At Cal State Los Angeles, the university makes some on-campus student housing available to black students only. Read here. 20 spots (I guess they mean rooms – they don’t necessarily specify) out of 192 are reserved for black students. (In all fairness, the article states other students can apply for those spots.) According to the article, this program has been around for 20 years.
What is interesting to me, and 2setsofrules, is that for years all that has been promoted on college campuses is the need for diversity. Heck the University of Michigan in 2003 took the issue of diversity in its admission program all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
So how is diversity an absolute requirement in the admission process but not so much once you get on campus? The CBSSacramento article mentions that another California university, UC Davis, has a similar program. I guess only university administrators are smart enough to know what kind of diversity society needs when. Remember, diversity in the admission process is not supposed to be about quotas. As a good friend of mine says, “I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I am in the drawer” – this is a classic example of 2setsofrules.
I have for a long time believed that way too much attention was paid to the diversity of the student body at the start of college and not enough at the end of the four years. Thomas Sowell, a favorite economist of mine, talks about the lack of diversity at the end of college here. If university administrators were truly concerned about diversity, and the purported benefits that it brings to the students admitted under the program, there would be much more concern about the diversity of the student body graduating college. Maybe this program is a way to help more African-American students graduate – and on one hand I really want to say good for the university. Just don’t tell me diversity in the admission process isn’t a substitute for quotas. But the other problem with this picture is where is the dorm room set aside for Latino students, Asian students, and so on? If living together helps one group of students, it will help the other groups. The problem is always when there are 2setsofrules. The university wants to have it both ways, and you just can’t. And I guess I didn’t realize segregation was the answer to the problem.
If the housing programs popular in California are any guide, I guess there are now three types of diversity on college campuses; one to get onto campus, one when you are living on campus and unfortunately, one for those who graduate.