State Stix                                                                     

Walk the halls of a public high school in Illinois and, on average, you will find that nearly one in four of the students is African-American. By graduation day, only about one in six of students getting diplomas is black. Visit the classrooms of the typical public or private university in Illinois and you'll find, on average, about one in eight of the students is black. But if you attend graduation ceremonies, you'll see that only one of every 14 students getting a bachelor's degree is black. The trend is similar for Hispanic students (see figure 1).

Colleges and universities have taken strides to increase minority enrollments, but progress has been slow. According to the Illinois Board of Higher Education, "the percentage of minority students attending colleges and universities is below the percentage of these groups in the state's population ..." — 15 percent for blacks, 8 percent for Hispanics. In its annual Report to the Governor and General Assembly on Underrepresented Groups in Public Institutions of Higher Education in Illinois, issued in January, the board found:

• African-American students comprised 12 percent of total enrollments in Illinois' community colleges and undergraduate and graduate programs at public universities in 1991. Though black enrollment declined through most of the 1980s, there has been growth in the number of black students since 1989. Chicago State had the highest black enrollment among public universities in 1991 at 85.2 percent. Minority enrollments at other public schools are represented in figure 2.

• Hispanic students made up 5 percent of total enrollment in colleges and universities in 1991.

• Efforts to improve minority enrollments in selected disciplines believed key to future economic growth, math and science, have had mixed results. Figure 3 shows trends in bachelor degrees awarded to minorities in these fields. At advanced levels, the record is cause for concern. "At the master's and doctoral level," said the board report, "little progress has occurred over the past decade in black and Hispanic representation."

• The percentage of state monetary awards going to white students rose significantly at community colleges during the 1980s (see figure 4). The increase was less dramatic at public universities, from 55.9 percent in 1980 to 60.4 percent in 1991.

Donald Sevener

34/April 1993/Illinois Issues