In this brief report, I will be examining common practices, policies and resources that support Black women attending Princeton University. Included is a brief review of national averages in regards to higher education attainment and a rationale for continued rhetoric on this topic. My interest in this topic stem from my experience at State University’s Women Studies Program. While the conversation around gender is necessary and crucial, little attention was given to discussions of how race and gender affect an individual’s lived experience. I was constantly aware of my lack of representation among students who were in those classes and the faculty who taught.
Introduction
Obtaining higher education is regarded as the ultimate symbol
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According to a national longitudinal data set of college students to examine the educational relevance of cross-racial interaction conducted by Chang, Astin & Kim (2004), the data implies that institutions could enhance such experiences by enrolling larger proportions of students of color and by offering students more opportunities to live and work part-time on campus, as well as increasing the number of tenured professors that represent such minorities. However in 2010, a committee found that 85 percent of Princeton’s associate and full professors were white, compared to 94 percent in 1980 (Brill, …show more content…
(2013, September 13). Princeton university endorses plan to increase diversity among faculty, staff and graduate students. Times of Trenton. Retrieved from http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2013/09/princeton_university_endorses_plan_to_in rease_diversity_among_faculty_staff_and_graduate_student_bo.html
Chang, M. J., Astin, A. W., & Kim, D. (2004). Cross-racial interaction among undergraduates: Some consequences, causes, and pattern. Research in Higher Education, 45(5), 529-553.
Prentice, H. Report of the Trustee Ad Hoc Committee, (2013). On diversity. Retrieved from Princeton University website: http://www.princeton.edu/reports/2013/diversity/report/PU-report-on-diversity.pdf
Rein, R. K. (1973, March 6). Black Princeton. The Princeton Alumni Weekly, pp. 8-14.
Rimer, S., & Arenson, K. W. (2004, June 24). Top colleges take more blacks, but which ones?. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/us/top colleges-take-more-blacks-but-which-ones.html.
Robinson, M.L. (1985) Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community (Unpublished thesis). Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2012, May 24). The Condition of Education 2012 (NCES 2012-045). Retrieved from
Major collegiate athletics programs are able to generate millions of dollars for their institutions, but are not able to show any evidence of successfully graduating their black male athletes that contribute to their success in generating those millions of dollars. These universities in turn, are failing these student athletes whom were promised that they would nurture them intellectually as well as athletically. A four year report published by the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education presents statistics that shows that the six major sports conferences in the NCAA (ACC, Big Ten, Big East, Big 12, SEC, Pac 12) have weak graduation rates for male African American Student athletes. Jessica Anderson of the associated press wrote an article titled, Black Athletes' Graduation Rates Weak where she used evidence from the University of Pennsylvania’s study as well as information from The Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education to present findings that showed that only about, “50.2 percent of African-American male student-athletes graduated within six years and that 96.1 percent of the schools graduated African-American male student-athletes at rates lower than student-athletes overall” (Anderson). Yet, the evidence that African American male student athletes are struggling to graduate as compared to their white counterparts does not simply stop there. In fact, Shaun Harper the executive director of the Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania reports that, “50.2 percent of black male athletes graduate within six years from colleges compared with 67 percent of athletes over all, 73 percent of undergraduates, and 56 percent of black undergraduate men” (Harper)....
Through out history education has been a topic of many concerns. Historically Black Colleges and Universities were established to try and provide freed slaves education they were not able to obtain. For African Americans in the 20th century attending school was a burden. The children had to withstand long walks to get to their designated schools, being denied classes that the white students had in their schools, outdated books and hand me down classroom materials. African Americans all across the United States fought for their kids rights to get a good education, education provided to white only schools. There was a period of time schools were able to legally deny a student acceptance into their institutions based solely on the color of their skin. Many African Americans tried and majority of them got denied. Students at all levels were being denied, from Pre-K all the way up to college. After many attempts to integrate schools parents of the children being denied education just like the white kids, they realized it would be easier to just build their own schools.
...to understand their experiences through their exposure and interactions with such incidents to foster their persistence and success in college. This research will not only help uncover the navigational strategies these women have employed to overcome oppressive barriers such as racism and sexism but also to identify the impact of these experiences on the development of their academic aspirations. The overall impact of this research is two-fold: at the macro level findings can benefit those in program and resource development to create effective programming and strategies to support women of color success in college. Along the same lines, the benefits of this research at the micro-level include promoting awareness among young women of color about the strategies that other women of color have adopted to overcome these challenges and reach their educational goals.
As an African American male, I experienced inequality, and judgment from individuals that have no idea what kind of person I truly am. As a youth, I received a lackluster education, which has resulted in me underachieving in a number of my college classes. It has come to my attention that other colored students are currently experiencing and receiving the same inadequate learning environment and educatio...
This paper examines the struggle African American students are more likely to face at a predominantly white institution (PWIs) than at a historically black college or university (HBCUs). Each author has his or her own take on this hypothesis; most of the author’s studies suggest that African American students have a hard time adjusting to an environment at a PWI (Littleton 2003). However, African American students at HBCUs tend to be at ease with their learning environment. Though many of the author’s agree with one another there are other authors whose studies come to the conclusion that race is not a factor in college education anymore. That being the case on average African American population is approximately four percent at PWIs (Littleton 2003).
For centuries African Americans have fought for equal rights, one of them being an opportunity for the chance to get an equal education. Many people believe that African Americans have an equal or better chance at getting an education than other students. This is not the case when in fact, it is actually harder for these three reasons: African American students tend to come from harsh, poverty stricken atmospheres. Shattered family lifestyles that make it difficult to pursue a higher education because they have not received the proper information. Secondly, just because African Americans are minorities does not mean that they receive a vast amount of government assistance or financial aid to pursue a higher education. Lastly, African American students do not receive the same treatment as other students when they attend predominantly white colleges and universities.
Most African-Americans agree that they have much to gain by earning a college degree. Most will also agree that this task is much easier said than done. Unfortunately, many African-Americans find that disparities in higher education eclipse their expectations of equal educational opportunity. For many, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are a great solution. Since the founding of Cheyney University in 1837, HBCUs have continually been established to give African-Americans an education as they could not attend other institutions due to segregation laws. HBCUs became more widespread in the 1960s with twenty-seven institutions being established, twenty-four of which still exist today among the 105 institutions. HBCUs play an important role in the education of African-Americans compared to other colleges and universities. They historically provided a way for African-Americans to receive an education that Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) did not allow, they offer an inclusive environment that fosters better academic and social adjustment, and their open admissions policy along with efforts to enhance retention rates gives African-American students from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity for success.
“Nationally, more than one-quarter of the students in the 1930s were black. Yet they received only about one-tenth of the total education revenues. Many Americans believed that African Americans were simply not capable of excelling in school” (“The 1930’s education…”). For colored women, it was more difficult to prove their abilities than any other race. For example, Asian women were not affected as much simply because their skin color was closer to that of a white’s than a black person. As black women were treated unequally in the education department, white women have also struggled in getting a higher education. “They gave young women a chance to gain the same kinds of education as their brothers without having to spend much of their time and energy fighting the prejudice they would have faced at male-dominated institutions. At the same time, they provided a proving-ground in which college administrators, professors, and students could demonstrate that women could flourish intellectually while remaining healthy and ladylike.” (“The Value
Success. Society tends to correlate “success” with the obtainment of a higher education. But what leads to a higher education? What many are reluctant to admit is that the American dream has fallen. Class division has become nearly impossible to repair. From educations such as Stanford, Harvard, and UCLA to vocational, adult programs, and community, pertaining to one education solely relies on one’s social class. Social class surreptitiously defines your “success”, the hidden curriculum of what your socioeconomic education teaches you to stay with in that social class.
Roebuck, Julian B., and Komanduri S. Murty. Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Their Place in American Higher Education. Westport: Praeger, 1993. Print.
The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. (2006).Black Student College Graduation Rates Remain Low, But Modest Progress Begins to Show. Retrieved from: http://www.jbhe.com/features/50_blackstudent_gradrates.html
Annotated Bibliography Journals: The Journal of the American Denson, N., & Chang, M. (2009). Racial Diversity Matters: The Impact of Diversity-Related Student Engagement and Institutional Context. American Educational Research Journal, 46, 322-353. This article discusses the different forms of racial diversity contribution to students’ educational and learning experiences and the positive effects on students who adopt these diversity opportunities. The author demonstrates how the quality of higher education is substantially heightened by diversity-connected efforts.
The ability to gain a degree in any field of study is highly important in American society, possessing skills and knowledge over your job emphasizes the significance of higher education. Especially, for job promotions that would cause someone to make more than their fellow colleagues. In our increasingly competitive economic society, having the minimal of a high school diploma is not enough to provide financial stability nor will it help to compete in a workforce in which the best-educated are the ones that are rewarded the most. Therefore, higher education is a crucial necessity in order to move up the socioeconomic ladder and qualify for higher paying jobs. The rising costs of college, however, is making it harder for Americans to obtain
To establish institutional benchmarks and encourage greater progress, institutional-level tracking by program of student ethnicity and performance outcomes must begin to occur in a uniform manner, such that comparisons can be made across time, departments and institutions. What is now opaque can be made visible by systematically tracking the number of degree candidates and earners in STEM disciplines across demographic categories and making those numbers publicly available on institutional websites. In so doing, we (a) enable researchers and practitioners to identify institutions that are making progress (or not) and (b) allow for more careful data-driven analysis of what constitutes effective practices that can be adapted. Federal and private funding agencies should require this information from institutions that receive support in a standardized format that identifies disparity and equity. In addition, annual reports of institutional STEM data could be included in accreditation reviews. Most importantly, colleges and universities themselves stand to benefit from better institutional data on student performance (Hurtado et al., 2009;
[3] Custard, Edward T. The Princeton Review Student Advantage Guide to the Best 301 Colleges. Random House, Inc. New York, 1996