University of Colorado Mounts Unique Recruitment Effort for Black Students

In the past several years the University of Colorado at Boulder has experienced a number of racial incidents on campus. University officials have made a concerted effort to recruit black students to combat the negative publicity surrounding these events. These efforts appear to be making a difference as black first-year enrollments at the university have increased this year.

Yet blacks still make up less than 2 percent of the student body on the Boulder campus and admissions officials are determined to improve racial diversity at the university. Recently the university sent an e-mail with a video attachment which invited 500 black and other minority students to a University of Colorado football game as guests of the university. A pregame tailgate party was held and the university provided transportation for minority students in the Denver area to come to Boulder.

If the invitation did not include whites, right-wing groups are likely to raise the question as to whether Boulder, as a state university, is violating the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.