BLOOMINGTON, Ind.
Indiana University’s fall freshman class is the biggest ever, topping a record set four years ago, yet the number of Black students in the class has fallen nearly 20 percent since last year, school officials say.
IU announced last Thursday that despite a record class of 7,259 freshmen, including more minority students overall, the number of Black students fell from last fall’s class record of 412 to 345 — a 19.4 percent decline.
The drop comes despite IU’s plans to boost minority enrollment, particularly for Blacks and Hispanics.
“Last year, we had a big increase in the number of African-American students enrolled. We were unable to sustain that,” says IU spokesman Larry B. MacIntyre.
Earlier this year, IU trustees called for doubling the number of students from under-represented groups, primarily Blacks and Hispanics, by 2014. At the same time, the school has toughened admissions requirements.
MacIntyre says that despite the decline, the number of Blacks in this fall’s freshman class is the campus’ third-largest. He says IU is trying to recruit Black students by targeting inner-city high schoolers in Gary and Indianapolis.
