In April, Provost Dan Rich announced the creation of a new University Undergraduate Scholars program modeled on UD's successful Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program.

The federally funded McNair Program has had a 100 percent success rate at UD, helping students from diverse and disadvantaged backgrounds get into graduate programs of their choice and obtain funding.

"We are implementing the new program to provide more opportunities for our talented and diverse undergraduates to prepare for graduate school upon the completion of their studies at UD," Rich said.

All of the 18 students enrolled in UD's McNair program were accepted for graduate school next year, and this summer 21 new McNair Scholars will begin their program at the University. Named for an African-American astronaut who died in the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986, the McNair program currently is restricted to 22 undergraduates.

Rich said that the University already has provided funding for five students under the new University Undergraduate Scholars program this year and plans to expand support in future years. "We need to see that all students get the support they need to succeed at the University," Rich said.

Legal constraints

Last fall, as part of a periodic review of the scholarship and academic enrichment programs for minority students, the University received legal advice that programs that exclude any students because of race wouldn't survive a legal challenge. UD's Presidential Awards program for graduate students was cited as such a program.

Based on this legal advice, "the University will not, on the basis of race, restrict access to any University program," Rich said.

Consequently, the University has changed the name of the Presidential Awards program and the criteria to receive these awards. Renamed the University Graduate Scholars program, the new program will select graduate scholars to receive awards based on many criteria, including:

• Challenging social, economic, educational, cultural or other life circumstances;
  
  
• Academic achievements;
  
  
• First-generation graduate student status; and
  
  
• Financial need as determined by federal income guidelines (FAFSA).

A review of eligibility requirements for other University scholarship and academic enrichment programs also is under way. "No programs will be eliminated or reduced," Rich said. "Within the limits of the law, we will continue to be assertive in promoting all of our diversity programs."

While eligibility requirements that could be construed by the courts as "racially exclusionary" will change, Rich said, "we will still serve minority students because diversity is part of our definition of quality for our student body and faculty."

"Increasing student diversity is a false measure if our students don't succeed," Rich said. "Since our students do succeed, we should celebrate their success, while continuing to pursue our goal of increased diversity.

"The University of Delaware is committed to creating an educational community that is intellectually, culturally and socially diverse, enriched by the contributions and full participation of persons from many different backgrounds," the provost concluded.

An increasingly diverse campus

As important as admitting more minority students, the University has won national recognition for the graduation rate of its minority students.

In August 2002, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education ranked UD fourth nationwide among "flagship state universities" for successfully graduating black students within six years. At 64 percent, UD tied Penn State, ranked just above the University of California at Berkeley, and had nearly twice the national average, which stood at 35.8 percent.