Bigger black enrollment still only a dream for UW

1968 was a year of hope for African Americans wanting to study at the University of Washington.

Student leader Larry Gossett, now a King County councilman, helped lead a spring sit-in that persuaded administrators to throw open the UW's doors to black students. Gossett and others fanned out across the state and recruited 127 black freshmen by the fall, tripling total black enrollment.

But nearly 40 years later, with a student body that has grown by one-quarter to almost 40,000, the reality of black enrollment at the UW has failed to live up to that early promise. This academic year, there are just 118 black freshmen in a class of nearly 5,000, the lowest number since 1999 and fewer even than when Gossett was recruiting.

With blacks accounting for 2.8 percent of the overall student body, the UW is managing only to keep pace with black enrollment rates at Washington State University and Eastern Washington University, and has fallen behind rates at The Evergreen State College.

That despite Seattle being home to nearly 10 times the number of African-American citizens as Olympia, Ellensburg and Spokane combined. UW faculty numbers are even lower: Just 1.7 percent of tenure-track faculty members are black.

"We thought we had the potential — and we were audacious enough to believe — that we could humanize, democratize and make the university more accountable to all the citizens of Washington," Gossett said last week. "But it appears we did not."

UW administrators say the fall 2005 freshman numbers represent one unusually bad year. They point out that, thanks to better retention rates, the overall number of black students actually rose slightly. But officials also acknowledge a broader problem.

"No one at the UW would say, 'Hey, we've arrived, and this is where we want things,' " said Philip Ballinger, the director of admissions. "Clearly, our students, our faculty, we all recognize it's an area we need to make improvements to."

Standing out

Black students at the UW say they often feel like objects of curiosity, an experience that begins in the dorms.

"I was the only black person on my floor with a whole lot of white people who'd never been around black people," said Charli Wilson, a 20-year-old junior from Seattle who spent her freshman year in the dorms.

She said there were questions about what she put in her hair, about Ebonics, about culturally acceptable behavior. She filed a police report after a "crazy guy" — a white student — became obsessed with her and several other black women.

"I told my mom if I had to go back to the dorms, I was going to drop out," she said.

But David Monroe, 20, a sophomore from Tacoma, said he liked his freshman dorm experience because it exposed him to new types of people — and them to him.

"For my friends from Eastern Washington, I'm the first black person they've ever known," he said. "Everything they knew was based on what they'd seen on TV or in the news."

While the experience works both ways, it's probably more beneficial for students in the majority than those in the minority, he added.

In this state, 3.2 percent of the population is black. But in Seattle the figure is 8.4 percent, and in Seattle Public Schools, about 22 percent of students are black. Many who grew up in the area are shocked when they walk into a freshman UW class with hundreds of students but only a few African Americans.

"I thought for sure there would be a lot more black people consistently throughout my classes," said Tonya Bryant, 19, a freshman from Bothell. She was particularly surprised to find her African-American studies lecturer was white — the class was apologetically told that a lot of black faculty were leaving.

"We lost two [black] senior professors last year, and when we lose two, it's a lot," said Rusty Barceló, the UW's vice president for minority affairs. "We find we retain assistant professors but sometimes lose them when they're promoted to associate professors. They're often lured away."

Overall, the campus remains easily the most diverse in the state, with more than 20 percent of students identifying as Asian American, and a growing number, nearly 4 percent, identifying as Hispanic.

"Negative attitude"

Administrators and students offer a number of reasons for the low African-American turnout.

Ballinger said the 1998 passage of Initiative 200, which prohibits the use of race as an admissions factor, not only affected admission practices but perhaps sent a negative message to African Americans. The number of black freshmen plunged in 1999, but had been increasing until 2005.

"One of the things that concerned me when I joined the UW four years ago was a real negative attitude about the UW in the broader community," said Barceló. "That it was not a friendly place, that there were not many African Americans, those kind of issues. We are doing better now. But a diverse faculty goes hand-in-hand with diverse students."

Barceló said recruiters actually did a good job last year finding black students, but she and others were "stunned" when only half of those offered slots accepted.

Part of the reason is the UW cannot compete with scholarships offered at places like Stanford University and the University of Michigan, she said.

Black students say there could be better recruitment efforts at high schools. Some say their peers were too intimidated to apply to the UW, or were accepted but decided to seek a stronger "black experience" out of state at a traditionally black college. Some star students sought scholarships at Ivy League schools.

"In all honesty, it was my last choice of college to go to," said Asiha Grigsby, 20, a junior from Graham, Pierce County, who came to the UW on an athletic scholarship and has become a rowing-team star.

Grigsby said she would have preferred to go to a college with a much stronger black presence, but nevertheless has immensely enjoyed her time at the UW. When she joined the "stark white" crew team, they embraced her, she said. But there were curious questions, like, Could she swim? What would happen if her hair got wet?

Grigsby said many people tend to assume that black students are athletes. While it's true in her case, people constantly mistake a friend of hers — a math major — for a football player.

Although black athletes on the football and basketball teams enjoy a high media profile, overall numbers are not as great as those two sports might suggest. In fact, about 12 percent of the UW's 662 athletes are black, and about 7 percent of all black students are athletes.

Black Student Commission director Jayme Ballard, 20, a sophomore, said she often feels obliged in class to take a position to defend her culture and ideals. That sometimes results in heated and racially charged discussions.

Ballard and other black students say the longer they stay at the UW, the more chance they get to meet other black students and feel part of a community.

"We do have our own culture, and we try to bring that to campus," said Ballard, who's from Vancouver, Wash. "Black students here won't let that culture die on campus."

One arena where that culture thrives is in eight predominantly black fraternities and sororities. Although none of the organizations owns a house, members meet regularly for events and to perform community service. Each spring, they entertain others on campus by performing African-inspired step-dance shows.

Reassessing who gets in

A major change at the UW that could impact black freshman numbers as early as next fall is a new "holistic" admissions system. Instead of automatically admitting top students based on grades, the UW plans to comprehensively review all 16,000 freshman applications to assess each candidate on a range of factors, including whether they have overcome personal or social adversity.

"That could help us with some of those good, solid students who are perhaps going to Western [Washington University] or schools other than the UW," Ballinger said.

Barceló said the Provost's Office is adding a staff position to try to increase minority faculty numbers. She hopes this year UW President Mark Emmert and other top administrators can keep in touch with prospective black students by hosting luncheons and calling them regularly. And she hopes private donations will help bolster scholarships for low-income students.

Emmert said he's been making significant investments in recruitment and retention efforts and in the campus Office of Minority Affairs. He and other senior staff members are trying to figure out what caused the dip in 2005 black freshman numbers and make improvements this year, he said.

Gossett said the activism of the 1960s sparked permanent change in the UW culture and launched support structures that have stayed and grown, such as the Office of Minority Affairs. But he describes current black enrollment numbers as "kind of shameful."

"Over the years we have come a long way," said Gossett, who helps advise the university on minority issues. "But the enrollment this fall shows how much further we still need to go at the state's paramount institution."

Nick Perry: 206-515-5639