Minority Recruitment: Athletics Success, Admissions Failure

Diversity and minority recruitment are hot button words in most four year college admissions offices. There are congratulations when enrollment demographics show greater racial diversity, and there is consternation when minority numbers drop.

But are college admissions office recruitment efforts working? Colleges will, in a knee-jerk fashion, say: yes, look at our racial and ethnic percentages! College access for minorities is a reality here! But how much is minority recruitment in admissions offices really contributing to the diversity of college campuses?

Unfortunately, at some Division I schools, not much. The black-white diversity on many campuses is not always the result of better minority recruitment. Its often the result of athletics, and in particular, football.

Inside Higher Ed analyzed data from the NCAA and found that at 46 colleges (of the almost 330 colleges that participate in Division I athletics) athletes comprise at least a third of the black male student population. At 96 schools, athletes comprise at least 20 percent. Compare that to the percentage of all male students who are athletes: 3 percent.

The concentration of athletes in the black male population at public universities in predominantly white states and at smaller elite institutions with high admission standards is particularly striking. For example, at Oregon State University, 46 (35 football) of 122 black male undergraduates, or 38 percent, were athletes. At Wake Forest University, 69 (53 football) of 128 black male undergraduates, or 54 percent, were athletes.

Whats troubling about these statistics isnt the large number of black student-athletes; its the low number of black non-athletes. Minority athletic recruitment is a well-oiled machine, and coaches do a great job recognizing potential in black athletes and providing them with a path to access higher education. (Of course, the issue then becomes, are these schools actually treating these players like students and supporting their academic development, or are they using them as professional money-makers?)

The problem arises when athletic recruitment is used as a substitution for minority recruitment in the non-athlete student population. An admissions office can tout the racial diversity of its student body as a sign of minority recruitment success when in reality it is simply masking its own failures with the athletic departments success.

This "masking" could become a strategy at schools with large endowments whoin response to criticism from Higher Ed Watch and Congress that they are hoarding their wealthhave been promising to spend more of their money on efforts to increase both socioeconomic and racial diversity. When these schools report their diversity numbers without mentioning how many of their minority students were recruited for athletics, we dont get a true picture of whether their academic minority recruitment strategies are producing results.

Unfortunately, the NCAA does not collect data from the Ivy League because they dont give athletic scholarships, so we dont know the percentage of black males who are athletes at some of the wealthiest schools. But its likely that their student populations are similar to other top-tier, wealthy schools like Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, and Notre Dame. (See table to the right).

Its important that schools are held accountable for their recruitment of non-athlete minorities. Many young black males believe that their only path to success is through athletics. If colleges dont actively recruit them for academic achievement and potential, that perception becomes a reality in many high schools throughout the country.

And admissions offices should take notethere are lessons to be learned about recruitment from athletic departments. Coaches and their staffs are highly successful at finding athletic talent (and the potential for talent) in all types of places. They scour the country looking for students in communities across the socioeconomic spectrum, including in many places not normally paid attention to by the traditional higher education community. Admissions offices should communicate with athletic staff and consider how they can replicate successful recruitment models.

Minority recruitment takes money, time, and new ideas. Many wealthy schools are promising to revamp their recruitment effortswe just need to make sure those efforts are coming from both the admissions office and the athletic department.