What Is The Student Body Makeup Of Clemso

Clemson'due south presence was hard to miss at the Greenville Convention Center last calendar month. Orangish lights flickered against a purple-and-black properties as 2,108 attendees from 15 states listened to the keynote address for the Clemson Men of Color National Summit.

The effect, now in its third year, is aimed at improving loftier school and college graduation rates for black and Hispanic males.

While Clemson has seen growth in its number of minority students in recent years and hosts the annual summit, men of color remain underrepresented at the university compared to their population in the state, according to the university Fact Volume and the United States Census Bureau.

The university hopes the summit will help in the long run.

"It's practiced for united states of america; information technology is skilful for all of the other schools in the region," Clemson President Jim Clements said. "It s a critical piece for us of what I recollect is a whole platform of unlike initiatives related to inclusive excellence."

Lee Gill, Clemson'due south chief inclusion and equity officer, said he sees the tiptop equally helping to create a direct pipeline for the university. Although the goal is to ready students and their families generally for college, the summit also gives people a positive outlook on Clemson, he said.

"They are at that place thinking these positive thoughts on Clemson, building a positive ethos and pipeline about Clemson," Gill said.

'All about long-term growth' for minorities at Clemson

By 2026, Clemson aims to have a pupil torso that is at to the lowest degree 25% non-white, according to the university's strategic programme.

Since the plan was drafted in 2016, the undergraduate student body has gone from 17.ane% not-white to 18.6% non-white, according to the university's Fact Book. While the undergraduate student trunk has grown by 28% since 2009, the number of not-white undergraduates on campus has grown by 37%.

For specific groups of students, Clemson'due south multifariousness trends have been mixed. At the undergraduate level, while the number of men of color has increased for all groups over the last decade, the number of black males has decreased over the last 3 years. There were fewer blackness males in the 2018 freshman grade than in 2009 with 120 in 2009 and 98 in 2018.

Across all grade levels, in that location were 613 blackness male undergraduates in 2018 compared with 550 in 2009.

From 2009 to 2018, the number of Hispanic, Asian and blackness male undergraduates on campus grew from 815 to 1,392, co-ordinate to the university's Fact Book. In 2016, the number of black males peaked at 666. In 2018, there were but 613 blackness male students amidst Clemson's 19,669 total undergraduates.

While 68 more Hispanic male person freshman enrolled at Clemson in 2018 than in 2017, the number of black male freshman stayed even at 98 and decreased from a peak of 143 in 2016.

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The numbers for women were similar, with a jump from 60 to 153 Hispanic female freshman from 2017 to 2018 and the number of black female freshman growing from 132 to 143 students.

"Yous are comparison two areas that accept grown significantly; one just happened to grow a little flake faster. That doesn't mean that we should be disappointed that the other i didn't grow at the same rate," Clements said in an interview with The Greenville News and Independent Mail. "This is all most long-term growth."

Clements and Gill said one of the biggest challenges for attracting diverse students is financial aid.

"Where we lose a lot of young, bright scholars of color, we demand more fiscal aid and support," Clements said. "A lot of students that have applied here and accept been accepted, they've applied to UVA, they've applied to MIT, they've practical to Harvard and Stanford and Georgia Tech and slap-up schools, and many times those schools accept more than fiscal support and resource. And that limits our power to recruit, so that's why we're working hard to effort and heighten more than scholarship coin."

Gill said that the university is working on 2 fronts, increasing interest in Clemson among diverse students and working to increment scholarships. He said that scholarships are non simply important for students of color just for increasing socioeconomic diverseness at the university every bit well.

As Clemson works to increase scholarships, Gill anticipates numbers "will brainstorm to flip" in the coming years and more diverse students will attend the university.

Acme helps introduce minority students to Clemson

Freshman Jose Rodriguez may be on the front end-cease of this flip.

As a showtime-generation college student, Rodriguez had lots to navigate when applying to college. Little things tripped him upwardly. While he was born and raised in Greenville, his parents are undocumented immigrants, so he did not know what to put when it came to completing the Social Security blanks on the Costless Awarding for Federal Educatee Aid.

Fortunately, he was able to notice answers by watching YouTube which helped him understand the process.

Rodriguez knew he was destined for higher. In his junior year at Carolina Loftier School, he was invited to join Clemson'due south Tiger Alliance, a program at nine Upstate high schools that aims to build a higher-going mindset for black and Hispanic students.

Among the 69 high school seniors who graduated from the Tiger Alliance final year, three started at Clemson in the fall, and Rodriguez was ane of them.

Last month, his journeying came full circumvolve. In high school, he attended the Men of Color National Summit. It was the first fourth dimension he had seen and so many minority students and minority customs leaders in one place, he said.

"I can exercise that, too, 1 day," Rodriguez, a pre-med student, remembered thinking as he looked at the leaders.

And then Rodriguez spoke on a console at the third meridian. He is at present an administrator for the Tiger Alliance program.

"While we are a programme that is out of Clemson University, our goal is that our students get to the all-time schools for them," said Matthew Kirk, the acquaintance manager for Tiger Alliance and a mentor to Rodriguez. "So if that is USC in Columbia, that is wonderful. If that is Greenville Tech, that is wonderful. If that is Oklahoma Land, that is wonderful."

Kirk said the program tries to introduce students to a variety of schools, from historically black colleges and universities to predominantly white institutions and both public and individual schools.

The 400 Tiger Brotherhood students as well spend five days on Clemson's campus over the summer.

While Kirk said Tiger Brotherhood is non a Clemson recruiting program, the exposure to Clemson and mentoring from Clemson students can help enhance involvement in the school. With both the superlative and Tiger Alliance beingness in their infancy, their long-term impacts on enrollment at Clemson will have time to assess.

Rodriguez originally idea he would cease up at Greenville Technical College with his older brother, but Tiger Alliance helped him encounter Clemson as an selection, and exterior scholarships helped to make it affordable.

"You will definitely notice that there are not very many colored people (on campus), and then yous're kind of like, 'Do I fifty-fifty like fit here? Exercise I belong? Can I practice this?'" he said of Clemson'due south campus.

Now he feels more than similar he belongs. He said he has had a great experience so far.

Inclusion committee chair wants to see Calhoun and Tillman name changes

Clemson direction major Jay Sridharan of Greenwood is set to graduate this week.

During his first year at Clemson, he participated in a sit-in at Sikes Hall, the administrative edifice, to protestation racial insensitivity on campus. The sit-in was launched when students hung bananas from a pole next to a banner honoring black history.

At the end of the demonstration, Clements committed to "increasing the underrepresented student population."

Sridharan, who chairs the Inclusion and Disinterestedness Committee of the Clemson Undergraduate Student Government, said he understands that recruiting and retaining diverse students is an "ongoing" endeavour that volition take years.

"I think Clemson made efforts to try and empathise what the sit-in wanted, but I don't call back they take done a good chore of property upward to those agreements," Sridharan said.

Sridharan, a offset-generation Indian-American, said he is still often the but person of color in his classes.

Ane thing Sridharan specially wants to see changed is the names of the Calhoun Honors College and Tillman Hall. He sees these names as a variety issue for the university.

"He would have rather seen some of the students I will walk beyond the stage with on May 9 be slaves," Sridharan said of John C. Calhoun, the former United States vice president whose plantation ultimately became Clemson University. "There'due south a deviation betwixt remembering history and honoring white supremacy."

Clements said he has heard differing views on campus from students of color for how to handle the building and program names.

"I talk to a lot of students," Clements said. "Brilliant students have very differing views. Some tell me that they actually want to modify names on buildings; others volition say they don't because information technology shows — and these are students of color — it shows our history, where we were and where nosotros are now and the progress nosotros have made."

Gill said he does non believe the names are hampering Clemson's ability to recruit diverse students. He said the naming conversation is "to a caste inside baseball."

"I think the proper name quite frankly has little touch so long as you lot have a climate and culture that is valuing and supportive," Gill said.

Gill said his goal is not to win any specific small-scale battle merely "to win the war" when it comes to diversity on campus. He said efforts are already underway to plan the 2020 Men of Colour Summit.

"I just think there was such an energy," Gill said. "To be able to take over ii,100 students, faculty and staff (at the summit) speaks volumes to what nosotros accept achieved in three years' time."

Source: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/education/2019/05/06/clemson-university-waging-war-increase-diversity-black-hispanic-males-campus-men-of-color-summit/3585394002/

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