Reporting Race/Ethnicity

Last Update: 10/3/2022

The current method for officially reporting race/ethnicity began in the spring semester of 2010.  It is based on race/ethnicity data collection and reporting requirements from the federal government. 

Data Collection

A two-question format is used to collect self-reported race and ethnicity categories from students, staff and faculty.  This data collection occurs on admission applications and IU human resources forms, among other methods.  For question 2, multiple races can be selected.

Question 1: Are you Hispanic or Latino (Y or N). 

Question 2: What is your race?

1. American Indian or Alaska Native
2. Asian
3. Black or African American
4. Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
5. White

These self-reported race and ethnicity identifiers are displayed as Y/N values in the following columns.  A sample list of tables with these columns is also listed below.

• Column names:
  • PRSN_ETHNIC_DTL_WHT_IND
  • PRSN_ETHNIC_DTL_BLK_IND
  • PRSN_ETHNIC_DTL_HISP_IND
  • PRSN_ETHNIC_DTL_ASN_IND
  • PRSN_ETHNIC_DTL_AMIN_IND
  • PRSN_ETHNIC_DTL_NONE_IND
  • PRSN_ETHNIC_DTL_PCFC_ISLDR_IND
  • PRSN_ETHNIC_VLDTD_IND – indicates that the student has answered the two new race/ethnicity questions
  • PRSN_ETHNIC_HISP_IND – indicates the answer to the first question
• Sample tables:
  • SR_STU_TERM_GT
  • IR_CEN_TRM_SNPSHT_GT

Race/Ethnicity Reporting

According to federal guidelines, we report race/ethnicity using the following derived values:

PRSN_DRVD_IPEDS_ETHNIC_CD     PRSN_DRVD_IPEDS_ETHNIC_DESC

1                                                              White

2                                                              Black/African American

3                                                              Hispanic/Latino

4                                                              Asian

5                                                              American Indian/Alaska Native

6                                                              US Nonresident

7                                                              Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander

8                                                              Two or More Races

These reporting race/ethnicity values are assigned using the following logic:

1. First, international individuals are reported as 6 – US Nonresident (formerly NR-Alien or non-resident alien). This is the case regardless of what the individual selects in the data collection questions.  (See below for information about how international students are identified for this field.)
2. Next, individuals who self-identify as Hispanic or Latino are reported as 3 – Hispanic/Latino. This is the case even if the individual selects other options in Question 2 of the data collection question (see above).
3. Next, if an individual is not in the first two categories above (neither international nor Hispanic/Latino), and the individual selected two or more options under Question 2 of the data collection question, this person is reported as 8 – Two or More Races.
4. Finally, any remaining individuals are reported based on their selection of a single category in Question 2 of the data collection question.

When reporting from IR_CEN_TRM_SNPSHT_GT, we use PRSN_DRVD_ETHNIC_IR_RPT_CD/DESC.  This field is populated prior to 4099 from PRSN_DRVD_ETHNIC_CD/DESC and for term(s) equal to or in the future of 4099, the data are pulled from PRSN_DRVD_IPEDS_ETHNIC_CD/DESC.

There are also two other derived race/ethnicity groupings that are used in official reporting, and the DSS_RDS dimension table DSS_SH.SH_PRSN_IPEDS_ETHN_GRP_DM can be used via SQL to consistently group and report students as Domestic Students of Color or Under-Represented Students of Color.

1. Domestic Students of Color (or “Students of Color”)
   1. This includes individuals with PRSN_DRVD_IPEDS_ETHNIC_DESC values of Hispanic, African American, Asian, American Indian, Pacific Islander, or Two or More Races.
2. Under-Represented Students of Color
   1. This is similar to Domestic Students of Color but excludes Asian.
3. % of Students of Color (of Domestic Known)
   1. Some reporting will want to know the percent of students of color. This usually means the students of color as a percentage of the domestic known population, as opposed to the percent of the entire population. Domestic Known is all race/ethnicities, EXCLUDING US Nonresident and Unknown.

Identifying International Students

International student headcounts should be reported using the PRSN_DRVD_IPEDS_ETHNIC_DESC value of “US Nonresident,” as described above.  International individuals are identified based on their most recent visa permit type in the Student Information System (SIS).  Individuals whose most recent visa permit type is a value other than the codes listed below is reported as US Nonresident.  Note that a student’s “citizenship” coding in the SIS is not taken into account for reporting international student headcounts.

Identifying International Applicants and Admits in the Admissions Funnel (using PRSN_DRVD_ADM_RPT_ETHNIC_DESC)

When someone has applied to an IU campus and has not been admitted, we identify international applicants by looking at their application center code in SIS, rather than visa permit data.

If the application center for a non-admitted applicant is UINT, GINT or CELT, the applicant is identified as international:

PRSN_DRVD_ADM_RPT_ETHNIC_CD=’6’ and PRSN_DRVD_ADM_RPT_ETHNIC_DESC=’International’

Once the person is admitted to IU, PRSN_DRVD_ADM_RPT_ETHNIC_CD and PRSN_DRVD_ADM_RPT_ETHNIC_DESC will be set to ‘6’ and ‘International’ only if PRSN_DRVD_IPEDS_ETHNIC_CD=’6’.

Legacy Fields – Avoid Using These

A number of legacy fields related to race/ethnicity exist in various tables.  These are not used by UIRR for reporting race/ethnicity (exceptions noted below):

 PRSN_PRM_ETHNIC_CD            

 PRSN_PRM_ETHNIC_SHRT_DESC     

 PRSN_PRM_ETHNIC_DESC          

 PRSN_PRM_ETHNIC_DTL_CD        

 PRSN_PRM_ETHNIC_DTL_SHRT_DESC 

 PRSN_PRM_ETHNIC_DTL_DESC      

 PRSN_DRVD_RPT_ETHNIC_CD     (This was used by UIRR prior to 2010.)

 PRSN_DRVD_RPT_ETHNIC_DESC      (This was used by UIRR prior to 2010.)

References

• https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/report-your-data/race-ethnicity-definitions
• https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/report-your-data/resource-center-race-ethnicity
• https://surveys.nces.ed.gov/ipeds/public/changes-to-the-current-year