Penn trails peers in black representation

Penn lags behind many of its peers when it comes to black representation, a new survey by The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reported.

Princeton University topped the list, with black students making up 9.4 percent of the current freshman class. Penn placed fifth on the list, in a tie with Dartmouth College, with 7.6 percent of their freshman class consisting of black students.

Six of the eight schools in the Ivy League showed an increase in the number of black freshmen compared to last year.

Princeton showed the largest increase in black first-year enrollment, with a jump of 38 percent. Penn had an increase of about 7.2 percent.

Nevertheless, Dean of Admissions Lee Stetson said he is pleased with the current class.

"Percentages are somewhat confusing. If you look at the actual number of enrolled [black] students, that set[s] an all-time record for Penn," Stetson said.

The total number of black students who enrolled at Penn was 193 for the Class of 2009, compared to 180 for the Class of 2008.

"This was the most successful year in the history of minority and underrepresented recruitment," Stetson said.

Both Stetson and Herman Beavers, the chairman of the Committee on Minority Student Retention and Success, said that Penn and its peer institutions are competing with each other over the same pool of applicants.

"It's a challenge because we're all recruiting the same students," Stetson said.

However, many stress that admissions are not the only factor to consider.

"I'm less concerned about admission numbers. ... I'm much more concerned about graduation numbers," Beavers said. "Our retention numbers have gone up in the last 15 years, but we're still not where we should be, and we still lag behind many of our peers in terms of minority-student retention."

Beavers said the current retention rate for black students is in the upper 80th percentile.

One possible reason that Penn's enrollment and retention of minority students is not as high as those of its peer institutions is Penn's endowment. With about $4 billion at its disposal, Penn lags behind many other Ivies, including Princeton, Yale and Harvard.

"I would always recommend that we give [minority students] better financial-aid packages, [but] with a school with our endowment, that's not necessarily an easy thing to do," Beavers said. "Even then I'm not sure that's the be-all end-all solution."

College sophomore Jerome Wright, who is the political chairman for Umoja, a black student umbrella group, said he feels that the school should continue reaching out and increasing its methods for recruiting minority students.

"You can't really say that you need to fill a quota or anything, but I think we need to be aware of the situation and respond in terms of Penn's commitment to diversity," Wright said.

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education has been conducting the survey for the past 13 years at the top 25 colleges colleges and top 30 universities.

According to the Journal, there has been a significant increase in the number of black students applying to these schools, but the trend in the number of students accepted and enrolled remains the same.

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