New recruitment strategies and the 10 percent law credited with upturn
AUSTIN, Texas
Black and Latino enrollments are beginning to edge
upward again at public universities in Texas after the severe drop
caused by the 1996 Hopwood decision, which dismantled affirmative
action at Texas’s public universities.
Officials at the University of Texas (UT), its law school, and
Texas A&M University say they feel encouraged by the demographics
of the incoming class.
“I think there’s every reason to be encouraged by what we see,” said Bruce Walker, UT-Austin admissions director.
Walker attributes the slight upturn in minority admissions for fall
1998 to three things: a new state law that requires public universities
to accept anyone who is in the top 10 percent of his or her high school
graduating class; vigorous recruiting efforts by the university
community; and alumni fund-raising campaigns to increase financial aid
earmarked for minority students.
Walker’s office estimates that the 1998 freshman class will be
approximately 3 percent Black. Last year’s class was 2 percent African
American. Chicanos/Latinos will make up 14 percent of 1998’s freshmen
as compared to 12 percent in 1997. There will be a total of 6,070
freshmen reporting to the UT-Austin campus in the fall.
About 80 percent of the new law school class has been chosen, said
Mike Sharlot, dean of the UT law school. So far, offers of admission
have been given to seventeen African Americans, as compared to eleven
for all of last year. That number was down from sixty-five in 1996, the
last year the law school was able to use its affirmative action program
to promote Black and Mexican American enrollment.
