Asking for MORE

Keri Garrett and 14 other students sat around a table at the Office of Admissions Wednesday eating pizza. After they filled up, they started making calls to prospective IU students and encouraged them to make Indiana their top choice. \nMinorities only make up 7 percent of the campus population, according to the IU Factbook, and Garrett, the student director of Multicultural Outreach Recruitment Educators, is working to change that.\n“I joined to be involved in something positive (that) would lead to change on campus,” Garrett said.\nMORE was first created by the University as part of its mission to increase diversity, said Charleston Sanders, director of MORE. The organization is an outreach program for the Admissions Office, Sanders said.\nIts original and existing goal is to increase the population of enrolled minority students at IU, junior and MORE member Erin Norton said.\nNorton said she joined MORE because she wanted to make sure students who are interested in enrolling at IU know the truth about minorities on campus.\nIn order to increase the number of minority students, the organization and its 33 members participate in workshops, call-a-thons, student panels, overnight visits and various on- and off-campus programs, Sanders said. These events are meant to showcase IU to prospective minority students.\nIn order to recruit students, the MORE student ambassadors will make about 1,000 calls a year, Sanders said.\nThe student ambassadors are given a general script to help them start up conversations with the potential IU students and answer any questions they might have, Garrett said. \nMORE focuses on students with ethnic backgrounds such as African American, Asian, Hispanic and Native American, Sanders said.\nMORE holds monthly meetings and uses part of the meeting as a call-out to minority students at IU, Garrett said. During the meeting, student ambassadors call minority high school seniors who have been admitted to IU and invite the students to participate in MORE activities in order to become acquainted with the University. \nSanders said the success of the organization is best exemplified by its members. \n“Many people that have been in MORE have been touched by it,” Sanders said.