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USF Expands College Dreams

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By ADAM EMERSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 8, 2007

TAMPA - For years, the University of South Florida's efforts to recruit black students were failing. What resulted was a steady drop in the number of black freshmen at a school that touted its diversity.

That turned around this summer and fall semesters. Despite its toughest admissions requirements, USF recorded a 20 percent increase in the number of enrolled black freshmen.

The university brought in more National Achievement scholars, the top 800 black high school graduates in the nation, and enrolled more black freshmen in summer programs that eased their entry into a busy fall semester.

Administrators say they did that by reaching beyond the Tampa area for high school students throughout the state, lavishing them with application perks and wooing the best to USF's Honors College.

'We've been able to accomplish something pretty significant,' said Bob Spatig, USF's undergraduate admissions director.

Advocates for minority students, however, say the school cannot get comfortable. Some say USF has yet to resurrect efforts to recruit black students the way it reaches Latinos. Looming state budget cuts also threaten to undermine future recruitment.

Gov. Charlie Crist this week proposed cutting $188 million in money for state universities to help plug a $1 billion budget gap. About $65 million would be cut from administrative costs, which might tear into the work of admissions officers.

'It's only going to hurt our initiatives,' Spatig said.

Those initiatives started about two years ago. Summer and fall black freshmen enrollment dropped nearly 20 percent to 481 students in 2005. The university raised its admissions requirements, pruning away applicants whose grades and test scores didn't meet the higher level administrators sought. Critics charged that minority enrollment suffered as a result.

Spatig arrived in time for the 2006 application cycle, having served as admissions director at the University of Georgia. He carried out USF's mission to admit a brighter freshman class but expanded his reach outside the Tampa area.

He collected thousands of names of students from about 150 Florida high schools that enrolled a high percentage of low-income students who receive free or reduced-price lunches. He sent them application packets encouraging them to consider USF. The offer: no essay or fee required, and the application would have priority status.

Florida law prohibits colleges from considering race as a factor in admissions. But the low-income students in those 150 high schools were disproportionately minority. The problem was that every other Florida university knew that, too, and competed for those students as aggressively as USF.

Going For The Brightest

The difficulty of that recruitment surfaced in the subsequent summer and fall enrollment: The number of black freshmen continued to drop, this time falling 3 percent to 465.

After that, the school started recruiting earlier and admitted thousands of students with at least an A-minus average. On the first day of fall classes two weeks ago, the number of black and Hispanic freshmen increased, even though the freshman class got smaller.

A smaller class meant a smarter class. The average GPA among incoming freshmen increased to 3.71, and nearly 1 in 4 students ranked among the top 10 percent of their high school classes.

The university also enrolled five National Achievement scholars. It enrolled just three others since 2005.

Alesa Commedore, 18, is among the newest scholars. Commedore graduated from Hillsborough High School's International Baccalaureate program with a weighted GPA that approached 7.0 and an SAT score of 1440.

Besides USF, she considered Emory University in Atlanta, Boston University and the University of Florida. Only USF was willing to pay up big: $7,500 a year in scholarship money, in addition to the state's Bright Futures scholarship that covers her tuition and fees.

Emory offered $20,000 a year, but tuition and room and board is more than $40,000.

'USF just made sense for me,' she said. 'The other schools didn't seem to want to give me enough money.'

Summer Transitions

The university also is enrolling more students in summer programs aimed at low-income students who are the first in their families to go to college.

These students typically carry a 3.2 high school GPA and 970 SAT - enough for admission to USF, though administrators would prefer to prep them before fall studies begin.

The students come from throughout Florida and spend six weeks living in USF's residence halls. The idea is to ease them into campus life, raising the likelihood that they'll graduate on time.

'I was scared about the transition from high school to college,' said Wilna Tanis, 18, from Orlando, who's studying nursing at USF. She found her fears subsided, though, after working closely with faculty in small groups. 'It was the best way to go,' she said.

Now the challenge for the university is to maintain its progress, former student recruiters say.

The university needs more recruiters working face to face with black high school students. A USF program called ENLACE encourages Latino students to start thinking about college at an early age and helps families wade through the thicket of information that arises when applying to college and for financial aid.

The university needs more programs like that for black students, said Sam Wright, a former student recruiter at USF who now is the university's director of multicultural affairs.

'We can't get comfortable with anything at this point,' Wright said. 'Many of us are watching the statistics. We're concerned about the plight of black males in this state, and we have to use every opportunity.'

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

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