Notre Dame and Saint Mary's actively recruit minority students to create
By MIKE CONNOLLY
News Writer
Editor's note: In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. celebrations on campus, The Observer explores diversity issues in a four-part series. Part one examines the challenges and successes of recruiting minority applicants.
With the same vigor it pursues the top high school athletes in America, the University uses phone calls, mailing and campus visitations to lure some of the most highly qualified minority students to the Golden Dome.
A predominantly white, private, catholic school in the Midwest is not necessarily the first choice for many minorities who often come from warmer climates and lesser financial means. The University must overcome cultural, regional, historical, meterological and financial barriers to win the enrollment of these students against fierce competition from other elite schools.
"[Difficulties in recruiting minorities] lies with minority perceptions of the school," said Nikki McCord, co-chair of the diversity committee in the student senate and a student member of the University committee for cultural diversity.
"I know many minorities believe before coming to Notre Dame that this is an elitist campus. Some think it is full of rich people and a lot of students might feel that there are so few minorities and their needs can't be met socially at this school," the sophomore from Dallas continued.
The task of convincing qualified minorities to apply begins in the spring of the applicants' junior year of high school. Notre Dame purchases test scores and profiles from the SAT, PSAT and ACT and looks for minority students that show the academic ability to succeed at Notre Dame.
"We are not admitting minority students just to make the school more diverse," said Cynthia Santana, multicultural recruiting coordinator for the undergraduate admissions office. "We are admitting these students because they are qualified, can succeed here and will make the school more diverse."
Chandra Johnson, assistant to the president and a member of the University committee for cultural diversity, said Notre Dame's high admission standards makes recruitment of minorities even more challenging. Many intelligent minorities, who often have less educational opportunities compared to their white counterparts, have not taken enough high level classes to be admitted to Notre Dame.
"[Minority students] are less visible in education mainstreams where students can get the courses they need to apply so we have to go out there and find them earlier," she said. "If they are in a high school where the high school offers AP (Advanced Placement) and other courses that will eventually give these students a high profile, we have to encourage them to take these courses."
Notre Dame needs to seek out these students earlier in their high school careers and point them towards the appropriate classes so they will be ready for acceptance to Notre Dame by the senior year, according to Johnson.
Even if minority students are qualified academically, financial reasons often prevent them from attending the University. Notre Dame competes with other prestigious schools that usually offer more lucrative offers.
"Every school has some way of luring them in," Santana said. "For some it's dangling big scholarships in front of them. But that's not something we do. We are more committed to providing financial aid for all of our students rather than using big diversity scholarships to lure students here."
Instead of giving free rides to multicultural students, Notre Dame uses government loans and financial aide packages to help minority students attend the University. This usually requires the families to fill out complicated forms. Admissions officers work closely with the families to help them understand their financial aide packages and fill out the forms correctly.
Their work is sometimes fruitless, however. Many families chose the simplicity of a scholarship over the complicated loans and financial aide packages offered by Notre Dame.
"They don't even understand the words `financial aid;'" Santana said. "They do understand `scholarship.' Scholarship to them means free money. So they prefer a scholarship to a financial aid package."
Beyond the racial and ethnic differences between the majority of Notre Dame students and potential minority recruits, the culture of the Midwest is often one of the largest deterrents. Many Hispanics and Asian American students come from the Southwest or West while many African-Americans live in the South. The vast differences between their home life and the culture of the Midwest can be a major drawback for the University.
"I've had experiences with people from California who say `The Midwest is just not for me. I want to go back. It's just not for me,'" said Kevin Huie, assistant director of Multicultural Students Programs and Services (MSPS). Anything from Midwestern weather to Midwestern accents can only highlight the alienation some minority students feel.
"South Bend isn't exactly the most attractive place for many diverse students," Santana said.
The Catholic nature of Notre Dame, however, is one of the biggest drawing points for Notre Dame among Hispanics. Veronica Trevino, a freshman from Coachella, Calif., learned of Notre Dame from Holy Cross priests in her town. The Church drew her to Notre Dame even though the admissions department didn't actively recruit her.
Santana said the Catholic nature of the University is not a positive, however, for African-American students who are usually not Catholic.
"The Catholic aspect of the University can be not as attractive to African-American students," Santana said. "That's probably the population that we have the most difficulty with. They see the Catholic aspect as a turn-off."
Johnson and McCord, both of whom are African-American, disagree with Santana.
"That is not true in my experience," Johnson said. "I believe that is a myth. The reason I say this is that of the students who come, 75 percent are not Catholic … The Catholic nature of the institution is a draw because students embrace the spiritual aspect of the University. This is unfortunately a belief that tempers our passion to recruit African Americans. It is a historically passed down perception that not only majority folk but also African Americans tend to think is reality."
While Notre Dame has increased the number of multicultural students since 1990, recruitment continues to be difficult. Convincing one student from a high school to attend Notre Dame rarely leads to other students attending in later years, according to Santana.
"It is just as hard today as it was before," said Santana, who graduated from Notre Dame in 1998 and came from a predominantly Hispanic high school. "I remember going back to my high school and talking to students ever year but it wasn't until my junior year that another girl came."
Trevino feels if the University made its applications more available to high schools with a high number of ethnic students, there would be more minority applicants.
"I think getting out to those schools for example in my valley where there aren't many people applying to Notre Dame [will increase diversity] because there wasn't any information available in the counseling office," she said. "They need to go to those schools and make their applications available to more people."
In the end, making Notre Dame accessible to more people is the ultimate goal of recruiting a more diverse student body. The University believes diverse students with diverse ideas and diverse cultures only enhance the educational experience.
"The opportunities I had here were incredible," Santana said. "Not only career opportunities but meeting people of other backgrounds. Meeting people from all over the country. All over the world. A lot of schools don't have that. A lot of schools don't have this geographic diversity. We tell students that they are only going to add to that by coming to this campus.
All News Stories for Tuesday, January 23, 2001
