Posted on June 12.
The University released enrollment numbers for the class of 2012 today – the first full class to be admitted after the passage of the 2006 ballot initiative banning race- and gender-based affirmative action in Michigan.
Underrepresented minorities will make up 10.5 percent of the class of 2012. The class from one year earlier was comprised of 10.8 percent underrepresented minority students. That group of students reflects an admissions cycle that took place partially after the affirmative action ban took effect. The class of 2010, the last to be chosen prior to the ban, was made up of 12.6 percent underrepresented minorities.
University officials said they braced for a significant decline in the number of underrepresented minorities in this year’s freshman class but that they were delighted to report a relatively low decline.
Ted Spencer, associate vice provost and executive director of undergraduate admissions, said the number of minority applicants and enrolled students for this year was good, “relative to the fact that we were working under the constraints of the proposition.”
“We’re not happy where we are,” Spencer said. “But we’re happy they didn’t drop off as drastically as they did in other places.”
Despite an 8.6 percent increase in the number of students who applied to the University, the number of underrepresented minority applicants decreased by 1.9 percent.
University officials predict the decline in underrepresented minority applicants is temporary. They said they have increased outreach efforts targeting middle school and high school students in Michigan and throughout the country.
In an effort to recruit students from groups underrepresented on campus, including first-generation college students and those from lower-income families, the University uses the College Board’s “geodemographic tool” Descriptor PLUS. The tool uses census data to identify communities that are not proportionally represented at the University.
Spencer said Descriptor PLUS has been an important mechanism to help target unrepresented communities, but added that the University is still working to improve and build new programs for recruitment efforts.
“We look at this year and certainly we’ve lost an important tool, and it has had an impact on our numbers, but we’re hoping that in the future we can develop new measures to identify students and encourage them to enroll,” Spencer said.
Of the 29,794 applicants to the University, 12,533 were offered admission and 6,045 paid enrollment deposits.