As Maryland’s demographics shift, so do college student bodies

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Demographic shifts have reshaped the student populations at Maryland universities, with more racially and economically diverse student bodies spurring new programs and accommodations. Some schools report increases in older students and international students.

From 2011 to 2020, the percentage of minority students has increased significantly at Frostburg State University, Salisbury University, the University of Maryland, Baltimore, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, the University of Maryland, College Park, and Towson University, where it nearly doubled, from 21.5% to 39%, according to the University System of Maryland.

In fact, in 2018, the number of University System of Maryland students who identified as a racial minority — 42.9% — surpassed those who identified as white — 41.9%. The remaining 15.2% identified as multiple races, are foreign students, or their race is unknown.

These shifts mostly follow demographic trends in the state at large, which the recent census showed contains more residents identifying as people of color than as white due to increases in the state’s Hispanic and Asian populations.

Maryland universities are adapting to this shift by working on measures to ensure students of color feel comfortable and accommodated on campus. At Frostburg State University, where the student body is about 33.3% minority students (and 13.5% multi-racial, foreign or unknown), the school is working to introduce more diversity and inclusion training for faculty and staff, and is currently developing a multicultural center.

The school’s newest admissions counselor is Latina and speaks Spanish, making the admissions process more accessible to Spanish-speaking applicants.

“We’re certainly aware of that demographic shift,” said Michael Mathias, interim provost at Frostburg. “We feel that the diversity in experience and background that brings to our campus is an asset to our campus.”

Morgan State University, a historically Black university that is not part of the university system, has also seen a rise in Hispanic students, according to Kara Turner, vice president of enrollment management and student success. This has led the school to create a diversity-focused admissions position and to launch programs aimed at the school’s growing Hispanic population, such as a Latina sorority.

UMBC considers itself a “historically-diverse university,” and students of color have made up a significant portion of the UMBC campus for years, with a little over a fifth of UMBC students in 1978 identifying as a minority. Still, that number has nearly doubled since then to 38.4%.

The college has also made strides to support the growing population of first-generation college students on campus. Among other initiatives, UMBC offers the Golden Ticket Pre-Orientation Program to first-generation students and their families, giving them personalized guidance prior to orientation. Additionally, the university is working to scale its first year seminar courses, one-credit classes that are open to first-year students and aim to help them adjust to college.

“The idea is recognizing that the starting line may not be the same for everyone, so we’re doing what we can to give them that jump start, to make sure they’re starting at the same place as their peers and giving them that individual one-on-one, small group experience opportunity to ask questions, to explain things in more detail and just having someone there that they can turn to,” said Yvette Mozie-Ross, UMBC’s vice provost for enrollment management and planning.

The median age of USM students has remained the same over the past decade — 22 for undergraduates and 29 for graduate students — but some officials have noticed changes in the age demographics at their institutions. Frostburg, for example, offers an online nursing program that allows registered nurses to return to school to get their Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing; most of the students in this popular program are somewhat older professionals who already have years of nursing experience under their belts.

The school also offers an online Ed.D. program in educational leadership that also attracts more experienced professionals, and which has grown in popularity in recent years. This year, Frostburg doubled the number of students in this program to 30.

“(From) what I’m hearing from the coordinator of the program, I don’t know that (the program’s growth) is necessarily related to the pandemic,” Mathias said. “I think the word is getting out across the state about the quality of the program. I think we’ve got a good reputation.”

On the other hand, at Morgan, Turner has noticed the age range of graduate students beginning to skew younger, as more students decide to get their graduate degrees sooner after they graduate from their undergraduate programs, rather than waiting or working in between.

Both Morgan and several schools within the USM have worked to recruit more international students. Systemwide, 3,653 USM students came from abroad in fall 2020, an increase of 24.3% from 2011. At some schools that increase was more dramatic. At Frostburg, the number of international students increased by a whopping 559%, from 58 in fall 2011 to 382 in fall 2020.

On the other hand, UMBC’s foreign student population has stagnated in the 400s throughout the past decade; UMCP dropped from 1,110 international students to 745 last semester amid the pandemic.

“We’ve always done fairly well in attracting (international) students given our strengths in our academics, and our location, right near the airport … but have given a little more focus to that in the recent years,” Mozie-Ross noted.

Morgan has also placed an emphasis on recruiting international students over the past decade, with the school’s Division of International Affairs having been created in 2014 to grow international enrollment. The school now has over 850 international students, according to the division’s website, mostly hailing from Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, where Morgan has partnered with a number of institutions and organizations.

“We have a good number of Ph.D. students that the (Tertiary Education Trust Fund) in Nigeria is funding to come to Morgan to get their degrees. We have a partnership with an institution in Ghana … to actually provide education over there, in Ghana,” Turner said. “It’s strategic, (that) we are growing in all these populations. Investments have been made to promote our programs, to promote the graduate school, to promote the undergraduate institution. So, it’s all strategic.”