From the New York Times:

Why Latino Students Flock to One California College By JENNIFER MEDINA 7:08 PM ET Though they make up California’s largest ethnic group, Latinos are underrepresented in the state’s universities. But not at the University of California, Merced.

Why do so Hispanics wind up at UC Merced in the rural Central Valley?

… In the decades since a ballot measure banned affirmative action in California’s public institutions, the University of California has faced persistent criticism that it is inadequately serving Latinos, the state’s largest ethnic group. The disparity between the state’s population and its university enrollment is most stark at the state’s flagship campuses: at University of California, Los Angeles, Latinos make up about 21 percent of all students; at Berkeley, they account for less than 13 percent. But at Merced, the newest addition to the 10-campus University of California system, about 53 percent of the undergraduates are Latino, most closely mirroring the demographics of the nation’s most diverse state. Merced lacks the same national reputation for academic excellence as other campuses in the University of California system. It has the highest acceptance rate by far (70 percent compared with 16 percent at U.C.L.A.), and some students across the state do not see it as in the same league as the other campuses. Graduation rates have consistently been lower than at any other campus in the system: 45 percent of freshmen who entered in 2009 had earned a degree four years later, compared with 65 percent at San Diego and 76 percent at Berkeley. Merced has yet to hire the star faculty found at other U.C.s and has a much smaller graduate program. The college does not attract the state’s top-scoring applicants when it comes to test scores and grade-point averages. Eligible students from California who are rejected from other University of California campuses are often funneled to Merced, which offers them a spot even if they have not applied. But more than 90 percent of those students rejected the offer, according to a 2016 state audit.

In other words, Hispanics flock to UC Merced because they can’t get in to better UC schools because on average Hispanics can’t compete with Asians on test scores.

It’s almost as if mass immigration has been making California more unequal.

In other California college news, the claws are out for STEM-oriented Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the best of the second tier Cal State system for lacking diversity. While blatant affirmative action is, theoretically, outlawed at California public colleges, the well-budgeted UC schools use “holistic admissions” to impose quotas de facto. But since nobody cares about most of the Cal State schools, they just let kids in based on test scores and grades. But, Cal Poly SLO ten miles inland from Pismo Beach is the jewel in the party hat of the Cal States. So, cunning eyes are being turned on SLO to figure out how, in the name of Diversity, to make the college less diverse. From the San Luis Obispo Tribune:

Cal Poly is the whitest public university in California — by a lot

BY LUCAS CLARK lclark@thetribunenews.com April 19, 2018 03:43 PM Cal Poly has the least racially diverse student population among all public universities in California, according to enrollment data provided by the CSU and UC systems. And it’s not close. In fall 2017, 54.8 percent of Cal Poly’s student body identified as white, which is the highest mark of any school within the 23-campus CSU system, as well as the 10-university UC system.

So 54.8% white and 45.2% nonwhite is the epitome of homogeneity? Or is Diversity just getting rid of whites?

Nobody seems to know what the word “diversity” means in principle, so people just junk their principles.

The next-closest schools in the CSU — home to 484,297 students — are the Maritime Academy (48.5 percent white), Sonoma State (44.6) and Chico State (43.0). (Fresno State was at 19.6 percent.) Additionally, Cal Poly has the lowest percentage of African American students among all public universities in the state, the data shows. Cal Poly’s student body in fall 2017 was 0.7 percent African American — the ninth consecutive year under 1 percent — making it the only school in the state with an African American population less than 2 percent this academic year. Cal State Dominguez Hills has the largest African American population at 12.3 percent, followed by Cal State East Bay (9.8), Sacramento State (5.8) and CSU Bakersfield (5.6). Fresno State is at 3.0 percent.

Fresno State is almost exactly as Hispanic as SLO is white, but that makes Fresno more Diverse.

Cal Poly’s racial divide has been under the microscope in recent weeks after multiple racist photos emerged on social media, prompting President Jeffrey Armstrong to place all fraternities and sororities on suspension. Looking at the CSU system as a whole, Mexican American students make up the largest ethnic group at 31.8 percent, followed by white students (23.5 percent) and Asian students (11.6). That means Cal Poly’s proportion of white students is more than double the CSU average. On the UC side, Asian students comprise the largest ethnic group at 33.7 percent, followed by Latino students (24.2 percent) and white students (22.5). None of the 10 UC schools has a white population larger than 34 percent, including universities comparable to Cal Poly such as UC Davis (24.7) and UC Santa Barbara (31.8). “They’re really unique in the system, in terms of both their geographic setting, the programmatic offerings and the way they’re set up,” said Mike Uhlenkamp, senior director of public affairs for the CSU. “So they pull not only from the state, but they pull from across the country, which is unique for CSU campuses, which lends to their demographics.” Still, Armstrong noted that Cal Poly has made progress in diversifying its campus over the last decade. In 2005, more than 67 percent of Cal Poly students identified as white, and that number has been declining nearly every year since. Cal Poly spokesman Matt Lazier said applications for under-represented minorities for fall 2018 were more than double the number the university received in 2008. He reiterated that Cal Poly is “committed to, and has a documented track record of, supporting diversity and inclusion.” “The effort is ongoing,” Lazier said, “and the university’s work is not complete until Cal Poly’s faculty, staff and students reflect the diversity of the state of California in every facet — gender, race, sexual orientation, class, ideology, ethnicity and more.”

But not ethnicity of who paid the biggest share of tax dollars.



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