The class of 2023 broke a new record for St. Thomas’ diversity percentage. This comes a year after St. Thomas launched its Action Plan to Combat Racism.

Students of color make up 20% of St. Thomas’ class of 2023, compared to last year’s first-year class made up of 15.7% students of color. President Julie Sullivan shared the historic record in her welcome back email to the St. Thomas community.

“Our Catholic mission calls us to root out bigotry and hate, and this year, we will continue making significant strides in our journey to be a community of inclusion, compassion and accompaniment,” Sullivan wrote.

The university’s anti-racism efforts are outlined in the Action Plan to Combat Racism, with efforts designed to target all St. Thomas community members.

Fifty faculty members attended the Summit on Inclusive Learning where they learned about how they can diversify their syllabus and be more aware of everyone in the classroom, according to the Action Plan to Combat Racism.

The first-year class had DiversityEdu training implemented into their welcome days. The course, based on social science research, teaches skills for understanding the impact of unconscious bias.

“It was an hour of online training, it was pretty in-depth,” said first-year student Brandon Torralba.

Torralba was a part of the Reaching Excellence in Academics and Leadership program last July. Incoming first-year students of color who participate the REAL program live on campus, work 30 hours, participate in workshops and complete THEO 101 together.

Torralba also participates in the Linkages mentor program through the Student Diversity and Inclusion Services, which pairs first-year students of color with upperclassmen that serve as a resource and friend.

Admissions Director Kristen Hatfield explained the admissions department is constantly working to educate all types of people that St. Thomas is the university for them.

“We have strong relationships and are continuing to form relationships with what [are] called community-based organizations in the area,” Hatfield said.

In 2019 the admissions department partnered with two new community-based programs, the Tazel Institute and Chicago Scholars.

The Tazel Institute states on its website that the organization works “to educate and expose diverse students, specifically young African American men to the inner workings of professional business in the many industries that make up our economy.”

Chicago Scholars “are academically ambitious, first generation college students from under-resourced communities in Chicago,” according to its website.

“In the recent racist events, we know that we need to work extremely hard to make sure people understand what St. Thomas is about,” Hatfield said.

Undergraduate Student Government President Logan Monahan said one way St. Thomas can recruit more students of color is to advertise appropriately.

“Advertise with integrity. Show potential students what St. Thomas actually is. Be very transparent about how the campus is,” Monahan said. “A lot of the students of color here on campus have felt tokenized, being used for all the advertising for the university.”

The university is trying to market appropriately. The admissions department is working closely with the marketing department to make sure that they were representing all the students well.

“We have also tried to make sure that our publications are reflective of the diverse environment we are trying to create on campus,” Hatfield said.

Monahan recommends students take classes that push them out of their comfort zone and give them different perspectives.

“I think the biggest change I’ve seen has come from the university itself and around the culture that the university is trying to develop,” Monahan said.

Rae Beaner can be reached at rnbeaner696@stkate.edu.