Minorities make up 20% of collegians

Colorado higher ed officials call increase an encouraging step

Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News

Published April 13, 2006 at midnight

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One in five students enrolled at Colorado's public colleges and universities this academic year is a minority, a five-year increase of nearly 13 percent, according to a report released Wednesday by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.

CCHE Executive Director Jenna Langer said several factors likely contributed to the increase, from a changing population to outreach by colleges, as well as a new stipend program that routes state higher education funding through students to the schools they attend.

"It's probably too early to tell, but I do think the efforts of our institutions and the commission are having an impact," Langer said.

The number of minority students grew from 38,304 in 2001 to 43,223 last fall. Minorities now make up 20.3 percent of all students, up from 18.8 percent five years ago.

While higher education officials called the increase encouraging, they also acknowledged there's still work to be done.

Colorado's overall population in 2004 was 28 percent minority, indicating white students still are enrolling in college at a higher rate than minorities.

In graduate and professional programs, minorities lag even further behind their white peers, making up 11.9 percent of all students enrolled this academic year, up slightly from 11.4 percent in 2001.

Langer also said the report shows a need to focus on the state's rural areas. Schools with higher-than-average minority enrollments almost all are concentrated along the Front Range and the greater Pueblo area, data show.

The report comes as colleges and universities throughout the state are taking steps to increase minority enrollment and improve the climate for minorities on campus.

At Metropolitan State College of Denver - which serves more minorities than any other college in the state - President Stephen Jordan last week announced the creation of an Office of Institutional Diversity. It will be led by a yet-to- be-named associate to the president for diversity.

The University of Colorado has named a Blue Ribbon Commission on Diversity, which has visited all three CU campuses and is expected in the coming weeks to recommend changes to diversity programs. CU also has raised $1.1 million since December for scholarships for minority students.

And Community College of Denver offers more than a half-dozen outreach programs, including some that target first-generation and minority students as early as eighth grade. Nearly half of CCD's students - a larger percentage than at any other campus in the state - are minorities.

Nationally, minority enrollments also have increased, according to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Enrollment Statistics.

In 2004 - the most recent year for which data are available - minorities made up 33 percent of all college students nationwide, up from 31 percent five years earlier.

The CCHE report released Wednesday also shows enrollment at Colorado's public colleges and universities fell 2.7 percent this fall, to 213,070. Last fall, enrollment statewide was 219,150.

CCHE officials attribute the drop to an improving economy. When times are good, fewer people enroll in college, particularly two-year colleges and vocational programs.

Enrollment figures

Colorado colleges and universities with the largest minority enrollment, fall 2005

• By number of students:

1. Metropolitan State College of Denver 5,006

2. Community College of Denver 4,279

3. University of Colorado 4,200

4. CU-Denver and Health Sciences Center 3,177

5. Colorado State University 2,985

• By percent of all students:

1. Community College of Denver 48.1

2. Trinidad State Junior College 47.9

3. Pueblo Community College 40.0