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 ...
(hands to face)... (grimace).. (fainting)... (thud)... < /;^) >
This can not be said enough!
I know a guy who installs and repairs satellite television equipment - essentially, the cable guy. He goes to corporate locations, rich peoples houses and, allegedly, The White House.
He recently received a $50 per hour RAISE!.....to convince him to stay with the company. He had been fired by my company about 6 months before, for getting angry with his idiot boss. He's one of those brilliant people who can do anything he sets his hand to, and was wasted in property controll, anyway.
Then, the ones that do get blessed because of quotas to enter into prestigious institutions of higher learning flunk out after a year. And, they then quit rather than applying to a smaller school where they might succeed. Walter Williams pointed this out several years ago.
Not to worry, Meathead and Company are already at work on a proposition taxing 'The Rich' to get more blacks into UCLA and the other UC institutions.
Didja see the story yesterday about the black girl who was found living under a temp classroom? 4.6 GPA! Put tears in my eyes that she felt so unloved at home that she ran away and is determined to succeed on her own.
No need to panic. Just fill in the shortfall of black students with some well deserving undocumented aliens from Mexico. If they look around real hard they may be able to find a few to fill their quotas.
After all, if they're so willing to take the jobs that Americans don't want to do, this should be right up their alley.
I'm alarmed not by the small percentage of "black" students, but I AM alarmed that many people at UCLA are "alarmed" by this.
Well, technically that is true -- the sun did shine down on Zimbabwe back then and fed the plants with fusion-powered energy. *g*
Geez, just let students apply and go where they want.
"It will not change until there is a shift in the so-called 'black culture' that puts value on education. Right now they think that 'whitey's' learning is not for them, so they condem themselves to a subpar existence."
That's what the media tells you, the media's portrayal of the black community is an atrocity. There's no "so-called" to the "black culture", it exists just like the Irish culture in Boston and the Italian culture in NYC. It's just a community thing. The black culture, if you look beyond the media, is actually a positive, vibrant community, full of people just like everyone else, who want to succeed, raise a family, get a decent career, pursue happiness. The thug culture that the media loves to throw in our faces is one of the most blatant forms of racism I can think of, they try to portray the entire black population as being low life ganstas and ghetto princesses.
I dated a conservative black woman for 3 years. Ivy league educated, motivated, talented, and she had a multitude of friends from the same "so called" black community who were just as successful. We talked about these issues. I never, ever, ever heard anything referred to as "whitey", nor did I hear education talked negatively about, if anything, they're just as mad at how big a failure public schools are, and how they're a huge negative influence on young black kids, they get indoctrinated early that they cannot succeed without some white, middle class c student with a liberal arts degree to making it happen for them.
Trust me, you are mischaracterizing the black community in a horrific way, if you believe what you do. Yes, there are thug types, gang members, ghetto princesses, what have you, but they are not the majority of the community, they're just the ones the media loves to spotlight. There are millions of hard working black men and women in this country who care about their kids, make them work hard, and succeed, but you never hear about them, because the media and the government don't want you to.
Yes, the black community has problems, trust me, they're just as aware and just as frustrated, and don't have clue one how to change it, but they're trying. I learned a lot from my ex, and her family and friends, and it's not so cut and dried as you and the media make it out to be. Maybe if we all stop assuming all blacks "hate whitey" and start showing their success....nah, Jerry Springer won't have a show, then! If we start talking about how the black community is succeeding, then the Federal Money might dry up, and millions of liberals in the social programs might have to get a real job! We can't have that, now can we?
As for lower enrollment at UCLA, I'd say it probably has to do more with UCLA becoming more of a "party" school (and an expensive one at that). A couple of college bound black kids I talked to regularly were more interested in Yale or USC or other schools, UCLA has lost a lot of it's glamour. Also, a lot of kids who'd normally get a sports scholarship are being seduced to others schools, or bypassing college and going straight to the majors. It could also be too that it's a valley in the chart, maybe there's a huge glut of black college kids coming in 5 years. But, i guess when it's Federally mandated, we have to cram kids in there, regardless of merit or choice.
I got it! Make white students wear black-face makeup.
It's true some people make it without degrees. But you must take into consideration the fact that corporate America will not even interview applicants unless they have degrees in something or other.
Even a Black Studies degree will get you a higher paying job than you can get on your own.
Remember that the people who make it without degrees are the special people who have something most of us don't have. The average person without a degree is destined to start lower on the economic ladder and stay there unless he gets a break.
But without affirmative action, you can't say that. You know the black students are qualified. Isn't affirmative action unfair to the qualified blacks?
Speaking from experience, I was blind-sided in my educational efforts by several teachers who ridiculed my excellence as a young elementary school student. I didn't speak up because young black youth in the 70's were taught to listen and learn, not obstruct the "whitey" teachers who had allowed segregation into "their" institutions of higher learning. As I have meandered through dead-end job after dead-end job knowing how very much I could have achieved, the memories of the past hurt. I do not even possess enough real-math knowledge now to go back and right the wrong.
However, when I am standing at the counter of my bottom- end HMO and attempting to help the clearly unqualified person on the other side of the counter (usually Hispanic) I am appalled that I cannot even merit an interview for a position for which I am over-qualified because I do not possess a degree. I am an advocate for all the young black youth I come in contact with (which are few) to get into college, even promising aid along the way.
What I do know is that I am not the only one who fell behind due to those persons in leadership positions who had "Our" failure in mind. I forgive them because now they and their descendents will be replaced and at the hands of the Espanol regime.
If anyone knows the link to read the story on the black girl who lived under the school pls send it/post it.
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