With the top 10% of each high school in Texas being admitted to UT, black and latino enrollment is returning to the time before AA was abolished by the Hopwood decision. And in many ways, the 10% rule is probably addressing equity issues better than the old AA system. --Nathan Newman ==========================
Hispanic, black enrollment climbs at UT Source: Austin American Statesman Published: September 14, 1999 Author: Mary Ann Roser
The University of Texas is seeing a surge of black and Hispanic freshmen, but minority enrollment at the law and graduate schools remains flat three years after the demise of affirmative action.
New data released Monday also show that UT has attracted significantly more freshmen from the top 10 percent of their high school class, especially African Americans.
A law aimed at boosting minority enrollment by requiring state universities to admit Texas high school students in the top 10 percent took effect last year to mixed reviews. But this year, "it has certainly made a difference," UT Admissions Director Bruce Walker said.
That law does not affect admissions at the graduate and law schools, which are struggling to combat declines in black and Hispanic enrollment brought on by the 1996 federal court ruling known as Hopwood, which ended consideration of race in admissions or scholarships in Texas.
"Freshmen generally come from high schools, . . . but people come to graduate school from all walks of life," said Teresa Sullivan, UT vice president and dean of graduate studies.
"It makes it a lot harder to come up with something equivalent to the top 10 percent bill."
Competition for minority students is keen, and Texas is at a disadvantage because it can no longer offer scholarships tailored to minorities, Sullivan said. The graduate and law schools have stepped up recruitment, and Sullivan plans to expand a scholarship program for graduate students.
To attract freshmen, UT was helped by alumni-sponsored minority scholarships and a new scholarship initiative that targets students in the top 10 percent.
"The news here is that we're back to pre-Hopwood levels, in terms of real numbers of minority freshmen," Walker said.
The data disprove predictions that the Hopwood ruling would resegregate higher education, said Marc Levin, a law student at UT and president of UT Students for a Colorblind Society. "This shows that with colorblind policies we can achieve a diverse enrollment," he said.
Total enrollment is 49,034, making UT the largest university in the United States. The number of black freshmen -- 286 -- this fall is up significantly from last year and exceeds the 266 in 1996. UT enrolled 974 Hispanic freshmen this fall, up from 891 last year and 932 in 1996.
But because this year's class is larger -- 7,040 freshmen compared with 6,430 in 1996 -- the percentage of blacks is unchanged at 4.1 percent. The percentage of Hispanics is actually lower: 13.8 percent this fall compared with 14.5 percent in 1996.
Among other freshmen, whites made up 63.1 percent of the class, Asians were 17.3 percent, foreign students were 1.2 percent, and the rest were either from other groups or did not identify themselves.
Of 2,805 graduate students, 54.4 percent were white, 2 percent were black, 5.5 percent were Asian American, 5.7 percent were Hispanic, 29.9 percent were foreign, and the rest were from other groups.
At the law school, 386, or 70.3 percent of first-year students, were white; nine, or 1.6 percent, were black; 29, or 5.3 percent, were Asian American; 43, or 7.8 percent, were Hispanic; 35, or 6.4 percent, were foreign; and the rest were from other groups or were not identified.