When you’re in high school, one of the things you always hear about college is how you will meet new types of people. You’re told the students will be very diverse and you’ll meet interesting young adults who are very different from you. Yet for the majority of students at Marquette, that’s not as true as we would like it to be.
It’s not just that the majority of incoming students are Caucasian, but like many universities nationwide, Marquette is struggling to retain minority students. Policies such as affirmative action may work to help get minority students into college, but many schools are clearly struggling to sustain the program’s benefits.
According to the U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics, 5.2 percent of Caucasian students aged 16 through 24 years dropped out of school in 2009 compared to 9.3 percent of African American students and 17.6 percent of Hispanic students.
Similarly, 82.3 percent of white students in Marquette’s class of 2004 graduated within six years whereas only 68.9 percent of black students graduated in the same time period. Asian students graduated at 73 percent, Hispanic students at 73.7 percent, Indian American students at 85 percent and students of other races at 69.2 percent, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education’s College Complete report from Marquette’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.
On the other hand, despite the disparity in drop out and graduation rates among races, Marquette students of nearly every listed race had a significantly higher success rate than their counterparts at other 4-year private institutions.
We at the Tribune believe these statistics reflect the amount of time and effort Marquette dedicates to minority students’ achievement. Over the last two reported years, the university has been working to create innovative groups and programs to encourage and support minority students from their first day on campus to the moment they receive their diplomas.
The Office of Student Educational Services hired a full-time academic services coordinator to meet individually with students on probation. Earlier this year, the Office of Multicultural Affairs implemented a new initiative called Group Peer Support that encourages students to find commonality through diversity. This initiative includes smaller groups such as Multicultural MEN (Male Empowerment Network) and DIVA (Diverse Individuals Valuing Another). These groups consist of male and female students respectively from primarily underrepresented backgrounds.
We’re very happy to see that Marquette is working hard to help its students graduate. All of these programs are steps in the right direction, and we urge students to take advantage of them.
However, we cannot just pat ourselves on the back for having higher graduation rates than other schools. Regardless of how many new incentives and programs we introduce each year, these measures will not be successful unless we continue to revisit and re-evaluate their successes and failures.
People expect Marquette to be predominately white. We know this stereotype exists, but the mistake is taking it for granted. Campus doesn’t always have to look like this.
We hope that some day in the not-so-distant future, students will be able to walk around campus and not feel like they’re surrounded by one single type of person, but rather a diverse student population. We Are Marquette, but we’re not all the same. And that’s a good thing.