[CrimsonTide4]

Minority enrollment increasing at Texas colleges
08/08/2002 09:40 PM EDT


AUSTIN (AP) - Texas colleges and universities are enrolling more minorities, but not at a pace to keep up with state goals or booming population growth.

School administrators and state officials say they are working to lure more minorities in the wake of Hopwood, the 1996 court decision that banned colleges and universities from considering race in admissions.

Since 1992, black and Hispanic enrollment at Texas colleges has grown more than 67 percent, to 340,000 in 2000. Nationally, that figure has grown about 63 percent from 1988 to 1998, according to the American Council on Education.

But the proportion of minority students has stayed mostly flat at many of Texas' public four-year universities. The problem is especially acute at the state's flagships, University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M.

More than 50,000 new students enrolled in a Texas higher education institution last year, the largest number of new enrollees in more than 25 years.

Nearly two-thirds of those new enrollees were minorities. About 15,419 were Hispanic, but that is still about 5,000 short of state goals, according to a recent report from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Enrollment of blacks at four-year institutions is up 21 percent since 1992, but Hopwood has had an impact, the Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday.

``We're glad to see the increase, but when you go in and specifically look at our targets we've given ourselves, we can't be too optimistic,'' said David Gardner, the Coordinating Board's assistant commissioner for planning and information resources.

Texas education officials in 1999 drafted a higher education plan called Closing the Gaps that called for a statewide enrollment of 1.5 million students by 2015 and set goals for increases in research funding, graduation rates and the quality of institutions and degree programs.

Statewide enrollment last year was at about 1.1 million, an increase from the previous year. But without the ability to consider race in admissions, administrators say, efforts to attract minorities have been hampered.

Much of last year's growth was at institutions in South Texas and at community colleges. Colleges in the Houston and Dallas areas were particularly successful in attracting minority students.

The University of Houston and the University of North Texas have seen minority enrollment rise more than 60 percent in the past 10 years.

Administrators at the University of Houston say they benefit from location. More than 40 percent of Harris county residents are ethnic minorities.

Administrators also turn to local community colleges as feeder schools as well as to Texas Southern University, a historically black institution.

``We are what many American universities are going to have to look like in the years ahead, if the population of the U.S. is going to be served,'' said Arthur Smith, University of Houston president and system chancellor.

But UT and A&M, which are not located in communities with large minority populations, are having a harder time. Since the Hopwood decision, black enrollment has dropped 16 percent at UT and 14 percent at A&M. Hispanic enrollment has not been affected as dramatically.

UT President Larry Faulkner said most of the decrease in enrollment by blacks was in graduate and professional programs, diluting the overall picture.

Augustine Garza, deputy director of admissions, said the decrease could be linked to an applications process, started in 1997, that requires applicants to write three essays. The university received fewer applications in all ethnic categories.

Faulkner said the university has been working on solutions.

``Everything we've tried has not worked. We just have to keep working. I remain concerned about participation among graduate students,'' he said.

This fall, A&M is redoubling its efforts to attract minorities. Counselors are touting the accessibility of the university, financial aid programs and other opportunities, such as the TEXAS grant program.