I'm sure whites are underrepresented, but I don't know what the hell a Euro-American is.
Posted on 04/08/2005 1:04:28 PM PDT by SmithL
UC Berkeley's new chancellor, Robert Birgeneau, sounded the opening priority for his administration Thursday by issuing a call to action on a student diversity crisis at the highly ranked university.
Citing the drop in under-represented minorities on campus, especially African Americans, Birgeneau called for research into refining admissions standards and finding the best ways to create a more multicultural campus.
"Part of what I'm trying to accomplish as a new chancellor here is to say this really is a crisis," Birgeneau said in outlining his agenda to reporters at a campus faculty club.
Birgeneau's diversity campaign -- including an op-ed column in the Los Angeles Times on March 27 -- represents his first major public initiative since becoming chancellor in September. The former University of Toronto president will have his formal inauguration ceremony on April 15.
"We're not meeting our obligation as a public institution because we're underserving in an extreme way a significant and increasingly important part of the population, which actually is going to be the majority population," he said.
Birgeneau blamed the drop in numbers on Proposition 209, the 1996 voter- approved initiative that banned affirmative action based on race and gender for state and local agencies, including the university.
The number of African Americans in Cal's 1996-97 freshman class, before Prop. 209 took effect, was 260, while the 2004-05 class has only 108, with fewer than 40 males, he said.
"Out of 3,600 freshman students, that's just a shocking number," he said.
Even more striking, he said, is that there is not even one African American among the approximately 800 entering students in engineering, ...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Surprise, when you have to admit people on academic merit alone, the number of people who qualify don't fit your "desired ethnic mix" of students.
From what I've heard, Whites (Euro-Americans), are under-represented on campus. I've heard that 60% of the students are Asian.
UC Berkeley remedial high school
The real problem is not in the acedemic requirements, but instead the inner city schools and bad parenting. Maybe they should focus on the problem for once
What the h*ll is a "diversity crisis?"
That is politically incorrect, so don't look for them to focus on it.
A diversity crisis??? What is a diversity crisis?
CB,
At many schools, Asians do not count as minorities, particularly in graduate admissions or professional programs like law. Same thing with Jewish applicants.
You'll see most schools have a group with the acronym "ALANA" or some derivation of those letters. It means, "African American, Latino, and Native American".
By and large unless you're one of those, you ain't a minority- common sense does not apply.
Robert Birgeneau is from Canada...need we say more?
I don't see an actual problem for the university; they are now required to only admit those who qualify on an academic basis. This should actually improve the university; one of my classmates managed to get into UCLA with a 2.9 GPA simply because he was black. Better students, regardless of race, are a plus.
Well the solution to this problem, Mr. Birgeneau, is not reverse discrimination but instead to improve the academic ability of groups that cannot meet the academic standards of UC Berkeley. That means teaching students (and their parents) in K-12 schools to value education, work hard, study hard, and stay out of gangs.
I'm sure whites are underrepresented, but I don't know what the hell a Euro-American is.
Robert Birgeneau is a racist. He's openly saying that he can't find any black students that can do the same work as whites. He should be fired.
SO9
Anybody who opposes Prop 209 is a racist. PERIOD.
I know that thinking outside the box is impossible for educrats but if they really wanted to help african american students do better in a real way they would open up a boarding high school for promising students. Of course they all might be white an asian which would mean they would have to open up an elementary school in the same vein and if that failed a pre-school, etc ,etc. Hopefully at that point things would even out.
*and*
"Asian students made up 39 percent of those admitted to UC Berkeley in 2003."
Well, yes, whites would be underrepresented compared to their proportion of the California population. Depending how you define "white", of course. So when will genetic testing be required for college admission?
Who appointed this cretin chancellor of Berkeley? Did Arnold have any say in the matter?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.