Recent data gathered by the Council of Graduate Schools and other educational organizations document the fact that, while progress has been made, African-Americans and Hispanics remain significantly underrepresented among recipients of doctoral degrees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the two groups comprise over 33 percent of all U.S. citizens in the age range of Ph.D. candidates but only 14 percent of those earning doctorates.
What is perhaps most disturbing about this data is the obvious implication: without more persons of color earning advanced degrees, there will remain an inadequate supply of underrepresented minority faculty, perpetuating a lack of diversity across college campuses. To say we are caught in a vicious cycle is a gross understatement.
In the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas (2013), which sent the case back to the lower court and mandated a burden of “strict scrutiny” be met in evaluating the use of race in admissions decisions, there may be cause for concern. Increasing diversity at institutions of higher education might prove more difficult; some argue, for example, that the insufficient production of minority doctoral degrees owes in part to the admission process and a lack of financial support. While these variables do indeed contribute to the problem, and thus could render efforts to increase diversity more challenging in a post-Fisher era, now more than ever, we must focus on an oft unspoken culprit, namely, the insubstantial minority applicant pool.
Consider The University of Texas at Austin (UT) — one of the nation’s largest graduate schools and leading producers of doctoral degrees. The applicant pool for programs in the arts and sciences is characterized by a small number of underrepresented minorities. Less than 10 percent of the 20,000-plus applicants to UT’s graduate school are Hispanic, African-American, or American Indian — and this is not significantly different at other major public research institutions.
While factoring race and ethnicity into the criteria considered for student admission and for awarding scholarships and fellowships no doubt makes a difference and, therefore, is a necessary practice, no profound increase in diversity will occur until significant progress is made in convincing talented minorities to pursue graduate study. Nationally, top-notch graduate institutions often play numbers games, competing with each other to redistribute an already undersized minority applicant population.
Why do talented minority students choose not to attend graduate school?
