Receiving reasonable restaurant service or hailing a cab can be a struggle for minorities, but do they face the same barriers when it comes to receiving a higher education?
Not according to U of T administration. Ian Orchard, vice-provost of university administration, says, “For first-entry programs at the University of Toronto, about 47 per cent of students self-identify as part of visible minorities, while 44 per cent of the entering class of professional faculties identify as members of visible minorities.”
As a result of the 1992 PARRARI (Presidential Advisors on Race Relations and Anti-Racism Initiatives) Report, the university has taken many steps to address the socio-economic problems of minority students.
A permanent office for RRARI was established in January 1993 and on March 31, 1994 the university’s Governing Council approved a Statement on Discriminatory Harassment and Prohibited Discrimination. Florence Silver, a recruitment official at U of T, says the university is aware of the challenges facing minorities, but others believe awareness is not enough.
“There is a need to demystify the notion of university in order to outreach ‘inner-city’ students,” says Kevin Andrews, RRARI officer.
“The focus is to attract and advertise to black, Portuguese, native and other minority groups. The university strives to make U of T a realistic option for all. There are no faculty quotas, but there is a recognition in the institution that it is not representing the general populace.”
Andrews acknowledges that U of T is working towards ending racially discriminatory admission, but points out that “inner-city students are not encouraged into streams promoting professional faculties such as medicine, engineering, nursing….”
He says income disparity also keeps many minority students from attaining a higher education. “There are unfortunate cases where students have to sacrifice education to make income for family contributions.”
Despite these criticisms, the University of Toronto states categorically that “no student offered admission to a programme at the University of Toronto should be unable to enter or complete the programme due to lack of financial means.”
While Andrews is “much more hopeful that needy students of all backgrounds will have the opportunity to enroll,” he feels there is still much to be done. “For some groups, including needy black students, targeted funds are a very effective recruitment tool and efforts to find such funds should continue.”
The university currently offers a number of programs to assist and expose minority students to the possibility of a post-secondary education. For instance, the Transitional Year Programme (TYP) was established in 1970 to provide access to university degree programs for all under-represented groups, irrespective of racial or ethnic backgrounds, whose individual backgrounds were deemed disadvantaged. TYP is a one-year, full-time special university access programme designed to prepare educationally disadvantaged students to enter degree studies at the University of Toronto. The TYP offers courses which, together with small group and individualized tutoring and counselling, prepare students to enter U of T’s Faculty of Arts and Science. At present, the TYP has a 75 per cent success rate. Mentorship and outreach programmes also help the university reach groups it is seeking to attract. 141 students took part in the Summer Mentorship Programme (SMP) in 2000, in which Toronto-area students and teachers worked together to provide enrichment opportunities for students from under-represented groups.
The faculties of Law, Medicine and Social Work and OISE/UT have also made an effort to reach out to students from racial minority and socio-economically disadvantaged groups.
The professional faculties started the Saturday Programme in 1996 to “provide tutoring, mentorship, and enrichment experiences to inner-city high school students,” many of whom were not realizing their academic potential. Aimed primarily at students of aboriginal, black and Portuguese backgrounds, the programme focused on tutoring in math, science and English. By 2000, the objective had changed to providing support to all students from cultural backgrounds. Teachers suggest the programme has improved many students’ grades and self-esteem. The Faculty of Law hosted their own one-day high school outreach in 2000 to create mentoring opportunities for black students. Medical and graduate students in physiology partnered with science teachers in inner-city schools to tutor on a once-a-week basis, and the Faculty of Social Work and OISE/UT offered seminars and courses such as “Trauma and Refugees” and “Staggered Migration and Families.” OISE also promoted anti-racism, equity and alternative knowledge in education with their Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies (CIAR).
The university has also attempted to reach out to native groups in Northern Ontario. Recruiters have ventured as far as Curve Lake and north of Manitoulin Island. Florence Silver says, “Many scholarships are available specifically to aid underprivileged kids. For example, the Leland Honderich scholarship provides Grade 8 students full scholarships,” as an incentive to stay in school and go on to university. Ike Okafor, founder of the U of T Black Students Association, believes the university must work to change minority youth’s perception of higher education.
“The greatest hindrance for many minority students is a [negative] mind-frame. There is a need for role models within the community in order to reinforce the possibility.”
Only when these mental barriers are torn down will it be possible to begin attacking the other barriers that exist.
