Benjamin Banneker Honors College: Gateway to Scientific and Technical Doctorates

Abstract

Three major population trends will have a significant impact on the future economic and social well-being of the United States. These trends include the slowing of the population growth rate, the aging of the population, and the increasing number and proportion of minorities in the population. During the decade from 1960-1970, the United States experienced a 13.4 percent increase in population. However, during the decade from 1970-1980, the country had only a 11.4 percent increase, and this slowdown in growth is expected to continue. In 1970 the median age in the United States was 28.1; whereas, by 1987 the median age had risen to 32.1. The White population constituted 83.1 percent of the United States population in 1970, but, with a birthrate that is less vigorous than that of the minority population, the White representation fell to only 79.7 percent of the population in 1980 (Murdock, 1989, unpaged). The data suggest that the labor force in the United States, if it is to retain its competitiveness, must increasingly absorb its minority population-a population that tends to be younger and more prolific. Moreover, with more than half the projected jobs in the year 2000 requiring some college education, the successful enrollment and retention of minorities in higher education must become a national priority of the utmost significance in order for the nation to accomplish a fully participative, multicultural society. Unfortunately, the matriculation and graduation rates for Black Americans indicate that a substantial commitment to their involvement in higher education, at both the undergraduate and graduate/professional school level, has yet to be forthcoming. In fact, the data reveal that an alarming erosion of Black participation in higher education is occurring in spite of the vision of an equitable society that was promulgated in the civil rights legislation of the sixties and seventies. The American Council on Education in its Eighth Annual Status Report on Minorities in Higher Education (Carter & Wilson, 1989, p. iv) presents the following startling facts: