Enrollment of non-white students at colleges across the State University of New York grew this year, a trend being reflected at colleges in the greater Cortland area.
Overall enrollment at SUNY schools rose 2.3% to a total of 376,000 students. Over two years, the increase is 3.4%.
In a statement, Gov. Kathy Hochul connected the recent enrollment increases to state initiatives aimed at recruiting more students and reducing their financial hurdles for attendance. In 2023, SUNY established a direct admissions program and told some 125,000 graduating high school students they’d already been accepted to their local community colleges.
“I have remained committed to increasing access to our colleges and universities — from removing financial barriers and expanding our tuition assistance program to launching SUNY’s first ever direct admissions program,” Hochul said. “Every New Yorker deserves the opportunity to pursue higher education, and I look forward to building on this progress to ensure even more students can enroll at one of our world-class institutions.”
At Tompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden, core enrollment is up 6.5% over 2023-24 figures, with a 12.4% jump in enrollment for part-time students. TC3 students of color – Black, Hispanic, Asian and Alaskan/American Indian – hit 529 when the fall class enrolled – the most in the past five school years.
Despite being a five-year high, college representative Peter Voorhees said that overall student populations about 15 years ago were more than twice the current figures for all groups, and numbers for all groups were higher than current numbers.
And while overall enrollment at SUNY Cortland, and 5,911 undergraduates has yet to reach the school’s fall 2020 (pre-pandemic) overall enrollment of 6,256 total undergraduates, it is on par from last year’s 5,905, state data show. The college’s enrollment of undergraduates of color climbed to a total of 1,153. Of those, 712, about 12%, are Hispanic.
Across the state, people of color account for about 51.4% of the state’s population, U.S. Census Bureau data show.
SUNY has noted in published material that “Black and Hispanic/Latinx students are underrepresented at SUNY compared to their share of the state’s population,” and had said as far back as 2020 that “student diversity is a critical metric for assessing the extent to which the University is providing minority populations with access to a quality education.”
TC3 President Amy Kremenek sees opportunities – and a few challenges – as she works to promote increased diversity on her campus – among her students, but also among faculty members.
“As we look at what’s happening in New York – everywhere, but maybe not as much in this part of upstate New York – the number of 18-year-old students is declining,” she said.
“We know that, but we have more adult students and more students with disabilities, so we’re reaching out to those students to see what they might need,” Kremenek added.
TC3 has begun participating in the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation that assists students of color who are interested in pursuing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields), Kremenek said.
Another, smaller way TC3 can help, she suggested, is to aid students who come from outside the immediate Cortland-Tompkins County area and who might not have a car on campus. In the past, TC3 might not have appealed to such students because they lack a way to get to a job, or to do something social.
“We’ve added a shuttle service that goes (from campus in Dryden) to Cortland and Ithaca a few times a week,” Kremenek said. “And we’re always looking to add more diversity in our faculty ranks. I’d love to hire more faculty, but finances (make that) difficult for community colleges.”
