/Mississippi’s flagship university leaves black students behind

Mississippi’s flagship university leaves black students behind

Non-profit Mississippi News Many of America’s top public universities enroll a large number of Latino and African-American students. Flagship universities are the crown jewels of public higher education. They have highly-sought-after faculty, top research facilities, and the most resources, as well as the highest graduation rates for all races. Flagship universities are also beacons of excellence and affordability for students in their respective states. Many fail to fulfill their stated mission when it comes down to serving the state’s residents. Their taxes pay for these top-flight universities. There are often huge differences between the students who graduate from public high schools in a state and those who go on to attend its flagship universities. A third of the U.S. states showed a minimum 10-point gap between their public high school graduates and their flagships’ freshman classes. This was in 2015, according to the latest data. Ten states had a minimum of a 10-point gap for Latinos. New York and Illinois had the largest gaps of at least 10 points for each group. An interactive graphic ranks all states. Andrew Nichols, director for higher education research at The Education Trust and data analytics at The Education Trust (an advocacy group that focuses primarily on college access), said, “It matters who is enrolled at flagships because they tend to go onto to be leaders in the states, especially in politics, in business, and in politics.” “It is important that these universities are diverse for all students.” Larger endowments allow flagships to offer students more scholarships and more support in academic and social areas. Later, many flagships’ graduates earn more than those from the majority of the state’s public colleges and universities. The South has five of the six states that have the highest disparities in African-Americans, Delaware is sixth. Mississippi is the leader with a gap of 40 points between the African American percentage of Mississippi’s public high school graduates and the African American percentage of students enrolled at University of Mississippi in the fall. In 2015, Ole Miss’s freshmen were made up 10 percent by African-Americans. This is an 8-point decrease from 2010. According to African-American students, the declining numbers of African-Americans at Ole Miss, a campus known for its resistance to integration, makes it a less welcoming learning environment. Orion Taylor, a senior in highschool, visited Ole Miss and fell in love. In the fall 2013, he enrolled, but soon thereafter, he started to worry. Residents were allowed to march around campus waving Confederate flags, and shouting at him and his friends the “N” word. Some white students marched down his dorm halls singing “The South Will Rise Again” later that year. He claimed that he felt faculty members were less attentive to students of color and that he wasn’t offered any leadership positions. He transferred to a historically African university. Taylor, 23, said that he thinks every year about choosing Jackson State. Noel Wilkin is the executive vice chancellor and provost of Ole Miss. He said that the university works to increase diversity and retain students. In the fall 2015, African American student retention was 87.2%, which is the highest in Mississippi. He wrote this in an email. He attributed this to “programs geared towards student success including academic support programs, scholarship opportunities, and scholarship opportunities.” While it’s easy for Mississippi to be seen as an exception, other state institutions are also struggling with equity. The University of South Carolina had the lowest number of African-Americans enrolled in its 2015 freshman class of all 34 state-owned colleges and universities. While South Carolina’s enrollment gap is 31 points, Louisiana State University and the University of Georgia have similar gaps. However, LSU has seen an increase in African-American enrollment since 2010, unlike other colleges. The University of Kentucky, with a gap of just 3 percent, had the lowest percentage of African-American flagship freshmen high school graduates in states where at least 10% of their graduating high school classes were African-American. Six years ago, President Eli Capilouto arrived and stated that he wanted the student body to reflect the state. Sonja Feist Price, UK’s vice president of institutional diversity, agreed. She believes that greater diversity will create educational benefits for both black and white students. Feist-Price, who has been a UK faculty member since 1992, said that “We have students here who don’t encounter many, or any, other students.” “We are all better off when we know how we are alike and differ.” The biggest gaps in Latino student enrollment are at institutions that are not as diverse from those that are African-American-friendly and are located in the west. The University of California at Berkeley has the largest gap in Latino students. Only 13 percent of its 2015 freshman class were Latinos, as compared to 51 per cent of state’s public high school graduate. Amy Jarich (Berkeley’s associate vice-chancellor for admissions, enrollment and diversity), said that they see it every day. “Our goal in life is to serve the state and have conversations in our classrooms that reflect that diversity.” However, elite institutions such as UC Berkeley are trying to be competitive nationally and internationally for top students. As state budget cuts slashed resources in 2009, international and out-of-state students were attractive revenue sources. Today, 24% of Berkeley’s students come from outside California. The University of New Mexico is an exception to this western trend. For example, the gap between Latino freshmen and high school graduates at the University of Texas at Austin in 2015 was four times larger than the UNM gap. The University of Arizona, University of Colorado-Boulder, and University of Nevada Reno all have three times the gaps. UNM officials claim that the university’s success in graduating Latino students has been one of its greatest selling points. Terry Babbitt (Vice Provost for Enrollment and Analytics at UNM), wrote that students and their families “see that there is support and success here.” Babbitt said mentorship, cultural celebrations, places to find support, comfort, and dedicated faculty and staff make a difference. Babbitt stated that everyone must be involved. Babbitt stated, “Everyone has to be on board.” Subscribe to our newsletter. To support this work, sign up for our newsletter. Our reporters give a human face to policy’s impact on everyday Mississippians by listening more closely and understanding their communities. To ensure that our work is aligned with the priorities and needs of Mississippians, we are listening to you. Click the button below to let us know what you think. Republish this Story You can freely republish our articles online or in print under a Creative Commons licence. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Mississippi Today, Mississippi Today
January 29, 2018 Seems to me the minorities wish to self segregate, https://www.scholarships.com/colleges/jackson-state-university/enrollment/ Who blames them. Yes, just to clear out the dirty and still-white trash at the Ole Missus Plantation. Is this racist? Hardly, Ole’ Reb! Let’s just try to level the playing field once and for all with what was once federally required and full integration but Oxford and the leadership in Mississippi are about as white as you can find. Which is how you apparently like it. Are you able to provide statistics and facts that support your claims? You don’t consider calling a group “white trash” racist. This article is full of statistics that are glaring in your eyes. Did you actually read them? THE STATITUTORY FACT that Mississippi ranks at the bottom in every performance indicator across the country reflects poorly on Ole’ Missus’ “flagship”. It either lacks the leadership skills or wants to have those very low numbers. Despite this, Oxford’s “numbers” improve. All statistically and factually verified. It is shockingly obvious. Yes, I agree that Ole piss’ leadership is deplorable. However, this has nothing to do our minorities wanting self-segregation. So my question stands. Okay. They want to segregate because of the piss poor leadership that doesn’t respect racial or cultural differences. They can’t blame Diana (below), for expressing this sentiment so clearly. Their desire to separate is driven by the Oxford Plantation. You are not satisfied with the administration’s decision to eliminate the CBF, Dixie and put up contextualization plaques on campus. Your racism is evident, even though you don’t see it. You have a problem when your campus heritage hero and law school is Lamar, who was a Confederate colonel, and who vehemently resented African-Americans during his leadership tenure. It is impossible to “contextualize”. This was true for 91% of white Americans born in 1800. Do you really want to change the names of everyone in America because they don’t live up today’s standards? What do you think about the man on that five-dollar bill? How do you feel about the man on the five-dollar bill?