The Bobster
Senior News Editor since 2004
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/lo...hia/8203319.htm
Minority statistics tell two stories at Temple
There are more black and Latino students. But more whites, also. And that's where the numbers get sticky.
By James M. O'Neill
Inquirer Staff Writer
Temple University officials have been proud to talk up the school's impressive enrollment jump over the last five years. But some students and alumni say the university has lost touch with its traditional mission to offer a low-cost college education to t
e city's underserved.
A Latino students group recently sent an angry letter to Temple president David Adamany; and today a coalition of student and community groups plans to hold a rally at noon
on t
he main campus in North Philadelphia to voice displeasure.
But Temple off
icials say that they are still committed to the university's traditional goals, that they are redoubling their efforts to recruit minorities, and that recruiting in the suburbs has not reduced the number of minorities on campus.
"We're encouraging them to work with us to broaden our student representation," Adamany said of minority students, including Latinos and African Americans.
But Latino students argue that, although Temple has attracted more students, especially from the suburbs - total enrollment is up 22.5 percent since 1998 to 33,286 - minority numbers have fallen.
"I chose Temple because of its diversity and commitment to educating poor urban students," said Chuc
k Williams, 30, a Temple graduate and current doctoral student. Williams, who is African American, is the first generation of his family to go to college.
"Now it's abandoning its missio
n, trying to
become the next big state-funded Ivy."
Latino students are particularly piqued, noting that Temple's Broad Street
campus abuts neighborhoods with large concentrations of Latinos. "The student numbers are not representative of the surrounding community," said Jackeline Aponte, a Temple senior and president of the Asociacion de Estudiantes Latinos.
The Temple dispute will likely foreshadow similar conflicts on campuses across the country in coming years, as the number of college-age Latinos continues to surge. At most colleges, Latinos make up a tiny sliver of enrollment, and many colleges have little experience handling Latino recruitment and retention.
That Temple's Latino students recently held a protest on campus without first approaching administra
tors irritated Adamany, who told Aponte's group in a March 8 letter that "Temple University does not respond to demands.
"At the same time," he added, "we are interest
ed in learning the p
erspectives of all... groups" at Temple.
This is a case where the numbers could prove both sides correct. The students complained that Temple had not lived up to a
n agreement that former president Peter Liacouras made in 1994, promising to boost the number of Latino students, faculty and staff by 5 percent within five years.
Adamany, who took over for Liacouras in 2000, counters that the number of Latino students has jumped by 29 percent since 1993 to 1,103; the number of Latino faculty numbers has risen by 67 percent, to 47 professors; and Latino staff has increased 35 percent, to 191 employees.
Although the actual number of Latino students rose each year (until a small decline in 2003), the numbers of white students rose at a far greater rate, so that Latinos rema
ined less than 3.5 percent of enrollment.
Since 1998, when Temple stepped up its recruitment of suburban students, the number of white students has increased 24 percent, to 19,787. The sa
me holds true for African Am
ericans. Although the number of black students rose by 11 percent, to 6,258, between 1998 and 2002 (before a slight decline last fall to 6,082), it dropped as a proportion of
total enrollment.
Adamany said Temple admissions staff target high schools with large minority populations and are working with the campus Latino student association to increase the pool of Latino candidates for the fall.
Temple spokeswoman Harriet Goodheart said the university's admissions office had asked current minority students to make calls to prospective minority students to aid recruitment.
The quest for suburban students began in 1998, to reverse an enrollment drop of 13 percent, or 4,313 students overall. That included a 30 percent drop among white students. Liacouras launched an i
ntense marketing campaign aimed at the suburbs, arguing that not doing so would be "institutional suicide."
He said suburban students "are better prepared academically&
quot;; they "are more likely to
graduate," and "their financial condition is better than the average city resident."
In the process, Temple - like many schools - has become more selective, with average SAT and high school scores r
ising for each incoming class. In the last five years, the average combined SAT score rose from 1,020 in 1998 to 1,088 last fall.
Temple still far outpaces virtually every college in the region in African American enrollment. U.S. figures show that 24 percent of the freshman class of 2001 was African American, compared with 14 percent at Rutgers-Camden, 6 percent at the University of Pennsylvania, and 5 percent at Pennsylvania State University.
The Latino situation is different. Latinos accounted for only 3 percent of Temple freshmen in 2001, compared w
ith similar or higher percentages elsewhere, including 6 percent at Penn, 7 percent at La Salle University, and 8 percent at Swarthmore.
A look at 2000 census figures for three ne
ighborhoods bordering Temple's campus -
Northeast Philadelphia, Fairhill and Kensington - shows that they include more than 49,000 Latinos, or 38 percent of Philadelphia's entire Latino population.
"For Temple to be a huge state-funded institution in the center
of the barrios of North Philadelphia and not have more Latino students is disappointing," Aponte said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Minority statistics tell two stories at Temple
There are more black and Latino students. But more whites, also. And that's where the numbers get sticky.
By James M. O'Neill
Inquirer Staff Writer
Temple University officials have been proud to talk up the school's impressive enrollment jump over the last five years. But some students and alumni say the university has lost touch with its traditional mission to offer a low-cost college education to t
e city's underserved.
A Latino students group recently sent an angry letter to Temple president David Adamany; and today a coalition of student and community groups plans to hold a rally at noon
on t
he main campus in North Philadelphia to voice displeasure.
But Temple off
icials say that they are still committed to the university's traditional goals, that they are redoubling their efforts to recruit minorities, and that recruiting in the suburbs has not reduced the number of minorities on campus.
"We're encouraging them to work with us to broaden our student representation," Adamany said of minority students, including Latinos and African Americans.
But Latino students argue that, although Temple has attracted more students, especially from the suburbs - total enrollment is up 22.5 percent since 1998 to 33,286 - minority numbers have fallen.
"I chose Temple because of its diversity and commitment to educating poor urban students," said Chuc
k Williams, 30, a Temple graduate and current doctoral student. Williams, who is African American, is the first generation of his family to go to college.
"Now it's abandoning its missio
n, trying to
become the next big state-funded Ivy."
Latino students are particularly piqued, noting that Temple's Broad Street
campus abuts neighborhoods with large concentrations of Latinos. "The student numbers are not representative of the surrounding community," said Jackeline Aponte, a Temple senior and president of the Asociacion de Estudiantes Latinos.
The Temple dispute will likely foreshadow similar conflicts on campuses across the country in coming years, as the number of college-age Latinos continues to surge. At most colleges, Latinos make up a tiny sliver of enrollment, and many colleges have little experience handling Latino recruitment and retention.
That Temple's Latino students recently held a protest on campus without first approaching administra
tors irritated Adamany, who told Aponte's group in a March 8 letter that "Temple University does not respond to demands.
"At the same time," he added, "we are interest
ed in learning the p
erspectives of all... groups" at Temple.
This is a case where the numbers could prove both sides correct. The students complained that Temple had not lived up to a
n agreement that former president Peter Liacouras made in 1994, promising to boost the number of Latino students, faculty and staff by 5 percent within five years.
Adamany, who took over for Liacouras in 2000, counters that the number of Latino students has jumped by 29 percent since 1993 to 1,103; the number of Latino faculty numbers has risen by 67 percent, to 47 professors; and Latino staff has increased 35 percent, to 191 employees.
Although the actual number of Latino students rose each year (until a small decline in 2003), the numbers of white students rose at a far greater rate, so that Latinos rema
ined less than 3.5 percent of enrollment.
Since 1998, when Temple stepped up its recruitment of suburban students, the number of white students has increased 24 percent, to 19,787. The sa
me holds true for African Am
ericans. Although the number of black students rose by 11 percent, to 6,258, between 1998 and 2002 (before a slight decline last fall to 6,082), it dropped as a proportion of
total enrollment.
Adamany said Temple admissions staff target high schools with large minority populations and are working with the campus Latino student association to increase the pool of Latino candidates for the fall.
Temple spokeswoman Harriet Goodheart said the university's admissions office had asked current minority students to make calls to prospective minority students to aid recruitment.
The quest for suburban students began in 1998, to reverse an enrollment drop of 13 percent, or 4,313 students overall. That included a 30 percent drop among white students. Liacouras launched an i
ntense marketing campaign aimed at the suburbs, arguing that not doing so would be "institutional suicide."
He said suburban students "are better prepared academically&
quot;; they "are more likely to
graduate," and "their financial condition is better than the average city resident."
In the process, Temple - like many schools - has become more selective, with average SAT and high school scores r
ising for each incoming class. In the last five years, the average combined SAT score rose from 1,020 in 1998 to 1,088 last fall.
Temple still far outpaces virtually every college in the region in African American enrollment. U.S. figures show that 24 percent of the freshman class of 2001 was African American, compared with 14 percent at Rutgers-Camden, 6 percent at the University of Pennsylvania, and 5 percent at Pennsylvania State University.
The Latino situation is different. Latinos accounted for only 3 percent of Temple freshmen in 2001, compared w
ith similar or higher percentages elsewhere, including 6 percent at Penn, 7 percent at La Salle University, and 8 percent at Swarthmore.
A look at 2000 census figures for three ne
ighborhoods bordering Temple's campus -
Northeast Philadelphia, Fairhill and Kensington - shows that they include more than 49,000 Latinos, or 38 percent of Philadelphia's entire Latino population.
"For Temple to be a huge state-funded institution in the center
of the barrios of North Philadelphia and not have more Latino students is disappointing," Aponte said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------