Why I WILL NO LONGER RECOMMEND VIRGINIA TECH TO BLACK STUDENTS AS A BLACK VIRGINIA TECH ALUMNI

I recently wrote this for the Black Virginia Tech Alumni Group on Facebook and I am sharing it here. Until the issues with Virginia Tech Enrollment and Admissions are resolved, until there is transparency in the data and a willingness to admit that the recent growth in Black enrollment is due to a decision to combine racial groups, until Virginia tech stops using the AACRAO rubric that penalizes students impacted by racism, and until there is an audit of merit aid inequities and corrective action taken to ensure qualified black students who receive $$$$ and $$,$$$ and even $$$,$$$ awards from other institutions but receive $0 merit aid- I will not be recommending Virginia tech to students

I have a lot of concerns about the way information is being conveyed to this Black alumni group and the general public about the "growth" of the Black enrolled undergraduate population.

I also have concerns after learning about a private meeting held with Virginia Tech where donors asked that legacy students not be displaced by diversity initiatives (see below)

We've been told Virginia Tech grew its Black population from 4% (2016) to 8% (2020).  We were recently told in this group that it will grow to 10% in 2021 (data has not been released).

After examining the data Virginia Tech releases I cannot find evidence of the Black population growing to 8%.  The highest Virginia Tech's Black population has been is 4.87% which is a .9% increase from 2016 to 2020.  The other 3.1% appears to have been growth due to the inclusion of 2 or more races in the Black racial subgroup.

Additional Discussion

Our overall undergraduate enrollment has increased 13% from 2016 to 2019 and Black students have grown proportionally but remained below 5% (not 8% or 10%).

I decided to review the book Holistic Admissions: Predicting the Likelihood for Student Success as I was aware Virginia Tech wrote a chapter (chapter 9) in this book to learn more about the Virginia Tech admissions process. 

I also spoke with an admissions/enrollment professional at Virginia Tech with another Black alumnus as well as others within the University

Through this process I learned:

• Virginia Tech decided to include 2 or more racial groups with the Black/African American (Holistic Admissions page 77)  student subgroup which explains why we see 4.87% in their 2019 data but are told that there is a 4% to 8% growth.

• While I do not object to two or more races being included with Black students if the student identifies as Black (especially since I am two or more races due to my paternal grandmother but identifies as Black due to my two Black parents), I do think Virginia Tech should make those who they are speaking with aware that they are including multiple racial subgroup categories and this has contributed to almost 3.1% of the 4% growth

• Virginia Tech's high-level donors were worried about diversity initiatives and demanded a meeting with the University "to ensure it wasn't going to exclude legacy students" according to Chapter 9, page 76 of Holistic Admissions written by   Virginia Tech’s Director of Operations and Recruitment, Office of Undergraduate Admissions, Associate Vice Provost for Enrollment and Degree Management and Director of Admissions, Vice Provost for Enrollment Management at that time

• I was told in the meeting with Virginia Tech with another Black alumnus that Virginia Tech's admissions rubric, admissions questions, and training were developed by AACRAO and Dr. Sedlacek (himself, personally) who wrote in support of using the word N***r instead of "the N-Word" (see below) and, according to others, may have used the word N***r in presentations. 

• AACRAO, the firm hired by Virginia Tech, has since had to disavowed Dr. Sedlacek but I have concerns about the individuals in the organization who had read his book with the defense of using the word N***r, distributed his book, gave his book as gifts to new clients,  trained under and with Dr. Sedlacek during the time he allegedly used N***r in a public presentation.  It is my understanding from this meeting a couple of months ago that AACRAO will continue to work with Virginia Tech- this raises a lot of concerns for me 

• The current rubric created by AACRAO, as spelled out in Holistic Admissions, penalizes admissions applicants for being "preoccupied with racism" or reacting to "small issues" of racism with the same intensity as "large issues" of racism, or letting racism "interfere with personal and academic development" and not having a "successful" way to handle racism.  While Dr. William Sedlacek was disavowed, it is not clear if this admissions rubric, adapted for Virginia Tech by Dr. Sedlacek himself and the Virginia Tech team has been reviewed or removed since that time.

• The Virginia Tech admissions questions, which I and another Black alumnus were told were personally developed by Dr. Sedlacek and AACRAO, and rubric, which I was told by Virginia Tech was developed by Dr. Sedlacek HIMSELF along with the Virginia Tech team, are read and scored by admissions readers, who I was told was trained by Dr. Sedlacek himself, is used to award merit aid. I was told GPA/Class Rigor and the score from Dr. Sedlacek/Virginia Tech rubric were used as a 50%/50% model.  

• That current financial aid merit calculation resulted in 3 Black students I know from my region receiving $0 merit aid awards, while non-Black students who were incredibly wealthy and had the similar academic qualification to the 3 Black students who received $0 received $$$$ and I believe even $$$$$. 

• According to ERN- independent education equity think tank- Virginia Tech has the smallest population of Black students enrolled at a Public University.  When you combine public/private Virginia Tech has the 3rd smallest Black enrolled population (only Southern University and Washington & Lee are doing worse than Virginia Tech- link below)

• The Black racial subgroup is not growing as quickly as other racial subgroups. Black enrollment growth from 2016 to 2019 (.9%) only exceeds or more racial group enrollment (.58% increase) and the subgroup identified as American Indian/Alaskan Native (which has declined rather than grown since 2016 by .04% in 2019). The Black enrolled student population has grown .9%,  while Hispanic/Asian/Native Hawaii has grown more during the same period (1.79%, 1.12%, 1.38% growth).  I support that growth in those subgroups AND think we need to examine what is working there to determine what we need to do adapt these policies to see similar growth for Black enrollment

• We currently only have 1 Black admissions officer, from what I can tell (correct me if I am wrong Virginia Tech)

• We have been told to donate to scholarships for the purposes of support Black students whose financial aid need has not been met but I was told by a Virginia Tech official that those scholarships cannot be earmarked exclusively for Black students (we would need to form a private scholarship to earmark the money for Black students that similar to the Ridley Scholarship at UVA- I would be open to that)

The change in "who counts" as Black should be disclosed by Virginia Tech when discussing the data

What I believe is happening is we are being presented with "growth" from 4% to 8% to 10%.  Comparing 2016 Black only to 2020/2021 Black two or more races is not really a fair comparison.

It appears, and I am sure Virginia Tech will correct me if I am wrong, that most of the growth being promoted came from the decision to count students who may identify as two or more races as Black- only .9% of the growth occurred in the Black community which means 3.1% of the growth in 2020 came from the decision by Virginia Tech to combine data

When InclusiveVT 2022 set its goals for the growth of Black students, the goal was set to grow the Black student population not to expand the data classification and count that towards growth.

Now I worry we have not actually enrolled more Black students but instead expanded who we identify as Black to claim progress.  

And that would be a valid change if it were disclosed- but it has not been disclosed to any of the Black alumni in the group.  So I am disclosing what I learned from my conversations, from my reading, and from my work.

I do not know where we go from here- for the most part, meeting with the Administration has not helped.  I did have one productive meeting but  I also received information that was inaccurate or was mislead (no legacy, 8%) in other meetings.

If anyone has any ideas of what to do next I welcome that discussion 

I am sure Virginia Tech will come in to correct the record and I welcome that but I have reviewed the data so I know where we currently stand and it is time to evaluate whether the programming in place is contributing to the enrollment goals. Until I see a change in direction and corrective action, I will not be recommending Virginia Tech to Black students until these issues are resolved