With the exception of American Indians, the U.'s student body has fewer students of color this year than last, and the trend in enrollment of Latino students, as a percentage of the growing Latino population statewide, has been headed sharply downward over nearly three decades.

The university's Academic Senate is rightly concerned about the increasing lack of diversity among the student population. A too-white campus deprives all its students of the balanced education that a more diverse university can provide. A publicly funded university should strive to mirror the diversity of the state's population.

An Academic Senate committee that reported the disappointing trend is proposing further discussion of creative ways to increase ethnic and gender diversity. That is commendable, for the state's largest public university should do all it can to boost minority student enrollments and to help them stay in school until they graduate with a degree.

However, there are forces affecting minority enrollment that are beyond the university's control. The poor achievement and alarmingly high dropout rate of minority students in Utah's public schools is undoubtedly a factor.

Today's higher entrance requirements at the U. - at least an 18 on the ACT and a 2.6 grade-point average or above - are an insurmountable barrier to minority students who have not been adequately prepared in public schools. High school students of color who feel they have failed academically are not likely to sign up to take a college entrance exam. Indeed, only half to a third of Latino, Asian, African-American and American Indian students completed high school in 2004 and the dropout rate increases nearly every year.

Utah's overcrowded classes - the largest in the nation and likely to get larger - make it difficult for teachers to give minority students the attention they may need, especially those students with limited English-language skills and homes where one parent is missing or both work long hours to make ends meet.

The Utah Legislature can no longer rely on hard-working teachers and parents with time to reinforce their efforts at home to make up for the lowest per-pupil spending in the country. Education isn't all about money, but money is essential to quality education, and Utah schools need more of it - now.