Friday, February 17, 2006

Here we go again

The Denver Post has done it again. They have decided that CU has a major problem with the number of minorities they have on campus. They, of course, offer no evidence that CU has fewer minorities than one would expect given circumstances. We get this:

The number of ethnic minorities at CU-Boulder is embarrassingly low: The campus is only 1.5 percent African-American, 5.8 percent Latino and 6 percent Asian.

They fail to mention a number of factors.

  • Colorado is a pretty white state, not Utah, but pretty pale.
  • Boulder, where the main campus is, is a wacko lefty town that lots of folks wouldn't want to live in
  • Boulder is an expensive place to live, even as a student. It is ultra-white, ultra-liberal, upper middle class
  • We don't know how many black students attend other Colorado schools
  • We don't know how many black Colorado students want to go to "traditionally black" schools
  • We don't know how many minority students are attending a parent's alma mater (not CU)
  • We don't know what percentage of the black students get academic or sports scholarships to better schools

They do offer this one tidbit:

However, part of the answer for CU's woes can't be found in Boulder or Fort Collins. It's a K-12 problem. The pool of ethnic minority students for CU to recruit already is too small, as far too many minorities drop out before graduation. In fact, only about half of African-American and Latino ninth-graders graduate from high school within four years in Colorado - many having disappeared long before they could worry about SAT scores or other admission requirements.

K-12 needs to build a better pipeline to our colleges and universities.

So the one useful piece of statistical information they offer tells me (since I know that Colorado is pretty white to begin with) that there just aren't very many ethnic minorities graduating from High School. In a court room wouldn't that be considered exculpatory data?

As I have said before in many posts CU has a bunch of problems. I am not convinced yet that one of them is racial but I am open to the possibility. Do a little research and convince me.

And, of course, in typical antique media fashion, the article in question is an unsigned Opinion piece. Anonymous Editor at the Post has opinions but doesn't know how to use a phone or the Internet.

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