Tufts University seems to be going backwards on diversity. According to a Oct. 8 Boston Globe article, 90 African-American applicants accepted an admissions offer to Tufts last year. This year, the number is 52, meaning that African-American student enrollment in Tufts' freshman class decreased by 42 percent. Meaningful change to the recruitment and admissions process is obviously needed to reverse this trend. So how has Tufts responded?
The university has decided to confront the decline like a politician. First, there is masking of the problem. In his profile of the class of 2010, Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Lee Coffin extols their diverse demographics, stating, "Americans of color represent 25 percent of the new class." No mention, however, of the 4 percent of the class comprised of African-Americans.
Then, there is denial and diversion of responsibility. "We had conversations this spring with students who said, 'You are absolutely our first choice, but fill-in-the-blank institution offered $1,000 or $2,000 more,'" Coffin told the Globe. Tufts is placing the fault for declining minority enrollment on other institutions, as if their better financial aid packages are the source of Tufts' minority recruitment failures.
Finally, there is damage control. Tufts will add a staff member for minority recruitment to the two already working in that area of admissions, and Coffin wants to expand the number of urban high schools visited by Tufts admissions officers.
But most upsetting is Tufts' denial of responsibility. Tufts claims it is having trouble enrolling low-income and minority students because of competition from well-endowed Ivy League schools. Those schools make such generous financial aid offers that Tufts loses ground as a viable financial option.
There is an assumption here that something has changed recently. Something had to cause this sudden drop in African-American enrollment. Has competition from other elite schools increased dramatically out of the blue? Has Tufts suddenly lost the funding to offer attractive financial aid packages?
I hate to break it to the university, but Ivy League competition has always been present. Every year Tufts vies for the same students as other top-tier universities. Columbia University did just announce a new financial aid program that replaces loans with grants for students whose families earn less than $50,000 per year.
But that was only a month ago - no effect on class of 2010 enrollment. What about Princeton? Well, they also replaced loans with grants for all students on financial aid - in 2001.
Harvard's new financial aid initiative must be the thorn in Tufts's side. Last year, Harvard expanded financial aid eligibility to families with incomes of less than $60,000 per year. These families no longer have to contribute to the cost of a Harvard education. Here is one example of a well-endowed competitor that has increased its financial aid offers. It is highly unlikely, however, that one school could have lured away all of Tufts's African-American applicants last year.
For the sake of argument, let us say that this was the case. Let us pretend that Tufts is the odd man out, that other universities' new financial aid initiatives are the norm. Why can't Tufts answer with larger financial packages for its low-income applicants?
No reason. According to the Boston Business Journal, Tufts's endowment is thriving, growing 34 percent last year to $1.2 billion. Not only did Tufts break the billion-dollar barrier for the first time, its endowment fund growth outpaced all other Massachusetts universities, including Harvard. President Lawrence Bacow described Tufts' fundraising last year as an "extraordinary success" that raised "well over $200 million in cash."
Here is a challenge for President Bacow: Maybe Tufts should dedicate more of its institutional resources to financial aid for low-income and minority students, in addition to the hiring of one new staff member. If Bacow will not do it, maybe Tufts alumni should start earmarking their contributions. There is an easy solution to raising African-American enrollment above 4 percent, and it does not involve pointing fingers.
