The University of California system enrolled its most diverse student body ever this year. The new class, including both freshman and transfer students, is comprised of approximately 38 percent underrepresented minorities. This figure, which includes Latinos, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans and African Americans, is nearly 20 percent higher than in last year's incoming class.
The University of Southern California's incoming class has a meager 22 percent of underrepresented minorities by comparison. USC enrolls over 10,000 international students — nearly a quarter of the student population — but the university lacks student diversity in other ways. For example, only 5.4 percent of USC students are African American.
Michael Quick, USC's Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, has expressed a desire to increase diversity. Last year, he created a diversity task force to advise him on "addressing equity and inclusion issues" on campus. During the spring semester, the group met twice a week and focused on augmenting data transparency, boosting funding for cultural centers and increasing diversity in the general education program. Despite these efforts, the overall student body remained 24.6 percent Latino, African-American, or "other" in 2015.
The disparity between USC's diversity figures and those for the University of California system suggest there may be something that the UCs have that USC is missing.
According to Jasmine Torres, a program assistant for the USC Office of Diversity and Strategic Initiatives, "International and diverse are two different words, two different identities. At USC, international students are a diverse group, but we still have a lot of work to do getting African American and Latino students here at USC."
Torres' office plans to initiate larger efforts to get these underrepresented minorities on USC's campus, including "targeting as many schools across the nation as possible."
Over the past few years, California's high school graduation rate has been on the rise. And within the next two decades, almost half of California's college-age residents will be Latinos, according to a report by the California State Legislature. If the proportion of Latino high school graduates in California increases, the percentage of Latinos in college should follow suit. However, increased diversity is easier said than done for USC.
"Students don't think they can apply to a private university like USC," Torres said. "Demystifying these myths that USC is too expensive or that there aren't scholarships available is something students need to learn about in their high schools, to learn that USC is a more accessible place."
Reach Staff Reporters Charlotte Pruett and Charlotte Scott here and here, respectively.
Staff Reporter Hamdah Salhut contributed to this report.
Annenberg Media