Magazine cites KU, School of Journalism as supporting Hispanic student success

LAWRENCE -- The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education magazine recently selected the University of Kansas for its 2004 Publisher's Picks list of colleges and universities that have a solid record of “recruiting, enabling and graduating Hispanic students.”

The magazine also named the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at KU to its list of top 25 university programs granting the most bachelor's degrees in journalism and mass communications to Hispanics. KU was 19th on the list.

“ The School of Journalism is committed to diversity,” said Ann Brill, dean of journalism. “Living in a state with a growing Hispanic population, we realize it is especially important that our school reflects this diversity. Our Multicultural Scholars Program has helped us to recruit and retain many outstanding multicultural students. We're very proud of all of our students.”

KU boasts eight Multicultural Scholars Programs on its Lawrence campus. The program, recognized as one of the nation's most successful retention programs for students of color, began 11 years ago in the School of Business and has expanded to architecture and urban design; journalism; education; pharmacy; applied behavioral science; African and African-American studies; and languages and humanities. KU's HawkLink program, designed to recruit and retain students of color, was named last year as one of the most successful programs of its kind by one of the nation's leading higher-education consulting firms.

“ The University of Kansas is committed to providing all students the tools to achieve academic success, but this commitment is especially true of our Latino students,” said Robert N. Page, director of KU's Office of Multicultural Affairs. “From KU programs like HawkLink to the Multicultural Scholars Program, these opportunities recognize and embrace cultural and educational differences while fostering an inclusive philosophy.”

This fall, for the fourth consecutive year, KU reported record-breaking recruitment of minority students on the Lawrence and Edwards campuses. The number of students in four minority groups -- African-American, Native American, Hispanic and Asian -- rose to 3,069, 154 more than in fall 2003 and 743 more than in fall 2001.

In addition, there were 844 Hispanic students enrolled at the Lawrence and Edwards campuses this fall, compared to 834 last fall.

KU's first-time freshman class on the Lawrence and Edwards campuses included 561 minority students, an increase from 512 in fall 2003 and from 450 in fall 2002.

The colleges and universities chosen for the Publisher's Picks list and top 25 lists were selected based on assessments of formal survey data from the national Center for Education Statistics and informal input from many sources.