MU recruits minority high school seniors

By Jaryd Wilson

Published April 6, 2007

The minority enrollment at MU increased by 464 students since 2002, according to the Office of Admissions, and the university continues to reach out to minorities with the Clue-In to Mizzou program, which concluded March 19.

Clue-In to Mizzou is an overnight experience specifically designed for minority high school seniors from Missouri who have been admitted to the university," Associate Director of Admissions Chuck May said.

The Office of Admissions and the United Ambassador Student Recruitment Team plan the event, and the students are invited to stay overnight with already-enrolled minority students.

May said students learn about the experience of a minority undergraduate, academic support systems for minorities, the social culture of the campus, ways to get involved and the values of residence hall experiences.

May said MU uses a variety of ways to recruit minorities.

"Some of our minority recruitment activities include letters inviting minority students to apply for admission," May said. "We attend many minority-targeted college fairs and provide college-planning workshops for urban high schools."

In addition, MU uses on- and off-campus events, a visitation program, e-mail and Web recruitment and phone calls as part of the recruitment process.

"We also have multi-cultural Day, which is an on-campus event where we bus students and parents from St. Louis and Kansas City to campus," May said.

MU enrollment will also increase among high-ability, low-income students as a result of a $1 million grant from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.

According to a March 21 News Bureau news release, MU will create the Missouri College Advising Corps., which will recruit and train MU seniors to work full time as high school and community college advisers for one to two years after graduation.

The donation will allow MU to encourage community college students to continue their studies and earn bachelor's degrees, MU spokeswoman Katherine Kostiuk stated in a news release.

The program will encourage greater attendance at all four-year colleges and universities in Missouri, the release stated.

"As Missouri's flagship and land-grant university, MU must play a leadership role in encouraging Missourians to pursue higher education," Chancellor Brady Deaton stated in the release.

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation is a private, independent foundation established in 2000 by the estate of Cooke and has the mission of helping young people of exceptional promise reach their full potential through education.

Despite all of the efforts of MU to recruit minorities and low-income students, May said there is still room for improvement.

"We are always looking for new ways to recruit not just minority students but all students," May said. "We realize that the Web is an integral part of the way students gather information about colleges, as well as e-mail, and we know that we can use more technology in recruitment such as instant messaging and chat rooms."

May said MU doesn't use instant messaging and chat rooms or phone calls as recruitment tools very often.

"Another recruitment activity that I would like to add in the future is to phone not just admitted students, but prospective students who have not applied yet," he said.