The University will host 46 high school freshmen and sophomores from Kalamazoo Public Schools for a three-day residential program designed to spur increased application and enrollment numbers for underrepresented minorities on campus.
The purpose of the program is to expose younger high school students to the University in a way that will encourage them to aspire to attend. Students must have at least a 3.0 grade point average and submit a 300-word essay to gain acceptance into the program.
The newly formed Michigan Institute for the Improvement of African American Representation — a committee connected with the University’s Black Student Union — will organize and run the program.
Engineering junior Will Royster, who helped launch MIIAAR and is the BSU Academic Concerns Committee chair, said the idea stemmed from interest in expanding minority representation on campus. He said many of the programs offered for minorities at the University don’t provide participants with the full college experience.
“Most of the other programs don’t let students allow themselves to visualize themselves as students on campus,” Royster said.
Among the activities planned are opportunities for participants to meet with various student organizations, take a campus tour, view a presentation from an admissions counselor, participate in an SAT workshop and hear from University alum Shawn Blanchard, who teaches mathematics for the University’s Summer Bridge Program, a pre-freshman year academic preparation program.
While this is the immersion program’s pilot year, Royster said he hopes to increase participation from other underrepresented high schools in the state, such as districts in Battle Creek and Detroit. He said he hopes to increase the number of participating students from 46 to 100.
“We want to allow them to acclimate to the culture and make them passionate about the University,” Royster said. “We want them to envision themselves at the University.”
Black students enrolled at the University currently make up 4 percent of the student body.
After the Proposal 2 ballot initiative passed in 2006, the state of Michigan outlawed the consideration of race, among other factors, in the admissions process for public colleges. Minority enrollment subsequently declined, and the University has relied largely on recruitment efforts to encourage underrepresented minority students to apply and then enroll at the Unviersity.
Royster said, by working through a student group rather than the administration, MIIAAR has more freedom and it is easier to make efforts to increase minority enrollment without being limited by Proposal 2. However, Royster said, because the program is not a part of the University, it is sometimes harder to receive the extra resources University-affiliated programs receive.
“Students can target minority groups and bring them to campus,” Royster said. “For us, as students, we can create a program and reach out and make a difference.”
E. Royster Harper, vice president for student life, said according to the admissions office, students who visit campus are more likely to attend upon admittance. The program, she said, is attempting to develop a relationship between high-achieving minority students and the University to increase the likelihood they will want to apply and attend.
Erica Sanders, interim director of Undergraduate Admissions, said students on campus want to connect with others from similar backgrounds or from the same area. She applauded the program’s effort to connect prospective students with current students from the same area.
“We are encouraged by the level of commitment and dedication from Will Royster and the Black Student Union to make this program a success,” Sanders wrote in a statement.
In past years, the University has struggled with increasing minority enrollment.
Last year, members of the Black Student Union launched the #BBUM movement, which demanded the University increase Black enrollment to at least 10 percent of the student population.
MIIAAR worked alongside Rob Sellers, vice provost for equity, inclusion and academic affairs, to help develop the residential program. Sellers heads the Office of the Provost’s Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, which University Provost Martha Pollack convened in December 2013, following the #BBUM campaign.
The committee’s report, released in September, recommended the University heavily invest in new and existing programs to build partnerships with target districts “to increase the pipeline of college-ready underrepresented minority students as well as first-generation students.”
Sellers said the MIIAAR program aims to help build familiarity and trust between talented students and the University.
“We commend the Black Student Union for its dedication and commitment to creating a more diverse campus,” Sellers said in a statement. “This is a goal we all share.”
Harper said though the program would help get students more familiar with the University campus, she cannot predict whether minority enrollment numbers would see a direct impact.
“I think it’s just trying to increase the notion that students will consider Michigan as an option by having them on campus, getting them familiar with being on campus, going to some classes, meeting with other students,” Harper said. “I think that this helps in that recruitment effort, but I’m not sure you can draw a direct relationship between if you do this then you’ll have more students of color on campus, I think that’s a stretch.”
Royster said because this is the first year of the program, he, too, can’t promise an increase in minority enrollment without any influence in the admissions process. However, he said, he can still inspire students to attend the University.
“When it comes to students in a minority environment, understanding they can come here and that there is a body and a face that looks like theirs is very important,” Royster said. “We want to get them more excited to apply and more aware of the obstacles they will face to apply.”