After Proposal 2, Grand Valley State University minority freshmen enrollment falls 30 percent

MLive.com
by Nardy Baeza Bickel The Grand Rapids Press
Tuesday September 09, 2008, 7:32 AM

ALLENDALE TOWNSHIP -- While Grand Valley State University's incoming class is the largest in the college's history, those figures show a steep drop in the number of incoming minority students.
This fall, 380 minority freshmen enrolled at GVSU, compared to 540 last year -- a 30 percent decline. Total freshman enrollment is 3,856.
The number of Asian freshmen enrolling dropped from 157 last year to 77 this year, blacks from 230 last year to 179, and Hispanics from 129 last year to 104.
"It's unacceptable, disappointing, but not unexpected," GVSU President Thomas Haas said. "Proposal 2 really has created this new reality for us."
While GVSU never used racial preferences in its admissions, Proposal 2 -- which banned such preferences statewide -- forced administrators to eliminate their favorite recruitment tool for highly qualified minority students: the Bert Price Awards scholarships.
The awards offered four-year, full-tuition scholarships for minority students who met strict academic requirements. In 2006, $5.7 million was awarded to about 825 minority students.
That's pretty generous compared to the financial aid recruiters were able to offer this year's freshmen: $3,000 a year for those coming from certain urban schools.
"That's significantly different than having full tuition. It's a different price tag," Vice Provost Lynn Blue said.
"Families are wanting to make an effective decision and one of them is, 'How can I afford to pay for this?'"
GVSU senior Ebony Cross, 21, of Detroit, agreed. [To read the entire story, go to: http://www.mlive.com/grpress/news/index.ssf/2008/09/after_proposal_2_grand_valley.html ]