In the spring, Nouhoum Bane, an investment banker in New York City, received an e-mail with the names, e-mail addresses and phone numbers of three New York high school students. Bane called them and offered to talk.

But the students weren’t looking for investment advice. Bane, a University alum, called because they were admitted to the University but hadn’t decided to enroll yet.

Bane, who is from Mali, is a mentor in the Each One/Reach One program, an Alumni Association initiative which pairs minority alumni with accepted underrepresented minority students, which the University defines as black, Latino or Native American.

Steve Grafton, president of the Alumni Association, said every underrepresented minority student offered admission this year was paired with an alum. The organization is ramping up its efforts to recruit underrepresented minority students to help make up for what the University can no longer do, he said.

The Each One/Reach One program was one of several initiatives started by University alumni after the 2006 statewide ban on race- and gender-based affirmative action use in public institutions. With the goal of creating a diverse campus, alumni organizations have increased their outreach efforts and established scholarships for underrepresented minorities.

Another major component of the Alumni Association’s push for a diverse campus is its Diversity Scholarship Program. Established in 2007, it offers in-state students $10,000 a year and out-of-state students $15,000 a year for four years.

The affirmative action ban prevents the University from offering scholarships based on race. But it’s still legal for the Alumni Association to do so because it’s a private nonprofit organization.

Though the awards pay the bulk of tuition for in-state students, Grafton describes them as “recruiting scholarships” and measures the program’s success by the number of students it attracts. Twenty-two of the 33 students offered the scholarships have enrolled, Grafton said.

“We’re helping the University to compete with other universities to attract these students,” he said. “These are students who are very bright.”

He pointed to the recipients’ ACT scores — which average above 31 — to illustrate the academic caliber of the students being courted.

“We’re competing against the Ivy Leagues, the Stanfords, the North Carolinas,” he said.

The African-American Alumni Council has also stepped up its recruiting efforts since the affirmative action ban.

“Many of the admissions people, I think they really do value diversity at U of M, and sometimes they really feel like their hands are tied,” said Michael Henry, chairman of the AAAC. “We decided to pick up the ball on that.”

One priority for the group is to make campus more welcoming to underrepresented minorities. The MLK Scholarships, which are awarded to academically strong black students who have shown an interest in giving back to their communities, are part of that effort. About 40 to 60 recipients each year receive a single $2,000 grant.

“This is something that I think students are really proud to get,” Henry said.

But the group is also starting to work with middle and high school students.

The AAAC added a Recruiting and Admissions Chair to its governing board, in charge of increasing member contact with African American middle and high school students who might consider Michigan. Many AAAC members now attend the admissions office’s recruiting events, and are mentors in the Each One/Reach One program.

“We decided after (the ban) that we needed to be a lot more active in terms of connecting alumni to students who might be interested in the University,” Henry said.

Alumni are working hard to recruit underrepresented minority students. But it's just part of their effort to recruit accepted students of all backgrounds.

Grafton was proud to say the Alumni Association assigned an alum to every admitted underrepresented minority student.