As admissions officers at colleges and universities across the country put the finishing touches on acceptance, waitlist and rejection letters, the debate about specialized student recruiting rages on.
Although few dispute the importance of holding recruitment programs for prospective scholars, many people affiliated with higher education are beginning to reassess the value of hosting minority recruitment weekends.
"Coming off of the Civil Rights Movement, there was a sense that you can't expect [minority] students to walk into a newly integrated place and feel like they belonged there on the same terms as students who had been welcomed there forever," said President Richard Brodhead. "That's why these recruitment [strategies] started."
But more than 30 years after integration, some higher education officials are questioning whether programs directed to minority students are still necessary. "There is no eternally right answer," Brodhead said.
Many schools, including Duke, generally maintain that although there exist some drawbacks, recruitment programs geared toward minority students are beneficial because they cater to the interests of those students. Others, such as Yale University, have stopped hosting specialized recruitment weekends for minority students, insisting that they present unrealistic perceptions of a university.
The case for minority recruitment weekends
Admissions officers and other administrators at Duke said they believe it is important to continue hosting a recruitment program for minority students.
Christoph Guttentag, dean of undergraduate admissions, said programs like Black Student Alliance Invitational and Latino Student Recruitment Weekend-which will take place this weekend and next weekend, respectively-are necessary programs. Hosting minority recruitment weekends expand options for prospective students, he explained.
Brodhead said the history of a university must be taken into account when considering minority student recruitment. "Just because the history [of segregation] was a part of the public history of the South, I do think a school in the South might want to make more of an [effort] in regard to [recruiting minorities] than a school outside of the South," he said.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a comparable Southern institution, also continues to hold minority recruitment weekends. Officials at UNC said specialized recruitment weekends serve to generate awareness about the accessibility of the university to prospective students from minority, disadvantaged and underprivileged backgrounds.
"The perception of accessibility is not reality," said Herb Davis, associate director of admissions at UNC. "We want to make sure that as many qualified prospective students as possible know about the opportunities available to them."
In addition to hosting a separate recruitment weekend for incoming Latino and Native American students, UNC organizes programs geared toward educating minority, disadvantaged and underprivileged prospective students about the resources available at the university.
UNC's recruitment weekends offer a wide range of activities, including information sessions about financial aid and performances by the university gospel choir.
"Everybody is together even though there are separate presentations," Davis said.
Although a majority of the attendees are black, the programs are open to all students from minority, disadvantaged or underprivileged backgrounds, Davis said.
Davis also noted the importance of exposing prospective minority students to cultural organizations and activities at the university.
"We really want to show students that there are people like them," he said. "If you've never been a minority of any type, then you'd never know what it's like even walking into a classroom and being the only one that looks like you in there."
Brodhead also voiced support for minority recruitment weekends because they generate a sense of community.
"I don't think any student ever comes here with the intention of not being in the company of people who are closely [identifiable] to themselves," he said.
The case against minority recruitment weekends
Since 1996, Yale University has tailored recruitment programs to all admitted students, regardless of race or ethnic background.
"We believed that having separate recruitment weekends skewed the picture of what the freshman class was like," said Rob Jackson, an admissions officer for Yale. "We want students to benefit and learn from diversity. By having people together, you do celebrate diversity."
Jackson added that the first year the university did not have the separate minority recruitment weekend, many members of underrepresented communities were upset. Since that time, students have generally agreed with the change, he said.
Administrators at Yale still saw a need to address the needs of underrepresented prospective students, so a few years ago, officials developed a "multicultural open house" that caters to students interested in diversity. The open house is held annually on a Saturday in October and features panel discussions as well as a meet-and-greet with professors of color.
It involves prospective students from minority and underrepresented religious and socioeconomic backgrounds, Jackson said.
"We looked at diversity in a much more broad way," Jackson said. "We felt like diversity was changing, and it is changing. Almost every elite university is fairly diverse now."
Mixed feelings
Although Brodhead was generally in favor of minority recruitment weekends at Duke, he did voice some reservations.
"One downside to putting too heavy an emphasis on minority student weekends is that when people come to Blue Devil Days they get the impression that this is not a school that has admitted any minority students," he said. "I don't want students to think that. I want students to be attracted to the whole mix of our student body. But it's all a matter of deciding how you organize the events."
Brodhead added that it is important to ensure that minority prospective students are aware of all of the opportunities at the University and to organize the weekends in such a way so as to not perpetuate self-segregation.
Guttentag, however, explained that issues of self-segregation are complex and influenced by factors beyond holding specialized minority recruitment weekends.
"Don't think that a student's decision [to self-segregate] is unduly influenced by whether they come to one of these programs or not," he said.
Brodhead and Guttentag said the discussion is never closed on how best to organize recruitment weekends.
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