USC-Columbia's black enrollment rises after decade-long slide

By Johnny Dickerson
Edited by Tiffany Melanis

University of South Carolina sophomore Michael Myers has been on both sides of USC's aggressive efforts to recruit more black students to its Columbia campus.

Between his junior and senior years of high school, Myers was working on a research project at Clemson and was beginning to like what he saw. But then he participated in USC's Summer Seniors, a program inviting black high school students to spend a few days on campus, and ended up in Columbia last fall as an electrical engineering major.

"Summer Seniors just affirmed everything," said Myers, who is from Lake City. "I was like OK, I'm going to USC no matter what."

He is now a Summer Seniors counselor and a USC success story in recruiting more black students after the Columbia campus lost over 700 black students in almost a decade. In a state where over a quarter of the residents are black, black students make up 11 percent of the student body at its flagship Columbia campus.

– The number of black students on the Columbia campus dropped from 3,831 in 2000 to 3,126 in 2009. Overall enrollment increased from 23,728 to 28,482.

– USC is not alone. The College of Charleston's numbers have gone from 881 out of 11,129 total students in 2000 to 700 out of 11,772 students in 2009.

– Black enrollment at Clemson has been stagnant since 2000.

– But at the same time, black enrollment at all S.C. public colleges and universities rose by more than a third, according to data from the state Higher Education Commission.

Getting more black students on campus has been a full-time job for the past four years for Tomeika Banks, USC's multicultural recruitment and outreach coordinator. Her tools include programs like Summer Seniors and the multicultural outreach student team, a group of current students actively engaged in multicultural recruitment and leading Summer Seniors.

Myers said that after he attended Summer Seniors counselors kept touching base through e-mails and Facebook messages.

And now, after being on the other side as a counselor for Summer Seniors, Myers said "that was a fun experience, being able to look back and say, ‘Well I was in their shoes.' So just to lead them and help them out in any way I could was amazing."

Banks said several years of trying to bring more black students to the Columbia campus was bearing fruit. "It's not just something we did last recruitment season," she said.

This fall, 287 black freshmen, up from last year's 242, are on the Columbia campus as part of its largest freshmen class of 4,473 students. But it is far from the 533 black freshmen in fall 2000.
Along with Summer Seniors, the multicultural student outreach team calls prospective students, goes to college fairs and other special events, and answers prospective students' questions, Banks said

Among those questions and concerns are the cost and the campus size.

Tuition this year is $9,786, on par with schools that have seen significant increases in black enrollment over the past decade. For instance, Coastal Carolina's tuition is $9,390, but its black student population has almost tripled, from 431 to 1,215. At the same time, its overall student body has nearly doubled, from 4,653 to 8,360.

Zuri Chancler, a second-year student at Coastal who is black, said she had planned to go to USC but found out at orientation that on-campus housing was full, and she didn't want to live off-campus.

Another second-year Coastal student who is black, April Witherspoon, said she decided not to go to USC because she thought it was too big.

Black enrollment has also increased at Francis Marion, Lander and Winthrop universities, as well as in the state's technical college system.

One thing making USC more attractive is the 2-year-old Gamecock Guarantee that pays first-generation students from low-income families at least $2,500 a year to attend, Banks said. The program guarantees the student's tuition will be paid in full.

A third of the 330 students being covered by the Gamecock Guarantee this year are black.

Most already have enough in scholarships and grants for tuition, so the $2,500 can help cover housing and other college expenses, program coordinator Jamala Harrison said.

Eligible students received $802,111 this fall, funded by part of a $7.5 million donation from the athletics department along with federal aid and money from donors.