FOR MANY years, the University has offered students the opportunity to apply for the first-year residence hall of their choice. Yet at the same time, the University has long suffered a disparity among students along ethnic and racial dimensions between Alderman and McCormick Road.
Although this racial and ethnic disparity has been noted by a lot of people and organizations, I've never seen any data which might substantiate the claim. That's why I asked the Office of Institutional Assessment and Studies for some data on the demographics of Alderman and McCormick Road for Fall 2006. It turned out that the marked demographic difference was true.
Students who identify themselves as non-white American contributed roughly 21 percent of the McCormick Road residence hall population. In Alderman Road residences, nearly 40 percent of students -- almost twice as many as in McCormick Road -- were non-white.
This significant difference makes if difficult to believe that it resulted simply due to chance. Certainly, there must be some explanation, but they have yet to be discovered.
Various solutions have been put forth for fixing the lopsided statistics. One of the more common suggestions which might elicit a more immediate effect involves randomizing first-year housing assignments. Of course, the Housing Division would have to do away with first-years' right to choose where they want to live.
But would it really be worth it?
Whether such a proposal is feasible involves careful consideration of the results produced from what would presumably be a more even racial balance.
Nov. 28, the Student Council sponsored the Greek Tunnel, which brought together the leaders of the Inter-Fraternity Council, Inter-Sorority Council, Multicultural Greek Council and the National Pan-Hellenic Council for a discussion on a broad array of diversity issues. Among the ideas discussed was the randomization of first-year housing assignments and the effects it might have on the Greek system.
Andy Paradis, IFC President, suggested that it "would be a benefit to IFC fraternities and ISC sororities." Paradis believed that it could result in a more equal interest in Greek life throughout first-year residences thereby allowing more people to know about the reality of Greek life. Moreover, it might even encourage those who might not have ordinarily considered joining to think otherwise. In short, the end product could be greater racial and ethnic diversity in the IFC and ISC.
You might still wonder what benefits randomization holds for students outside of the Greek system. For one thing, the University has always strived to at least expose white Americans to other cultures to encourage a healthy and harmonious relationship between all students.
Although this is an especially meritorious cause, it is ridiculously infeasible for the following reason. Even if minority students were distributed evenly throughout McCormick and Alderman Road, the number of non-white students in McCormick Road would not be altered to the extent that students would be immersed in a sort of cultural cornucopia which might make more students keen on educating themselves about other cultures. To make the point more clear, consider Metcalf residence hall on McCormick Road. Three African-American students currently reside there. If housing assignments were randomized and if the population of racial and ethnic groups was evenly leveled, the number of African-American students would not increase so dramatically as to cultivate a significant change in McCormick Road's environment.
And finally, there's no certainty that by having greater diversity in McCormick Road, more white students will be more receptive to other cultures.
As a member of a minority group myself, I truly appreciate and adamantly support the need to diversify housing. Randomizing housing selections, however, isn't the solution. The idea of randomization balances heavily on the assumption that the resultant increase in diversity will indeed promote more congenial relations between students of different cultures. Yet given that non-white first years have shown a clear preference Alderman Road, there must be some reason for their apparent predilection. For now, the University seems to be bewildered as to what those reasons might be, and so, it is best to resolve that matter first. Otherwise, forcing students to live where they might be uncomfortable could be disastrous.
Charles Lee's column appears Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at clee@cavalierdaily.com.
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