8 „
o effectively
correct the imbalance of white,
black and Hispanic students at
Texas A&M, officials would
need to make the University’s
population 66 percent white, 12
percent black and 21 percent
Hispanic, which were the
population percentages for
Texas in 1980.
The ideal situation would be
to have the ratio of whites to
blacks and Hispanics at A&M
equivalent to the ratio of whites
to blacks and Hispanics in the
state of Texas, says Dr. John
Koldus, vice president for
Student Services.
“A&M needs to keep up,”
Koldus says. “We are interested
in educating the whole
population and this is a figure
we are attempting to work
toward. ”
But University administrators
still have a long way to go,
because the figures at A&M are
not this high. This semester, the
student population is 85
percent white, 2.5 percent black
and 6 percent Hispanic.
Lynn Brown, associate
director of the Office of School
Relations, says the minority
recruitment goals are not being
met as quickly as planned. One
reason is the limited number of
minority students who are
qualified and prepared for
college.
“Only a finite number of
qualified black and Hispanic
students are out there and
every college and university in
the state of Texas is competing
for them, ” Brown says.
“A very outstanding black or
Hispanic student with a very
outstanding record may get
offers from all over the United
States. ”
Texas A&M’s minority
recruitment goals are the result
of a plan set forth by the U.S.
Office of Civil Rights several
years ago. The Texas Equal
Educational Opportunity Plan
for Higher Education was
formed to increase the number
of black and Hispanic students
at Texas colleges and
universities.
The five-year Texas Plan,
now in its fourth year, set
guidelines for the state public
institutions to eliminate
segregation and to increase the
enrollment and retention of
blacks and Hispanics.
“This is an area the
University is very concerned
with and we’ve gone out and
tried our best to attract these
students to A&M, ” Brown says.
“We have made a concerted
effort to identify blacks and
Hispanics earlier to try to get
them to come to A&M. ”
e
urrently, the
University is not meeting the
goals set by the Texas plan, but
it is progressing each year,
Brown says.
“Everyone is in the same ball
park,” she says. “All universities
are about the same.”
However, A&M does have
the highest retention rate of all
Texas colleges for minority
students. Most of the minority
students who dropped out cited
financial reasons for leaving,
and most indicated that they
wanted to come back, Brown
says.
Many efforts have been
taken by the University to
change the minority situation at
A&M. The Texas Plan has
caused it to work harder at
attracting these students. As a
result, new programs are used
for recruiting and retaining
qualified students.
Demographics show that by
the year 2000, about 45
percent of the state will be
Hispanic, Brown says. If more
Hispanics are not educated, a
very large percentage of the
population will be uneducated.
It would benefit everyone in the
long run to educate the
minorities, Brown says.
Brown says some of the
methods being used to
convince minorities to choose
A&M are more minority
scholarships, the newly formed
Multicultural Services Center
and the University Outreach
Centers.
The University Outreach
Centers, which A&M and the
University of Texas have jointly
established in four regions of
Texas, play a major role in the
University’s minority
recruitment efforts.
The first center was
established in San Antonio and
officials are still searching for
locations for the Dallas and
Houston centers. An additional
center will be built in the Valley,
probably in McAllen. All the
centers are expected to be open
by Christmas, Brown says.
“The purpose of the centers
is to contact potentially good
academic black and Hispanic
students,” Brown says. “A very
large percent of what would
probably be qualified students
don’t take courses necessary to
be able to go to college. ”
Honors Program and
Undergraduate Studies, says
the main thrust of the joint
centers for A&M and UT is to
work with the students in junior
high school and counsel them
about which high school
courses will prepare them for
college.
“Many of the minorities
haven’t taken the right classes,”
Sheppard says. “They come
here and have a rough time or
can’t get in. We want to talk to
them while they are young and
tell them they can go to
(colleges like) A&M or UT. ”
A&M has been criticized for
not having enough minority
students and there has been a
general feeling on the part of
the faculty that recruiting more
minorities is necessary,
Sheppard says.
“The recruitment was
designed to alleviate some of
the inequities and balance the
student body,” Sheppard says.
“The students will be with a
more heterogenous group and
allie Sheppard,
associate provost for the