An Evaluation of the Techniques and Strategies for Recruiting African-Americans by 1862 Land-Grant Universities

As post-secondary education becomes more important for the American citizen to generate wealth, universities are struggling to retain and graduate African-Americans, the third-most represented demographic in the country, especially at predominately white colleges and universities. The Colleges of Agriculture at these particular institutions are struggling to even get Black students to apply, let alone graduate. One of the major issues is the disconnect between the African-American community and the idea of post-secondary education in the agricultural field. One way that disconnect can be combatted is new techniques and strategies in recruiting African-Americans. This study identifies three themes based on interviews with recruiters from universities throughout the country, as to why universities are struggling to effectively recruit Black students into programs. The results indicate that there is a lack of resources present and offered in recruiting said student, a perceived misconception of African-American’s views of agriculture and a major disconnect with the African-American community and colleges of agriculture. In order to combat and ultimately fix this issues, these three themes must be addressed