60 Years of Diversity

It's been 60 years since Hiram Whittle, the first undergraduate African-American was admitted to the school. There have been major improvements to diversity on campus since 1951, and in the fall 2011 semester there was 3,256 undergraduate African-Americans attending the school, according to the Institutional Research Planning and Assessment.

Whittle was admitted to the University of Maryland in 1951 – three years before the 1954 landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education, a case that ruled segregation in public schools as unconstitutional.

"I can say with confidence that the admittance of the first African American was the result of informal, but pervasive, efforts to keep African Americans off campus," said Associate Director of the Office of Diversity Education and Compliance, or ODEC, Mark Brimhall-Vargas. "It is this history that makes Maryland's achievements that much more notable."

The University of Maryland currently has a 0.57 diversity index, according to the U.S. News and World Report. The index is on a scale of 0.0 to 1.0 and measures the proportion of minority students attending a school, excluding international students. Rutgers – Newark leads the diversity index with a score of 0.76.

"Our number is driven by a lot of blacks and Asians with a fewer number of Hispanics," said Kyland Howard, senior research and policy analyst in the Office of Institutional Research Planning and Assessment.

According to the Institutional Research Planning and Assessment, or IRPA, from fall 2005 to fall 2009, 12.8 percent is the average estimate of undergraduate African-Americans attending Maryland, with no major increases or decreases between these years.

"However, the racial diversity census category has changed since spring 2009," Howard said.

Before spring of 2009, a student could only check one race on a survey to identify his or her race, even if he or she was a combination of races. Today, students have the option to check more than one race. The government refers to these people as "two or more." In fall 2010 and fall 2011, there was an average of 14.8 percent of African-American undergraduates at Maryland when combining African-Americans and the "two or more" groups.

"To say that there are no racial tensions is to deny a basic reality about the social fabric of America. Racism exists," Brimhall-Vargas said. "I do, however, think that the University of Maryland has a lot of places where great work is happening."

Brimhall-Vargas credits the Words of Engagement Intergroup Dialogue Program

(WEIDP) as the largest program that the ODEC offers. The goal of the WEIDP is to bring together a multifarious group of students to discuss issues that are prevalent among the different groups. Maryland just recently hired Dr. Kumea Shorter-Gooden, who will become the school's first Chief Diversity Officer effective Jan. 1.

"The African-American Studies Department offers courses and supports program that are meant, in part, to remind people of the great racial and ethnic complexity to the world we live in," said African-American studies Acting Chair and Professor Dr. William W. Falk.

After a department review a year ago, Falk expects the African-American Studies Department to prosper and become more prominent.

A major improvement to the program has been the decentralization of diversity across campus, meaning that diversity programs are no longer limited to certain students or staff, said Brimhall-Vargas. He notes that improvement can be made in the "recruitment and retention" of faculty of color.

Students on campus feel as if the University of Maryland is doing its job achieving diversity.

"You can just look around campus and see a lot of diversity," sophomore Troy Pryor said.

"Many of the programs and clubs I am a part of, such as College Park Scholars and QUEST are very diverse," Eric Hamel, a sophomore finance and marketing major, said. "Not only have I learned many new things about other cultures, but as a result, I have had the chance to gain valuable insight and different perspectives about how one goes about living one's life."