Preliminary Figures Indicate More Diversity at the University of Texas

Black Issues in Higher Education, Sept 2, 1999

AUSTIN, Texas -- After stepping up financial aid and recruiting efforts, the University of Texas appears to have attracted a freshman class with the same percentage of Blacks and Hispanics as 1996, the last year in which affirmative action was allowed.

"We need a diverse group of students at this institution.... This is a global environment that we live in," Dr. Augustine Garza, deputy director of admissions at the university, says. "We need experiences from all cultures, and those experiences can best happen here in the higher education environment so that people can grow and learn about other cultures."

If preliminary figures are borne out, the American Indians and foreign students.

The percentages for Black and Hispanic students are the same as in 1996, the Austin American-Statesman reported last month. Enrollment data won't be final until later this month.

Texas officials have worked to boost minority enrollment despite the 1996 federal court ruling, known as Hopwood, which ended consideration of race in college admissions in Texas. Among other steps, a state law automatically admits students in the top 10 percent of high school graduating classes. And, the university has increased and focused its outreach to public school students. In addition, it has begun a scholarship program for those in the top 10 percent of their class in 49 high schools in high-minority areas.

"We've stepped it up" since Hopwood, Garza says.

However, preliminary data at the upper-level schools -- the master's level business school, law school, and four medical schools -- don't show a similar rebound from the court ruling, according to the newspaper. All appear to be lower than in 1996, it reported. But Garza says those who recruit at the graduate level face more challenges.

"The competition is stiffer. The eligible pool [of students] is smaller. The market is larger. You've got to remember, your marketplace is not just the state of Texas," he says.