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Index |
Journal
of Blacks in Higher Education:
"Ranking America's Leading
Universities on Their Success in Integrating African Americans"
Posted 11/12/02 |
| ANALYSIS
and COMMENTARY:
In their article "Ranking America's Leading Universities on Their Success in
Integrating African Americans" (excerpted below) the Journal of Blacks in Higher
Education (JBHE) racially ranks 26 universities according to the blackness of the student
body and faculty.
JBHE openly acknowledges that their survey is a racial pressure tactic. To wit, in
this article JBHE states that their purpose in distributing this survey is:
| "...encouraging competition
among the universities to bring greater numbers of blacks to their professorial ranks as
well as to their student bodies. In some instances, we have found that universities
showing substandard or poor [racial quota] performance tend to produce improved [racial
quota] results when their racial statistics are made known to the public." |
By this statement it is apparent that JBHE believes that the implied threat of a
university appearing to NOT enforce racial quotas for blacks will motivate universities to
get on the racial quota bandwagon. JBHE also apparently believes that any
means of increasing numbers of black student and faculty numbers, including racial quotas,
is justified. JBHE promotes this quota agenda in spite of state ballot initiatives
approved by a majority of voters, such as California's Proposition 209, and
Washington State's Initiative 200 which explicitly prohibit the use of race in
determining student admissions and in faculty hiring and promotions.
Finally, in their article JBHE implicitly and deliberately misdefines
"integration" to mean the same thing as "racial preferences" and
"forced diversity". By our lights, the term "integration" means
that students and faculty of any color are welcome at any university without special
treatment (or discrimination) based on race. That is quite a different thing than
the racial quota agenda JBHE is promoting by their publication and distribution of this
survey. -- Editor. |
"There is always serious backlash when racial integration is forced on a university
as a result of government compulsion [imposed racial quotas]. But ... publishing
racial statistics and other information that encourage this competitive process in higher
education has always been the central mission of this journal."
"We wish to emphasize that our rankings relate only to the institutional integration
of African Americans. Our agenda does not include Hispanics, Asians, or other people of
color. ... "
[Listed
below are a few of the university rankings with some of the JBHE's explanations for the
schools' good or bad racial performance. A higher score indicates a school with a
more aggressive policy of forced diversity - quotas - while a lower score indicates a
school which, in JBHE's eyes, isn't forcing enough diversity. Editor.] |
| "1.
Duke University (Average Score: 90.36): Clearly one explanation for the strong
performance of Duke in so many categories is the sincere commitment of President Nan
Keohane to racial diversity." [See
Sidebar. Editor]
"Duke's strong improvement in
black faculty levels may be attributed to an incentive plan
which makes it highly advantageous for academic departments to engage black faculty."
[Emphasis added.]
"[However], [s]ome observers have noted that there is little overall interaction
between many black and white students on the Duke campus. Also, there has been a high rate
of faculty turnover among blacks." |
SIDEBAR
Duke President Nan Keohane:
"Last spring ... [we] ... felt
compelled to issue a statement on the importance of diversity in university admissions. We
speak at a time when consideration of ethnicity and race in admission decisions is poorly
understood and under sustained attack: "The evaluation of an individual
applicant to our universities cannot ... be based on a narrow or mainly 'statistical'
definition of merit."
-- Duke President Nan Keohane,
11-19-97, to President Clinton's Commission On Race, to the Panel On The Value Of
Diversity In Higher Education.
Last known link: http://gos.sbc.edu/k/keohane1.html |
|
"2. Emory University (Average Score: 86.62): [Emory] university's
comparatively low black student graduation rate, the decline in that rate over the past
several years, and the university's very low black student yield brought down its overall
average.
"Emory's location in the city of Atlanta is obviously a major draw for both black
students and black faculty. The city, which has been under black political control for
more than a generation, has a wealth of black-oriented cultural and social events that
would appeal to prospective black students and faculty members considering offers of
employment."
...
"20. University of California at Berkeley (Average Score: 71.85):
Since 1997, the university has been required by law to operate without benefit of an
affirmative action admissions plan. [This
is not true. Proposition 209 outlawed only the use of discriminatory racial preferences in
deciding which students to admit. California universities are still allowed -- even
encouraged -- to practice non-race-based affirmative action as defined in the historic
Civil Rights Act of 1964. Editor]
"The climate of race relations has been damaged by the enactment of Proposition 209. [That is not true. Race relations following
voter approval of Proposition 209 have improved insofar as all students of all colors who
apply to California universities now have a better chance of being evaluated for admission
based on their qualifications rather than upon their skin color. Editor]
"Berkeley also has a very low black student graduation rate of 63 percent and a huge
gap in the graduation rate between black and white students."
...
"26. University of Chicago (Average Score: 67.27): The university
has never been an enthusiastic supporter of [race-based] affirmative action in student
admissions. Only 4 percent of total enrollments at the university are black. Poor results
are present despite the fact that the university is located in a city in which the
population is about one half black."
Excerpted from the Journal of Blacks
in Higher Education web site.
Last known link: http://www.jbhe.com/features/36_leading_universities.html
|
