Black Enterprise Ranks Harvard In Its Top 50 List

Harvard is one of the top 50 colleges for black students, according to a list released Monday by Black Enterprise magazine.

The list, which will be published in the magazine's January issue, touts the top 50 schools "where African Americans are most likely to succeed." Black Enterprise compiled the rankings, its first ever, after surveying 1,077 black professionals in higher education. Harvard ranked 28th.

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III said he was not surprised to learn of Harvard's newest honor.

"The Harvard profile is, I've always thought, a pretty positive one, and we are grateful for the recognition," he said.

Director of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations S. Allen Counter said he was proud that Harvard had made it on to the list but expressed hope that it would soon rise from its current position.

"I would like for us to be higher," Counter said. "We're working on that."

Spelman College in Atlanta was ranked first. Counter said he is pleased that Harvard was ranked among historically black colleges such as Spelman.

"Given the large number of colleges in our country and particularly the very fine traditionally black colleges, to be ranked high even among those colleges is a very good sign for Harvard," he said.

Columbia, 15th on the list, is the only Ivy League school to rank higher than Harvard. Counter said Columbia's setting in New York City is a possible reason for its high ranking.

The University of Pennsylvania and Yale are ranked 34th and 41st respectively. Cornell finishes out the Ivies on the list, ranking 50th.

Epps said Harvard's commitment to a diverse campus placed it on the list.

"I know that we have the largest number of black students in an Ivy League university, which begins to tell you about our commitment to including everyone of talent in the College," he said.

According to a study by the Journal for Blacks in Higher Education, Harvard has the highest percentage of black students enrolled among Ivy League schools.

Epps also noted what he called "low levels of racial tension" at the College. In a recent survey of the senior class, 80 percent of those polled had mixed-race friendship groups, Epps said.

Counter said that the Harvard Foundation has worked since 1981 to reduce the level of racial tension at the college.

"The foundation and other groups have worked on making this a community one that the African-American students can feel proud of," he said.

Dionne A. Fraser '99, president of the Black Students Association, credits the administration and the admissions office for the honor.

"Based on my experiences for the last four years, I feel that the administration is very responsive to the needs [of black students]," she said. "The admissions office does a good job making sure that the student body is racially and socio-economically diverse."

Black Issues in Higher Education, a magazine with a circulation of 200,000, publishes the only other list that ranks colleges for black students, according to Black Enterprise.

Cheryl D. Fields, executive editor of Black Issues in Higher Education, said rankings such as these are valuable for creating discussion in the higher education community.

"This is going to stem a great deal of debate on colleges," she said, noting that rankings also force colleges to make themselves more hospitable to black students.

Harvard has been included on Black Issues' Top 100 list because of its highgraduation rate among black students, Fields said."Harvard has demonstrated the ability to graduatethe students who it admits at a rate that is highand that is encouraging," she said.

Fields said black students may even haveexperiences at Harvard that are similar to thosethey would find at traditionally black colleges.

"In any institution that has a critical mass ofAfrican-American students, there are opportunitiesfor students to have some of the same kinds ofexperiences that they would have on a historicallyblack campus," she said.

Black Enterprise's January issue, whichfeatures the rankings, will be available December29

Fields said black students may even haveexperiences at Harvard that are similar to thosethey would find at traditionally black colleges.

"In any institution that has a critical mass ofAfrican-American students, there are opportunitiesfor students to have some of the same kinds ofexperiences that they would have on a historicallyblack campus," she said.

Black Enterprise's January issue, whichfeatures the rankings, will be available December29