Despite the fact the number of minority students in colleges and
universities has doubled over the past 20 years, white students
still comprise the majority of enrolled students in the country,
according to a report released last week by the American Council on
Education.
However, the report does not reflect the minority enrollment
trend found at University of California schools, where the
percentage of enrolled minority students outnumbered the percentage
of enrolled white students.
While some minority group enrollments in the country are
increasing faster than certain minority groups in the UC, overall
the percentage enrolled in the UC is significantly higher than the
country’s percentage.
The UC system has an enrollment that predominantly consists of
minority students, with whites making up 35 percent of enrolled
students in 2000. At UCLA, about 70 percent of enrolled students
were minorities in 2000.
In comparison, almost 70 percent of the students enrolled in
higher education in the country were white.
The ACE’s Minorities in Higher Education Annual Status
Report, released Oct. 8, showed increasing enrollment among all
minority groups from 1980 to 2001.
During these 20 years, the number of black students enrolled in
higher education increased by 56 percent, and the number of both
enrolled Latino and Asian American students more than tripled.
Compared to the rest of the country, California also appeared to
have a higher rate of growth among minority students, said Eugene
Anderson, research associate at the ACE’s Office of
Minorities in Higher Education.
The increase in enrollment of minority students in California
colleges and universities can be attributed to state efforts within
the last five years to give minority students better opportunities
to attend schools, said Murray Haberman, senior policy analyst for
the California Postsecondary Education Commission.
“The state has made a commitment to outreach to groups of
students who have historically not participated in secondary
education … by making them better informed about what they need
to achieve, the test scores and grades they need in order to be
eligible to a state university,” he said.
But state budget cuts have led to substantial budget reductions
for outreach programs that target minority groups.
The changes in minority student enrollment are mirrored in
changes in state demographics.
Analysts say the main reasons for the growth in minority student
enrollment are the increasing diversity in California and an
increased population growth rate.
“This issue is predominantly regional, especially when it
comes to public institutions. … They draw from the state
population, so you have a huge regional effect,” said
Mitchell Chang, an associate professor at the UCLA education
department who studies minority groups in education.
As a result, California’s large Asian American and Latino
population can account for the high percentage of these minority
students who enroll in state postsecondary schools.
“There have been plenty of stories throughout the
’90s about the growth of the minority population in
California, especially among the Spanish-Latino community,”
Anderson said.
Although the UC enrolls a higher percentage of Latino students
than the rest of the country, the UC’s black and American
Indian enrollment numbers are lower than that of the
country’s, and American Indian enrollment in the UC has
decreased since 2000.
But having a minority enrollment decrease is rare in the UC. All
other minority group enrollments have increased in the UC, some
with much larger enrollment percentages than the enrollment
percentages of the rest of the United States.
Asian Americans make up about 6 percent of the students enrolled
in higher education in the country, but they make up about 35
percent of the UC’s enrolled student population.
UCLA also enrolls a high number of Asian Americans. Since fall
1994, UCLA has been enrolling more Asian American students than
white students.
“The composition is going to change, and hopefully in a
direction that reflects the composition of the state, at least for
UCLA. The absolute numbers (of enrolled white students) will
probably stay the same, but the overall representation or
proportion may decrease (from enrolling more minorities),”
Chang said.