While Marquette's 2.2 percentage point jump in minority enrollment for the 2005 freshman class is "an incremental move in the right direction," according to Associate Provost for Diversity Keenan Grenell, he and other university officials say Marquette still has a long way to go.

Of the 1,780 freshmen in the 2005 class, 15.1 percent are minority students, according to the registrar's office. In 2004, 12.9 percent of 1,801 freshmen were minorities.

Within the entire university, 12.3 percent of 11,524 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in 2005 were minorities. In 2004, 12.5 percent of 10,892 total students were minorities.

The university needs to aim for 20 percent or better before "we can start talking about being competitive," Grenell said.

Improving the minority enrollment in this year's incoming class through outreach efforts was a priority of the admissions office, said Roby Blust, dean of Undergraduate Admissions.

Blust cited the All-Aboard program, in which accepted minority students are paired with an enrolled minority student for a night and shadow them in class the next day, as a successful outreach effort. Blust said students who participate in such programs are more likely to enroll than those who do not participate.

The challenge of enrolling more minority students starts with getting them to apply, Blust said.

Of the 10,351 freshman applicants in 2005, 1,969 were minorities, according to the Office of the Registrar.

Students who chose not to report race and international students are not included in the enrollment figures, according to Associate Registrar Alex Kaleta.

Forty-two percent of 823 black applicants were accepted in 2005, a rate 20 percent lower than the next-lowest group, American Indians or Alaska natives.

Blust said many black students did not complete their applications, a problem the university needs to address.

Grenell said students who are the first in their families to go to college may need more guidance through the application process to ensure they complete it. He said some students may not complete their applications because other schools, including historically black colleges, are competing for their attention.

Marquette needs to communicate actively with prospective students to catch and hold their interest, he said.

Diversifying the faculty is another critical step in attracting minority applicants, Grenell said.

"Students want to come to an institution where they can see people that look like them in the classroom," he said.

Minority students in 2005 accounted for 9.8 percent of 3,583 students in graduate and professional programs, according to the Office of the Registrar. In 2004, minority enrollment in those programs was 10.8 percent of 3,333 students.

This year in the law school, 14.9 percent of the school's 166 new full-time and 49 new part-time students are minorities, up from 10 percent of roughly the same number of new students in 2004, according to the Office of the Registrar.

Sean Reilly, assistant dean for admissions at the law school, said the law school was making efforts to recruit minority students through outreach programs and by enlisting the help of minority alumni.

Minority enrollment among new dental school students was at 13.7 percent of the school's 80 new students in 2005, down from 15 percent of the same number of new students in 2004, according to the registrar numbers.

Brian Trecek, director of admissions for the dental school, attributed the drop in part to an increasingly competitive applicant pool that has grown 50 percent in the past two years.

The dental school has begun to "work with under-represented students in middle and high school" in order to cultivate interest early on, Trecek said.

Trecek said recruiting successful students was a higher priority than focusing only on minorities.

Grenell said Marquette must do more to highlight the achievements of minority alumni of graduate programs to show prospective students that bright futures "are achievable if they come to Marquette."

Blust said building a diverse campus is a task that goes beyond the role of the admissions office.

"Everybody on campus really plays a role in this process," he said. "It's going to take a lot of work."