WASHINGTON – In a matter of seconds, University of Maryland higher education professor Dr. Sharon L. Fries-Britt picked off one of the biggest elephants in the room and extended a data-heavy conversation from the head to the heart.
“We should be incensed by this,” Fries-Britt said of a new report on race inequities in higher education released by the American Council on Education, her voice reflecting the sadness she said she felt to see evidence of disparities similar to those that existed when she began her career in higher education 38 years ago.
“We’ve lost ground. I feel a sense of sorrow for all of us. How bold and innovative are we going to be? Because this is no longer acceptable,” she concluded to rousing applause from a multicultural audience of college administrators, faculty, students, policymakers, thought leaders, funders and other stakeholders gathered Thursday at the National Press Club for the release of “Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education: A Status Report.” 
Fries-Britt was among those reacting to an executive summary of a 338-page study report that revealed persisting racial inequities across higher education. Although based on different quantitative information, it reached many of the same conclusions that some in attendance indicated they were weary of hearing.
Among key findings:
· As racial and ethnic minorities become a larger share of the U.S. population – with more than half of all current K-12 students from communities of color – they remain underrepresented in student bodies, on faculties and staffs and in administrative positions on college campuses.
· Students of color who received a bachelor’s degree in 2007-08 were more likely than their White peers to enter graduate education within four years. However, the immediate college enrollment rate of Black high school graduates or equivalents ages 16 to 24 was 56.5 percent from 1996 to 2016, lower than for Whites, Hispanics and Asians, and the only group among them trending downward.
