by Ellen Cole
Daily Lobo
More minorities have opted to come to UNM over the past decade, and that is keeping with a national trend, according to a nationwide study.
Minority enrollment has increased 38 percent at UNM in the past nine years. During the same time period, the number of white students enrolled has decreased, said Associate Registrar Jep Choate.
The nationwide study conducted by the American Council on Education found that minority enrollment at major universities has more than doubled in the past 20 years.
While the number of minorities attending college has increased, the way those students are taught has not changed, said Robert Ibarra, special assistant to the president for diversity initiatives.
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Ibarra said affirmative action practices, in place since the 1960s, have reduced diversity to a "human resources function, designed to attract and retain minority staff and students."
The Ford Foundation recently awarded UNM a $400,000 grant to not only attract and retain minorities, but also to improve instruction methods for those students, Ibarra said.
UNM will lead a consortium of universities, including New Mexico State University, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, in increasing recruitment and retention efforts of minority students, Ibarra said.
The two-year grant is intended to act as a model for colleges around the country, Ibarra said. UNM's University College and the College of Engineering will benefit most from the grant, Ibarra said.
"It will hopefully have a direct impact on academic performance of students and lead more women, Hispanics and Native Americans to careers in medicine and engineering," Ibarra said.
The new model will introduce "problem-based learning" into University College and College of Engineering classrooms, he said.
Problem-based learning groups students together to solve typical workplace problems. Ibarra said the learning methods are already being used at UNM's medical school; and the data show women and minorities are benefiting.
"Problem-based learning attracts a diverse population, and people perform better in those settings," Ibarra said.
The grant was "established with a clear evaluation process" already in mind and outside evaluators have already visited UNM, Ibarra said. He said he hopes a rigorous assessment by an outside evaluation team would bring about "institutional and systemic change."
Ibarra said curriculum changes funded by the grant will "change the culture" of education and make the academic process more accessible to minorities.
"One of the most important influences on students is faculty," Ibarra said.
Rosa Cervantes, program advisor for El Centro de la Raza, said anything to help attract and retain minority students is welcome. She said a problem-based learning program would be "a feather in UNM's cap."
Cervantes said in her experience with students, "hands-on learning works."
Ibarra said he visited universities throughout the Southwest in looking for a place for a program such as this, and UNM was "the best place to implement this program."
