Enrollment among students of color increased the most — among Latinx students, there was a 20.4% year-over-year increase; among Black or African American students, a 16% increase; and among American Indian and Alaska Native students, an 8.8% increase. Across all institutions, the report found, business, biological and agricultural sciences, and health sciences saw the greatest increases, while engineering fields saw the greatest declines in enrollment.
Much of these declines line up with economic trends during the pandemic: As the number of COVID-19 cases soared, hospitals and labs struggled to keep up with the high demand for their services. In turn, many institutions and companies offered large cash incentives to attract new employees. And Hispanic, Black, and Native students were disproportionately impacted by not just COVID-19 as a health crisis but economically as businesses shut their doors during the pandemic.
Life changes
“People have stopped to think about what people want to do with their lives and what has meaning,” says Dr. Janet C. Rutledge, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a minority-serving institution known for its work in graduating STEM graduates of color. “There were a lot of people at the last minute deciding to go to school, and it might be that school was the more attractive option while work and other things aren’t going well.”
Program heads are getting creative about online recruitment, including hosting Zoom yield days with breakout sessions — and this has actually proven to be tremendously beneficial, Rutledge says, as students who do not physically live in the state are able to “see” the campus and interact with faculty and current and prior students in a virtual environment.
