CLEMSON, S.C.
Cost is one of the top barriers cited as a reason South Carolina’s largest colleges and universities have trouble increasing their percentages of Black students.
Across the state as a whole, Blacks made up 28 percent of campus enrollment in 2005 and 30 percent of the state’s population, according to a new report released by the Southern Region Education Board.
But at the state’s research campuses, such as Clemson University, the numbers are lower. At Clemson, for example, around 7 percent of its student population is Black.
“Cost is becoming a bigger and bigger barrier for that constituency,” said Byron Wiley, director of access and equity at Clemson.
Wiley said the increase in tuition coupled with few need-based financial aid options is hurting the university’s efforts to recruit more Black students.
“A lot of kids I work with would love to come here,” said Levon Kirkland, Clemson’s coordinator of minority recruitment initiatives. “It’s always heartbreaking when the reason they don’t come is the financial reason.”
