FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s preliminary 11th-day head count of 24,537 students includes a 10.4 percent increase from racial and ethnic minority groups, a breakdown of the enrollment figures shows.
The growth of nearly 400 students from minority groups, to 4,216, means the groups now represent 17.2 percent of the overall student population.
Charles Robinson, the university’s diversity chief, said this positions the university well with regard to its 2021 sesquicentennial goal of 20 percent representation for all “underrepresented” groups, an umbrella category the university defines as covering students from minority groups as well as those who contribute to the campus’s diversity in other ways.
“We’ve got nine years to grow diversity by 2.8 percent,” said Robinson, vice provost for diversity affairs.
The university may actually be closer to its goal, since the enrollment breakouts include only racial and ethnic numbers as defined by the U.S. census.
The university’s broader diversity definition reflects its scholarship programsand goals. It encompasses low-income students, firstgeneration college students, and students whose sex is underrepresented in a particular field of study, such as men studying nursing or women majoring in engineering.
The university also includes geographical diversity, which has meant targeted recruiting for a number of years in areas such as Arkansas’ Delta as well as its central and southern regions.
“We don’t want this to be the University of Northwest Arkansas,” Robinson said. “We want it to be the University of Arkansas.”
Arkansas colleges and universities use the 11th day of classes for the official enrollment report submitted to the Arkansas Department of Higher Education in mid-October. The Fayetteville campus’s preliminary tally was due Wednesday.
Its overall 24,537 student count this fall would set another enrollment record, and also represents a 5.8 percent increase over fall 2011.
Undergraduate enrollment was not only up 6.9 percent from last fall, but it also represented the first time that segment has surpassed 20,000 students, with a preliminary tally of 20,349students.
Under ethnicity and race, the “Hispanic and any race” category showed a 21.8 percent increase over last fall, with 1,301 students.
“Hispanic growth is mirroring national trends,” Robinson said.
“African-American Only” students, on the other hand, grew just 2.6 percent, to 1,278.
“I was a little disappointed in that,” said Robinson, who is black. “I’m not saying we’ve done anything wrong. But we are definitely going to take some steps to improve that group.”
“We have geographical challenges and perception challenges,” Robinson said. “There’s still probably questions about whether U of Ais still a good fit for academic success, will they have the proper mentoring to be successful.
“We are working to change that.”
Other changes were“American Indian Only,” growing 3.8 percent to 327 students; “Asian Only,” increasing 6 percent to 596 students; and “Hawaiian Only,” dropping 4.8 percent to 20 students.
Provided for reference, but not included in the racial and ethnic demographic, were foreign students of all races who study in this country on student visas, a 3.9 percent growth to 1,237 students; and the “Caucasian Only” group, growing 4.9 percent, to 18,985 students.
When the numbers are analyzed according to sex, women are gaining on men, with a growth percentage double the men’s compared with last fall.
Female students made up 49.7 percent of the population in the preliminary count.
“It’s consistent with national trends,” Robinson said, adding that the university may actually be behind national trends in recent years of college campuses with majority-women student populations.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 09/21/2012