Proud - Youngstown State University

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Recruiting Efforts Expand Student, Employee Diversity YSU students, clockwise from top left, Fatima Alhadi, Aaron Logan, Dominique Price and Luis Esparra. Ten years ago, diversity was a big concern for YSU. A Higher Learning Commission site team reported minorities were under-represented among students, faculty and staff, and campus leaders were brainstorming for solutions. But what a difference a decade has made. The number of minority students on the YSU campus has more than doubled since 1998, totaling 2,338 last fall – that’s 17 percent of the student body. Full-time minority faculty numbers and minority staff numbers have also increased substantially. “We’ve made great strides,” said Yulanda L. McCarty- Harris, director of YSU’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity. “But we have to be careful about patting ourselves on the back. We still have many challenges to meet.” She said members of a site team for the Higher Learning Commission of North Central Association of Colleges and Schools were impressed with the university’s vastly-improved diversity numbers when they visited the campus this year. The commission awarded YSU full continued accreditation in July. University President David C. Sweet pushed diversity to center stage when he arrived at YSU in July 2000, making it one of his top three priorities, along with enrollment and community partnerships. Diversity is also part of YSU’s mission statement and the university’s Centennial Strategic Plan. “But besides all that, it’s the right thing to do,” McCarty- Harris said. “You cannot build the leaders of tomorrow unless you build all the leaders. And in Youngstown, with its high concentration of minorities, it makes good business sense.” Admissions counselors in YSU’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions focus a good share of their efforts on minority student recruitment. They’re on the road from September through November, representing YSU at college fairs that target school districts with high minority populations across 28 Youngstown State University
Ohio, western Pennsylvania and beyond. “We’re the soldiers, but we’re also sales people,” said Migdalia “Maggie” McClendon, assistant director. “We’re selling an intangible product, education, the idea of a better lifestyle, that it’s doable, and what they have to do in high school to prepare.” Many minority students are the first in their families to go to college, she explained, so she likes to meet with them and their parents early, ideally when they’re freshmen or sophomores in high school, so they can start to prepare academically and financially. But college fairs are just the beginning, said Susan Davis, director of Undergraduate Admissions. Her office uses online tools such as blogs, YouTube, Facebook and e-mail to reach out to prospective students, along with a series of letters, postcards, brochures and phone calls. “We try to get them on campus,” she said. “It’s a beautiful campus, and a friendly campus, and even a lot of our local students haven’t been on a tour. The campus sells itself.” Several YSU offices partner with Undergraduate Admissions to help minority students adjust and succeed when they get here, Davis added, including Student Diversity Programs, the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships, and the Center for Student Progress, which provides men- Minority Representation at YSU Between 1998 and 2007 the number of minority students on the YSU campus more than doubled. The number of minority faculty and staff also rose. Here are the numbers: Fall Fall YSU Campus 1998 2007 Minority Students 1,162 2,338 Percentage minority 10.7% 17% Minority Faculty 60 104 Percentage minority 7.8% 11.4% Minority Staff 92 128 Percentage minority 10.8% 13% tors and tutors. “It’s a collaborative effort,” agreed McClendon. Other tools are being used to increase the number of minority faculty and staff. A Strategic Hires Policy initiated by the late Provost Robert Herbert has helped the university to add 12 minority faculty members, McCarty-Harris said, in addition to 15 minority faculty members added recently through standard hiring procedures. YSU also advertises more job openings with publications and agencies that serve minority populations, she said, and requires search committees to justify any Source: Ohio Board of Regents decision not to interview a qualified minority candidate. As an open-access institution, increasing diversity brings some unique challenges for YSU, said McCarty- Harris, such as the need to improve retention rates for minority students and to increase professional development opportunities and support for minority faculty and staff. She’s also focused on engaging the community in the diversity effort with initiatives such as the communitywide Diversity Leadership Recognition Celebration, held for the first time at YSU in April. “I think a key part of any initiative is awareness,” she said. “We’ve got to think about diversity, talk about it, and recognize people who are really going out of their way to make it happen.” Center Aims to Boost International Student Numbers YSU enrolled 160 international students in 2007-08, bringing an array of cultural viewpoints to the classroom and adding diversity on campus. That number could triple over the next five years, said Jef C. Davis, director of the Center for International Studies and Programs, as his staff works to make the university more attractive to students planning to study abroad. International graduate student applications to YSU are already up 30 percent this year. “Bringing students from other countries into the college classroom gives students here an opportunity to understand how other cultures view the world,” Davis explained. “That’s especially important for students who don’t have the opportunity to travel abroad.” But there’s room for growth. He said YSU’s international student numbers average 1 percent of total enrollment, compared to 3.1 percent for the University of Akron, 4 percent for Kent State and 5.6 percent for Cleveland State. Central to the center’s expansion plan is the recent addition of a full-time international admissions/immigration coordinator to improve the way YSU leads international students through the admissions process. Students planning to study abroad often make a commitment to the first university that accepts them and issues the necessary visa eligibility documents, Davis said. Having a person on staff dedicated to speeding that process along is expected to increase the number of internationals enrolling at YSU. Looking ahead, the center staff also plans to participate in international student recruitment fairs and to send representatives to visit schools in other countries to promote YSU. Davis expects to see a response, as well, to an ad for YSU that he placed in the handbook used worldwide by students who want to take the standardized Test of English as a Second Language, a standard for most students who are considering study abroad in the United States. YSU is one of just 30 colleges represented in the handbook. 29
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