Graduate School less diverse than its peers

The racial diversity of University graduate students is below the national average, according to statistics released this month by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS).

The report, which examined changes in graduate enrollment from 1996 to 2006, showed that 1.3 percent of graduate students enrolled at Princeton this semester are African American and 1.5 percent are Hispanic. Though this represents an increase of 0.6 percent since fall 1997, nationwide numbers are still much higher, with African Americans and Latinos accounting for 13 percent and 8 percent of all graduate students, respectively. The CGS survey covered 680 graduate universities.

Graduate School Dean William Russel acknowledged the disparity but said the CSG report exaggerated it.

"The percentage of underrepresented minorities in the Graduate School at Princeton does lag our peer institutions," he said in an email, "though not as much as the numbers from all graduate programs gathered by the Council of Graduate Schools indicate."

Russel said fewer minorities may enroll at Princeton in part because University graduate programs focus on research-oriented doctoral degrees — programs that don't tend to attract as many minority students — and offer only a small number of rigorous masters programs.

Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Karen Jackson-Weaver, whom the Graduate School recently hired to address diversity issues, attributed the low numbers to Princeton's lack of an education or business school.

"When we look specifically at [nationwide] graduate enrollment for African Americans, the data shows that 31 percent pursue degrees in education and 22 percent in business," she said in an email. "That's more than 50 percent of the population we have no access to."

The University is at a similar disadvantage when it comes to enrolling other underrepresented minorities, Jackson-Weaver added.

"The data also show that 30 percent of Latinos pursue degrees in education and 17 percent in business," she noted. "For Native Americans the numbers are similar: 30 percent pursue degrees in education and 14 percent in business."

But Black Graduate Caucus (BGC) president Ronald Chatters GS said perceptions that Princeton doesn't welcome diversity largely explain why few minority students apply.

"Despite being qualified, given the social perceptions of such schools in the [Ivy] League, [minority students] fear that they are not qualified," he said in an email.

"In addition, given Princeton's setting and its public image," Chatters said, "many prospective students of color don't view the environment as diverse and welcoming to students of color."

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BGC technology minister Samantha Sanders GS, however, said the graduate school's low minority enrollment may simply result from "only a small number of minority students trying to go to graduate school."

"You need to increase the pool in order for there to be more [minority students at Princeton]," she said. "All schools are trying to go for the same students."

Additionally, Sanders argued that the small number of minorities applying to graduate school results from broader social problems.

"The high school graduation rate for African Americans in some states is only 50 percent," she said. "You're losing half of your potential pool at such a critical stage."

Chatters said the BGC is working to remedy the Graduate School's low minority enrollment, helping to welcome prospective minority students during the Graduate School's fall preview day and organizing panels on the application process and life at Princeton. Additionally, the BGC will host a national conference in the spring at which graduate students can present their research.

Meanwhile, Jackson-Weaver said, the University administration is also working to boost the Graduate School's minority enrollment.

"We are currently writing the report from the work of a faculty committee on diversity in the Graduate School that was constituted last spring," Jackson-Weaver said.

"That committee and that report provide direction for expanding the pool of underrepresented students ... for recruiting them and bringing them to Princeton, and then retaining them and bringing them to completion of their degrees."

One perennial obstacle the Graduate School faces, Jackson-Weaver said, is location.

"It's true that Princeton may not immediately seem to be as alluring as Boston, New York or some other metropolitan areas," she said, "and that is one of the challenges we are trying to address in our recruiting efforts."

Chatters expressed optimism about the potential payoff of the BGC's and Graduate School's efforts.

"I envision that in the next few years, we will see a positive increase in the number of graduate students of color at the University," he said, "possibly enough to put Princeton above the national average."