University representatives, including those at the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus, tend to recruit from wealthier and whiter high schools, particularly out-of-state, according to data published in a New York Times Opinion piece last week.

Steep state funding cuts have made public universities more dependent on tuition revenue and, in turn, more dependent on out-of-state student enrollment, the piece contends. The researchers who wrote it highlighted CU as an example of such a school. They found that CU advertised nearly triple the number of out-of-state visits as in-state visits, and out-of-state visits tended toward wealthier schools.

The researchers identified a group of universities that advertised off-campus recruiting events on admissions websites, and they collected that data throughout 2017, said Ozan Jaquette, the study’s co-principal investigator and UCLA assistant professor.

CU representatives did a lot of out-of-state recruiting in the face of poor state funding, Jaquette said in a phone interview with the Daily Camera. University data show that between 2007 and 2017, the total number of out-of-state students grew by 4,402, while the total-number in-state students decreased by 144.

“It’s almost nonexistent, and that’s part of the story we’re trying to tell,” Jaquette said of Colorado state funding. “… This is what happens when the state does not fund higher education.”

CU officials defended their recruiting practices. They said the university has to use limited resources in a strategic way. When visiting out-of-state schools, they will pick schools that have historically funneled students into the university, said Colleen Newman, director of admissions.

CU spokesman Ryan Huff added that the university would not focus efforts on random out-of-state high schools, and it would not change its recruitment efforts in light of the New York Times piece.

“Our decisions are statistically based on applications and who will have success at CU Boulder,” he said. “They’re not based on other socioeconomic factors.”

Beyond that, Newman said, the study captured only a fraction of the recruitment picture because it focused solely on in-person recruitment visits. It did not take into account other recruitment efforts, such as digital advertising, email campaigns, counselor engagement events and phone call outreach.

“I think we are recruiting students from across the country who are academically talented and driven and excited to be at CU Boulder, and we’re recruiting them through a variety of different methods,” Newman said.

Jaquette noted that CU was fairly equitable in its in-state recruitment visits. Representatives visited a “good chunk” of — but not all — in-state high schools. They deserve credit for that, he said.

“It’s my belief that public, flagship universities should basically be going to every high school in the state and saying, ‘If you work hard, you have an opportunity to attend the public flagship university in the state. This is your state,'” he said. “I think that’s important.”

‘Colleges … should look for merit everywhere’

However, the school exhibited negative patterns in its out-of-state recruiting visits, he said.

The New York Times piece used this example: When University of Colorado representatives visited public high schools in the Boston metropolitan area, they “focused on schools in wealthy communities but skipped many poor schools that had higher numbers of students scoring proficient in math.” They visited a high school that was 88 percent white but skipped a high school that was 21 percent white and had more than quadruple the number of students with proficient math scores, according to the article.

In total, according to the study’s data, CU advertised 353 in-state visits in 2017 — 3.7 percent of which were to private high schools. It advertised 1,029 out-of-state visits — 32.8 percent of which were to private high schools.

The out-of-state public high schools that CU visited were in zip codes with an average median household income of $114,000. In contrast, the out-of-state public high schools that CU skipped were in zip codes with an average median household income of $62,000.

“There are many students from poor communities who get excellent grades but end up going to a community college because no one bothers looking for them,” Jaquette and co-principal investigator Karina Salazar wrote. “If colleges are serious about increasing socioeconomic and racial diversity, they should look for merit everywhere, not just in wealthy, white communities.”

This was the preliminary piece in ongoing research projects to examine college recruitment efforts, Jaquette said.

Last week, Jaquette and Salazar established a website, emraresearch.org, to house the data they gathered in 2017 and outline upcoming research topics — such as which prospective students receive emails and brochures, how universities respond to prospective student inquiries and which enrollment consulting firms universities hire.

Cassa Niedringhaus: 303-473-1106, cniedringhaus@dailycamera.com