Campus "Diversity" At The Expense Of Students -- Especially The Ones From Low-Income Backgrounds
At the typically PC site Zocalo, Kim A. Wilcox, Chancellor of UC Riverside, writes that "college rankings are anti-diversity," and she's not worrying about diversity of viewpoints, of course:
In the next several weeks, millions of high school seniors will apply to colleges and universities across the nation. If you are one of them--and if you come from a low-income family or are a minority student--I urge you not to look at higher education rankings systems that emphasize reputation, acceptance rates, and alumni giving.Instead, keep your eye on rankings that rely upon a different set of numbers: Namely, graduation and retention rates. That's because the current trends in enrolling and graduating low-income and minority students threaten social justice in higher education.
American Council on Education statistics show that college enrollment among low-income students has fallen to 46 percent, 20 percent below the national average. While African-American and Latino/a enrollment is rising somewhat, there are troubling gaps in outcomes for these students.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, among students enrolled in four-year institutions only 41 percent of African-American students and 53 percent of Latino/a students ultimately attain bachelor's degrees. That's compared to at least 70 percent of Asian counterparts, and 63 percent of Caucasians.
...While some institutions focus on efforts to ensure low-income and minority students en masse get their degrees and move into rewarding careers, they're probably not listed among the private colleges and universities that dominate the top 10 lists in the U.S. News & World Report, Wall Street Journal, or Forbes rankings. The nation's public higher education institutions, less frequently cited at the top of these rankings, enroll more than 70 percent of all four-year college students--including a preponderance of low-income and minority students.
...So applicants and their parents should look to other higher education resources to gauge more relevant measures. For example, the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard allows you to compare tuition and living costs, graduation rates, and income after graduation.
Furthermore, there are important questions students should ask about any school they're considering:
What is the diversity picture? Will you be 1 in 100 on your campus, or 1 in 5? Statistics show having a critical mass of diversity in the student population makes a difference. If you have a group of people like you on campus, you are more likely to succeed.
Oh, please. I've been writing a terribly hard book (which I'll turn in Oct 31!) while editing two other people's books and writing and memorizing a talk that I'll soon be giving. (To memorize, I walk around Venice for an hour or more at night, talking to myself, holding a sheaf of papers that I hope will keep the authorities from throwing me on the crazy bus.)
Some of the material in my book was completely beyond me. I'm now writing the last chapter, and -- after joking that my book was trying to kill me for quite some time -- I love the thing, and I think I've done something readable and good. What made it that was was not having other people "like me" around. It was not leaving the house for a year and having Gregg bring me groceries and come over and cook me dinner and generally be sweet, kind, and supportive.
What students should realize is that if you are "of color" (except if you're Asian!), colleges will want you for reasons other than your academic background. While you could possibly succeed at the college that would accept you if you were not "of color" and had the same grades and background, you may be out of your league at a college that accepts you because of your skin color. You may find yourself in classes that move way too fast for you and on a campus that doesn't provide you with the resources to make up for your educational shortcomings.
Chances are, the issues of the kids who are "diversity" admissions have less to do with being "of color" than being a child of a single, unwed mom and growing up in poverty and in a bad neighborhood because of that. These kids are stung financially in a way kids from wealthier families are not if and when they flunk out.
Being poor doesn't make you dumb and do poorly in school. One of my assistants was the child of Korean immigrants -- a first-generation American -- who lived at home with her parents and her grandma. She worked very hard in school and got scholarships based on that -- and graduated, of course, too. From both undergrad and graduate school.
Will you be 1 in 100 on your campus, or 1 in 5? Statistics show having a critical mass of diversity in the student population makes a difference. If you have a group of people like you on campus, you are more likely to succeed.
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Well, in one sense at least, Wilcox is quite right. That is, if you're surrounded by students who actually WANT to learn instead of just getting good grades and then forgetting everything over the summer, you're more likely to make good grades yourself. Having only one other student like that in your class won't do much for you.
lenona at October 24, 2016 8:38 AM
I see a whole lot of students on campus these days marching instead of going to class. I noted previously that if you've been brought into an environment that's too academically difficult for you, maybe you feel like you're doing something by doing something other than going to class. Students protesting then demand grade freebies for the time they protested.
Amy Alkon at October 24, 2016 11:45 AM
Real people will always need to be sacrificed to the gods of diversity. That could be an Asian student not getting into a school of choice or an African American getting into and failing from a school because they cannot handle the course work. The important thing is that other people feel good about doing something to make a difference. And if in reality a bunch of people suffer because of this policy... Well sometimes you got break a lot of eggs and get a lot shell in those omelettes. And that is what we call progress.
Shtetl G at October 24, 2016 12:23 PM
To Amy: OK, sorry, I was thinking more of younger students. Not college students. Once you're in college, I suppose, you should be more independent in general.
But I would think diversity in general would be pretty important for younger students. Not just in terms of ambition or race, but economic levels as well. One can learn a lot both from the poor and the rich.
lenona at October 24, 2016 1:10 PM
Lenona,
Only if you share the same values on education. You can't teach those who don't want to learn. And letting those who don't want to learn to prevent others from learning is vile.
Ben at October 24, 2016 1:29 PM
This is input based legislation. As long as the inputs meet the requirements, the output doesn't matter - except to those students not getting the education they were promised. So the output quality declines, but since the inputs are PC, the problem can't possibly be the system.
And if all that money and effort is going into the inputs, then not much is left to be spent on the outputs. Which is why we're experiencing declining incomes and falling behind the rest of the world in STEM education.
Conan the Grammrian at October 24, 2016 1:42 PM
Oh noes! They're threatening social justice! Gather the pitchforks and torches!
Seriously, that line actually made me LOL when I read it.
Social Justice has become a catch-all phrase they use now to essentially just mean, the "progressive" bullshit they want.
Miguelitosd at October 24, 2016 3:31 PM
"Some of the material in my book was completely beyond me. I'm now writing the last chapter"
This statement is troubling to me, on many levels.
Isab at October 24, 2016 3:35 PM
Jonathan Haidt is exploring this epidemic of hyper-Rawlsian "illiberalism" masquerading as liberalism in academic environments.
Plato also has warned that this is what happens when a democracy becomes too democratic. Is "The Republic" no longer required reading in the Ivy League institutions that sparked this lunatic fringe?
Anthony Funk at October 24, 2016 5:25 PM
Paradoxically, I imagine that if you are the 1 out of 100 you are more likely to do better: you are less likely to find yourself among those who wish to self-segregate and you are more likely to actually make 'diverse' friends who are there to get a degree, working towards a future job.
Coffee! at October 25, 2016 8:18 AM
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