Marquette University welcomed the largest freshman class in its history Aug. 23, totaling nearly 2,200 students.
Provost Dan Myers said while the university is hoping to target underrepresented populations in each incoming class, the number of diverse students was less than last year’s freshmen.
“In terms of the incoming freshman class, initial projections indicate that approximately 27 percent of our incoming first-year student class come from diverse backgrounds,” Myers said in an email.
Myers said this indicates significant progress from where the university was as an institution five years ago, but is not quite the record-setting numbers from last year’s incoming class.
While demographic information has not been finalized, Myers said there is still work to be done each year.
The goal to become a Hispanic Serving Institution still stands, President Michael Lovell said. HSI is an initiative launched in spring 2016 to make Marquette’s student population 25 percent by the 2026-2027 academic year. Last year, the student population was 12 percent Hispanic.
If Marquette meets its goal, it will be able to apply for Title V federal funds. Along with recruiters, the university hired more staff and graduate students for multicultural engagement.
“A year ago, we launched an interdisciplinary Race and Ethnic Studies program that included an initial ‘cluster hire’ of five new faculty members hired for their expertise in this area across several different academic disciplines,” Myers said. “All five are from underrepresented backgrounds.”
Myers said this year, the university will be hiring nine additional faculty members to support the Race and Ethnic Studies program.
“We are also improving our hiring committee processes to ensure we are attracting candidates from diverse backgrounds and building diverse pools of potential candidates for future positions,” Myers.
RISE, an orientation for multicultural and underrepresented students, took place Aug. 21 to Aug. 22.
At the same press conference Aug. 22, Xavier Cole, vice president for student affairs, said he was happy to see families attend the RISE orientation.
“The main thing is to build community and to build connections to mentor the faculty and the staff, to have a good feeling coming into Marquette and a deeper affinity for the institution,” Cole said.
Forty-five students and their families attended the RISE orientation this year, he said.
“We’re very clear to these multicultural and first generation students that multicultural engagement is the base we want them to springboard into the Marquette community,” Cole said.
Cole said that last year, the university focused on first-generation students, African-Americans and drug and alcohol education.
This year, Cole said the university is keeping those foci, and adding Native Americans’ experience as well.
Lovell said another goal of the university is to ensure there are scholarships available to students who need them.
“We are continually trying to raise money for first-generation students and underprivileged students,” Lovell said.
This year, the application pool was over 14,000 students, according to the fast facts sheet provided by the university.
Lovell said the university has been hiring new staff to attract different populations of students.
“(The new recruiters) are focusing on different populations of students,” Lovell said.
Concerned and engaged alum • Sep 4, 2018 at 10:37 pm
Why doesn’t this article mention anything about the fact that Marquette’s acceptance rate was 89% last year and 84% the year prior? MU’s senseless enrollment strategy, while undoubtedly successful in terms of increasing the class size, will significantly damage Marquette’s reputation over time. 4 years ago, Marquette’s USNWR National University ranking was 75. In 2018 it was 90. The 2019 rankings will be published in another week or so and this alum for whatever it’s worth will be shocked if MU is still in the top 100. There is a direct correlation with Marquette’s significantly increasing acceptance rate and their decreasing US News ranking. You as students who are paying a substantial amount of $$$ to attend what used to be a well regarded private university should be extremely concerned and hold the administration accountable for significantly devaluing the degrees you’re currently pursuing. The embarrassing stats are available on MU’s office of institutional research website for anyone who makes an effort to find them. Take a look at how Marquette compares to it’s peer institutions on page 3 below:
http://www.marquette.edu/oira/documents/IPEDS_2017.pdf
It’s beyond embarrassing and the Trib should be all over this story and hold those in the administration and admissions office accountable. Even if theacademic quality of these incoming classes has increased, which the powers that be will tell you it has, a 90% acceptance rate looks awful, regardless of of the facts and MU is not going to unilaterally convince prospective students and their parents that acceptance rates don’t matter. MU has nothing to gain by taking the moral high road and dismissing those who think acceptance rates do matter as elitist snobs. They may be right, but moral superiority didn’t impress the WI Supreme Court in the McAdams case and it won’t impress prospective students and their parents either, who will see that stat and think WTF? Demand they start managing the reputation of your soon to be alma-mater better!