Nov. 3, 2015
CWU Student Body Continues to Diversify
ELLENSBURG, Wash. — In line with the times, the make up of Central Washington University’s student body continues to evolve as student diversity is up, again.
“Growing on campus diversity is making Central even more attractive to students,” says John Swiney, CWU special assistant to the vice president of Business and Financial Affairs.
Figures release by his office indicate that students of color comprise 33.3 percent of the freshman class, which is a 2.1 percent jump from the fall 2014 total. Overall, minority students now account for nearly 30 percent of the university’s total enrollment of 10,912.
Hispanic students alone comprise 16.6 percent of the fall quarter incoming class, with 91 more Hispanic freshmen enrolled at CWU this year as compared to a year ago. Hispanic students now make up 13.3 percent of the university’s student body, which is the largest percent of any individual minority group.
“It takes a while for increasing new student diversity to filter through all years of enrollments.” Swiney points out. “But for all students over the past seven years, Hispanic enrollment has risen from 835 to 1,446 students.”
In addition, Native American and Pacific Islander student enrollment was up 20 percent over fall 2014. And students self-identifying as multiracial jumped 21 percent in the year-to-year comparison.
“Our balanced male and female enrollment is also seen as a positive by our students.” Swiney points out.
Media contact: Robert Lowery, director of Radio Services and Integrated Communications, 509-963-1487, loweryr@cwu.edu
November 2, 2015