February 01, 2008
Bowling
Green, Ky. -Western Kentucky University is the only public university to achieve continuing progress status in all eight objectives of the Kentucky Plan for Equal Opportunities. But that doesn’t mean the University can relax, according to Chief Diversity Officer Richard Miller.
“We can’t just sit back and say we’ve made it because there are some areas that we really need to stay clearly focused on when it comes to meeting these criteria,” Dr. Miller said.
“I think our ability to meet all eight objectives speaks well for the university,” he said. “It’s everyone who is committed to a more diverse workforce and more diversity in our student body. So everyone can really take some pride in where we are, but certainly we cannot rest because just as quickly as we can meet these goals, we can slide back easily, so the onus is on us to keep this whole issue of diversity on the table.”
The Council on Postsecondary Education oversees the Kentucky Plan, which monitors progress in eight objectives related to African American Kentuckians in the state’s public higher education institutions. The objectives include the enrollment, retention and graduation of students as well as the hiring of faculty, staff and professionals.
Institutions must attain a minimum level of success to be eligible to offer new degree programs. The report, issued at Friday’s CPE meeting, is based on data from 2006-07.
In the fall of 2006, African American students from Kentucky made up 9.4 percent of the undergraduate enrollment. Dr. Miller said that percentage was the highest in recent history. WKU retained 60.8 percent of first-year and 74.6 percent of all African American Kentucky students.
“The retention of first-year students is so important and we’ve made some very good strides this year with retaining almost 61 percent,” Dr. Miller said. “That’s a little less than what we did with our white students but in terms of our African American students we’re doing pretty well.”
WKU graduated 50 percent of those students who entered in the fall of 2000, compared to a graduation rate of 53.4 percent for white students.
“This is an area that is a concern for everybody, not just African American students,” he said. “I’m not really satisfied with that number and I don’t think anybody should be. In fact I’m not really satisfied with the total numbers of our graduation rate. We certainly can do a better job of that, but we’ve made progress.”
Dr. Miller said WKU has done well recruiting African American graduate students (6.2 percent of enrollment) through attractive programs and by offering grants through the Minority Access Program.
In hiring, African Americans made up 9.3 percent of the executive, administrative and managerial staff, 5.1 percent of the faculty and 10.5 percent of other professionals in 2006-07. Dr. Miller said the University looks closely at the applicant pools for searches to “make sure our department heads are casting the net widely and making a concerted effort to attract minority candidates.”
While the Kentucky Plan focuses only on African Americans from Kentucky, Dr. Miller said the focus at WKU is much broader, with the emphasis on diversity.
“We’re using the term ‘diversity’ more than we are minority because we want to make sure we don’t lead one to believe that our efforts are strictly race based,” he said. “There are a number of parameters that we as an institution have to focus on in addition to the Kentucky Plan.” Some of those factors include age, ethnicity, gender and socio-economics, he said.
“I think there is a widespread recognition on the part of our faculty and staff that the administration is really deeply committed to diversity and I think the appointment of a chief diversity officer has made a difference,” Dr. Miller said. “But I think overall they see the administration as being supportive and committed to focusing on and espousing the value of diversity on our campus, and that makes a difference, too.”
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For more information, contact Dr. Richard Miller, (270) 745-5468.
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