Friday, May 20th 2005
UCs: Unenlightened Campuses?
One theme that has been popping up recently is how “underrepresented minorities” are choosing private schools over public schools. The reason given is that it is much easier for private schools to woo students on the basis of race, as Prop. 209 does not apply. I blogged on this phenomenon before.
Thursday’s Stanford Daily covers the story. This passage stood out to me:
“Applying to college, I was choosing between two very different institutionalized approaches to race,” said Stanford senior Jeffrey Trevino. “Stanford flew me — all expenses paid — up for a weekend of programming that presented Stanford as a culturally enlightened haven of diversity for intelligent minority students.
Oh man, “culturally enlightened haven of diversity for intelligent minority students.” Try saying that three times fast. I wonder what that makes our campus…
Berkeley and San Diego, on the other hand, were unable to give me any special treatment because Prop. 209 prohibits them from devoting attention to race in admissions.”
This says it all. Do you want special treatment? Or would you rather be treated as an equal? I choose the latter.
Do you really choose the latter? Who wouldn’t want special treatment?
Comment by anon — 5/21/2005 @ 9:52 am
I guess it’s a value judgment. I actually did choose the latter. When I was admitted to Cal, one of the minority recruitment and retention centers sent me a letter inviting me to spend a weekend with other minorities (free plane ticket too). They even called my house. But I’m not into the whole “I’m a minority, I’m special” thing so I declined. And I thought it was kind of unfair that my other friends who got into Cal received no such perks. I don’t know, maybe I’m the rare person who would pass something up because of my beliefs…
Comment by patr — 5/21/2005 @ 11:46 pm