The University of Tennessee Lead Summer Institute is back in business.
In early August, administrators told institute members the program that brought them to UT would no longer exist.
The program conditionally admits students to the university from underrepresented high schools, and was cut in order to concentrate state funding on programs that impact a larger amount of students, said Provost Susan Martin. However, on the morning of Sept. 18, top administrators announced that funding for the program would be reinstated.
Students in the five-member UTLSI Committee immediately opposed the cut, swiftly organizing a forum to inform the community about the program and its impact on their lives.
Last Thursday, the committee and administrators, including Martin and Chancellor Jimmy Cheek, discussed the cut during what Martin called a “much anticipated meeting.”
“Our focus was on listening and hearing their concerns,” Martin said. “I found their arguments to be very compelling, and in addition, I felt that we needed to give more reflection to our overall programming to enhance diversity at the university.”
The committee’s presentation centered on one statistic: African American enrollment at UT is currently at 7 percent, less than 1 percent higher than it was 14 years ago, and down from the all-time high of about 10 percent in 2010.
Rilwan Balogun, a senior in journalism and electronic media and a member of the UTLSI Committee, argued that this statistic should encourage the university to reassess its approach to diversity. Balogun said Cheek agreed that in five years, when they returned as alumni and alumnae, they should see a university that has upheld its commitment to diversity.
“Once Chancellor Cheek said this, it reassured me that he actually wants to help,” Balogun said.
Admitting that student recruitment and diversity at UT is a “big and complex picture,” Martin said she plans to enlist students, including the members of the UTLSI Committee, to help guide future programming decisions.
“I think the key is we also want to engage the students who represent our access and diversity programs,” Martin said. “Certainly the students we met with would be wonderful to have a discussion about the bigger picture of enhancing our diverse student population at the university.”
Balogun said he and the other committee members look forward to greater inclusion in the program evaluation process and decisions that will improve diversity beyond the UT Lead Summer Institute.
“We realized that UTLSI is great and will bring in underrepresented groups from low-income areas,” Balogun said, “but we still have to deal with the problem of having African American enrollment at such a low rate.”
Although no changes to UTLSI will be made yet, Martin said the program will undergo assessment on a yearly basis, like other programs at the university.
After advocating for a program of great personal significance and winning, Balogun said his perception of administrators changed.
“I don’t think they realized that students cared so much,” Balogun said. “This meeting made me realize that the student voice matters so much more than we think it does. Administrators want to hear student concerns, but students just have to do it in a respectful manner.
“And we did that.”
