Minority freshman rolls rise at state colleges

Minority freshman rolls rise at state colleges Despite the gain, their share of enrollment is unchanged.

Thursday, September 6, 2001

BY HOLLY STEPP hstepp@herald.com

In the second year of the One Florida affirmative-action ban, the number of new minority students entering state universities grew 5 percent over last year, according to figures released Wednesday by Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan. But critics quickly accused Gov. Jeb Bush's administration of ``cooking the numbers'' to present a rosier picture of minority representation at the 11 public universities than actually exists.

The preliminary head count showed 577 more black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American students newly enrolled at the 11 campuses than in 2000. According to the figures, members of minority groups now make up about 12,000 of the nearly 33,000 new students in the state universities. While more minority students enrolled this year, critics say those numbers don't tell the whole story.

They say that minority growth has, in effect, been diluted by a nearly equal surge in the number of white non-Hispanic students. Overall, the minority portion of the entering class has barely budged in the last five years -- continuing to hover around 36 percent. Bush's office responded in a statement:

``An increase in the number of minority students is still an increase.'' Despite the growth in actual numbers, blacks, Asians and Native Americans make up a smaller percentage of the entering class this fall. In fact, those percentages declined for the first time in nearly five years, while Hispanics saw their percentage of the class increase slightly. Brogan's announcement comes shortly after the University of Florida, the state's largest and most selective school, said its black freshman enrollment is down nearly 50 percent from last year.

Critics said it's due to the One Florida plan, which eliminated race-based admissions two years ago. The issue has become a hot-button topic in next year's governor's race. During a news conference earlier at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Brogan hailed the freshman enrollment numbers as examples of ``real'' affirmative action. ``Our universities have been forced to reach out to, and work with, high schools and students that have long been underserved,'' he said.

``That is more affirmative, more positive and more action than the simple quotas our universities used in the past.'' As part of One Florida, Bush created the Talented 20 program, which guarantees that students graduating in the top 20 percent of their class will be admitted to a state university.

When the plan was originally proposed in 1999, Bush said it would add hundreds of additional minority students to the college rolls. It is unclear how many students needed Talented 20, because many had good enough grades for admission without it. While Brogan touted the numbers as another sign of success for One Florida, critics said the growth would have occurred anyway because the numbers of minority as well as white non-Hispanic high school graduates are up.

``The governor is taking credit for the sun rising each morning, something that would have happened no matter if Mickey Mouse was governor,'' said Tony Welch, a spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party. ``The governor is desperate to show One Florida as a success,'' Welch said.

Of the 577 new minority freshmen, Hispanics accounted for about 320 -- more than half the total. Native Americans were the only ethnic group to see their numbers decrease this fall -- by 54 students. Eight of the state's 11 universities saw the number of black freshmen increase or hold steady, while UF and Florida International University had slight decreases.

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Carl Gutiérrez-Jones,
Department of English
University of California
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
E-mail: carlgj@humanitas.ucsb.edu

All but UF saw the numbers of Hispanic students hold steady or increase this year. The 11th school, New College, was formerly part of the University of South Florida, and its past enrollment was included in USF's totals. Brogan attributed UF's decline to the school's decision to scale back its entering class this year. He said the school had ``overenrolled'' by 800 students last year.