MINORITY ENROLLMENT FACES FUNDING THREAT

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, January 18, 1993                   TAG: 9301180028
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
MINORITY ENROLLMENT FACES FUNDING THREAT
Rising tuition, state college budget cuts and financial aid uncertainties threaten to reverse recent gains in minority student enrollment, a consortium of universities and colleges warned Sunday.
The American Council on Education in its annual report urged Congress and President-elect Clinton's administration to come to the rescue, arguing minorities will most certainly be hit by the current money pinch.
"It is absolutely essential that the federal government renew its commitment to guaranteeing education opportunity for all qualified students regardless of their financial resources," the group's president, Robert Atwell, said. "Access by minorities to higher education is in peril."
The council's report said there was already evidence that budget crunches in California and New York had contributed to declines in minority enrollment.
Clinton has proposed creating a National Service Trust to allow students to borrow money for college education and repay the cost through public service or payroll deductions at tax time. The plan would replace a federal program that provided $13 billion in loans to 4.8 million students in 1991.
ACE, which has 1,500 member colleges and universities, said in its annual "Minorities in Higher Education" report that despite recent gains, blacks and Hispanics are still far less likely than whites to attend college.
The group said more than a third of all whites ages 18 to 24 were enrolled in college in 1991, compared to about 24 percent for blacks and 18 percent for Hispanics.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB