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Northwestern's commitment
to student diversity dates back to the mid 1960s. That's when
the University's Undergraduate Admission Office launched an extensive
program to recruit black students and to expand its financial
aid program to attract middle- and lower-income students.
At the time, many
colleges and universities were making similar commitments, spurred
by the civil rights movement sweeping the country and new economic
incentives from the federal government.
Northwestern went
to Chicago Public Schools to recruit black students, the first
step in the University's blueprint for diversification of the
student body. Recruitment also targeted less advantaged segments
of white students, including those from rural areas. By attracting
a broader cross-section of students —a diverse ethnic, income
and geographic mix—the University began to attract better
and brighter students.
The new admission/financial
program showed results quickly. In the fall of 1966 inner-city
recruiting and more money for scholarships more than doubled African-American
enrollment with 52 students in the freshman class.
By 1968 the major expansion
of financial aid broadened the pool of potential applicants, especially
students from middle and lower-income families. Financial aid
was tailored to meet the individual needs of students' families.
By the fall of 1968 undergraduates on financial aid increased
to 30 percent from 14 percent the previous year and rose to 50
percent by early 1970s.
Despite these early
positive advances, with black enrollment up to 160, racial issues
created tensions throughout the country and on campus.
During this time, student
unrest had been growing across the country, with student activism
increasing as opposition to the Vietnam War grew.
African-American students
made demands in the spring of 1968 for recruiting, admissions
and curriculum. After administration negotiations with For Members
Only (the black undergraduate student organization) and the Afro-American
Student Union, black students decided to launch a protest to win
concessions from the University.
On May 3 more than
100 black students marched to south campus and occupied the Bursar's
Office at 619 Clark St. They chained the door and began the first
major sit-in the history of Northwestern.
The University weighed
the options of ordering the students out and calling in police
to remove them if they refused; negotiating; or ignoring them.
An unprecedented open all-faculty meeting in Cahn Auditorium debated
the crisis, with faculty split between being sympathetic to the
demands, opposed to the tactics or having ambivalent views. Talks
began and the students and administration hammered out an agreement
in which the administration would seek advice of black students
on matters of major interest to them but retain its final decision-making
on admissions, personnel and curriculum. One of the agreements
was creation of a Department of Afro American Studies. The students
evacuated the building at 9:30 p.m. May 4.
The Board of Trustees
authorized implementation of the agreement but rejected any claim
that the University was racist, adding that "the Board decries
racism in any form."
The University's commitment
to student diversity continued after the disruption, and by 1975
there were more than 600 black students enrolled. Religious diversity
had also changed over the previous 10 years as a result of the
new recruiting and financial aid policies. The student population
had been 70 percent Protestant. By 1975 it became 35 percent Protestant,
30 percent Catholic and 20 percent Jewish.
That commitment to
diversity continues today —a commitment to making the University
a reflection of society to enrich the academic environment of
Northwestern.
Incoming freshman classes
continue to reflect the diversity goals first implemented in 1965.
The ethnic profile of the Class of 2004 is African American, 6
percent; Hispanic/Latino, 4.2 percent; Asian American, 16.3 percent;
native American, 0.1 percent; and white American, 60.8 percent.
Students come from every state in the union and from overseas
as well.
The mix of highly qualified
students from a cross-section of the country has characterized
Northwestern undergraduates for more than three decades, fulfilling
the commitment to diversity of race, religion and income first
implemented in 1965.
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