Minority Enrollment Continues to Rise at University of Tennessee

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.

Minority enrollment continues to rise at the University of Tennessee's flagship campus, where one of every 10 entering freshmen this fall is Black and the freshman class rates as the most ethnically diverse in school history.

Heavy recruitment in Memphis and Nashville, which have the state's largest African-American populations, targeted scholarships and on-campus support to keep minorities in school are changing a campus still under a desegregation watch from a 1968 lawsuit.

Five years ago, Black students railed against a perception of racism at UT-Knoxville — graffiti on a dorm wall, a rebel flag painted on a large rock that's a kind of campus bulletin board and a misguided student art project of hanging nooses. Public forums were held to soothe tensions and improve understanding.

Then in 2002, six White fraternity members were caught partying in "blackface'' at an off-campus bar. The university denounced the action.

"I don't want to call that a myth, but I think we are starting to knock down some of those barriers that students used to say, 'Knoxville is not a friendly place to be,''' said Richard Bayer, dean of enrollment services.

"I think you can see everywhere you go on our campus that there is a true commitment to diversity. And as we continue to increase (minority enrollment), even though modest in numbers, ... that translates to a good feeling that we are serious about what we are doing,'' he said.

The numbers suggest the trend is taking hold. Nearly 8 percent of the 19,500 undergraduates at UT-Knoxville in 2004 were Black, up from 5 percent in 1997. Figures for 2005 aren't yet in.

Still, Blacks make up 16 percent of the state's population.

About 700 of the nearly 4,200 freshmen who arrived at UT's 26,000-student (graduate and undergraduate) Knoxville campus last week are minorities. That's 16.5 percent of the freshman class, up from 14.8 percent last year.