NUMBER OF BLACKS DECLINING AT SEMO

Black-student enrollment at Southeast Missouri State University has been cut almost in half over the past six years.

Nearly 300 fewer black students enrolled this fall than in 1988. Some 665 blacks enrolled in 1988, 8 percent of the student body.

This fall, 373 blacks are enrolled, or 5 percent of the student body.

In all, 7,925 students are enrolled.

Black leaders and students say the university and city offer little culturally for African-American students.

As a result, few black students enroll at Southeast, they say.

For their part, school officials are making efforts to attract a diverse group of students, including minority students.

In recent years, the university has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal funds to encourage minorities and other Bootheel residents to attend college.

But school officials say they won't immediately feel the impact of such programs on student recruitment.

A university task force this fall will look at ways to boost minority enrollment.

The task force is headed by Dr. Leonard Clark, the school's affirmative action officer.

The university has hired more minority for faculty and staff positions in recent years, including two deans.

"Those things will help," Clark said, "but it is not necessarily going to create an overnight effect."

School officials also said that total enrollment has declined in recent years.

A predominantly white university, black enrollment always has been low.

In 1981, the federal Office of Civil Rights cited Southeast and the University of Missouri's Columbia and Rolla campuses for "maintaining vestiges of segregation."

Southeast then started recruiting more black students, and enrollment grew for several years. But since the late 1980s, black-student enrollment has dropped, as has total enrollment.

Total enrollment has declined by about 850 in the past six years. But more than a third of that has been in black-student enrollment, university records show.

Art Wallhausen, assistant to the president at Southeast, said it doesn't appear that the hazing death of a black student earlier this year has had an impact on recruitment of black students.

But Michael Sterling believes the hazing incident has kept away some black students. Sterling is president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

He said he talks to students daily and "they just don't feel good up there."

Many black high school students in the area don't even consider enrolling at Southeast, Sterling said, adding that the university needs to be talking to those students.

The university, he said, needs to form a partnership with black youth and black organizations.

Southeast senior Evelyn Hall said black students don't feel welcome at Southeast.

"There are so many subtle racial issues," she said.

Karla Cooper, who grew up in Kennett and is a 1991 graduate of Southeast, said the extreme poverty and illiteracy in the Bootheel make student recruitment more difficult.

Hall and fellow student Kendra Neely said the university and the community don't offer cultural programming that would appeal to many blacks.

"We are kind of left out," Neely said. Neely is president of the Association of Black Collegians at Southeast.

Hall said black students don't feel comfortable at area nightclubs, and Cape Girardeau movie theaters seldom show films that are geared for an African-American audience.

Some black students have complained in past years that homecoming celebrations don't include entertainment geared for them.

This year, $15,000 in student fees will be spent to bring the musical group Xscape to campus for an Oct. 29 homecoming celebration.

The funding request came from several black organizations on campus. Hall thinks such a move is a step in the right direction.

Hall and others would like to an African-American center established, similar to the house for international students.

Southeast's adoption of higher admission standards has had a negative impact on black enrollment, Sterling and others maintain.

"Southeast is trying to be a Harvard or a Yale instead of a regional university," he said, adding that the university needs to do more to attract black students and put blacks on a level playing field.

Black enrollments

Fall semester enrollments of black students and their percent of student bodies at Southeast Missouri State University:

1994 -- 373 or 5 percent.

1993 -- 421 or 5 percent.

1992 -- 504 or 6 percent.

1991 -- 555 or 6 percent.

1990 -- 586 or 7 percent.

1989 -- 577 or 7 percent.

1988 -- 665 or 8 percent.