The incoming class at the University of Arizona is being lauded as the most diverse in the school's nearly 140-year history, with 49% of incoming first-year students identifying as non-white.
That's a 2% increase from last year and up 4% from 2021. Over 40% of the incoming 9,000 students are from outside of Arizona and more than 30% are first-generation college students.
Diversity is a high priority for the university, said Kasey Urquidez, the UA’s dean of undergraduate admissions and vice president of enrollment management.
“Continuing to increase the diversity of our class has remained important since day one for us,” she said. “We know that the demographics of the United States are also changing. We want to keep up with that as well, so that we are making sure that students feel represented.”
The UA’s total enrollment is now more than 52,000 students.
Urquidez attributes the influx of diverse students to the university’s community outreach efforts, including the annual Cultural College Days where recruitment teams talk to high school seniors to make sure they understand what needs to get done to be ready for college. Materials are offered in English and Spanish.
“We’re really just trying to spread all of the opportunities that we have about access to higher education,” she said. “We’re just really trying to make sure that we are out there and present, and really welcoming to everyone that wants to learn more about us. We work with individuals all across the world, really, so that we can just make sure that we're breaking those barriers down.”
Freshman Gagana Ameneni, 17, who came from a mostly-white high school in Mesa, said she’s encouraged to see a more diverse student population.
“It's nice to see different people,” said Ameneni, who is Asian-Indian. “Hopefully, it will just get better overall, learn about more people and just be more inclusive and realize there's a world out there.”
Ameneni also said seeing other people like her on campus is a great learning opportunity.
“I love being able to interact with more Indian Americans because I get to learn more about the different cultures of India,” she said. “It is a huge country, with different languages, customs and foods. It can also differ by families as well, so there's really never enough learning.”
Japhet Boubeka, 18, a freshman who is African-American, said being on campus for the first time is intimidating, but the increasing diversity makes him feel more comfortable.
“People are coming to the school, they can feel safe,” said the Sahuaro High School graduate. “They can feel like they belong here at the school even more. It feels good knowing that there’s other people who look like me on campus and gives me a sense of community and belonging.”
Boubeka also had some ideas on how the UA can showcase campus diversity.
“I think the university needs to tighten up their cultural centers and cultural clubs, making sure they’re active and what not,” he said. “Some centers aren’t even directly on campus and secluded, and students may not know about them, so definitely letting students know about them as well.”
The main takeaway with having more diversity on campus is that students can learn from each other, said Urquidez, the UA administrator.
“We really believe that we are learning from one another,” Urquidez said. “We want our students to have opportunities to learn from different cultures, different backgrounds and learn in their classes, of course, the education that they are here to receive. But there's so much more that happens with just learning from others and being able to be prepared to work the global world that we live in.”
