Campus innovations address needs of a diverse student body

Minority student recruitment

Minority student recruiters Sean Temoney and Dara Johnson

IU Kokomo freshmen are going back to high school to offer prospective students a first-hand opinion on college life. Krystle Baker, Dara Johnson, Cory Jones and Sean Temoney have visited local high schools with Melissa Smith, an admissions counselor at IU Kokomo, and Catherine Barnes, director of campus climate. The program is funded with part of the 8 percent increase in fees for regional campuses, approved by the IU Trustees in 2002, with the intention of supporting student retention.

The initial intent was to train campus minority students to help recruit minority high schoolers. Baker is Hispanic, and Jones, Johnson and Temoney are African American. After they began school visits, it became apparent that common age and experience often matter more to the target audience than race or ethnicity. In their late teens, the IU Kokomo students draw the younger students “like a magnet,” Smith said, “even when we go to a high school where there’s no connection to [the recruiter’s] culture.” Smith visited three local high schools with Jones. “He didn’t sound scripted. That brought it home to the students,” she said. “They really connected with him.”

“You can create a friendship and tell what it’s like at IU Kokomo,” agreed Temoney.

When Baker went to her alma mater, Lewis Cass High School, she was greeted warmly by her former guidance counselor, and mixed well with students. “It would be ideal to find student recruiters from every high school that IU Kokomo draws from,” Smith said.

Barnes and Patti Young, former director of admissions at IU Kokomo, selected the student recruiters and trained them in IU Kokomo “talking points.” All four are top academic students, Barnes said, and have classroom experience as tutors or, in Johnson’s case, as a day-care aide. “We’re sending out some of our best,” Barnes said.

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