The University of Colorado should consider building more flexibility into its admission standards to reach more minorities, require freshmen to take a racial-tolerance course and pour more money into diversity programs, a report released Tuesday says.
The Boulder campus also needs a zero-tolerance policy for students caught using hate speech, and administrators should create a “rapid response team” to deal with hate crimes, the report says.
The recommendations come from a 60-member blue- ribbon commission that reviewed the racial makeup of the student body and talked to students about diversity retention. The campus is 1.5 percent African-American, 5.8 percent Latino and 6 percent Asian.
The panel – created by CU president Hank Brown after a string of racist incidents on campus – has two weeks to revise the draft report. The university plans to formally respond by May 1.
Students, administrators and some commission members said they are strongly against CU lowering its admission standards to expand the pool of qualified minority applicants. The report does not advocate lowering standards but says the university should work with the state higher education commission to revise the way the commission develops a student’s index score – a number based on high school class rank, standardized tests and grades. CU requires a minimum index score of 103.
Only 272 black and 1,062 Latino high school graduates were admitted to a state four-year university in 2004 and had the scores to get into CU-Boulder, according to a university report.
“It is unacceptable that there are only 66 African-American students out of approximately 5,000 new freshmen,” the report says.
CU already has some flexibility in the index score, Boulder chancellor Phil DiStefano said. The university can admit up to 14 percent of its students with numbers below the index by considering factors such as leadership or high school coursework.
But the higher education commission is shrinking that window. It was 20 percent in 2003 and will drop to 10 percent in 2008, a move that has raised concerns in the past regarding flexibility in recruiting student athletes.
More minority students would qualify to get into CU if the index score were more flexible and accounted for students who grow up without tutoring or preparation for college entrance exams, said the Rev. Paul Burleson, a panel member.
“We can come up with something creative that does not undermine the qualifications of the school,” he said.
But panel member Jessica Peck Corry with the conservative Independence Institute called that recommendation ridiculous.
“CU is a top research institution, and it should attract the best and the brightest,” she said. “We shouldn’t lower standards to allow for some social engineering.”
Corry also disagreed with the panel’s No. 1 recommendation, that CU should increase funding for diversity programs. The university, which has an estimated $21 million for diversity programs, hasn’t proved those programs are working, she said.
Others suggested that instead of changing admission standards, CU pour more resources into recruiting qualified minority students. The panel suggested increasing scholarship funding for underserved populations.
“They should reach out to K-12 students, make the idea of going to college actually seem more real,” said panel member Jarvis Fuller, vice president of the Black Student Alliance.
CU should consider expanding programs that recruit students from community colleges who might not have qualified for CU admission as freshmen, said CU regent Gail Schwartz. Lowering admission standards is not an acceptable option, she said.
“It runs contrary to our wanting success for all students coming to the institution,” she said. “We shouldn’t be motivated to take an underqualified student just to fill numbers.”
The recommendation that freshmen take a mandatory class on multiculturalism also drew mixed opinions.
“We feel that class, along with many other diversity classes, only seeks to continue to divide students by race instead of trying to include everybody,” said Ian VanBuskirk, chairman of the College Republicans.
DiStefano said administrators already are researching the possibility of a required diversity course, which students angry about the racial environment on campus requested last fall.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
