A Facebook “like” could attract minority students to campus, but organizations can motivate them to stay.
Ohio University’s white student population was almost 82 percent in 2010 — one of the highest in the state — but the campus features a multitude of university and student organizations.
“While OU is not the most diverse campus in the nation, I believe students here have numerous opportunities to experience a broad range of diversity that goes beyond the foundational concepts of race and gender,” said Brian Bridges, vice provost for Diversity, Access, and Equity, in an email.
Retaining a diverse group of students is just as important as recruiting, which is why student organizations are tailored to their needs, Bridges said.
Organizations
Ohio University’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Center and Office of Disability Services are just two of the many groups available to minority students.
To help LGBT students network, the center hosts socializing events monthly. It also holds educational sessions to inform students about the LGBT population on campus.
“We’re not just here for the LGBT center,” said Mickey Hart, the center’s director. “We really work to educate and work with the entire campus and community to make OU a more welcome environment.”
Even with center services, Hart said it’s difficult to convince LGBT students to attend OU, let alone stay, because of the area’s limited socializing opportunities.
Hart could not quantify how many LGBT students were on campus.
Located in the same Baker University Center hallway as the LGBT Center, Disability Services offers academic assistance to those registered — for anything from learning disabilities to mobility disabilities — a number that reached more than 1,000 students in October 2011, said Carey Busch, assistant director of the office.
Some of the many services offered by the office include test accommodations and special tutoring access.
There are also many student clubs on campus for minorities, including those for race, such as the Black Student Union, the Association of Nigerians and the Chinese Cultural Exchange Association.
Chrysten Crockett, president of the Black Student Union, said the university could increase its efforts to educate students about minority groups on campus.
“That would create understanding, instead of leaving it up to the (student) organizations,” Crockett said. “It would be nice to really encourage students to get to know one another. It would cause a lot of understanding among races and genders.”
But Nneji Akunne, president of the Association of Nigerians, said the university already offers a wide variety of minority student organizations.
“I do think there’s a club for everybody,” Akunne said. “If there isn’t, OU gives you a chance to make your own club.”
Scholarships
Providing many organizations is not the only way OU officials market the university to potential students: The university offers various scholarships as well.
Although some scholarships have a racial element, that is not the only requirement, said Craig Cornell, vice provost for enrollment management.
Each scholarship requires a basis of financial need, he added.
First-generation students are strong competitors for scholarships. Statewide, about 13,500 first-generation students earned bachelor’s or associate degrees in 2010 — 10 percent were OU students.
“We are mindful of the first-generation status of many applications and accommodating as much as possible to those students, who we think bring a really interesting perspective to the campus,” said Candace Boeninger, director of Undergraduate Admissions.
Individual department scholarships also offer an incentive for students coming to OU.
In the 2010–11 school year, the school’s departments awarded a total of almost $1.3 million in scholarships to about 500 students. This number is an increase from the 2008–09 school year, when departments awarded almost $40,000 to about 70 students.
“We’ve always been committed to access,” Cornell said. “It’s always been very important to us.”
In order to meet the goals of the enrollment plan, scholarships are used as a leveraging tool to encourage students to attend, Cornell said.
“It’s a school program to meet institutional goals of enrollment and give students the ability to afford that education by leveraging those dollars and bringing in those students,” he said. “With every scholarship program, we do consider, ‘Will this have an effect on minority and enrollment goals?’?”
sj950610@ohiou.edu
