University students are spearheading an effort to create the first ever Asian-American Admissions Committee with the aid of the Office of Admissions.
Committee members, who held their first official meeting last night, have several primary goals, one of which calls for reaching out to traditionally underrepresented Asian Pacific American student populations such as Vietnamese and Cambodian students, fourth-year College student Ray Caro said.
APA students represent the largest minority group at the University but the community may not be "as diverse as we should be," Assistant Dean of Students Ajay Nair said.
Asian-American students make up 10.8 percent of the University undergraduate population compared with 9.25 percent African-American students and 2.6 percent Latino students.
The committee also wants recruitment efforts to target the "cream of the crop" in the APA community, Nair said.
Caro, who initiated the plans to establish an admissions committee about two months ago, said many Asian-American students see the University as "a safety school," according to his experience as a volunteer at the Office of Admissions. Caro hopes the committee's recruitment efforts will change this viewpoint.
The committee will conduct phone-a-thons, organize recruitment trips to the University, visit Virginia's high schools and send out information packets to prospective students.
The Asian Student Union has organized recruitment efforts in the past, but the Asian-American Admissions Committee is the first formalized initiative, Caro said.
The Asian-American Admissions Committee also plans to conduct extensive information gathering to better direct student services, Caro said.
The committee will attempt to determine the needs of specific ethnic groups within the APA community. Most of the information now available about the number of students within these specific ethnic groups is from student reports rather than hard data, Nair said.
Nair said this information is important "because all types of students have different needs and challenges."
The committee also will stress communication with the Office of Admissions.
Assistant Dean of Admissions Laurie M. Koehler is serving as the Asian-American Admissions Committee's adviser and will be involved its formal establishment.
As part of its increased communication with the Office of Admissions, the committee would like to examine the application process and the way in which the application addresses ethnicity.
The way the application reads now, students have the option of selecting one box for "Asian or Asian-American." This ethnic category is broad and does not necessarily reflect the diversity of the APA community, Nair said.
Funding for the Asian-American Admissions Committee initially will be minimal, Caro said.
ASU will contribute funding for costs incurred. The Office of Admissions may also provide funds, but such funding needs have yet to be established, he added.
More than five years ago, Latino students established their own admissions committee to directly address needs of prospective students and increase recruitment efforts.
The Office of African-American Affairs has various programs in place to recruit African-American students.
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