Shock Video: Black students decry UCLA as not diverse enough
The University of California – Los Angeles has a noted diversity program, which provides diversity-related resources for undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, staff and alumni.
Despite these best efforts, a new video reveals that black students on campus aren’t satisfied…and blame lack of race-based admission policies.
The number of NCAA championships UCLA has won exceeds the number of current male black freshman enrolled at the school.
Just 3.3% of UCLA’s 19,838 male students are black. And the odds are stacked against them. Of the 48 male black freshmen who enrolled at the school last fall, 74%— 35 students — are expected to graduate, confirmed Ricardo Vázquez, assistant director of media relations for UCLA.
Twelve UCLA students appearing in a now-viral YouTube video titled “The Black Bruins [The Spoken Word]” say that is an “unacceptable result for an institution that calls itself “one of the world’s most ethnically and culturally diverse communities.”
“When every black student in class feels like Rosa Parks on the bus,” “when the university refuses to come to our defense,” when “our faces are just used to cover up from the public what’s really inside,” it’s clear that UCLA’s administration has failed its black community, the students say in the video.
The 12 students appearing in the video, led by UCLA junior Sy Stokes, have galvanized affirmative-action proponents and reignited the question of how to increase diversity in a state that has barred considering race and ethnicity in admissions.
University officials insist that they share, not ignore, such frustrations. They, too, want to bolster African-American enrollment and retention — which they said remains “modest and slow.”
“We certainly recognize that the low numbers of African Americans and other underrepresented students on campus does lead to a sense of isolation and invisibility,” Janina Montero, vice chancellor for student affairs at UCLA, said in a statement responding to Stokes’ video.
One comment on the video sums up the proper response: The lack of minorities and underprivileged people in universities is not a problem specific to only UCLA. We can’t realistically expect UCLA to admit students purely based on skin color to fulfill some notion of equality. What’s the point of admitting students to UCLA if they don’t meet the minimum qualifications?
Comments
re: “What’s the point of admitting students to UCLA if they don’t meet the minimum qualifications?”
But, but, but…. we be black, we gots rights! Ain’t dat right bro?
YEAH! We’s gots rights!
I’ll be right back. I need to check with Jessie and Al to see if I’m allowed to participate in this discussion.
Before these young men start complaining about what they perceive to be a “lack of diversity” at this (or any other) university, perhaps they should look at the available INFORMATION.
How many AA HS seniors are in the State of California in any given year?
How many AA students in that “pool” meet the minimum enrollment requirements for college in general?
How many AA HS seniors apply for college in any given year?
How many AA HS seniors meet the admissions standards for UCLA? (UCLA has pretty stringent admissions requirements; a limited number of HS seniors meet those requirements, regardless of their race/gender) How many of those students APPLY for admission to UCLA?
How many different colleges do those AA HS seniors apply to each year, and how many go to each of those colleges in any given year?
What these young men might not realize is that African Americans make up ONLY 12% of the US population; I don’t know what the percentage is broken down by age group (given the abortion ratios for black mothers since 1973, it’s possible that younger AAs make up a lower percentage of their age group).
One of the problems we have here in Texas is that the pool of eligible AA students in any given year is VERY small; they literally have their choice of colleges to attend, and they are recruited very heavily.
One of the things that college admission officers regularly talk about is that despite their best efforts, a limited number of applications in any given year are from minority students; when those students are “divided” among the different schools which they choose to attend, the number of minority students who end up enrolling at any given University is small.
Take a representative sample of 100 minority students who meet the enrollment requirements for basic university admission:
– If there are 10 universities and the minority pool of students “distribute” themselves evenly, then 10 students would end up at each university;
– If there are 25 Universities, that number drops to 4 per school;
– If there are 50 universities, that number drops to 2 per school.
The “low” enrollment numbers of minority students at any given university in any given year aren’t due to “discrimination”, they’re due to MATH.