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The enrollment of women and people of color has decreased for the Masters of Business Administration program at Martin J. Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University over the last year, according to data given to The Daily Orange.

Bloomberg Businessweek recently published its diversity index for Whitman’s MBA program, which showed that only 29% of students in the program are female.

According to Bloomberg’s figures, the MBA program was reportedly 71% male and 29% female in 2020. Male and female were the only two gender categories included in Bloomberg’s breakdown. Alexander McKelvie, Whitman’s associate dean for undergraduate and master’s education, and Dawn McWilliams, Whitman’s director of marketing and communications, provided The D.O. a new set of percentages that contradicts Bloomberg’s findings.

According to the data provided by McWilliams and McKelvie, the enrollment of women in the in-person MBA program dropped from 40% in 2020-21 to 37% in 2021-22.

The enrollment for students of color dropped from 21% in 2020-21 to 18% in 2021-22. International students are not counted as students of color for these statistics but were counted in a separate category.

“We’re shocked that the data is presented this way, especially when we know the underlying data is what’s really going on,” McKelvie said. “So part of it again is how people slice and dice it and then that fundamental flaw of excluding international students from all of those calculations. It just doesn’t make sense because they are an extremely important part of our student body,”

Ivana Xie | Asst. Copy Editor

McWilliams said the decreasing enrollments of both women and students of color were due to the pandemic but made no further comment on the decrease. McWilliams did not provide data on the enrollment of white students.

The number of in-person international students in the MBA program increased from 27% in 2020-21 to 31% in 2021-22, according to the data from McWilliams and McKelvie.

“The (Bloomberg) diversity index is a new index. This was the first time they did it,” McWilliams said. “They asked for our input as to how it was being created. They didn’t take all the suggestions, and therefore it skews very odd for what we feel is important. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they go back and look at that next year to see that it wasn’t quite right.”

For Whitman’s 2020-21 online MBA program, 30% of students were female, according to Whitman. Female was the only gender included in the percentages. International students made up only 1% of the program, while 39% were students of color.

Data from McWilliams showed there was a 3% increase in female participation in the online MBA program for 2021-22. International students, however, remained at only 1% of online students while online students of color increased by 6% from the previous year.

Elizabeth Gordon, an MBA student at Whitman, shared her thoughts on the diversity in Whitman as she came from an engineering background with a low representation of female students.

“I definitely feel more heard in group and class settings with more females in the room, as well as more female professors,” Gordon said. “I know what it’s like if the female population is low, so coming to Whitman has been a nice change.”

But Gordon said that there is a lack of cultural representation at Whitman.“I think Whitman is diverse, especially more diverse coming from engineering, based on gender diversity. I don’t think there are many cultures and backgrounds represented, but I do think that could be because of COVID, ” she said.

McKelvie said Whitman has taken numerous initiatives to promote diversity and inclusivity. On Sept. 24, Whitman announced the Whitman Challenge for MBA students to participate in projects that create a long-lasting impact.

The New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity project invested in an over 40 acre former golf course for $55 million to build 140 single family homes, apartments and homes for older people. MBA students developed marketing strategies to create traditional and digital fundraising campaigns to reach different audiences like foundations, corporations and individual donors.

McKelvie also said Whitman is committed to the National Black MBA Association. The partnership launched in August 2018. Whitman also has a local chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants, McKelvie said.

“It’s still a work in progress. We’re not perfect yet, but it’s definitely working in the right direction,” McKelvie said.

Published on December 8, 2021 at 1:50 am

Contact Ivana: ixie01@syr.edu