Belonging
Diversity, inclusion, and equity are fundamental to Penn State's values and mission to support all members of the Commonwealth and beyond.
Neeli on thin ice .
- Thread starter Catch1lion
- Start date
Might want to do a legal research and get back to us.
Funny thing is I just opened the page saw the link and thought, since we were discussing SNL in the past that it was a
Skit about : Kevin Nealon and figure skating.
Only to find out it wasn't.
Skit about : Kevin Nealon and figure skating.
Only to find out it wasn't.
I grew up on military bases. My friends were black, Asian, Latino, etc. My school classes were probably 40% black, unlike when we would go back to Western PA and there was maybe one or two minorities in the whole school. When I was in the military, it was the same. You see a lot of families that have parents of different ethnicities, and kids who are representative of that. Unlike the military, where all you have to do is join, the barriers to entry for many minorities going to college are higher. The opportunity comes when you make an effort to lowers those barriers though recruitment programs. Sure, in civilian life you can stay in your bubble when you eat lunch, but you’re missing out - Minami may have some home made Japanese curry she’s willing to share….have to seek it out too, you know?
Boogeyman? John Wick? Are we intimating that minority students aren't accepted due to their ethnicity?
Our middle daughter is an Asst. Dean at Hofstra....she agrees.
I mean, we live in a country that is ~14.4% black and a state that is 10.8% black, while the black student population at PSU (University Park) is ~4.3%. I can’t tell if you’re asking what I attribute this to, or asking what makes me think it is an under-represented group.
As someone who’s seen Penn State recruiters come into Baltimore city and try to recruit some of our best kids from Poly or city high school, here’s the three reasons that those kids wouldn’t go to Penn State: they don’t want to go to a rural setting three hours from home, they don’t want to go to a school that has winter as bad as State College gets and third, even with tons of student aid and available scholarships, Penn State is super expensive.
Only 5% at Pitt, so maybe it’s the state and not the universities.
I think it’s a LOT of factors that play into each other…lack of black Alums that are raising their kids on the PSU brand, rural environment that many of the potential talent pool doesn’t want or relate to, lack of friends/classmates that are at PSU or looking to go to PSU, lack of black faculty and fellow students, a smaller talent pool based on the previously accepted admissions criteria, etc.
For me, it’s a lot of theorizing/guessing. But others have made careers out of learning about these things, so I’d put more stock in their learnings.
You’re asking how programs/staff aimed at targeting Diversity and Inclusion would help with the issue of a lack of diversity and/or not feeling comfortable at University Park?
The better solution is what? Ignore it because you feel it doesn’t impact you directly?
My question was valid. However the real question is, is it an issue that only 4.3% of the student population is black? For me, as long as admissions does not discriminate based on race, color or creed, I don't have an issue with it. The only discriminating factor should be merit.
Must be the trendy thing to do these days. This week, Commonwealth University, aka, Lock Haven, Mansfield and Bloomsburg Universities Faculty and the Coaches are all taking a vote of no confidence in the President. When did coaches get the same voting power as a Faculty Senate?
Liberal Arts dean co-edits book examining African American urban history | Penn State University
Clarence Lang, Susan Welch Dean of the College of the Liberal Arts, served as one of the co-editors of the book, “Black Urban History at the Crossroads: Race and Place in the American City,” published by the University of Pittsburgh Press.
www.psu.edu
The only discrimination it seems that they do with admissions is towards kids from their own state. I see some MD kids (of various races, though mostly white) who get in with some underachieving GPA and SAT. Got to get that out of state tuition.
Looking at stats in Wikipedia, these are the demographics for Penn State:
These are the numbers for Pennsylvania:
| White (non-Hispanic) | 76.6% | |||
| African American (non-Hispanic) | 11.8% | |||
| Hispanic or Latino[d] | 8.1% | |||
| Asian | 4.5% | |||
| Other | 1.3% | |||
| Native American | 1.1% | |||
| Pacific Islander | 0.1% |
So, as a state University, these numbers tell me that whites are, at best, underrepresented, Asians are overrepresented, Hispanics are about right, and blacks appear underrepresented, although we don’t know what ethnicity the “foreign nationals” are. If all the “foreign nationals” are white (unlikely, but let’s play that way), whites are still underrepresented as a percentage of the state population. The bottom line, to me, is that, numbers-wise, the percentages appear to be reasonably representative of the state population, although the “foreign nationals” (and “other”) could skew the numbers a bit.
Both Step and Erial mentioned, above, that they perceive blacks (and perhaps other minorities?) being uncomfortable with a mostly-white population. That may be. I would be curious to know if anyone is aware of any written complaints, anecdotes, or other input wherein minorities at Penn State say they are made uncomfortable.
Absent that, my perception is that this is all “much ado about nothing.” We are talking a very few percentage points difference between the University population and the State population at large. Beyond that, where is the evidence of racism or even “making people feel uncomfortable?”
The last thing I want to see is more bureaucracy and regulation trying to rectify a situation that appears to need no rectifying.
This would be my perspective as well. Every student no matter what race, ethnicity, religion, etc should not face discrimination at PSU and be able to thrive as a student there. If there are issues for a certain group of students suffering from racism (or similar) then that absolutely would need to be addressed.
But I don't really think the school needs to be spending money specifically to encourage Black students (or other groups) to attend PSU. If they choose to apply and attend, great! A diverse student body is a wonderful thing. But I wouldn't view the school as "failing" if certain groups of students don't attend in proportion to their overall state (or country, etc) numbers. Any more than it would be a "problem" that Asian students are relatively "over represented" at PSU.
Obviously you don't have an issue with it today...and if that 4.3% was 1.3%, you likely still wouldn't have an issue with it (though I guess I shouldn't speak for you...maybe you would at that point). But having a black student population of 4.3% at the main campus of the flagship University in a state with a black population around 12.3% is a pretty big under-representation (especially when you add in the fact that the % of black faculty is closer to 3%).
To me, having a more diverse student population has obvious benefits to all (both to that 4.3%, and everyone else that gets to interact every day with a more diverse group).
We can say "only discriminating factor should be on merit"...but really tough to look at my 1300 SAT score (after my months of SAT Prep courses and Latin courses) and 3.8 GPA after my 12 years of private schools (full of AP courses inflating my grades), and compare it to the kid from Strawberry Mansion HS in Philly with the 3.2 GPA in a school that doesn't know what an AP course is and saw the SAT for the first time on the day he took the test and got an 1100. I'm sure that many would see it as "discrimination" if admissions takes anything other than grades and SAT scores into account in that comparison. It's often more complex that it might seem when you dig in deeper.
You realize that PSU spends a lot of $ to encourage kids to attend, right? TV ads, print ads, sending recruiters into high schools, sending recruiters college fairs (and sending materials to local AA chapters to attend the college fairs), offering scholarships to highly qualified students, etc, etc, etc.
Penn State awarded highest honor for campus internationalization | Penn State University
Penn State has been named a recipient of the 2025 Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization, the highest recognition in the field of international education, awarded by NAFSA: Association of International Educators. NAFSA is the largest nonprofit association dedicated to...
www.psu.edu
We suck.
Why is it, with that kind of academic pedigree, that you settled for PSU? You seem so Ivy.
Fulbright Scholars production is sweet . We have a lot of smart and talented kids . I’m now going to have a nun hit my hands with a ruler for typing a good word about PSU .Penn State awarded highest honor for campus internationalization | Penn State University
Penn State has been named a recipient of the 2025 Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization, the highest recognition in the field of international education, awarded by NAFSA: Association of International Educators. NAFSA is the largest nonprofit association dedicated to...
We suck.
