Incoming class is most diverse in ND’s history - Notre Dame Magazine Summer 2021

According to the 2020-2021 CDS, of the domestic students, this year 15.6% of the incoming class are URMs, and 70.5 are non-Hispanic White. On the other hand, last year (2019-2020 CDS), 18.7% of the incoming class were URMs, and 67.4% were non-Hispanic White.

On the other hand, this year, 7% were Asian, while last year 5.2% were Asian.

Slightly more Black students matriculated this year - 3.8% this year, versus 3.4% this year, and and a tiny number more indigenous Americans, Alaskans Pacific Islanders and Hawaiians (0.6% versus 0.5%), but fewer Hispanic students (11.1% versus 14.8%).

According to the article, 14.7% are eligible for Pell grants, which is also down from last year’s 18%.

In short, last year seems to have clearly been more diverse, and this year, diversity seems to have gone in the opposite direction.

Why are they comparing the numbers to 2014 and 2018, BTW. That seems to be sort of arbitrary. Why not 2011 or 2016?