Posted on 06/04/2006 9:30:35 AM PDT by mathprof
This fall 4,852 freshmen are expected to enroll at the University of California, Los Angeles, but only 96, or 2 percent, are black - the lowest figure in decades and a growing concern on the campus.
For several years, students, professors and administrators at UCLA have watched with discouragement as the numbers of black students declined. But the new figures, released last week, have shocked many on campus and prompted school leaders to declare the situation a crisis.
UCLA - which has such storied black alumni as baseball legend Jackie Robinson, Nobel laureate Ralph Bunche and former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, and is in a county that is 9.8 percent black - now has a lower percentage of black freshmen than either its cross-town rival, the University of Southern California, or UC-Berkeley, the school often considered its top competitor within the UC system.
The 96 figure - down by 20 students from last year - is the lowest for incoming black freshmen since at least 1973. And of the black freshmen who have indicated they will enroll in the fall, 20 are recruited athletes, admissions officials said.
"Clearly, we're going to have to meet this crisis by redoubling our efforts, which have not yielded the results we'd like to see," said Chancellor Albert Carnesale, who met Friday with a delegation of undergraduates upset about the situation.
Carnesale... said that UCLA has been trying for years to boost those levels, within the limits allowed by law. [snip]
Ward Connerly, the former UC regent who was an architect of Proposition 209, said the issue was not the law.
"The problem - and this is an old song, I know - starts with the small number of black students who are academically competitive," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
No problem. Just lower the standards more and exlude white and asian kids.
No problem. Just lower the standards more and exlude white and asian kids.
(sarcasm off)
or pass legislation requiring %s of blacks regardless of academic performance...
The problem, of course, is that black culture just does not emphasize academic achievement. Plain and simple. Liberals can scream all they want to about "institutional racism," and I'll just keep on laughing in their face.
Panic! Crisis! I'm imagining administrators running around in circles crying, "Blacks!! We need more blacks!! Where can we find some blacks??"
So Afram students don't wanna go there. How is that a crisis? UCLA should just take what they get. Whomever applies, applies. Choose from those.
Give it a day or two.
We need Afro-centric education, to make everyone feel good! Did you know atomic energy was used in Zimbabwe 50, 000 years ago?;)
And those black families that do emphasize academic achievement routinely find themselves the brunt of ridicule in many black communities.
In this country - you can make it with hard work and doing what you have to do in order to succeed.
Some are just not college material and apprenticeships, etc suit them better.
Ward Connerly is a good man - but hated by the lib blacks - he's "off" the reservation -actually puts the blame on the students, like Cosby does.
If anything is to be done it has to be at the grade school and middle school level.
No need to get alarmed over seeing fewer black students in colleges...there just are fewer of them graduating high school...
We are approaching the point, if not already past it, at which time we will have to choose between excellence in academe or inclusion. Discussions already classify 1st, 2nd and 3rd tier academic institutions. Furthermore, we cannot complain about performance among our students vis a vis other countries, while at the same time proving the point in such instances as this entering UCLA class: either you can cut it or not.
Apparently the asian students cant dunk.
Recruit black Muslims from Africa. Double whammy - they're black and they're Muslim.
"And those black families that do emphasize academic achievement routinely find themselves the brunt of ridicule in many black communities."
Or those families that do emphasize academic achievement are more conservative, don't give a rip what their "community" thinks and won't pay for their kid to get a worthless liberal education at UCLA? :)
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