By: Rylie Birdwell
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (UATV) – After a global pandemic and efforts made by the University of Arkansas staff, the university has the largest and most diverse freshman class in history.
The university reports 6,100 freshman students enrolled in the fall semester of 2021, with a total minority enrollment of 3,313 students.
According to university admissions records, African American students increased 0.1 percent of the student population, Hispanic students increased 0.5 percent, Asian-Americans increased 0.8 percent, and 6 more Hawaiian students enrolled in the university making it a total of 19 students.
Ansley Mosley-Monts, the vice president for the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, said that the increase in every racial and ethnic category is something that makes her proud.
“As we know, our communities will look different in 2025, even more than today. So we have got to put into place those different programs and opportunities to prepare not only our students but the workforce that’s coming forward to be able to work in a diverse environment,” she said.
The university uses many programs and initiatives to make students feel welcomed and have a place to belong. Suzanne McCray, the vice provost for enrollment and the dean of admissions, said the university has over 400 organizations that students can get involved in on campus.
Shayla Woolsey, a student at the university, said she is thankful for the many opportunities to meet with people like her.
“I’ve seen firsthand what lack of diversity can do to a group of people and how close minded it can make them be and hateful to people with differences; and so coming to a school where there is a lot of people similar to me and have similar political views and social justice views like me, it’s just very exciting and I’m proud. I’m really proud of this school for stuff like that,” said Woolsey.
Students taking a gap year due to COVID-19
According to the universities Office of Institutional Research report, 89 students took a gap year right out of high school last year. Almost a 22.5 percent increase from the number of students that took a gap year in 2019.
Marin Tucker, a freshman who took a gap year, said that not coming to school during COVID-19 was the best decision she has made.
“I have an easier time if everything is more organized, and I feel more motivated if I can go to in-person class, and be able to study with other people and not feel confined to my room. So I was happy with the decision,” said Tucker.
Suzanne McCray, the Vice Provost, said they have seen a 20.9 percent increase in total enrollment from last year.
“We didn’t know this in November, but we knew we were going to have these numbers in February,” said McCray.
McCray said admissions expected these numbers because they promised students in-person classes and requiring students to submit their ACT or SAT score, but are reviewed for enrollment based on their high school GPA.
“A lot of students signed up many different times trying to get a test, and then were turned away from getting the test, and they were really worried and anxious about the idea that they weren’t going to be able to test. They wanted to know where they were applying would allow for test optional,” said McCray.
McCray said they do not expect to see a class this large in the future because of the amount of students delaying college due to the pandemic and the infrastructure that the university has to worry about when growing that number for the future.
“This year we are back to the normal level of applications for admission in the way we normally expect,” said McCray. “Now suddenly we have a regression model that works.”