Iowa’s three regent universities combine for highest minority enrollment ever

Iowa's public universities have become more diverse over the past decade, and they've done so without using race or ethnicity as a criteria for admission.

Instead, the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa have employed specialized recruitment efforts to bolster minority enrollment - a method some say could be the way forward nationally after the Supreme Court on April 22 upheld an affirmative action ban in Michigan.

In a 6-2 decision, justices found that a lower court didn't have authority to set aside a measure banning the use of racial criteria in college admissions that had been approved by 58 percent of Michigan voters in 2006.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor gave a dissenting opinion, writing, 'The decision can hardly bolster hope for a vision of democracy that preserves for all the right to participate meaningfully and equally in self-government.”

But Justice Anthony Kennedy, among those in the majority, said the case was not about how racial preferences should be resolved but rather who can resolve it. That is, the court didn't rule on the constitutionality of affirmative action but on a state's right to ban it.

Six states so far have banned affirmative action in higher education through voter initiatives, including Arizona, California, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Washington. Even though the action isn't banned in Iowa, the Board of Regent institutions use only the 'regent admission index” to determine admission.

The index scores applicants based on four factors - ACT or SAT test scores, high school rank, high school grade-point average, and completed high school core courses.

Applicants must have a score of at least 245 to qualify for automatic admission to the three universities - although each school considers every student holistically, and they can and do admit applicants with lower scores.

'The thought is that admission to the universities should be based on academic readiness to study at the collegiate level,” said Michael Barron, UI assistant provost for enrollment management and executive director of admissions. 'There is certainly an equal treatment of all individuals without regard other characteristics.”

The Board of Regents long has listed diversity of faculty, staff and students among its core values and principals, and Barron said the UI - such as Iowa's other public universities and many more nationwide - has succeeded in enrolling more minority students through recruitment.

'We definitely work to have a diverse prospect pool and diverse applicants,” he said. 'But the decision on whether they are offered admission is based on the regent admission index.”

Growing diversity

Of the UI's total enrollment in fall 2013, 13.6 percent were minority students - 14.2 percent of undergraduates were minority students and 11.6 of graduate students were minorities, according to enrollment reports out of the Board of Regents Office.

The UI's 4,211 enrolled minorities in the fall represented a 6.2 percent increase over fall 2012 and a 61.9 percent increase over fall 2003, according to the regents report.

ISU reported a total minority enrollment of 11.1 percent in fall 2013 - representing a 13.3 percent increase over 2012 and a 77.2 percent increase over 2003.

UNI's 8.1 percent minority enrollment went unchanged from 2012 to 2013, but it increased 21.4 percent over the last decade, according to regent documents.

When combined, the regent universities have seen a 61.7 percent increase in diversity among its students from 2003 to 2013, and the system now boasts its largest number of racial and ethnic minority students ever across the three campuses at 8,880.

It's the 16th consecutive year of an increase in self-identified minority students enrolled at Iowa's public universities. And admission officials across the three campuses said they expect those numbers will continue to climb - without the need for affirmative action in their admission standards.

'Last year, our entering class was 17 percent students of color from the United States,” Barron said about UI enrollment figures. 'You never know, but we are expecting that or more for next fall.”

That is important, he said, because of the heightened experience it offers everyone on campus.

'We certainly have seen an increase in diversity of enrollment over time, and we are really pleased with that because we know it will exist in a world where our graduates work,” Barron said.

At Iowa State, diversity recruitment efforts include visiting parts of the state with high multicultural student populations, said Darin Wohlgemuth, ISU interim director of admissions. And increasing diversity in some parts of the state has helped with those efforts, he said.

'I would say they both have played a role - our recruitment efforts and the shifting population,” Wohlgemuth said.

‘Solve this without affirmative action'

About 57 percent of the minority students at the public universities are Iowa residents - that number increased by 281 students from 2012 to 2013.

But Scott Ketelsen, interim director of admissions for UNI, said part of its diversity recruitment efforts include visits outside the state to places such as Chicago and San Antonio, Texas.

'And we are creating admission documents that parents can view in Spanish,” Ketelsen said.

Because each university gets a portion of its minority enrollment from out-of-state students, Ketelsen said, it remains to be seen whether a recent push by the Board of Regents toward in-state recruitment will affect diversity across the system.

The regents have approved a new model for distributing state higher-education dollars to the three universities that ties 60 percent to resident enrollment. Ketelsen said he expects each university to compete for those dollars by going after college-bound Iowans, but he doesn't think that will come at the expense of out-of-state recruitment - including those who self-identify as minorities.

He said out-of-state students still pay a much higher tuition.

'From a financial standpoint, out-of-state students still are going to be a more lucrative tuition revenue stream than in-state students.”

Supporters of affirmative action say that the decision out of Michigan is a setback and that it's needed to ensure equal opportunity not just in education but in employment, housing, credit and medical services.

UI mathematics professor Philip Kutzko is behind the establishment of a new University Center of Exemplary Mentoring on the UI campus that aims to attract minority doctoral students. Kutzko said he has no problem with affirmative action in theory, but he does have concerns with how it has been carried out in some places.

'It wasn't done well,” he said. 'It was too simple, and people took shortcuts.”

Kutzko said he believes there are better ways to solve the problem - such as through recruitment - and that could become the standard nationally.

'I think, if we choose to as a country, we can solve this without affirmative action,” he said.