Thanks to student and alumni recruitment efforts, the number of African-American applicants this year has risen by 18 percent. This number is the highest seen in at least eight years.

Wesleyan received 504 applications from African-American students this year, compared to 428 last year. This increase may be in part due to greater participation by alumni of color in recruitment efforts; a letter sent out to all alumni of color in October outlined initiatives that Wesleyan planned to take this year to build student of color enrollment.

“We asked for recruitment suggestions, and we also encouraged [alumni] to refer students both for this year and subsequent years,” said Greg Pyke, Senior Associate Dean of Admissions.

Students also played a role in recruitment efforts. The Office of Admissions held student meetings at 200 Church St. early in the fall to discuss new student of color recruitment initiatives as well as appeal for constructive criticism regarding the tactics already used for recruiting.

“We tapped [those] students and others to help with the fall open house—osting students then and at other times when individuals have visited,” said Nancy Hargrave Meislahn, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid.

In addition to Meislahn, the Office of Admissions has nine Associate and Assistant Deans of Admission, with 22 staff members in total.

Wesleyan also sent students home during school breaks to speak with prospective students from their high schools.

“A couple friends of mine went back to New York, where they are from, and spoke at a student of color college forum for seniors in high school,” said Tameir Holder ’08, one of the students who attended the fall recruitment meetings. “I think this form of communication between college and high school students is beneficial, especially for high schools that are not familiar with or have not been exposed to Wesleyan.”

Holder also contributed to the recruitment effort by participating in one of the phonathons held by the Admissions Office.

“[We] contacted students of color nationwide who had expressed interest in attending Wesleyan,” Holder said. “I answered any questions they had regarding academics, campus life, or the racial diversity of the student body.”

More phonathons are coming up in the spring, and the Admissions Office is still in need of Wesleyan students to call prospective students in the evenings, according to Meislahn.

Additional recruitment efforts included the expansion of staff outreach in regions outside the northeast, particularly in urban areas, and strengthening ties to community programs such as “A Better Chance” (ABC), which advocates and prepares students of color for college. The Admissions Office also doubled the number of students of color that they flew in for campus visits.

“We expanded our travel to try and include more of what we always try to include, which is public schools in cities or other areas where we should see more students of color,” said Greg Pyke, Senior Associate Dean of Admissions. “We fly in students to the two large all-student open houses: Columbus Day and Veterans Day. They are on campus with a lot of other prospective students and they can take a lot of advantage of the programming going on those weekends.”

According to Holder, who currently lives in 200 Church, the residence played a major role in hosting students of color for the two main open houses held during the fall semester. 

“During both [the] Columbus and Veterans Day Open houses, the pre-frosh were exposed to a racially diverse setting and were able to ask any of the freshman questions about life at Wesleyan as students of color,” Holder said.

Although she is delighted with the increase in applications, Meislahn emphasized the need for continued efforts.

“We are only half-way through the cycle, and I want to remind everyone on campus that some of our biggest challenges come in convincing the students we admit to choose Wes!” Meislahn said. “Many of the students of color that we admit will have other excellent and very tempting offers. We need a full campus effort to welcome these students in April and to help them see what great opportunities there are here, for students from all kinds of backgrounds.”

While Wesleyan received 428 African-American applications last year, there were only 45 African-American matriculants for the class of 2008, including international students.

“It shows that traditionally oppressed ethnic groups aren’t getting good representation here,” said Brian Thorpe ’07. “While all people of color have a history of oppression, it’s much more institutionalized over many years with African-Americans and Latino students.”

One of the main events for recruiting accepted students of color to Wesleyan is the Students of Color (SOC) Pre-Frosh Weekend which happens the same weekend as WesFest. It began as a student project and has been the Office of Admission’s most successful recruitment program for students of color in the past, according to Assistant Dean of Admission Clifford Thornton.

“SOC Pre-Frosh Weekend is a great opportunity for students to get a feel for the vibrancy of the SOC communities at Wes,” Thornton said.

In addition to the increase in African-American applicants, Asian-American applications increased by 13 percent compared to last year, and Latino applications increased by seven percent, making both of those the largest numbers in at least 8 years.

“Wesleyan’s history of inclusion of students of color, which goes back more than 3 decades, is one of the real hallmarks of what kind of place this is,” Pyke said. “In the last couple of years we’ve actually seen a decrease in African-American students, and so it was very important to us to do whatever we could this year to involve students, faculty, and others to try and help us bring back that history and increase the number of applications.”