Black students at Duke upset over study (finding more black students drop out of hard majors)

Herald-Sun ^ | January 12, 2012 | Neil Offen

[reaganaut1]

DURHAM — Black students at Duke University are angry over a university research paper that found African-American undergraduates at the school are disproportionally more likely to switch from tough majors to easier ones.

“The implications and intentions of this research at the hands of our very own prestigious faculty, seemingly without a genuine concern for proactively furthering the well-being of the black community is hurtful and alienating,” wrote the officers of Duke’s Black Student Alliance in an email sent to the state NAACP.

The letter from Nana Asante, president of the alliance, challenged the faculty members involved in the research and the university administration to consider “what image has this … report portrayed to the rest of the country, namely our peer institutions, about Duke and its black students?”

The unpublished report, “What Happens After Enrollment? An Analysis of the Time Path of Racial Differences in GPA and Major Choice,” looked at the Duke freshman classes that matriculated in 2001 and 2002, in their first, second and fourth years of college.

It found that among students who initially expressed an interest in majoring in economics, engineering and the natural sciences, 54 percent of black men and 51 percent of black women ended up switching to the humanities or another social science.

By comparison, 33 percent of white women and just 8 percent of white men made the switch to majors that are considered less rigorous, require less study and have easier grading standards.

According to the paper, 68 percent of Duke’s black students but less than 55 percent of white students ended up majoring in the humanities or social sciences other than economics.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

ping to #1

[YHAOS]

Face it . . . sometimes the truth just simply hurts.

[WOBBLY BOB]

“soft bigotry of low expectations” ping

[Cowgirl of Justice]

I wonder how many are getting Pell Grants.

I went to a private woman’s college and one history class, the day before an exam, there was a black student in front of me with her head on the desk, asleep. When class was dismissed and she sleepily got up, I asked her, “Aren’t you worried about the exam?” she smiled and said, “Well, if I fail,I guess you will just pay for me to take the class again.”

I was working full time and going to school full time. I paid my own way. This so infuriated me. I never forgot it. And did find out some intentionally stayed unemployed or took jobs that paid cash so they could get the school paid for.

[Lancey Howard]

Ping to hilarious source material!

[Travis McGee]

Reality is not PC.

[FatherofFive]

“The Bell Curve”

Exactly. But facts are not PC.

[Lancey Howard]

Dear Black Students at Duke University,

In life (real life--life outside of academia) nobody gives you anything, you have to EARN it.

LOL, that's a joke, right?

[truth_seeker]

“I wonder what the thoughts of Duke’s White Student Alliance were on the matter.”

Too busy studying mathematics to organize, or comment.

[immadashell]

wrote the officers of Duke’s Black Student Alliance in an email sent to the state NAACP

Eighty eight Duke faculty members wrote a letter in support of the Black Student Alliance without having read any of the study.

[emax]

Any studies comparing and contrasting the average high school GPAs, SAT And ACT scores for incoming Whites, Blacks, Hispanics, South Asians, East Asians that enter Duke their freshman year ? College students often have stories of students getting into schools like Duke where if they were White students their application would have been viewed as purely entertainment.

[crosshairs]

Stop your F-ing whining and start studying. In life (real life--life outside of academia) nobody gives you anything, you have to EARN it.

Not necessarily. You wouldn't believe how many black females get promoted to management in the corporation I work in. It's because they get to check off two EEO/AA boxes. Now if they're black, female AND handicapped, the sky is the limit.

[denydenydeny]

“The implications and intentions of this research at the hands of our very own prestigious faculty, seemingly without a genuine concern for proactively furthering the well-being of the black community is hurtful and alienating,” wrote the officers of Duke’s Black Student Alliance in an email sent to the state NAACP.

Reality is always devastating to people who live their lives in Fantasyland.

Wouldn't surprise me if the "remedy" is the conferring of actual science degrees without the "hurtful" and "alienating" process of passing courses.

[Pollster1]

Eighty eight Duke faculty members wrote a letter in support of the Black Student Alliance without having read any of the study.

Any bets on how many of those professors teach in the humanities or social sciences other than economics, and not in math, science, engineering, or economics??

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Good reason to End Affirmative Action.

[End Times Sentinel]

An ingenious plan, on the part of libs.

Get some intelligent “negros”, lure them into a school for which they are not qualified or prepared, get them in for a year, saddle them with $30k debt, prove to them they can't compete in college, and have them drop out. Plus, it makes the rich white kids feel great about the “diversity” the experienced on campus, taking the black kids in as a “pet”.

Now you've got an angry, impoverished, un-degreed, person, who will likely vote democrat the rest of their lives. However, more importantly, they'll never serve as a role model to others in “the community” of persistance and success.

[taillightchaser]

Can you spell moochelle odumbo?

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Sounds to me as if the students are upset by the truth.

[Jeff Chandler]

A couple years ago I overheard a coworker bragging that the college grants he was receiving far exceeded the cost of his classes and materials. This individual was 50 years old, multi-degreed, and...
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African-American.

[Question Liberal Authority]

If the NAACP was really interested in “advancement”, they would have disbanded once a member of a minority race became President Of The United States.