Student Council’s Diversity Initiatives Committee presented its report on the “lack of diversity in the Echols Scholars program” during Tuesday night’s meeting and proposed a course of action to correct the perceived problem.
The root of the problem, committee member Ishraga Eltahir said, is that “there’s no financial incentive associated with being an Echols Scholar” unlike at other higher education institutions with similar programs that “provide financial incentives in addition to a scholar status.” According to a Student Council press release, this lack of financial support makes it more difficult for the University to court Echols-quality applicants; a long-term goal, the press release states, would be for the committee to encourage University administrators to include a financial component for the program. Student Council spokesperson Ethan Jorgensen-Earp said such a goal, considering the University’s current budget woes, only would be put in place assuming “that the economy goes back to normal.”
In the meantime, the committee hopes to diversify participation in the Echols Scholars program, Eltahir added, by informing all College students of the first-year application process, which allows current first-year students to apply for Echols Scholars status during their second semester at the University. He said the committee can do nothing about the Echols Scholars selections during the application review process that occurs during matriculation but can make an effort to improve diversity post-admission.
Eltahir noted that the committee hopes to further publicize the second-semester application process and capitalize on the “high acceptance rate for the first-year application process” to help diversify the Echols Scholars program.
The committee is primarily concerned about the number of black and Hispanic students in the program in comparison to the number of those students represented at the University as a whole, she noted. Associate Dean of Admissions Greg Roberts said although the black and Hispanic students each comprise only 3 percent of the 800 to 1,000 Echols Scholars in the College of Arts & Sciences, the overall student body is much more diverse.
“For Echols we are taking the brightest students in our pool and they come from many different ethnicities and backgrounds,” Roberts said, adding that he believes the Echols program suffers because of a “low return” when offering admission to minority students. “There’s more competition for the top minority students,” Roberts said, noting that such potential Echols Scholars also are pursued by other institutions.
Roberts said although the University practices affirmative action in accordance with law, “there are no quotas or targets” regarding the number of minorities in the Echols Scholars program.
Student Council President Matt Schrimper, meanwhile, said he believes the Echols Scholars program could benefit from more diverse membership, which would better “represent the diversity at the University.” He added that a diverse group would encourage Echols Scholars to get “a sense of one another’s backgrounds.”
The director of the Echols Scholars program, Anthropology Prof. Richard Handler, declined to comment following yesterday’s Student Council meeting, as it occurred after office hours. According to a Student Council press release, the Diversity Initiatives Committee will continue researching the issues raised last night and will make further recommendations about the program in the future.
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