Fairfield University Alumni Seek to Increase Racial Diversity on Campus

Like many of its peer institutions affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, Fairfield University in Connecticut does not have a large number of black students. The latest Department of Education figures show that blacks make up only 2.2 percent of the student body at the university.

Each year the alumni association of the university holds the Fairfield Awards Dinner to raise money for the Alumni Multicultural Scholarship Fund. This year the dinner raised over $800,000 for the scholarship fund. Since 1988 the endowment fund for the multicultural scholarship fund has grown to $8 million. During this period the percentage of underrepresented minorities in the Fairfield student body has risen from 3 percent to 12 percent. Minorities were 18 percent of this year’s freshman class.

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