Debunking a diversity myth!!!

[GODUKEGO]

I have read recently on so many sites about how Duke University is this white elitist school. Of the four teams in the final four, here are the demographics of each school. The information was taken from each schools web site with links below.

WVU white 93% minorities 7%
Butler white 85.3% minorities 14.7%
MSU white 71.1% minorities 28.9%
Duke white 66.4% minorities 33.6%

http://www.campuscorner.com/north-carolina-colleges/duke-university.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgantown,_West_Virginia#West_Virginia_University _.28WVU.29

http://www.campuscorner.com/indiana-colleges/butler-university.htm

http://www.msu.edu/thisismsu/facts.html

[duke09hms]

Don't know about the other schools but that site you got Duke's numbers from are dead wrong.

Our undergrad total is only 6400 or so, and that site is saying our enrollment has 7.4k white people. This might include non-undergrads, but it's usually the undergrad student body people actually care about.

From my resources as a new member of the admissions committee, it looks like the last few entering classes at Duke were roughly:

24% Asian-American
10% African-American
10% Hispanic
5% unreported
52% Caucasian
with 10% international students sprinkled in

Befitting its status as one of the top universities in the world, Duke is the most diverse university ethnically and geographically (Ivies draw the majority of their students from the East Coast, and Stanford takes almost half their class from California).

So yeah, the other sites are just being haters. JEALOUS I say.

[Bluedog]

Duke undergraduates are 47% white (if you count internationals separately as you did with Michigan State.)

http://news.duke.edu/resources/quickfacts.html#students

[RockLobster]

The large base of Duke haters in this country hate us mostly based on stuff that, as OKST football coach Jeff Gundy would say, is fiction.

I've made peace with it by now. Most Duke haters I've found are either:

1) Just plain unintelligent
2) Smug and self-satisfied (as they claim Dukies to be)
3) Carolina fans

...and therefore not worthy of my attention. I came from a working-class family in rural NC. I'm not a rich kid from up north. Does that matter to any of them? Of course not. They'll just keep passing around the same stereotypes, the same misinformation, the same BS. Just let them, it doesn't affect how we perform on the court.

I knew plenty of "regular people" at Duke, many people on financial aid (including myself), and LOTS of minorities. I didn't know very many rich white boys from up north.

[UrinalCake]

Am I missing something here? I graduated in 1999 and at that time the Asian population was maybe 5-6%. The Caucasian population was like 70-80%. Have things changed that much, or is there a new way of representing this information?

[wisteria]

As I walk around the campus, I think 25% Asian sounds about right.

[Jarhead]

The large base of Duke haters in this country hate us mostly based on stuff that, as OKST football coach Jeff Gundy would say, is fiction.

I've made peace with it by now. Most Duke haters I've found are either:

1) Just plain unintelligent
2) Smug and self-satisfied (as they claim Dukies to be)
3) Carolina fans

...and therefore not worthy of my attention. I came from a working-class family in rural NC. I'm not a rich kid from up north. Does that matter to any of them? Of course not. They'll just keep passing around the same stereotypes, the same misinformation, the same BS. Just let them, it doesn't affect how we perform on the court.

I knew plenty of "regular people" at Duke, many people on financial aid (including myself), and LOTS of minorities. I didn't know very many rich white boys from up north.
Well, when people find there way into the Duke family they automatically turn into regular people, with or without family riches. Some of the regular people turn into real jerks, though, but rarely.

[GODUKEGO]

I have read recently on so many sites about how Duke University is this white elitist school. Of the four teams in the final four, here are the demographics of each school. The information was taken from each schools web site with links below.

WVU white 93% minorities 7%
Butler white 85.3% minorities 14.7%
MSU white 71.1% minorities 28.9%
Duke white 47% minorities 53%

http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/resources/quickfacts.html#students


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgantown,_West_Virginia#West_Virginia_University _.28WVU.29

http://www.campuscorner.com/indiana-colleges/butler-university.htm

http://www.msu.edu/thisismsu/facts.html

Revised

[UrinalCake]

As I walk around the campus, I think 25% Asian sounds about right.

You must be walking through Central Campus. Walking through the quads would be a different story.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

[coldriver10]

I think you'll see the difference when you break down what constitutes the "minority" group. As someone mentioned previously, 25% of the student body is Asian-American...in other words, the race many in this country believe to be the most affluent and well-educated group in the US (culturally as well as financially, since it usually takes money to come over from Asia). I think when people say "Duke is white" it means "lacking in Black and Latino student diversity." This idea reminds me a bit of my high school...quite "racially diverse" but included only 2 black students and a small handful of Latino students in the entire high school of 450 students. I personally think Duke is doing pretty well in the diversity department, but I do think MSU (for example) will have a higher Black/lower Asian population.

I also think the perception that we don't have enough Black or Latino students is compounded by the segregation on campus. Diverse doesn't mean integrated, unfortunately.

[tecumseh]

As someone who always puts "other" in racial ID lets not get too carried away with this. I mean race is a somewhat artificial concept so to add a decimal point is somewhat ridiculous. Even 47% is really questionable.

In the era of Jim Crow 1/16th black was considered black not sure what it is today.

[GODUKEGO]

Don't know about the other schools but that site you got Duke's numbers from are dead wrong.

Our undergrad total is only 6400 or so, and that site is saying our enrollment has 7.4k white people. This might include non-undergrads, but it's usually the undergrad student body people actually care about.

From my resources as a new member of the admissions committee, it looks like the last few entering classes at Duke were roughly:

24% Asian-American
10% African-American
10% Hispanic
5% unreported
52% Caucasian
with 10% international students sprinkled in

Befitting its status as one of the top universities in the world, Duke is the most diverse university ethnically and geographically (Ivies draw the majority of their students from the East Coast, and Stanford takes almost half their class from California).

So yeah, the other sites are just being haters. JEALOUS I say.

43rd most racial diverse university according to the US News & World Report.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-campus-ethnic-diversity

US News & World Report ranked as 10th best University.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/national-universities-rankings

[duke09hms]

You must be walking through Central Campus. Walking through the quads would be a different story.

Sorry, couldn't help myself.

Nope, this is the New Duke my friend, at most 50% Caucasian.

[GODUKEGO]

I think you'll see the difference when you break down what constitutes the "minority" group. As someone mentioned previously, 25% of the student body is Asian-American...in other words, the race many in this country believe to be the most affluent and well-educated group in the US (culturally as well as financially, since it usually takes money to come over from Asia). I think when people say "Duke is white" it means "lacking in Black and Latino student diversity." This idea reminds me a bit of my high school...quite "racially diverse" but included only 2 black students and a small handful of Latino students in the entire high school of 450 students. I personally think Duke is doing pretty well in the diversity department, but I do think MSU (for example) will have a higher Black/lower Asian population.

I also think the perception that we don't have enough Black or Latino students is compounded by the segregation on campus. Diverse doesn't mean integrated, unfortunately.

Diversity means diverse not just black. Duke's black enrollment is 10% while blacks make up 13% of the US population. Pretty representative!!!

[hc5duke]

Sweet, now if I meet someone who hates Duke, I can call them racist, too.


Nope, this is the New Duke my friend, at most 50% Caucasian.

I think he was referring to a factually incorrect Chron editorial (or was it a letter to the editor?) from years ago that claimed most asian students lived on central, but I could be wrong.

(edit) Oh I read his first post, I guess not. 25% sounds about right to me, too. Graduated '03

[coldriver10]

Diversity means diverse not just black. Duke's black enrollment is 10% while blacks make up 13% of the US population. Pretty representative!!!
Oh I know they're not the same, but sometimes I get the impression the rest of the country equates the two (though I will say there is a difference between having Black/Latino student diversity and Asian-American diversity, as seen in my high school example. But again, I'm not saying Duke is like that). A lot of the Duke hate comes down to misperception and ignorance.

[UrinalCake]

I think he was referring to a factually incorrect Chron editorial (or was it a letter to the editor?) from years ago that claimed most asian students lived on central, but I could be wrong.

I was referring to central campus, but I wasn't aware of this Chronicle article. I was an Asian student living in Central from 1997-1999 and I assure you the demographic makeup was nowhere close to what it was on the main campus. I had dozens of Asian friends and all but maybe one of them lived in Central. When you got on the "Central bus" it was like you were going to another country. I attribute this to the prevalence of fraternities which are housed on the main campus and which, IMO, do not attract minorities. And yes, I am aware that there is a "black fraternity." I have to agree with the previous poster who said that diverse does not mean integrated. You can have a really large minority population, but if everyone keeps to themselves then that's not really fostering diversity.

Sorry for the tangent. I'm glad to see that Duke has become such a diverse school and hopefully the public perception will change too.

[DevilHorns]

Someone pointed out earlier that diversity does not equal integration. As a recent grad (T'06), I completely agree.

When opposing fans see Duke students what do they see? They see the Crazies bobbing up-close for maybe, lets say, 20-30 seconds per game in segments. For the non-ACC bball fan that just watches sportscenter, they see the Crazies maybe 3-5 seconds on a Duke post-game recap. When I look into that crowd on a quick glance all I see is White kids, Asian kids, and Indian kids. I don't see many African Americans (total guess here, but I think its less than the 1/10th representation of the student-body which would be the expected), and even so, many non-white students are painted up, making their ethnicity difficult to perceive on casual short observation.

Add to this that Duke is a private prestigious school that has more than its share of white players on its team.

Perception is reality.

[Richard Berg]

Am I missing something here? I graduated in 1999 and at that time the Asian population was maybe 5-6%. The Caucasian population was like 70-80%. Have things changed that much, or is there a new way of representing this information?

Without being too stereotypical...what was your major?

[brevity]

When I look into that crowd on a quick glance all I see is White kids, Asian kids, and Indian kids. I don't see many African Americans (total guess here, but I think its less than the 1/10th representation of the student-body which would be the expected)

You could draw the conclusion that the Cameron Crazies do not accurately represent the racial makeup of the undergrad student body. Those willing to camp out for major games are probably even less representative.

I attended a few games, but found it so hard to breathe in there that I just preferred watching the games on television. It's possible to be a fan from a more relaxed distance.

[wisteria]

When I look into that crowd on a quick glance all I see is White kids, Asian kids, and Indian kids.

:D Hey, the Indians are Asians~~~ Sorry, couldn't help myself. :D

[DevilHorns]

You could draw the conclusion that the Cameron Crazies do not accurately represent the racial makeup of the undergrad student body. Those willing to camp out for major games are probably even less representative.

I attended a few games, but found it so hard to breathe in there that I just preferred watching the games on television. It's possible to be a fan from a more relaxed distance.

Wha? Thats exactly the conclusion I was hoping to draw.:confused: I realize Duke is very diverse, heck I just graduated less than a handful of years back. I was trying to channel the perception of a non-Duke fan who "sees" Duke by watching the games on TV or catching small segments on sportscenter.

[UrinalCake]

Without being too stereotypical...what was your major?

Biomedical Engineering. I know, big shocker there 8-)

[DevilHorns]

:D Hey, the Indians are Asians~~~ Sorry, couldn't help myself. :D

Ya ya ya, as an Asian subcontinental myself, I forever am displeased with this categorization in surveys. I had to recently sign up for my board exams for med school and I chose "other" since I think "Asian/Pacific Islander" is not a category designed to represent me.

(BTW, for applying into med school they actually separate out races from "Asian" since there are so many Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese, etc applying :rolleyes:, in other words, they only have my category when it helps for tracking the quota)

[Richard Berg]

Biomedical Engineering. I know, big shocker there 8-)
Actually, I was expecting a conversation like


RB: what was your major?
UC: French Literature
RB: dude, no wonder you thought Duke was 80% white, try going to Teer sometime :)


If you were BME yet perceived the Asian population to be 5%, maybe things really did change rapidly in the last decade.

[Kewlswim]

Ya ya ya, as an Asian subcontinental myself, I forever am displeased with this categorization in surveys. I had to recently sign up for my board exams for med school and I chose "other" since I think "Asian/Pacific Islander" is not a category designed to represent me.

(BTW, for applying into med school they actually separate out races from "Asian" since there are so many Indians, Pakistanis, Chinese, etc applying :rolleyes:, in other words, they only have my category when it helps for tracking the quota)

Hi,

I thought Indians (from India) where considered Caucasian? If one looks at the genetic markers they certainly are, but I am not sure what the most recent categories are. Furthermore, just to muddy the waters, many a sociologist will say race is a social construct.

Regardless of what we arrive at here, GO DUKE!! We are all Blue Devils here.

GO DUKE!

[DevilHorns]

Hi,

I thought Indians (from India) where considered Caucasian? Furthermore, just to muddy the waters, many a sociologist will say race is a social construct.

Regardless of what we arrive at here, GO DUKE!! We are all Blue Devils here.

GO DUKE!

You are right.

And you are right again.

[KandG]

Sorry for the tangent. I'm glad to see that Duke has become such a diverse school and hopefully the public perception will change too.

I've heard a lot of information anecdotally that Duke's diversity has improved the last 10 to 12 years, and it sounds like that's the case. I was an international Asian student that graduated in the late '80s and Duke definitely conformed to more of the stereotypes back then, especially with the overwhelming fraternity presence. I almost transferred, and this was one of the issues that was a consideration.

Very glad to hear Duke has a broader range of faces and backgrounds these days, and the word should get out more. And FWIW, whatever my issues with the Duke I attended way back when, I never missed a single game at Cameron.

[JBDuke]

Duke is in the Final Four. There are so many other topics to talk about, let's focus on those instead of on topics that have a propensity to become inflammatory. While this is a topic brought up on mainstream media outlets, we prefer to focus our conversation on other aspects of the game.

This thread is CLOSED.