Last week, University students, faculty and staff received an e-mail asking individuals to verify their reported race or ethnicity.

The request, sent out by Denise Gardner, director of institutional research, was an effort to gain a more comprehensive description of the University population.

“The data allows institutions to gain a better understanding of our community in order to create better programs and wider outreach,” Gardner said.

Universities which receive federal funding are required to report enrollment data such as gender, and race to federal and state governments. A change in the breakdown of this racial data is what prompted last week’s requested update.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget is switching to new guidelines which differentiate race from ethnicity and create a separate question to determine how many people identify themselves as Hispanic or Latino. Under these same guidelines, Asian and Pacific Islander are now separate racial categories and there is no longer an option to chose “multi-racial,” but to check all races that apply.

These new guidelines will also be implemented to student and employment applications beginning next year. University enrollment records are also submitted to U.S. News and World Report, college guides such as the Princeton Review and Peterson’s, and for general reference from the University fact book.

An updated race record could be useful to the University community in ways other than general reports.

Joyce Bell, assistant professor of sociology and African American studies, said the reports could be purposive in recruiting diversity of incoming students.

“If we see an educational value to racial diversity, then having the data will help us see where we are in promoting racial equality and diversity,” Bell said.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 4,000 students and faculty had responded to the e-mail. The Office of Institutional Research will attempt to increase this response rate by communicating to students and faculty through administrative encouragement as well as e-mails.

“It’s personal data and results depend on how people want to self-identify,” Gardner said. “Updating your information is optional, but we would appreciate people to update their racial or ethnic backgrounds to give us a better picture of our campus.”