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April 2, 2019
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Justin Mallett |
The Northwest Missouri State University community is invited to an April 8 presentation discussing 10 primary factors that affect the overall retention of underrepresented students attending predominantly white institutions and how those institutions can collaborate to remove barriers.
Justin Mallett, Northwest’s director of diversity and inclusion, will lead the presentation from 11:30 to 1 p.m. Monday, April 8, in the J.W. Jones Student Union Boardroom.
“We are fortunate to have Dr. Mallett, who has studied and published on tokenism and its impact on retention,” Dr. Clarence Green, who is serving as Northwest’s interim director of diversity, equity and inclusion, said. “These types of development opportunities are important for our campus and community as we strengthen our efforts at building an inclusive community.”
The presentation will focus on underrepresented students, who are defined as African-American, American Indian, Alaskan natives, Asians, Hispanic or Latinos and have historically comprised a minority of the U.S. population.
“As our institution continues to become more diverse, it has become imperative to understand the transition underrepresented students face when making the decision to attend a predominantly white institution,” Green said.
Last fall, Northwest enrolled a freshman class of 1,329 students, which included a 14 percent increase of first-time underrepresented freshmen attending the University. Northwest’s fall enrollment counted 1,316 students, or 19 percent of the student population, identifying with underrepresented groups or hailing from countries outside the United States.
Northwest’s total minority enrollment is 879 students, up 6.5 percent from the previous year, while 437 international students represent about 6 percent of Northwest’s student body. They represent 37 countries with the majority of those students coming from India, Nepal, South Korea and Nigeria.
