Issue date: 2/2/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Tiffany Tran Minority students enrolled at Texas A&M [Click to enlarge]

Vision 2020 looms ever closer as statistics reveal an increased number of minority students enrolling in Texas A&M.

With the number reaching higher each year, Texas A&M has developed and honed its idea of what the meaning of diversity is.

"Diversity has many elements, including the number of underrepresented ethnic minority students," said Alice Reinarz, assistant provost for enrollment. "There are over 26,000 applications for the freshman class of fall 2009. Comparing to last season, Hispanic students' applications have increased 11 percent and African- American students' applications have increased 14 percent."

From spring 2008, there has been a rise in Hispanic student enrollment by 11.5 percent, an increase of black students by 9.0 percent, Asian students by 6.8 percent, international students by 8.3 percent and American Indian or Alaskan Native by 4.3 percent. With increases of this magnitude, future plans have been made by A&M to further minority enrollment.

"In addition to all the work that goes on in admissions and regular recruitment of students, we have piloted a program called the 'Do You Wonder?' tour. It is a traveling interactive bus tour that, in the future, will target specific areas of the state to reach underrepresented students," said Jason Cook, vice president for marketing and communications.

The "Do You Wonder?" bus will be designed to look like a dorm room and serve as an environment to answer questions posed by students, including topics like the uncertainty prospective students feel about transitioning from high school to college.

"We are looking to schedule dates for later this spring," Cook said. "This is a tangible way to demonstrate that Texas A&M is targeting specific areas and populations across the state."

Another recruitment program, called Counties Count, was established in an effort to have students from the 254 counties across Texas can be represented at A&M.

"That's an indication that we are making a certain effort to address the issue," said CJ Woods, director of multicultural services. "First, we have to have vision in place. To reach the goal, there are certain targets, and one of those targets is the diversification of faculty and staff."

Since Vision 2020 is about becoming a Top 10 recognized public university by the year 2020, part of that accomplishment includes diversification and globalization of the student body, faculty and staff.

"Everyone is on board to reach that Vision 2020 goal," Woods said.

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