Indianapolis' Black Expo
Hoosier colleges look to add to their pool of minority students by pitching their school at Indiana Black Expo |
With a student body made up of only 3.9 percent black students, Purdue University has the lowest percentage of black students of all universities in Indiana. Annette Brown, Diversity Outreach Project manager at Purdue University, was at Expo looking to change that.
“We’re constantly working to elevate diversity and inclusion recruitment of minority students,” she said. Purdue recently created programs targeting minority students such as the Diversity Outreach Program, which goes out and speaks with youth at places including churches, charity events, community centers and job and education fairs. “We want to make sure we attract, admit, retain and graduate our students of color,” Brown said. Indiana Wesleyan University has also made strides in an attempt to increase their minority student population, Janelle Vernon, vice president of enrollment management and residential campus, said. The school recently created an office in Richmond for multi-cultural and employee development. “We’ve recently filled several full-time positions that exclusively work on diversifying our multi-cultural population,” Vernen said. “Investing our time, money and resources into diversifying our student population is key." Eleven percent of Indiana Wesleyan’s students living on campus are of a racial minority as are 25 percent of those living off campus. Ball State University recently teamed with The Center For Leadership Development, an Indianapolis-based program looking to give inner-city youths an opportunity to go to college, Charles Haynes, associate director of admissions, said at the event. The program offers students a chance to visit Ball State for one week where they will attend morning classes and participate in evening activities such as strength building, time management and a variety of outdoor events. Each year the program gives out two or three full-ride scholarships to students who can’t afford to go to college. “It’s obvious, not just at Ball State’s campus, but at many campuses around the country, having diversity on a campus really makes a difference,” Haynes said. |