The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports this morning that “Atmosphere Hurts UGA’s Minority Recruitment.” Race preferences in admissions at the University of Georgia were barred by a federal court in 2000, and since then the number of black applicants has declined 20%. Black enrollment now is 6%. According to university president Michael Adams, “[l]osing the lawsuit sent a signal that minorities would have a tougher time getting into UGA, possibly discouraging qualified students from trying.”
It’s frustrating, Adams said, to have no way to give African-American students a boost.
“I see the issue of giving an 18-year-old who has not had the opportunity for equal opportunity a break,” said Adams, who was the first generation in his family to attend college.
The article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitutuion (linked above) from which these quotes are taken, however, unwittingly raises the question of what kind of “boost” would be sufficient. It discusses a talented black high school graduate (1510 SAT, 4.0 GPA) who visited the Athens campus but was disturbed to find “few students who look like him.”
“It was like, when you got there, you don’t quite fit in,” said Cormier, 17, a prospective biology major…. He said he just didn’t see many black students on campus.
This does sound like a problem at Georgia … until one reads the next paragraph:
Come August, the pre-med hopeful plans to enroll in either Atlanta’s Emory University or Vanderbilt University in Tennessee — two other predominantly white schools.
The percentage of black students at Vanderbilt is 4.4%; at Emory, it is 10%. It would not seem that finding a large number of students who look like him is controlling this choice.
