Southwestern University Earns National Award for Commitment to Diversity

June 7, 2002

Saludos Hispanos magazine has awarded Southwestern University its "Publisher's Salute to Educators of Distinction Award" for the commitment Southwestern has shown to diversity initiatives.

Saludos Hispanos is a career and education magazine for bilingual Hispanics.

As the result of a highly successful recruiting year during 2001-02, Southwestern has increased its minority enrollment of first-year students from a ten-year low of 12 percent in 1998 to an anticipated record first-year minority enrollment of 26 percent for the fall of 2002. An important quality indicator also has hit a record high with more than 60 percent of the incoming class in the top ten percent of their high school class.

Based on the most recent minority enrollment data available from the 2000-01 academic year, Southwestern ranks 2nd in its percentage of Hispanic students and 5th in its enrollment of Hispanic and African American students combined among the nation's leading liberal arts colleges. Only Amherst, Swarthmore, Claremont McKenna and Occidental colleges have higher combined totals of underrepresented minority enrollments. When Asian students are accounted for, Southwestern ranks 15th overall among this elite rank of liberal arts institutions.

Southwestern's Strategic Plan for 2010 calls for the University to "initiate a comprehensive program to further diversify the faculty, staff and student body to maximize the educational experience of students." After beginning the fall of 2001 with a notable increase in first-year African American students-a three-fold increase over the year before-Southwestern hosted two major conferences on diversity. "Creating Partnerships with Historically Black Colleges & Universities" brought to campus representatives from select historically black schools to familiarize them with the Southwestern community. This followed the establishment of a unique partnership with Huston-Tillotson College in 2001, which has provided opportunities for collaborations among the respective institutions' students, faculty and staff. Southwestern also hosted a "Conversation on Racial & Ethnic Diversity at National Liberal Arts Colleges in the South," which brought to campus representatives from many of the Associated Colleges of the South.

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