When Margaret Pilcher finishes her degree at Weber State University, she says she won't be sticking around Utah very long.
WSU's Native American senator said she wants to go somewhere else where diversity is better understood and her ethnic background more appreciated. Like Pilcher, many students from racial and ethnic minority groups feel a sense of isolation on Utah's college campuses. Most say they encounter ignorance, sometimes stereotypes and lack of visibility, even though most colleges offer special services to assist them.
To many minority students, it's not surprising that a new report shows Utah's higher education system is one of the least diverse in the United States. A U.S. Department of Education report shows that only four states have a smaller percentage of ethnic and racial minorities attending colleges and universities.
Only 6.7 percent of Utah's college students belong to minority racial or ethnic groups, while about 7.7 percent of the state system's faculty, staff and administrators are from minority groups. At the same time, recent U.S. Census numbers show that Utah's minority population has increased from 9 percent to 12 percent.
"We've got to start doing something," said Edith Mitko, the Utah System of Higher Education's director of student services and minority affairs.
Multicultural directors from Utah's campuses are expected to gather in January to work on a plan to recruit and retain minority students. They hope to involve the state's public education system to build a "pipeline" to get more minority students attending college, Mitko said.
The University of Utah already has an ambassador program that connects minority undergraduates to high school students from low-income families or families where parents didn't attend college. Minority students and their parents also are invited to a special function each year pushing the benefits of a college education, according to Suzanne Espinoza, director of student recruitment and high school services at the U.
As part of its recently approved master plan, the Utah Board of Regents also voted to begin gathering more information and encouraging more participation of minority students. They also identified a goal to recruit more minority faculty.
Along with increasing the numbers of minority students on campuses, colleges have attempted to increase awareness among all students. For many years, campuses have held diversity conferences and some require students to take a class to fulfill a diversity requirement before graduating.
Even with such awareness programs, the stares still come for Melvin Price, a black student at Weber State University from Southern California. Speaking at a diversity conference on his campus last semester, Price said he also sees deeper problems, as black students there have felt harassed by campus police. He suggests sensitivity training for campus police each year.
Alma Remaro, a Hispanic student at Weber State, often perceives she "lives in a bubble" and believes she is stereotyped because of her race.
"Professors look at me as if I am dumb and don't understand. We should stop making assumptions about people," she said.
Rosa Hsu, an officer in the Asian-American Student Association at the University of Utah, hasn't felt harassment but has felt some isolation and the effects of stereotypes.
"I totally understand the people that want to leave here because there are not a lot of resources, like other people who you can work with from the same background," she said. "For me, when there is not much resource, it is my responsibility and my right to stay here and explore that and to build."
Asian students often suffer from a "model minority" stereotype. They're supposed to be smart and overachievers. Hsu believes that the U. ought to sponsor more faculty workshops to make teachers aware of such stereotypes.
"They need to be sensitive to stereotypes and not enforcing it in the classroom," she said.
She also believe more interaction is needed between white and ethnic students — and perhaps a space where such interaction can take place. At the same time, she believes the U.'s diversity requirement is a good idea.
"It is definitely a step toward improving ethnic or minority representation on campus. Maybe it's not going to help to respect or to think a certain culture the most wonderful culture, but it is going to bring awareness because we can't tell people what to think. The only thing we can do is make more of them more aware," she said.
The new study shows only Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Idaho have smaller percentages of minority college students than Utah, based on enrollment change from 1996-1997. The Beehive State is tied with West Virginia for the percentage of minority participation in higher education. California and Arizona have the highest rates of minority participation — 47.5 percent and 45.2 percent respectively. Nationally, the numbers of minority students attending college rose slightly, the Department of Education reported.
The study also showed that Utah had the 13th highest percentage increase in minority enrollment between 1996 and 1997, but that was likely driven by the fact that Utah had one of the fastest-growing overall college enrollment patterns. The state ranked second only to Washington in percentage enrollment growth. According to state numbers, total minority students have increased from around 4,500 in 1987 to about 7,319 in 1998.
Hispanics appear to have the lowest participation rates of any group in the state. Nearly 3,000 Hispanics, or about 2.8 percent of all students, attend college in Utah. Hispanics make up about 6.8 percent of Utah's general population, according to Census Bureau estimates. Asians and Pacific Islanders appear to have among the highest participation rates with about 2.1 percent of college students from that group, compared to 2.5 of the total population. About 1,000 American Indians attend Utah's state colleges and 492 blacks. American Indians have about a 1 percent participation rate with an estimated 2 percent representation in the state's overall population. Blacks make up almost 1 percent of Utah's population, but about 0.5 percent of college students are from that racial group.
In terms of percentage, Utah's most diverse campuses are College of Eastern Utah and Salt Lake Community College. Snow College, Utah State University and Southern Utah University are the least diverse.