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Black Students Threaten To Sue IUPUI Over Alleged Inequities
WIBC ^ | November 4, 2006 | Associated Press

Posted on 11/09/2006 8:42:50 AM PST by CharentonChina

A group of black students at Indiana-Purdue University-Indianapolis is threatening to sue the college over alleged discrimination.

The IUPUI Black Student Union said it would file a lawsuit Monday unless officials agree to provide a new black cultural center, more black faculty and $78,000 for black student groups.

The group also wants sensitivity training for administrators and an undergraduate degree program in African-American studies.

"We're not asking for anything outlandish," said IUPUI senior Dominic Dorsey, 24, who heads the group. "We're asking for what's due to us to make us feel comfortable on a Euro-centric campus."

In a nine-page letter delivered to administrators this week, the group complained that officials turned down black students' requests to use a student activity fund and that some white officials have been disrespectful to black students.

It also complained that black students were not consulted before the Mary Cable Building was torn down this year to make room for a parking lot. Cable founded the Indianapolis chapter of the NAACP.

However, not all blacks on campus feel discriminated against. Freshman Nashunda King, 18, said she feels more comfortable at IUPUI than she did at her predominantly white high school in Avon.

"I like this environment," she said. "Everybody gets the same treatment. To me, it's fair."

IUPUI officials have made racial diversity a top goal, aiming to boost the school's minority student enrollment from 15 percent to about 18 percent. Officials also want to boost minority graduation rates at the 30,000 student campus.

"People are working hard to make IUPUI a diversity-positive campus," said Karen Whitney, IUPUI's vice chancellor for student life and diversity. "We evaluate ourselves harshly, and we've not been satisfied."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Indiana
KEYWORDS: blackstudents; iupui
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To: CharentonChina

Race-based perks and race-targeted (public-funds) spending. THAT's equality!

/sarc


81 posted on 11/09/2006 10:40:16 AM PST by pogo101
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To: CharentonChina

OK- so they want a new degree program- did they not realize that such a degree wasn't offered when they enrolled?

They want a black cultural center built, and who is paying?

Sensitivity training for faculty? Are the not getting an "education" in the whining of a select few race-baiters?

What a crock. All of these "student's" demands can be better met at existing institutions- why pick on this one?


82 posted on 11/09/2006 11:22:49 AM PST by TheBattman (I've got TWO QUESTIONS for you....)
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To: Stashiu
If you want black studies, go home and talk to your Mom and Dad. Better yet, go to an African University and see how Africa fares. See what happened to the tribes who sold your ancestors into slavery.

OUCH! I bet that left a mark!

83 posted on 11/09/2006 11:27:02 AM PST by TheBattman (I've got TWO QUESTIONS for you....)
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To: farlander

Amen. Yeah, what he said.


84 posted on 11/09/2006 11:30:12 AM PST by GnuHere
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To: Publius Valerius; southernindymom
I was overly harsh in calling IUPUI "third-rate." Beyond that, two points:

1) Medical schools are graduate schools, with different priorities, students, and faculties than departments primarily serving undergraduates.

2) All available statistics suggest that IUPUI students are on average less academically qualified than their counterparts at IU and Purdue. This will affect the level of instruction, since professors have to design their courses around their students.

85 posted on 11/09/2006 1:10:29 PM PST by Slings and Arrows (Natalie Maines fears me...)
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To: Xenalyte

And it's pronounced 'Ooooey - Poooey'.


86 posted on 11/09/2006 1:23:52 PM PST by Sloth (The GOP is to DemonRats in politics as Michael Jackson is to Jeffrey Dahmer in babysitting.)
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To: old and cranky
Do you ever think there will be a day when kids are raised to not think they are victims of society.

That day will have to come if they're ever to become successful. As it is they have a ready-made excuse. "The world is out to get me, whites want to keep me down, blacks don't have the same opportunities as whites, etc."

This kind of thinking causes a lot of blacks to give up the pursuit of something (be it a loan, finding a book publisher, whatever) where many whites will keep trying until they get what they're after. That's why they're behind. They fulfill their own prophecy.
87 posted on 11/09/2006 1:50:32 PM PST by Jaysun (Let's not ruin this moment with words.)
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To: jagusafr
Diversity is the enemy of unity - not the recognition of our vafied backgrounds, but their elevation to coequal status with our citizenship, our "American" identity. Concentrating on "diversity" takes our eye off the ball. Argh.

Diversity = anti (whatever is dominant)
88 posted on 11/09/2006 1:55:33 PM PST by Jaysun (Let's not ruin this moment with words.)
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To: econjack

ping!


89 posted on 11/09/2006 3:28:28 PM PST by toldyou
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To: CharentonChina

Reckon what they study at these Euro-Centric Universities? European Mathematics? Charlemagne's Nuclear Physics?

I wonder how African Astronomy 101 would differ from European Astronomy 101. "Here's a view of the Horsehead Nebula from The Sudan. Notice how it looks like a zebra's head."



90 posted on 11/09/2006 3:39:22 PM PST by gitmo (From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.)
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To: Slings and Arrows
This will affect the level of instruction, since professors have to design their courses around their students.

Only for the general classes, which the idiots take as an extension of high school. My husband has suffered through them after getting out of the Air Force, and is now getting into the core classes for his business major. Once you qualify to get into a respectable major, there's a different type of student. Kelley school of business is one of the top ranked in the nation.

But yeah, I went with my husband to a few of his undergrad classes here, and the typical student in the general courses at IUPUI belongs at a community college. Or beauty college. The classes are nothing like what I received at a well-respected public CA university.

91 posted on 11/11/2006 12:56:42 PM PST by ReagansShinyHair
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To: ReagansShinyHair
Only for the general classes, which the idiots take as an extension of high school. ... Once you qualify to get into a respectable major, there's a different type of student.

With respect, this is not the case. I teach Computer Science at a public university; if I tried to teach, say, algorithmic analysis the way it was taught to me I'd have a 95% failure rate. (The remaining 5% being world-class students who could hold their own at any school.) This is in part due to the fact that administration wants graduates to increase their statistics (and tuition coffers; drop-outs don't pay tuition) and exert pressure accordingly, but also because overwhelmingly, the kind of student who can succeed at MIT or CMU goes to MIT or CMU, not Nowhere State U. As a department chair told me, you have to teach the students you've got, not the students you want.

92 posted on 11/11/2006 1:20:09 PM PST by Slings and Arrows (Natalie Maines fears me...)
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To: Slings and Arrows
With respect, this is not the case.

You may be right and it could be worse than I suspect.

You don't teach at Ball State, do you? I know that there is a WIDE variation in the quality of students from one public university in CA to another. The student at CS Dominguez Hills is not the same caliber as a Cal Poly student. Same with UCSB vs. UCLA, etc. I'd guess it's the same in Indiana, but the only public university I hear getting made fun of all the time here is Ball State. I have no personal experience with it.

93 posted on 11/11/2006 1:30:40 PM PST by ReagansShinyHair
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To: ReagansShinyHair

I don't teach at Ball State, but you could probably replace it with my campus (name witheld because I'm untenured) and no-one would notice. Party schools and fool farms pretty much follow the same template nationwide.

I will say one thing: At my university, and at most others, a student with the capacity to perform above the crowd and the initiative to use that capacity will learn a lot more than Joe or Jill Drunkbynine. I'm always looking for bright students to work on research projects, and I encourage them to go to graduate school or otherwise maximize their potential. Most of my colleagues do likewise. I have no doubt that there are good students at IUPUI, and that they are maximizing their opportunities.

Still, if you want the best instruction, go to the places with the best students. In academia, as elsewhere, the "convoy effect" is very much apparent.


94 posted on 11/11/2006 1:42:51 PM PST by Slings and Arrows (Natalie Maines fears me...)
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To: LetsRok
Tell me what you are qualifyed to do if you major in "black studies" other than become an activist for reparations?

Don't know about this field of study but I am looking for a university that offers a degree in screwing off on the job, sleeping and still getting paid for it. Hey don't laugh that is about what this group wants.

95 posted on 11/11/2006 1:45:55 PM PST by engrpat
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To: CharentonChina

EXTORTION Plain and simple extortion...

I would tell them to pound sand.

There are plenty of "black colleges" in the USA where a white person cannot even think about getting admission.

All I have heard for over 40 years is to DONATE to the Black College Fund "A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste..."

Time for a White College Fund, me thinks.


96 posted on 11/11/2006 1:46:59 PM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: Frapster

The problem with countering such demands is that the race card has already been played - to counter it would automatically brand one a racist""

I'll stand up and take that title, thank you.
I for one am WAAAAAYYYY over the idea that I need to be PC all places, all the time. Just cannot be don'e. Someone decides they are offended.

Let these "students" who most speak Ebonics after 4 years in a college go to an all black school. They are stealing oxygen and a space in classes there.


97 posted on 11/11/2006 1:50:51 PM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: <1/1,000,000th%

who got a big promotion and move to California after completing her Masters in African-American studies."

Serves her right. Probably not a great step up in her life. Hispanics way at the top of population.


98 posted on 11/11/2006 1:55:12 PM PST by ridesthemiles
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To: Slings and Arrows
I have no doubt that there are good students at IUPUI, and that they are maximizing their opportunities.

True. I went to a public school because it was what my father said to do, and there was a good public school available. He went to USC and said the extra money for private school at undergrad was not worth it. Just pick a good graduate school and pay the money there. I could have gotten in just about anywhere. It's weird, because I have several friends who went to MIT and other prestigious schools, but they were taught by TAs almost the whole way through. I received individual attention from profs in my major and had only two (terrible) general ed classes taught by TAs. Upon comparison, I didn't have the competition but I felt like I got a better undergrad education.

Of course, when it came time for law school, I chose IU because I have a day job and a husband with a day job in the area, and there was no way I was moving. Oh well. At least the law school here is ok.

99 posted on 11/11/2006 1:55:20 PM PST by ReagansShinyHair
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To: CharentonChina

I say, let's bring back slavery! (donning fire proof underwear)


100 posted on 11/11/2006 2:04:31 PM PST by jslade (The beatings well cease when morale improves!)
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