families and students and letting them know that we are a great option for them,” she said. “We have various scholarships and financial aids available to enable them afford the education here.”
When asked about assumptions from various students that the university admitted minority students just to further diversify its campus, Brown was quick to refute these statements.
“Such assumptions are not true. We admit any qualified student that we believe has the potential to succeed and graduate from CSU,” Brown said. “That is why we went to holistic file review instead of the old index 50 percent test score and 50 percent GPA being the admit criteria.”
She added that holistic file review has given CSU the opportunity to bring in students with many different geographic experiences, cultural experiences, creative and outstanding talents to campus, which in turn enriches the academic/classroom setting, as well as experiences outside the classroom for all students.
In terms of its minority numbers, CSU is not far off from its rivals, Colorado University, CU, Boulder. Although reports have not been released for this semester’s minority enrollment numbers, fall 2009 reports obtained from CU’s official website, www.CU.edu, showed that minority undergraduate enrollment was at 15 percent.
There was no change from fall 2008, as the minority undergraduate enrollment number for CU was at 15 percent for that semester too.
Matthew Lopez, who is CU’s associate director of admissions, said though the number did not change from fall 2008 to fall 2009, he was confident the institution was making great strides in ensuring that it created a more diversified and welcome environment for everyone.
“CU Boulder has always had very aggressive recruitment plans towards the establishment of an inclusive environment,” Lopez said. “This plan includes campus visit programs, scholarships, and retention programs that have one of the highest graduation rates for student of color in the region.”
According to the University of Denver’s website, www.du.edu, 19 percent of freshman undergraduates enrolled in the university for fall 2010 identified as minority.
Programs and Initiatives
In the past few years, CSU has implemented several programs in its bid to reach out to students from diverse backgrounds in high schools.
These programs include the Alliance Partnership Program, the Dream Project and the Reach Out Program. The Alliance Partnership Program was launched in fall 2007.
“These are all new programs in the past few years designed to increase enrollment of low income, first generation, and/or racial/ethnic diversity at the undergraduate level,” Brown said.
As part of the Alliance Partnership Program, CSU partners with 10 high schools around the state.
“These high schools are primarily in communities characterized by families with low income,” Brown said. “As part of the program, students that successfully gain admission to CSU receive an automatic $2,500 scholarship, with full tuition paid for in grants for Pell grant recipients.”
The Pell grant is a federal education grant targeted toward select students from low income families.
One of the first Alliance Partnership Program high school graduates enrolled at CSU in fall 2007 was Perez Ansah-Mensah. Ansah-Mensah, 20, graduated from Hinkley High School.
Ansah-Mensah, who is a junior business administration student, said following the program, he chose to attend CSU because he received more financial aid than the other schools he applied to.
“I applied to the University of Denver and the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs; however, the Alliance Partnership Program played an important role in me choosing CSU,” Ansah-Mensah said. “The partnership helped me with some of my tuition, and it is an annual aid I receive from CSU.”
The Dream Project, according to the CSU access center website, accesscenter.colostate.edu, assists low income and first-generation high school students in attaining higher education and to raise awareness among university students about the issues of educational opportunity and social mobility.
“Under the Dream Project, which is a CSU course as well as an outreach program, participating CSU students meet with the high school students to work on that week’s focus area, which varies from different social to political issues,” said Oscar Felix, who is CSU’s executive director of the access center.
According to the CSU access center website, accesscenter.colostate.edu, the goal of the Reach Out program is to develop learning and engagement opportunities in a way that historically underserved communities identify as important, as well as to increase access and opportunity to CSU for students of diverse background.
CU also has a wide range of programs geared toward students from diverse backgrounds, one of which, according to Lopez, is the CU Leadership, Excellence, Achievement and Diversity, CU-LEAD, Alliance.
“The goal of CU-LEAD is to provide a unique set of academic learning communities whose students, faculty and staff are united to promote inclusive excellence,” Lopez said. “Recipients receive a scholarship annually and may participate in the program for four years at CU-Boulder contingent upon their academic progress and fulfillment of program requirements.”
Side-bar: Student Perspective
Mido Al Hajji arrived at CSU in January 2006 from his home country, Saudi Arabia, with no prior knowledge about Fort Collins, or CSU except the recommendation about CSU from his friend who had been attending the university for a couple of months.
After Al Hajji settled at CSU, he realized that there was a large contingent of Saudi Arabian students at CSU.
“CSU hosts a large community of Saudi students, which makes it very appealing. The presence of a friend or relative makes the moving process much easier as far as sending or receiving paper works from school, setting up housing and bank accounts,”Al Hajji said.
Al Hajji, 23, who graduated last semester (fall 2010), said he found his stay at CSU exceptional.
“I was greatly welcome wherever I went. In my first couple of years at school, I would be rather shy and nervous to speak up and express myself in front of Americans because I wasn't confident enough of my English language,” he said. “But later on, I gradually started to feel quite normal as I made a lot of good friends and started to get more involved. CSU is a good host, indeed!”
According to Al Hajji, the Office of International Programs was quite helpful to him throughout his stay at CSU.
“They have a lot to offer and have been developing a lot of programs aimed towards accommodating international students,” he said. “They have have been really helpful in the times I needed logistic help.”
On his opinion on diversity at CSU, while Al Hajji admitted that the university lacked diversity, he also acknowledged that CSU is very active in trying to provide a more diverse environment.
“I know that most of my Saudi fellows who had decent high school grades have been admitted at CSU,” he said. “That indicates the fact that CSU opens its arms to everybody as long as good academic credentials are possessed.”
Ansah-Mensah agreed wholeheartedly with Al Hajji.
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