The Office of Multi-cultural Student Affairs has become a resource center and home base for minority students on campus. Photo by Gary Samson

Ask President Joan Leitzel, and there is little doubt. To her, diversity is "a quality of education issue." All students learn more when the student body is more diverse.

"We do a better job of teaching students in a diverse climate," she says. "And there are a couple of reasons for that. One is that we learn from each other, and our students can learn from people with different backgrounds and beliefs. The second reason is that a high percentage of our students will have their lives and careers in fairly diverse settings, and it is important that they be ready for that kind of a future."

It all sounds clear enough. But getting there is another matter. An online poll by the student newspaper, conducted on November 17, 1998, didn't offer much encouragement. The poll posed the question, "Can UNH make this campus more diverse?" Only 28 percent of respondents answered "yes;" 9 percent said "maybe;" and 63 percent said "no."

To be sure, the informal poll was taken at a time when tensions were high. The Black Student Union had days before held a sit-in at Thompson Hall to demand that the university increase diversity on campus. Leitzel agreed to demands that included hiring more black tenure-track faculty, hiring a minority counselor and recruiting and retaining minority students. But the poll, unscientific as it is, does echo a common sentiment: a sense of futility.

Speak with administrators, faculty, students, and the bottom line in a discussion of diversity ends with the observation that, well, "This is New Hampshire." Census Bureau figures from 1990 indicate that 1,087,433 of the state's 1,109,252 residents (98 percent) are white. In some respects, it is not surprising that only 324 of the 9,741 undergraduates at UNH are minorities. But while it remains to be seen whether UNH can create a campus that attracts and keeps students and faculty of different racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds, there is a growing sense that now, this year, things are beginning to happen.

"In many ways, we are entering into a new era at UNH," says John Ernest, associate professor of English and coordinator of the African American Studies minor. "President Leitzel has recognized that before her time the efforts for diversity were one-shot deals. She has tried to institute structural change."

Indeed she has. Three years ago, she created the Commission on the Status of People of Color. She hired a full-time affirmative action director, Pat Gormley, to fill what had been a part-time position. She has also hired other minorities for key administrative positions. As for faculty, Gormley points to a slight up-tick in the number of new minority hires: eight last year, up from three the previous year. In student enrollment, there are some gains to report. Applications from minority students were at 463 in early May, up from 380 at the same time last year, and preliminary indications of new student enrollments are encouraging.

"We had a positive year in attracting applications to the university, and minority application increases, at least on a percentage basis, were ahead of those for the entire freshman class," says Director of Admissions James Washington, who is African American. "There's still a lot of work to be done. We can't be complacent, but we're committed to doing that work, and I'm optimistic that we'll continue to see improvement."

Leitzel, too, sounds determined. "We may stumble a little bit," she says. "But we will not fail." Following up on promises made at the sit-in, she has also hired the counseling center's first staff psychologist of color. For the first time, the admissions office has a staff member dedicated to minority student recruitment, with a search under way for a second person.

But university officials agree that getting more minority students to enroll isn't their first priority. Their top priority is to make things better for the students who are already here. To help smooth the road for them, the Connect program, which previously provided a fall orientation for incoming minority freshmen, now keeps in touch with students all year long. And the Office of Residential Life will open a "Common Purposes" dormitory next fall for students who want to focus on issues of diversity.

The Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (OMSA), under the direction of Sean McGhee, is playing a key role coordinating diversity efforts on campus, as well as weekly activities that students of all backgrounds and races can enjoy. McGhee's office has become a hang-out for minority students and those with an interest in diversity. On a Monday afternoon, it is jammed. Students are talking, doing homework, making phone calls. OMSA has become home base.

Comfortable as things seem, the road to diversity at UNH has been and remains riddled with obstacles. Chief among them is the sense that there is no real problem at all -- a pervasive tone that makes the UNH campus a stressful environment for people who aren't white. "It is not out in the open," says Roger Beattie, an African American who is special assistant to the vice provost for enrollment management and who watches out for minority students. "There is not a serious awareness of what minority students have to go through."