“I think I may actually be one of the few, if not the only, black males to ever live in Chapin.”
Weinberg freshman Jeremy Aregood is half white and half black. “For me, being biracial means that you can’t really find a social niche that’s related to race,” Aregood says. “I don’t really go around looking for racial diversity. Still, it’s pretty obvious that black students are few and far between.”
Northwestern undergraduates tend to agree that there simply aren’t a lot of black students on the Evanston campus. Although the proportion of black students has increased over the past few years, many students feel that enrollment remains uncomfortably low.
Like most students, however, I didn’t know the reason why there aren’t more black undergraduates on campus. My investigation illuminated Northwestern’s hushed history of racial segregation, the fact that our low black enrollment isn’t uncommon among similarly-ranked universities and what Northwestern students and the administration are doing to increase it.
Medill junior Bradley Akubuiro leads me down the halls of the undergraduate admissions house on 1801 Hinman Ave. Inside every room we pass, students sit at desks, phones to their ears, talking excitedly to admitted applicants.
Akubuiro is a member of NUambassadors, an organization he describes as the “student arm of the admissions office.” During NUambassadors’ Spring Phone-a-thon, Akubuiro and his colleagues work hands-on to convince minority students to choose Northwestern over their other acceptances.
“A lot of students come to campus and see that we have very small numbers of African-American students,” says Akubuiro, a black student himself. “We just don’t have that critical mass where students feel that they can get comfortable here. When you’re walking down Sheridan, do you feel like you belong here?”
Aregood knows the feeling.
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t notice that I’m the only black person in a class or that I don’t try to spot the one or two others,” he says. “I don’t think that I don’t belong because of it though.”
These racial issues aren’t too surprising after a look into Northwestern’s relatively recent past. Throughout the ’40s and ’50s, University of Chicago students dubbed Northwestern “Country Club U” in reference to its racially homogeneous student body.
At the Northwestern of this era, Aregood wouldn’t have been allowed to live in Chapin at all — the school’s few black students were not permitted to live on campus until the university founded a segregated “International House” in 1947. I never heard that fact on my campus tour.
Let’s put Northwestern’s conservatism in perspective. The United States Military was integrated in 1948. And Major League Baseball was desegregated around the same time — there was no “International League.”
US News & World Report ranks Northwestern as the 12th best national university. Brown is 16th and the University of Chicago is eighth. As of 2009, Northwestern’s admissions department states that 6 percent of the undergraduate student body self-identifies as black. Black students comprise 6 percent of Brown University’s undergraduate student body and 5.7 percent of University of Chicago’s. Black enrollment may be low, but the proportion of black students at Northwestern is comparable to the proportion of black students at similarly ranked schools.
“We don’t have specific numbers in mind, except that every year we hope to do better than the prior fall,” says Michael Mills, associate provost for university enrollment. “There are instances where race doesn’t enter into the equation at all because they’re people from advantaged circumstances, and there are instances when it does. But it’s never the race or ethnicity by itself. There are always other variables.”
On whether or not it’s the responsibility of prestigious colleges to place underrepresented minorities into the more selective college system, Mills says, “Yeah. I guess I think it is.”
However, a few top-ranked schools are significantly more successful than Northwestern at placing minorities in their incoming classes. In 2008 — a year in which only 87 black freshmen walked through the Arch — Stanford University and Harvard University had undergraduate student bodies comprised of 9 percent and 8 percent black students respectively, placing their undergraduate black enrollment 3-4 percent higher than Northwestern’s.
Mills describes this discrepancy as the reality of prestige.
“Everybody vies for the same students,” he says. “That reality is exacerbated when you’re talking about low-income students and African-American students. I wish we were more successful than we are at getting minority kids to choose Northwestern over Harvard and Stanford, but that’s a tough road.”
Much has changed since the pre-Martin Luther King era, but the roadblock facing NUambassadors like Akubuiro remains. Today, Akubuiro feels Northwestern is in a difficult position in their attempt to enroll greater numbers of black students.
“If we can’t get more black students, we can’t get to the point where they feel comfortable,” Akubuiro explains. “So we’re stuck here.”
Overcoming this stagnation means conquering the greatest obstacle Northwestern’s admissions office faces: more competitive financial aid offered by wealthier universities. Schools with larger endowments, such as Harvard and Stanford, have the ability to be more generous to minority applicants.
“A lot of other schools that we compete with for the same students are not asking for as much money,” Akubuiro says.
NUambassadors runs various programs to entice minority applicants to choose Northwestern, focusing on one-on-one outreach to applicants. NUambassadors launched a pen pal program in 2009 to reach out to what Akubuiro calls “high-potential applicants” even before they receive their admission decision in March.
“We don’t have a whole lot of sway with financial aid,” Akubuiro says. “We do have the ability to focus on the culture and the way people feel valued.”
Luckily, NUambassadors are not braving this tough road alone.
“Schapiro and his administration have really stepped up from what we were working on in the past,” Akubuiro says.
At the beginning of his term as Northwestern’s president, Schapiro launched a diversity and inclusion “task force” of which Akubuiro is a member.
In his “Conversations with the President” series in April 2010, Schapiro presented his State of the University address as an open dialogue in the Northwestern community. Schapiro revealed the upcoming product of the team’s year-long project for increasing economic diversity.
“We will shortly be unveiling a whole new campaign,” Schapiro said in his speech. “Good Neighbor, Great University. We want to be the school of choice for people who graduate Evanston township region and all the different schools in Chicago.”
Schapiro has confidence in his programs.
“Numbers are getting better, over the next couple years we’re going to be a leader among our peer institutions,” he said to the crowd of faculty, students, alumni and staff.
With only eight months in office, can we trust Schapiro to keep his word?
Schapiro boasts a strong track record on issues of diversity. As the president of Williams College, Schapiro began a diversity initiative in 2004 that brought sweeping structural changes to the institution. Every change, whether it was the appointment of an international consultant on diversity or a newly-created president for strategic planning and institutional diversity, aimed to increase the college’s racial and socioeconomic diversity. Today, Williams is one of the most racially and socioeconomically diverse liberal arts colleges in the country.
NUambassadors has already noticed Schapiro’s commitment to diversity.
“It’s really great to have the dollars coming up above as opposed to us just trying to push it along,” Akubuiro says.
Northwestern has come a long way since 1947 — when blacks were permitted to move into an “International House.” Decades after Martin Luther King, nationwide socioeconomic factors like the generally poorer quality of schools in predominantly black neighborhoods still lower the number of highly-qualified black students applying to top universities.
“We recognize how fierce the competition is and how relatively small the pipeline is,” Mills says. “We wish that were different and we hope that’ll change over time.”
However, even if this “pipeline” does grow, higher black enrollment does not guarantee an environment of racial inclusion at Northwestern. Competitive diversity statistics are “the easy part,” according to Schapiro. “The tough part is, does everyone feel like they get the same stake as a member of the Northwestern community?”
Despite the challenges, Schapiro remains “cautiously optimistic.”
“I know the numbers will be better, but I think the sense of community will be as well,” Schapiro says.
Akubuiro echoes Schapiro’s sentiments, expressing even more confidence. “I have to say that I’m probably the most optimistic I’ve been.” he says. “This is my third year on NUambassadors and I haven’t seen any year that’s had better prospects.”
My generation grew up in an America free of segregation. To my generation, such discrimination is ancient, unthinkable — confined to history books and our grandparents’ memories.
But Aregood is still among the few black students in his lectures and the only black man in his dorm. The shadow of Northwestern’s segregated past looms over the Obama generation. Fighting this low black enrollment means overcoming a dark historical precedent. As students like Akubuiro help Northwestern to increase its diversity, students of a post-Jim Crow generation must erase Northwestern from its racist roots.
In the meantime, Aregood puts his minority status in a self-deterministic frame.
“I am not just a product of my race,” he says. “To reduce yourself to that is what makes you not belong.”