CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.
The Univer-sity of Tennessee-Chattanooga is
the only school in the UT system to meet its court-ordered
desegregation goal this fall, university administrators say.
UTC surpassed its target by about a half percent, while
UT-Knoxville fell far short of its goal. UT-Martin fared slightly
better, but still didn’t reach the mark.
“UT-Chattanooga has worked really hard on recruiting African
American students and they have come up a lot each year,” said Bob
Levy, a UT associate senior vice president.
Minority enrollment at UTC was 16.2 percent of 7,323 undergraduates
this fall, about a half percent higher than a federal court required,
according to the school.
Just 5.5 percent of 19,693 UT-Knoxville undergraduates were Black,
far short of the 11 percent goal for the 2000-2001 school year,
according to school records.
Recruitment there is partly hampered by Knoxville being a
predominantly White city, Levy said. At UT-Martin, 14.2 percent of the
school’s 5,500 undergraduates were Black, about 4 percent behind the
target, according to school records.
A 1984 federal court ruling stipulates all of Tennessee’s colleges
and universities achieve several racial goals, including enrollment
benchmarks.
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© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
