Lots of ME (middle easterners) in the engineering programs when I was there as well. Didn’t trust ‘em then, either, and that was pre-1990.
My experience was recent (1998-2002), and you could count the number of white males in most classes on one hand. White females actually outnumbered men in most of those classes, but it also depends on the classes. Larger lectures were a cornucopia of ethnicity, but specific classes, esp. on the chem engineering side of the house, were generally dominated by specific ethnic groups.