However, Hershenson said that the new standard was created to benefit students and help them be more equipped to compete in the “market place of ideas and careers.”
“Some people say when you raise standards you risk diversity, but when these reforms were raised in ’99 people said we were going to lose our minority students but that did not happen,” Hershenson said. “We are now serving more Black and Hispanic students than we did four decades ago. When you raise the standards and provide support then the winners are students.”
However, though the enrollment of Blacks in the college system has increased, Black enrollment in elite colleges within the system has been static.
The Black student enrollment in Baruch and Hunter colleges, for example, has declined.
During the 2005-2006 academic year, for example, Black’s
enrollment at Baruch College
fell from 24 percent to 14 percent, and at Hunter
College from 20 percent to 15 percent. See Diverse, Feb.
22, 2007-
http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_7034.shtml
Year-round support such as tutoring is available to students, and students who fail to meet the new math requirement always have to option of attending other CUNY schools until they can meet the new standard, Hershenson said.
There are 23 colleges within the CUNY system, which
consists of community colleges, professional and graduate colleges. The student
population is 30 percent Black, 27 percent Hispanic, 16 percent Asian and less
than 1 percent American Indian.
- Margaret Kamara
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