Members of the College community have expressed concern at the low number of black students in the class of 2008; out of 427 incoming freshman, 21 self-identify themselves as black, a figure representing an unusually low five percent of the first-year class. This is a considerable decrease from the 13 percent who self-identified as black in last year's incoming class.

According to President Anthony Marx, the increasingly impressive applicant pool is permitting the admissions committee to accept students with better credentials. "Now that we have gotten in the very top rank of institutions that compete with each other in this category, we are finding that, of course, our yield is not going to be as high," said Marx. "I think it is actually to some extent an effect of our success. We have become so popular, generally and including with minority students, that we are now competing-and getting-the best minority undergraduate applicants in the country."

Some College administrators have questioned whether competing institutions are completely honest in their calculation of black students' financial aid packages. They are particularly concerned with whether other institutions offer additional, non-need-based incentives, but Marx said Amherst would not change the way it allocates aid.

"Some have argued that we might be more successful if we were to bend the rules in terms of financial aid, moving in effect from need-based to somewhat less need-based," Marx said. "Amherst College is committed to allocating our financial aid as fairly as possible and we will not go down the road that some of our peer institutions seem tempted by."

According to Dean of Admissions Joe Case, there is no way to determine whether the accepted black students who did not matriculate were offered non-need based financial aid at other institutions, since anti-trust laws prevent institutions from comparing the differing financial aid packages awarded to individual students.

Case said that the mean income of black students who chose not to matriculate was greater than $90,000. "Substantial contributions are expected of the parents of those students," he said. "It may be that was an issue for those families."

Marx assured members of the College community that the admissions office has not become careless in its efforts to recruit top minority students. "It is not because of any diminished commitment or effort on the part of Amherst College," he said.

Marx also said that the College has come far in achieving a diverse class, and it will continue to work towards this goal. "We have taken pride in Amherst reaching a percentage of African-American students that is comparable to the population as a whole," said Marx. "We were certainly disappointed to see that numbers for this year's freshman class were lower than they have been in the past."

However, faculty and administrators say the current numbers do not appear to be the start of a trend. "It's just one blip on the screen," said Professor of English and Black Studies Rhonda Cobham-Sander, the assistant to the president on diversity. "We have to wait a couple years before we can say something has happened."

According to Case, the faculty will discuss ways to remedy the problem. "All of these issues will be discussed more seriously this season by the [Faculty Committee on Admission and Financial Aid]," Case said.

Although the number of black students has significantly declined, the percentage of minority students in the class of 2008 has remained constant. "There are a lot of minority students, so it's not that the whole minority community will be particularly small, but this class will just have less African-American students," explained Cobham-Sander.

The issue is cause for concern for Patrick Harrison '07. "It's awful because liberal arts colleges have a hard time drawing black students in the first place," he said. "How does this fit in with President Marx's vision of plurality?"

According to Tiffani Hooper '06, an executive board member of the Black Student Union, the group will continue to use their resources and mentoring programs to ensure that black students in the class of 2008 feel welcome and supported at the College.

In the meantime, the administration will work diligently to ensure that incoming classes have a higher percentage of black students. "It's a phenomenon we want to make sure occurs for only one year," said Dean of Students Ben Lieber. "I know the Amherst admissions office will be working very hard to do better next year."