Page 6 Thursday, October 18, .1984 The Capitol Times
Minority students question recruitment honesty
By Don Strausburger
On paper, John and Ken are
typical Capitol Campus
students. John is an engineer
ing student, while Ken is a
humanities major.
Unfortunately, the college
careers of these two suffer from
a continuing problem in the
Penn State system -- low black
enrollment.
In its 1983 Minority Report,
Penn State noted that only 64
of the 2452 Capitol students,
approximately 2.6 percent,
were black. In fact, of the
55,200 students enrolled at all
Penn State campuses, 2.64 per
cent were black.
The black enrollment pro
blem has many implications
and is the result of several pro
blems which must be con
sidered. Most importantly,
black enrollment yields dollars
for the university in the form of
government funding. As the
minority population grows, so
do the government funds, ac
cording to John Thomas, a
member of the Black Student
Union at Capitol Campus.
Three of the campus black
students cite ineffective
recruiting techniques as a con
tributing source to low black
enrollment. Ken Stiggers, a
second-year student and Black
Student Union treasurer, said
that campus representatives
"came with the right offer"
while giving a "false represen
tation of the school." He add
ed that he received "promises
without deliveries."
Thomas suggests that the
recruiters sensationalize the
campus social atmosphere by
playing up a supposed
"brotherhood" among
students. Actually, Capitol
Campus is highly competitive
and lacks needed peer
assistance in certain fields.
Tony Perry, a senior,
observes that the problem is not
necessarily in the recruiting
techniques, but in the target
areas. "Suburbia and the
middle-class blacks are being ig
nored," he said.
The Admissions Office at
Capitol agrees with Perry's
assessment. The recruiting staff
needs to reach into the suburbs,
according to Mary Gundel,
Director of Admissions. She
said that more people have been
added for specific recruiting
mostly in the state's urban
areas.
With that focus on Penn
sylvania's urban areas, par
ticularly Philadelphia and Pitt
sburgh, the recruiting stands to
be ineffective at best. In
Philadelphia, for example,
minority students already have
many choices educationally
within the city. This makes it
added though that Capitol
Campus is "trying to make an
effort."
Another of the problems fac
ed by Capitol in its recruiting
efforts results from being an
upper-division institution. In
her installation speech, Pro
vost/Dean Ruth Leventhal said
that our academic standing
"limits our ability to reach
down into junior and senior
high schools to encourage
youngsters, in particular
women and minorities, to take
math, science, computers, and
composition courses."
Once a black student is ac
cepted and attends Capitol, he
faces a new and very challeng
ing dilemma. The student must
now deal with the cultural
shock which, although it affects
all new students, hits minority
students hardest. The shock
which is equally created by
school and community is
"devastating," Stiggers said.
As one of two black students on
his dormitory floor last year,
Stiggers said that you
sometimes "feel alone"
because "different races can't
associate."
While the race ratio at
Capitol Campus is a serious
problem for administration,
students are particularly af
fected by the racial imbalance
of the student population. With
only 64 black students on cam
pus, the ratio only stands to
hurt relations between the dif
"It's difficult to
get them
[minorities] away
from the city."
- Dave Doaty
ferent races. Stiggers sums up
the ratio problem as being
"subtle, yet powerful." When
you least expect it, the ratio hits
you, Stiggers concluded.
The recruitment of blacks
and the resulting race ratio will
be discussed further with the
upcoming release of the 1984
Black enrollment
jumps by 41 %
Lfl
By Phil Galewitz
Special to the Capitol
Times From The Weekly
Collegian
The number of black
freshman enrolled at the
University has increased 41 per
cent to 643, Robert Dunham,
vice president for academic ser-
vices, said.
Of the 10,084 new freshman
admitted to the University, 6.4
percent are black. This is the
University's largest increase of
blacks ever, Dunham said. In
1983, including both in- and
Minority Report which will be
released soon, according to
James D. South, Director of
Student Affairs. With the
release of this report, the effects
of the already implemented
recruiting programs should
begin to show the program's
effectiveness.
out-of-state students, 457
blacks entered as freshman.
Pennsylvania blacks, who
help to attain the University's
Title VI obligation to increase
the number of blacks at the
University, increased by 74 per
cent, Dunham said.
As of last spring, 2,8 percent
of the University's population
was black. The current percen
tage of blacks in the University
will be announced later this
month.
Title VI legislation requires
the University to reach 5 per
cent total black student enroll
ment by 1988.