January 18, 2001
Number of black, Hispanic, American Indian freshmen drops from 9 percent to 6 percent in wake of I-200
The number of black, Hispanic and American Indian freshman students enrolling at all universities and colleges in Washington dropped in 1999 following the passage of Initiative 200, which eliminated many affirmative action programs in the state.
The data comes from a study by University of Washington sociologists and shows that most of the declines in minority enrollment came at the UW, the state’s largest educational institution. Smaller declines in minority enrollment also were reported in 1999 for Washington State University, the state’s other research institution.
Although the actual number of blacks and American Indians admitted to the UW in 2000 rebounded slightly, the percentage of underrepresented minorities enrolled at the university dropped from 9 percent in 1998 to 6 percent in 2000, according to Charles Hirschman, UW sociology professor and co-author of the study. The drop among Hispanic students was the most pronounced, falling from just under 5 percent of the 1998 freshman class to less than 3 percent in 2000.
“These declines were in stark contrast to a substantial rise in non-Hispanic white freshman enrollments,” he said.
Hirschman and Susan Wierzbicki, a sociology doctoral student, will discuss their findings at a 7 p.m. seminar next Wednesday (Jan. 24) in the Parrington Commons on the UW’s Seattle campus.
The declining minority enrollment following voter approval of I-200 in November 1998 appears to be more complex than the popular perception that the UW is admitting fewer minorities, they said. The key appears to be a declining number of applications from underrepresented minority students.
Getting into college is a three-step process – application, admission and enrollment. It is only in the second stage, admission, that university policies can have any direct influence, they said. However, the study showed that while admission rates and enrollment rates for blacks, Hispanics and American Indians changed only modestly, the number of applications from these groups dropped.
“Prior to I-200, the UW used race as a criterion in the admissions process, giving extra consideration to members of under-represented minorities,” said Wierzbicki. “The university tried to make sure minorities had a good shot at being accepted.”
“Affirmative action has two roles,” added Hirschman. “With it, an institution bends over backward to be fair and even takes an extra look at minority candidates. It also gives the symbolic messages, ‘we want you’ and ‘we are making an extra effort and you are welcome here.’
“When this was taken away by I-200, many minority students may have felt they weren’t welcome at the UW. There is a certain amount of anxiety in going away to college. Affirmative action helps take away some of that anxiety.”
Wierzbicki said passage of I-200 also might have discouraged high school counselors from recommending the UW to minority students.
The researchers believe that the drop in minority enrollment at WSU probably had as much to do with the 1998 Rose Bowl as with I-200. Applications at WSU increased across the board for 1998 admissions following the publicity surrounding the school’s appearance in the Jan. 1 bowl game. In 1999, the number of applications from all racial groups fell.
While the percentage of black, Hispanic and American Indian students declined at the UW, the percentage of Asian American students continued to climb, rising from 24 percent of the freshman class in 1998 to 26 percent in 2000. Asian American students applied in higher numbers, were accepted at the same rate and enrolled at a much higher rate. In raw numbers, Asian Americans enrolling jumped from 1,015 to 1,271 students.
At the same time, enrollment of non-Hispanic white students increased, from 2,299 to 2,748. Overall enrollment for the underrepresented minorities fell from 374 students to 295.
Hirschman and Wierzbicki said part of the downside to the drop in applications from under-represented minorities seems to be that the UW may be losing out on attracting some of the top minority students.
“We may lose a few weak applicants, but also some from the high end who have a good shot at being admitted. These are the students who may have applied at Stanford and the UW in the past,” Hirschman said. “Now they are just applying at Stanford.”
He added that the experience from I-200 is probably applicable to universities in many other states where there is average competition for college admission, but not at Ivy League institutions or at a number of the University of California campuses where the number of applications far exceeds the number of enrollment spaces.
“The lesson is this: Don’t worry about admissions, but make your university more attractive to all people so they will apply.”
The study was funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
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For more information, contact:
Hirschman at (206) 543-5035 or charles@u.washington.edu
Wierzbicki at (206) 616-9353 or swierz@u.washington.edu
