Ohio State Univ. Boosts Diversity Efforts

Associated Press
Published: October 28, 2009

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Ohio State University wants more minority students and is putting a new focus on Ohio inner-city high schools while looking harder in markets out of state.

Starting this fall, admissions officers will visit 15 schools in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo to help students begin the application process.

M. Dolan Evanovich, a university vice president, says officials also plan to cast a “deeper and wider net” for prospective minority students in big cities outside Ohio that have been targeted in the past. They include Los Angeles and Pittsburgh.

About 15 percent of this year’s freshman class are members of racial minorities, down from almost 19 percent before a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting the use of racial preferences in admissions.