Diversity at UGA

Diversity is more important today as our world becomes increasingly smaller, and the University like many peer institutions is working to increase diversity.
Approximately 21 percent of the freshmen class identified themselves as being members of a minority group, according to an August University press release.

“The world is changing and UGA needs to change with it and the student body needs to reflect that sense of change,” said Chris Blakely, a fourth year biology major from Peachtree City.

The University has several initiatives to increase the diversity within the next class across several areas including race and ethnicity, geographic, linguistic and experiential, according to the UGA Admissions Web site.

Des Potier, associate director of admissions for multicultural recruitment, works with student organizations to help foster and increase diversity. Organizations have several options ranging from high school visits to “call outs” in which current students call those admitted and answer any questions they may have.

Student groups understand that they too must play a crucial role and many such as Georgia Daze are devoted to increasing diversity at the University. Every year the organization hosts a weekend in the fall and spring to give 40 admitted students a taste of UGA.
"The weekend helps break what everybody complains," said Erika Brown, recruitment chair for Georgia Daze. "We have a high retention rate, about 95 percent of students who attend end up coming to the University. And the people who help with it now were participants which speak to the level of quality of the program."
Numbers for projected fall 2009 enrollment are not yet available because applications are still being reviewed, but past enrollment indicates that the amount of diversity will increase.

For some, diversity at the University is not only important for life at UGA but life beyond the Arch.

“The world beyond the Arch is very different from life at UGA,” said Melissa Shivers, director of intercultural affairs for the University. “One of the biggest things we hear from job employers is that students who graduate from Georgia are not ready to work in a diverse environment.”