Minority Enrollment Continues to Rise at University of Tennessee
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.
Minority enrollment continues to rise at the University of Tennessee’s flagship campus, where one of every 10 entering freshmen this fall is Black and the freshman class rates as the most ethnically diverse in school history.
Heavy recruitment in Memphis and Nashville, which have the state’s largest African-American populations, targeted scholarships and on-campus support to keep minorities in school are changing a campus still under a desegregation watch from a 1968 lawsuit.
Five years ago, Black students railed against a perception of racism at UT-Knoxville — graffiti on a dorm wall, a rebel flag painted on a large rock that’s a kind of campus bulletin board and a misguided student art project of hanging nooses. Public forums were held to soothe tensions and improve understanding.
Then in 2002, six White fraternity members were caught partying in “blackface” at an off-campus bar. The university denounced the action.
“I don’t want to call that a myth, but I think we are starting to knock down some of those barriers that students used to say, ‘Knoxville is not a friendly place to be,”’ said Richard Bayer, dean of enrollment services.
