Undergraduate Student Access - Cornell University Division of ...

the first Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid “toaccomplish the consolidation and better coordinationof these two overlapping areas of the administration.”During this period, Cornell adoptedthe standard need analysis and implementedfinancial-aid packaging. Cornell along with severalother institutions also coordinated award levelsfor individuals who had been admitted to memberinstitutions. A 1989 action by the U.S. JusticeDepartment, which led to a consent decree, endedthe activity of coordinated individual award levels.Currently, Cornell, along with a small but growinggroup of institutions, follow the rules set forth inSection 568 of the Improving America’s Schools Actof 1994 as revised and reenacted in 2001, whichallows for a limited coordination of approach.• Civil rights movement – During the administrationof Cornell’s seventh president, James A. Perkins,the university sought to increase the enrollmentof underrepresented minorities. As described byDonald Alexander Downs,Under the Perkins administration (1963–1969), Cornellwas the first major university to recruit minority studentsaggressively, particularly blacks from inner cities whosebackgrounds differed from those of traditional Cornellstudents. This initiative was part of the Committee onSpecial Education Projects (COSEP) program that Perkinslaunched in 1963, which had increased the number of undergraduateminority students from 8 to 250 by 1968–69.The program embodied the best of the liberal intentionsand policies of the civil rights era, which was cresting asCOSEP was being formed.COSEP was a success as an initiative to change thesocio-economic makeup of the student body. Enrollmentsof Asian-American, Hispanic-American,African-American, and Native American studentsall rose from 1964-65, when there were very fewsuch undergraduates, to the current year, where 27percent are minority students and 11 percent areunderrepresented minorities. (See graph at right.)During the period of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s,Cornell experienced intense student unrest focusedon a range of issues, from social and economic injusticesto the war in Vietnam. Among the questionsraised were Cornell’s commitment to diversity and theadequacy of the university’s approaches to admissionsand financial aid. While the COSEP program increasedthe number of minority undergraduates, the universitycontinued to struggle to provide sufficient financialaid for all needy students.• President Malott reported that Cornell had provided$767,000 worth of scholarships to 1,500undergraduates in 1953-54, almost 20 percent ofthe undergraduate student population. Studentloans totaled $95,000, and almost one-third of allundergraduates worked for the university.• By 1960-61, 3,693, or 45 percent of all undergraduates,were receiving scholarships or loans. PresidentMalott reported to the trustees that, despitethis substantial infusion of funds, the universitywas losing students to competitors “partly becausewe have insufficient scholarship funds.”• According to a 1985 study, despite the application ofincreased governmental and institutional resourcesin the 1960’s, “…the University was still unableto assist all students accepted for admission andwho also demonstrated need.” For example, approximately500 admitted students with demonstratedneed were denied assistance in 1964-65because of lack of funds.• In a 1973 report to the trustees, Cornell’s eighthpresident, Dale R. Corson, noted that:In the fall of 1972 Cornell did not have the necessaryresources to make the process completely workable sincePercent of Undergraduate EnrollmentEnrollment of Minority Undergraduatesat Cornell University (as of the third weekof the fall semester; data prior to 1980 interpolatedfrom several sources)30%25%20%15%10%5%Native AmericanAfrican AmericanHispanic AmericanAsian American0%64 67 70 73 76 79 82 85 88 91 94 97 00 03Fall Semester5