I recently discussed the University of Virginia’s annual “Fall Fling,” which brings prospective minority students to Charlottesville in an effort to recruit them. Today the Cavalier Daily has a particulary good column by one of its regular opinion writers, Eric Wang, that discusses some of the troubling aspects of such recruiting.
Wang noted, interestingly but not so surprisingly, that based on his random conversations the prospective students seemed much less concerned with race than the University sponsors of the event.
Of the prospective students and parents interviewed at random before Saturday’s event, none expressed any particular concerns about race. Admittedly, the small sample was not scientifically representative of all the participants. Still, their racially neutral responses suggest that the University’s insistence on holding racially separate recruitment events may be gratuitous.
Notwithstanding the recent publicity about race relations at the University, all of the students I spoke with had the same expectations that students of any other racial background would have of a college recruitment presentation — they simply wanted to know more about the University in general. In fact, the only person who suggested any caveats about the issue of race was Dean M. Rick Turner of the Office of African American Affairs (OAAA)….
… Turner ominously warned parents, “You cannot leave your children at a predominantly white college [without programs like the OAAA], otherwise you’ll see results you don’t want to see.”
Turner declined two requests for comment on what concerns he thought African-American applicants had in particular. Given that, one can only guess at what unwanted results he was referring to. Still, despite the overtly racial aspect of the day’s event, for at least some students and parents in attendance, race was not their predominant concern prior to coming. Considering the tenuous state of campus race relations today, one cannot help but think that part of the blame might begin with racially separate recruitment programs, which then lead to separate mentoring and academic support programs, and not surprisingly, to separate social organizations as well.
Of course, “without programs like the OAAA” there would be no need for a separate Dean of OAAA….
Equally troubling was the comment of Valerie Gregory, Associate Dean of admissions for minority outreach. Dean Gregory objected to the characterization of “Fall Fling” as racially separate, “noting that an afternoon session was ‘integrated’ in the sense that not all the faculty presenters were black.”
I find Wang’s conclusion right on the mark:
Given that many students applying for college do not feel any particular angst about being racial minorities in the first place, it defies common sense for proponents of race-based recruitment and campus support groups to claim that these programs ease the transition process for their students. If anything, these programs may actually undermine self-confidence and exacerbate any underlying racial tensions.
