It’s not that the University of Colorado isn’t recruiting minorities, it’s that too few of them graduate from high school with the grades and test scores to get into the state’s second-most-exclusive public university, a new CU report on diversity says.
Just 120 of the 2,194 black high school graduates in Colorado last year met CU-Boulder’s admission standards and at least started the application process. Only 41 of them ended up enrolling.
Of the 7,198 Latino high school graduates, 479 met the standards and applied to CU-Boulder. About half of those enrolled.
“Colorado really needs to focus on graduating students of color from high school who are prepared to go on to a four-year institution,” said Christine Yoshinaga-Itano, CU’s associate vice chancellor for diversity and equity. “Unless the pool is enlarged … we’re not going to be able to substantially increase the numbers in all of our institutions of higher education.”
Only 272 black and 1,062 Latino high school graduates were admitted to a state four-year university in 2004 and had the grades and test scores to get into CU-Boulder, the report says.
That compares with 10,578 qualified white students admitted to a four-year school out of 33,381 high school graduates.
Colorado School of Mines is the only public university in the state with stricter admission requirements than CU-Boulder.
The good news is that students of color who enroll at CU-Boulder typically are successful.
About 60 percent of minority freshmen graduate within six years, compared with 67 percent of other students. CU-Boulder has the highest graduation rate for students of color of any public college in Colorado and does slightly better than the nation’s 34 other comparable public research universities, the report says.
CU leaders attribute that success to the fact that minorities accepted to CU are ready for college work.
The diversity report is a guide for CU interim president Hank Brown’s blue-ribbon commission, which will strategize on three CU campuses to improve diversity. The group, which includes about 40 community and corporate members, meets Jan. 21 on the Boulder campus.
A group of faculty, students and staff will work with the commission, Yoshinaga-Itano said.
CU announced last week a $1 million gift and a pledge to raise $7.5 million for scholarships for low-income students and students of color.
The announcement followed a demand from CU-Boulder students that university leaders come up with $5 million to improve diversity, though the gift had been in the works for months.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
