Lincoln (Neb.) - Nov. 19, 1998 - University of Nebraska- Lincoln officials said today that the drop in enrollment figures for African American students from 1996-98 was less than 1 percent, and not 10 percent as was reported in the Nov. 16 edition of the Daily Nebraskan.
Lauren Drees, assistant director of the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, said a consistent data comparison of black enrollment from 1996 to 1998 shows a decrease from 430 students to 427, a drop of less than 1 percent. Meanwhile, the university's total enrollment fell by more than 6 percent from 23,887 to 22,408.
The Daily Nebraskan report, which was distributed to other news outlets by the Associated Press, inaccurately showed a drop of 10 percent in black student enrollment.
"This was an unfortunate and, I'm sure, inadvertent error," said Larry Routh, interim director of admissions. "It has caused some confusion about the effectiveness of our efforts to attract and retain minority students.
"But the decrease we've had the last two years in enrollment of African American students is considerably smaller than that for total enrollment during a time when the university raised its entrance requirements," he said. "That indicates that we have had some success in those efforts. But we're still very concerned that African American students account for only 2 percent of our total enrollment. One of our highest priorities is to increase the level of diversity on campus."
Routh (rhymes with truth) said some of the efforts Nebraska
has made to recruit and retain minority students include hiring
an assistant admissions director for minority recruitment,
Cynthia Gooch; implementing a series of multicultural senior days
to bring high school students to campus; and developing a
recruitment brochure and video targeted at minority students. He
said Gooch also has scheduled multicultural senior days in the
fall this year, whereas they had been held during the spring
semester in the past.
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