Md. College Wants to Regain Diversity

By THE WASHINGTON POST

All his life, Martin Dyer’s diploma had been a symbol of pride. It told of how, in 1948, Dyer became the first black student to attend St. John’s College in Annapolis, Md., and how the college became the first south of the Mason-Dixon line to voluntarily desegregate.

It wasn’t until more than five decades later, when Dyer returned to sit on the college’s governing board, that he saw the enrollment figures and realized something had gone wrong. Even fewer black students were on campus than in the 1950s, after Dyer graduated, and the percentage of minorities overall had dwindled into single digits.

St. John’s, the tiny liberal arts college that had been a pioneer in diversity, had just a fraction of the state and national average for minority enrollment.

Dyer quickly issued a call to arms, writing letters to fellow alums and, with others, forming a committee on the issue. Over the past three years, a movement has taken root to lure minority students and infuse more diversity into campus culture.

Colleges nationwide are taking another look at minority enrollment. This fall, universities in 17 states created an initiative to drastically improve enrollment and achievement among minority and low-income students by 2015. Although minority enrollment overall has increased gradually at most colleges, minorities are still underrepresented. Military institutions, such as the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, also have plans to increase minority enrollment.

Still, the issue is especially dramatic at St. John’s because of its nature and size.

The school is mostly known for its eccentric program, built entirely upon the "great books." In lieu of tests and lectures, students hold discussions on the writings of Aristotle and Dostoevsky. Instead of math textbooks, they study the centuries-old texts of Euclid, founder of a branch of geometry.

Almost every aspect of class and life is steeped in classical tradition.

"I tell high school students about the waltz parties and croquet battles, and they just start laughing. They say, ‘Oh God, so no hip- hop parties,’ " recruiter Ebony Bowden said.

As the admissions counselor for diversity, Bowden’s mission is to change the school’s image as a place for well-off, white students. But often, it can be a tough sell.

Because of the college’s philosophical stance that everyone is equal – even the professors are called tutors to emphasize this point – the school does not offer merit scholarships. (The school does offer need-based financial aid.)

The recent racial climate at other area campuses such as the University of Maryland at College Park, where a noose was found near the black cultural center, doesn’t help Bowden’s case with minority parents. And the curriculum often baffles them: no majors, no tests and no grades given to students (unless they ask to see them).

Then there are the students’ concerns: Is it hard to make friends? What is dating like on a mostly white campus?

But the biggest barrier, Bowden said, is that most minority students simply don’t know that St. John’s exists. So she crisscrosses the region, visiting mostly Catholic, charter and private schools, where minority students might have already gotten a taste of an unorthodox liberal arts education.

It is a strategy that echoes efforts that first brought integration to St. John’s. Back then, however, it was the students conducting the search.

In 1947, white GIs returning from World War II to study at St. John’s began agitating for integration. The college’s program was built on philosophical discussion, so the former soldiers posed this question: If blacks could fight and die for this country, why couldn’t they attend all its schools?

The GIs began visiting black high schools, looking for bright students. In Baltimore, a high school guidance counselor pointed them toward Dyer, a bright teen from a poor family.

"I had never even heard of St. John’s," said Dyer, now 77. "You have to understand, back then these schools weren’t even in the realm of possibility."

(c) 2007 Charleston Daily Mail. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.