Texas
A&M President Robert M. Gates poses with several Century Scholars,
students participating in a program designed to increase enrollment from
high schools that are underrepresented by providing financial support,
on-campus housing and employment, and choice of major.
When I assumed the presidency of Texas A&M University in 2002, after consultation with regents, deans and faculty, I decided that one of four major priorities during my tenure should be to increase the diversity of our student body.
This goal is wholly consistent with Texas A&M’s land-grant mission to educate students representative of all of the people of Texas. Additionally, it is consistent with the State of Texas’ Closing the Gaps initiative, designed to enroll 500,000 new students by 2015. More personally, it is consistent with my own belief that a diverse student body helps create the climate for a richer environment where intellectual and personal exchanges can take place. The product of such an environment is a Texas A&M graduate better prepared to participate in and lead a globally diverse society.
With the help of virtually the entire campus community, and many former students, our efforts to enroll more minority students are proving successful. We have received especially valuable and important assistance from the Texas A&M Hispanic Former Students Network and the Black Former Students Network.
Over the past 18 months or so, we have created a permanent recruitment infrastructure we believe to be unique in the nation. We now have Regional Prospective Student Centers in Dallas, Houston—where we have two—San Antonio, Brazos County, Corpus Christi and McAllen, and we are planning an eighth in Laredo. We have both admissions and financial aid counselors in these centers, where they can establish long-term relationships with local counselors, teachers and principals, as well as work with individual families from every ethnic group and socioeconomic background to show them how their son or daughter can apply to A&M and, if admitted, find alternative ways to pay. The enthusiasm for Texas A&M on the part of high school counselors, teachers and principals, as well as community leaders, in cities where our Prospective Student Centers are located is both helpful and gratifying.
In addition, many programs have been developed or supported by student organizations, by the admissions and financial aid offices, by the Texas A&M Foundation, by former students both individually and through the Association of Former Students, and by individual colleges and departments, to help recruit minority students. The results are in. Last fall, a year ago, we increased Hispanic freshman enrollment by 25 percent and African-American freshman enrollment by 35 percent. This fall, more than 1,000 Hispanic freshmen enrolled, the highest number in A&M’s history, and some 260 African-American freshmen enrolled—the highest number since 1996.
Twenty-eight percent of our entering freshman class of 7,100 last fall and this fall are first-generation college students.
Twenty-eight percent of our entering freshman class of 7,100 last fall and this fall are first-generation college students—truly fulfillment of our land-grant history and heritage. This is one of the largest percentages of first-generation college students in tier 1 research universities in America. To those who say that higher education—and especially highly ranked national universities—are less able (or willing) to provide social and economic mobility for American students from lower income families, I say come and witness what we are doing at Texas A&M.
We also must be—and are—engaged in significant efforts to ensure that these students succeed academically. We are doing well, with overall freshman retention at almost 90 percent. The Aggie Access program has doubled in size and serves as a model retention program for the university, with a retention rate of 94 percent.
Admission of new African-American and Hispanic graduate students is growing as well, up last year 61 percent for African-American students and 17 percent for Hispanic students, and we are continuing to keep these numbers growing. Further, we have directed that faculty include in grant proposals tuition and fees for graduate students who will be participating in the grant research. These initiatives will make Texas A&M far more competitive for high quality graduate students and should contribute significantly to growing our graduate student numbers.
Over the past 18 months or so, we have created a permanent recruitment infrastructure we believe to be unique in the nation.
I am especially pleased that we are leading two new A&M System-wide programs—Pathways to the Doctorate and The Texas A&M University System Graduate Faculty. The former program makes it easier for students from other A&M System universities to transition to graduate study at Texas A&M. This program also affords us the opportunity further to improve our recruitment of African-American and Hispanic graduate students across all disciplines. In addition to creating pathways for talented A&M System students to pursue graduate education, the Pathways program also fosters opportunities for innovative research collaborations and produces new faculty to help close the gaps in higher education in Texas.
Our success has brought us national attention. The Chronicle of Higher Education did a major article on A&M's efforts last winter and the Christian Science Monitor and other publications have praised our efforts. Perhaps more significantly, other universities around the country are asking us what we are doing to be successful—especially since more than a few top universities are experiencing an absolute decline in minority enrollment.
We must not rest on our laurels. We need to keep working at this—and the involvement of so many faculty, staff, students and former students in helping us is deeply appreciated, and must continue. Further, we must sustain the reallocation of resources internally to support both the recruitment effort and new scholarships targeted for first-generation college students from lower-income families.
Some have asked whether I feel that there is a competition with a certain other Texas university to enroll more minority students. To that assertion I always reply, “A competition where the result is more minority students enrolled in Texas universities and colleges is one that I welcome. In such a competition, everyone wins—especially the State of Texas.”