University of Richmond Tries to Shed Its Stodgy Reputation

The current issue of the Princeton Review’s Best Colleges notes that the University of Richmond is “extremely preppy with a lot of wealthy students.” This university, located in the capital of the Old Confederacy, has a student body that is only 7 percent black.

But the university is taking steps to increase the racial and economic diversity of its campus. Most important, the university’s new financial aid policy provides scholarship grants for the full cost of tuition and room and board to students from Virginia whose families have incomes of less than $40,000 a year.

In addition, the university has increased its recruitment efforts aimed at black and other minority students. The school’s Common Ground program seeks to make the campus more hospitable to all minority groups and to increase student and faculty diversity.

Copyright © 2007. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.