UCSC attracts minority applicants for the same reasons it attracts nonminorities, including informality, access to professors and resources, and a smaller student body. To increase UCSC's attractiveness, we need to build strong minority student communities and increase our number of multi-year offers. Overall, we need more staff in the area of student outreach and recruitment in the Graduate Division. We need more support for diversity throughout the campus community. Most departments seem to be interested in increasing the numbers of underrepresented students in their programs, but if they are to achieve that goal, it might be necessary to re-examine their selection procedures.
Most departments make admissions offers to the very strongest students in the applicant pool.
UCSC is rarely successful in enrolling these students because other institutions are able to offer much more attractive financial packages. It might be more effective to identify those excellent minority students who are most likely to enroll. Given the poor predictive value of GRE scores, departments should look at multiple indicators of student quality. The Graduate Division needs to work with faculty and departments in this process. We must attract more minority applicants and ask departments to look beyond GRE scores in selecting students.