"We have had a rise in minority admissions within the last 10 years and we keep increasing every year," said Ed Escalet, director of minority admissions. "The university really makes an effort to let everyone know that diversity in the classroom has become really engraved in what our values are [at Penn State]."

Penn State spokesman Bill Mahon agreed.

"We have made a real commitment to making sure we have a diverse group of students on campus," he said. "I think that is probably a result of Penn State having a strong academic standing, and that our minority graduation rate was number one in the Big Ten."

Currently, University Park's student makeup includes 4 percent African American, 4 percent Asian American and 3 percent Hispanic, Escalet said. Despite the seemingly low percentages, he said this is the largest freshman minority class in the university's history.

"We are probably behind Pitt and Temple [in the number of minority students that are enrolled] because of their location," he said. "I think that we are doing well because we're putting in the effort."

University President Graham Spanier discussed the future of Penn State's demographics at the Sept. 16 Faculty Senate presentation.

Penn State's student population in 2015 is expected to be 79 percent white and 7 percent Hispanic. But the national demographic is expected to be 61 percent white and 19 percent Hispanic.

Spanier stressed the importance of all of Penn State's recruitment efforts.

" ... This trend is of lesser concern to the viability of Penn State, where our popularity with out-of-state students is strong and growing and where our overall admissions activity provides us some security," he said at the meeting.

Penn State attempts to attract prospective minority students with a program Student Minority Advising and Recruitment Team (S.M.A.R.T.)

"I think [the S.M.A.R.T. team] works out really well because students can ask real students about social life on campus and the things that they do," Escalet said.

Kheri-ann Henry (freshman-biochemistry) grew up near Miami and was recruited by the S.M.A.R.T. program, which works with the minority admissions office and organizes special recruitment events.

Henry, who is Jamaican, said the cultural diversity was not the most important part of Penn State, but it helped when making her decision.

"I wanted to go somewhere new where I could experience new things," she said. "Some of my classes are more diverse than others, but in Florida there were a lot more minorities."

Another endeavor Penn State uses to recruit minority students is recruitment centers located in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, New York City and New Jersey.

"I try to emphasize that [they] are likely to graduate because Penn State doesn't let students fall through the cracks," Escalet said.

The Penn State climate has a specific culture, said Terrell Jones, vice provost for educational equity, and it depends on what environment students lived in before.

Most students are coming from academic environments that are segregated, Jones said.

The average white student comes from a school where white students make up 85 percent of the student body and black and Hispanic students come from schools where they make up 50 to 70 percent, he said.

"We bring them together in college and wonder why they don't get along," Jones said.

Many students agree their high school careers were spent in segregated conditions.

"I am from New York City, and although it is a very diverse city, it is very segregated," Katrina Pierre (junior-communication science disorders) said. "Different races tend to go to school together because of where they live. If there is an all black community, then there will be an all black school, if there is an all Russian community, then there will be an all Russian school."

Another student felt that diversity is a necessary thing, but that Penn State doesn't offer it as much as she had hoped.

"Walking around campus you see a bunch of different people, some black, and Korean, and Hispanic and white," said Lauren George (senior-secondary education).

Her friend Liz Morgitan (senior-international politics) agreed.

"It seems like walking through the HUB, there are different sections of different kinds of people," Morgitan said. "People say that we're diverse and a part of me wants to say that we are, but we're really not."

She said this is proven in Penn State's clubs such as Black Caucus or Latino Caucus.

"If you wanted to learn about a different group, you couldn't really just go and join one of those groups," Morgitan said.

The president of Black Caucus, Tiffanie Lewis (senior-journalism and psychology) said that is not the case.

"Black Caucus is basically a group that focuses on black people but it doesn't mean that people who are not African American can't be in it," Lewis said. "We don't discriminate on race or culture."

There are students in Black Caucus that are not black, she added.