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March 6, 1997

Minority enrollment up slightly despite small frosh drop

African-Americans made up 9.5 percent of the Pittsburgh campus undergraduate student body last fall, up from 9.2 percent in fall 1995.

Total minority enrollments among Pittsburgh undergraduates also increased slightly, from 13.8 percent in fall 1995 to 14.6 percent last fall.

But black and total minority entering freshman enrollments declined slightly. Last fall, they made up 11.7 percent and 16.5 percent of the Pittsburgh campus total, respectively. In fall 1995, the percentages were 13.7 and 18.9, respectively.

Chancellor Mark Nordenberg cited those and other statistics in his annual affirmative action report to the Board of Trustees Feb. 20.

Minority students, faculty and staff The chancellor noted that the fall 1996 freshman class included 323 African-Americans — the second highest total in University history but 23 students short of the record set in fall 1995.

Because the Pitt freshman class was larger in fall 1996 than the previous year (2,650 students last fall compared with 2,424 in fall 1995), the percentage decline in black freshman enrollment was correspondingly higher, Nordenberg said.

Black and total minority graduate enrollments last fall stood at 5.5 percent and 10 percent of the campus total, up from 5.2 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively, in fall 1995.

Black and total minority first professional enrollments made up 6.5 percent and 18.1 percent, respectively, of the campus total last fall. That was down from 7.9 percent and 19.4 percent, respectively, in fall 1995. The drop in black and total minority first professional enrollments occurred in three of the four schools offering professional degrees: law, dental medicine, and medicine. The decline was consistent with a national drop in applications by blacks to professional schools, Nordenberg said.

Since 1992, the percentage of Pittsburgh campus degrees awarded to African-Americans increased at the baccalaureate level (from 5.5 percent in 1992 to 5.9 percent in 1996), the master's level (from 3.8 percent to 5.1 percent) and the first professional level (3.6 percent to 7.8 percent).

But the rate declined at the doctoral level (from 5 percent to 3.1 percent). Nordenberg said the low point in this category came in 1994, when Pitt conferred just five doctoral degrees on black students (1.5 percent of the University-wide total).

The number of tenured black full-time faculty at the Pittsburgh campus remained at 39 (3.6 percent of the campus total) for fall 1996. The campus employed 19 tenure-stream black faculty (5.7 percent of the campus total), up from 17 (4.5 percent) in fall 1995.

Total minority full-time faculty representation at the Pittsburgh campus increased from 14.3 percent in fall 1995 to 14.5 percent in fall 1996.

African-Americans made up 12.4 percent of the Pittsburgh campus full-time staff in fall 1996, ranging from 27 percent of service/maintenance employees to 6.4 percent in the skilled crafts category. Pittsburgh campus total minority full-time staff representation was 15 percent. All of those numbers remained within a percentage point of the fall 1995 totals.

Women students, faculty and staff Women continued to comprise just over half of the Pittsburgh campus undergraduate enrollment (53 percent) and graduate enrollment (52 percent) in fall 1996.

Female students also continued to account for a little over half of all baccalaureate and master's degrees awarded in 1996. Female students earned 43 and 38 percent of doctoral and first professional degree recipients, respectively. Female tenured and tenure-stream full-time faculty at the Pittsburgh campus increased from 18 percent to 19 percent and from 34 percent to 36 percent, respectively, from fall 1995 to fall 1996.

Women made up 62 percent of the Pittsburgh campus full-time staff in fall 1996, ranging from 90 percent of secretarial/clerical employees and 64 percent in the "other professionals" category to 24 percent of service/maintenance employees and a little less than 5 percent in the skilled crafts category. All of those numbers remained within a percentage point of the fall 1995 totals.

–Bruce Steele


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