KANSAN.COM
NEWS
With higher admission standards, KU strives to keep minority enrollment numbers stable
JOSHUA ROBINSON @jrobinson_news
Jarius Jones, a high school senior at Sumner Academy in Kansas City, Kan., applied to the University this semester and is waiting to find out if he will be able to walk down Jayhawk Boulevard in the fall. The University is familiar to Jones and his family — it's where his parents met. He has been involved in University activities, from working with the KU TRIO Talent Search to attending an engineering camp. Jones applied to the University earlier this fall and said he hopes to be accepted. Jones said he feels pressure to be admitted because his parents attended the University, and as a minority student, he will face unique challenges.
The University's admissions standards are higher this year, which some say can push down minority enrollment. In the last 10 years, minority enrollment numbers have fluctuated, but minority students are making up a greater percentage of the population. Nationally, enrollment for minorities in college has increased over the years as well. With the higher standards going into effect, the University will look at how it can keep minority enrollment numbers up.
"The presence of difference creates different perspectives and brings new ways of doing and seeing the world," said Precious Porras, interim director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs.
Keeping minority enrollment up will be a challenge because minority students tend to have lower standardized test scores, according to a 2014 report from the ACT.
"Yes, enrollment will decrease if schools and KU is not doing our jobs to help prepare students and get them ready for new admission standards," said Vice Provest of Diversity and Equity Nate Thomas. "If we have done a decent job of getting the message out to schools we will not
Number of black first-time freshman coming into KU and continuing to a second year, according to IOA.
see a decrease in minority enrollment."
The change in admission requirements comes from
the University's attempt to improve student success, increase graduation rates and place higher in national rankings. The new university admission standards will require a higher GPA and ACT score. Other options will be avail-
able for students who don't achieve the minimum renews release this week.
SEE ENROLLMENT ON
Task Force recommendations prompt creation of a Sexual Assault Prevention and Education Center headquarters
MCKENNA HARFORD
@McKennaHarford
The University established the new Sexual Assault Prevention and Education Center (SAPEC) this week.
The SAPEC will be the central coordinating office that deals with sexual assault prevention, education and training, according to a University
"Over the past year, as we've looked at the issue and worked with students, one of the things we've recognized we could do better was to coordinate and centralize all of those
Currently, offices all over campus are starting sexual assault programming, including the Office of Institutional Opportunity and Access and the Emily Taylor Center.
programs under one roof," said Joe Monaco, director of strategic communications from the Office of Public Affairs.
The center will consist of a director, two educators and an administrative assistant. They will create programming related to bystander intervention, sexual violence and healthy relationships, among other topics. The University will begin the search for the director
within the next few days and hopes to have the center open by the end of the year, Monaco said.
The center was the result of a recommendation that the Chancellor's Task Force on Sexual Assault submitted to Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little in May 2015. The University is implementing 22 of the 27 task force recommendations.
Former co-chair of the task force, Angela Murphy, said a goal of the center is to create a campus-wide sexual assault education program with a focus on public health and prevention.
"The task force's primary recommendation was that the director be someone with a public health background and the office have a public health framework because that's
where the best research is." Murphy said.
A bill to include the center in the new Burge Union passed the Student Senate finance committee last night and will be discussed in full at the Senate meeting next Wednesday.
- Edited by Colleen Hagan