GSAS Recruiter Goes to Puerto Rico

In an effort to combat falling minority admissions, an official of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) recently visited Puerto Rico to recruit students for doctoral programs.

Suzanne Lipsky, head of minority recruiting at the GSAS, said yesterday that she--along with representatives from Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania--visited three Puerto Rican campuses between September 29 and October 3.

This year's GSAS admissions showed a substantial decrease in the number of minority students. "The figures are our worst in years," Lipsky said.

The trip "will definitely increase minority applications," Lipsky said, adding she spoke to "several hundred" prospective applicants.

"If we can get a dozen Puerto Ricans next year in fields other than Romance languages, then we will be very successful," she added.

Of the 340 members of the newest GSAS class, six are Black, one is Puerto Rican, and one is Chicano. Last year's class included 11 Blacks, six Puerto Ricans and two Chicanos.

The number of minority students applying to graduate schools has declined nationally, Lipsky said, adding that the GSAS's "vigorous efforts" to recruit minority students have prevented their numbers from falling even lower.

Fewer minorities are applying to the GSAS because many "have modest expectations about career plans in the arts and sciences," Edward L. Keenan, dean of the GSAS, said yesterday.

The decreasing minority pool is a worry for the school, which is looking for minority students as possible candidates for future faculty appointments. Lipsky said.

To reverse this trend, the GSAS sends recruiters to every area of the United States, financing these trips from its own budget, and sends out information to over 1000 minority students.

GSAS students from Puerto Rico first proposed the recruiting effort in their home island. Lipsky and the other representatives visited the Universities of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and Rio Piedras and the Inter-American University in San Juan.