Surveyexaminesparallels
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us- Postage Paid /&/Sa^.iL^fe^^^v Permit#1 * AsSAjL ~3* 5k5L «apB| ~^^H^. I% f^' \£f**^' *$-'\«A Davidson,NC III I VmJ^lflCw^k^A 1V^# I 1-J I /v If»* fvi r** /v ill Y^nnCBSfurT^ca^T^a i ■ rz «^ m3»tt^ w <2. .▲. Davidson College Wednesday,November 13,2002 Volume 94,Number 10 Survey examines parallels between race andmajor How does diversityaffect our academic experience? By RobHeidrick legeexperience.Manypointouthowthelackof Staff Writer diversityoncampushinders our learning.And yethow manyaskhowthediversity wedohave Davidsonis historically successful atkeep- enhances it? ingcertaininstitutionalstatisticslow.GPAsare A survey recentlyconducted oncampus in- one. The percentageof minority students on vestigated the intricacies of diversity,specifi- campusis another. cally with respect to majors. How does the For many it's a perennial and frustrating diversityofour institutionreflect thediversity conclusion: Davidson lacks diversity, and in- across majors? Which majors are disadvan- complete diversity means an incomplete col- taged?And whichareenriched? The survey, which was distributed to ap- proximatelyhalfof thestudentbodybypoliti- 2002, there were69 minority students. Four cal science professor Dr. Pat Sellers's Pubic departmentsgraduatednominority majors: Opinionclass,included 52questionsonarange Final Answer: Rob Neuman '04, Joe Palatinus '05, Ryan Kinney '03 Classics,German,Philosophy,andTheatre. ofissues,including thoseconcerning AnthropologyandSociology high- students' and Sam Weathers '03 representPhi Gamma Delta intheQuiz Bowl hadthe majors. est percentageof minority graduates with raceand their When thesurvey datais tournament. The double-elimination competition will continue into 42.9and 41.7percent respectively.Minori- compared to similar data obtained from December. ties made up less than 10 percent of the Davidson's Office of Institutional graduates' English, Research in the largest depart- regarding 2002, mentoncampus.DatacourtesyofDr.Laura the class of certain patterns Boyles, Office of InstitutionalResearch. emerge, perhaps hinting at a correlation be- — tweenraceand major. RLO clarifies housinglottery Q(\ I ut °f 458 people inthegraduatingclassof 2002, there were 69 minority students. Four , departments graduated no minority majors: Classics, German, Philosophy, rules atSGA meeting orfc I hb . and Theatre. OUI Anthropology and Sociology had the highest .... H. ■■minorities percentageofminoritygraduates with42.9and issues for the class of 2004. Marsicano and 41.7 percentrespectively.Minorities made up Marsicano explains Urban debated with students for much of the EjQ H less than10percent ofthegraduates inEnglish, meeting about the merits of having a "pure" IS thelargestdepartmenton campus. currentmethod lottery versus the currentmethod. I_ Looking at individual departments yields ' Marsicano explained that only about five /\f\"**^ H-H-H-^ interestingresults.Thephilosophydepartment, vs. 'pure lottery percentof students didnotget their first apart- I for example, graduated seven majors this mentchoice due to behavioral patterns, which spring, allof them white males. The campus- wasoriginallythemaintopicofconcern forthe _ _ widesurveydrew responsesfromfivePhiloso- By AmandaPennock senators.Usingthis statistic,sheexplainedthat " \J\) I phy majors, all white. This congruity might SeniorStaff Writer switching to a "pure" lottery would make it wellbeattributed tocoincidence,but the num- worsefor theother95 percentof students,and bers become moreinteresting whencompared If you weren't on campus last spring, or thatthepeoplewhowouldgainfromthissystem ryc\ H-fl-H-H-H-H simply didn'thearthe commotion,someof the are those whocause themost trouble for RLO classof2003hadarudeawakeningwhenthey discovered that theallocation ofMartinCourt apartmentsisnotdonebya "pure"lottery. seeRLO,page 2 Due to an unclear explanation of the RLO process,a number of rising seniors were not INSIDETHIS WEEK giventheirtopchoice for housingintheMartin Courtapartments,morecommonly known the senior apartments, even though their lottery 1 1 f 1 1 f 11 numbers werehighenoughforthistohappenin 11 Ii1 1 111 11 i a"pure"lottery. However,RLOdoesnotusea"pure"lottery -that is,alottery system thatdependsentirely on the lottery numbers randomly assigned to students.Theseniorapartmentsareassignedto a "real-world atmosphere" -meaning thatno buildingonMartin Court may bemostly of a singlegenderormostlyfromasinglePatterson www.apple.com/trailers/columbia organization. Court Punch-DrunkLovereviewed. Page5. While variety takes toppriority, RLO also News looksatthe"patternsofbehavior"ofstudentsin 1-4 BSChosts assigningthemtoapartments.Forexample,ifa intercultural datingdiscussion. Storypage2. " " student has a record of dorm vandalism or multiplenoise violations,heorshewouldlikely Arts &Living not be placedin close proximity to a student . 5-6 who has ahistory ofnoisecomplaints. What's onTV?Story page 5. Senator SusanneFrancis '03,invited Dean Perspectives Leslie Marsicano andLeslie Urban toaddress 7-8 theissuesthatwereraisedbystudentsenatorsat What's nextfor theGOP?Storypage 8. theOct.30 meeting. Marsicano saidthat anew,clearer explana- Sports 9-12 tion of the assignmentrules andmethods for What'sgoingonwiththefootballScoreboard? Storypage MartinCourt hadbeen createdto clear up the 10. News Wednesday, November 13,2002 Intercultiiral dating at ■ spurs discussion BSC ApplytoDavidsoninWashington Students hesitant topractice what theysupport Dr.RussellCrandallwilllead this summer'seight-weekDavklson-in-Washing- tonprogram,setforlateMaytolateJuly. ApplicationsaredueNovember25,and By RobHeidrick self-determined, that person's religion and po- can be picked up Dr. CrandalPs office, Chambers 326. Contact Staff Writer litical views say a lotabout his or her morals, beliefs,and personality, all of which could be This weekend, Davidson students con- consideredimportant pointsofunityinanyrela- Socialcommentator to speak tinued to examine the school's oft-criticized tionship. conceptofdiversitybytakingpartinagroup Family expectations were citedas another CornelWest,aPrincetonreligionprofessor,willspeakonThursday,November discussion of the controversialsubject ofin- potentialobstacletointcrculturaldating."Imight 21onraceissues. Call(704)894-2135to reserve tickets. tercultural dating. Themeeting took placeat nothaveaproblemdating someoneoutsidemy - the BSC houseon Sundav evening and fea- race," said one attendee,"but Iknow that my SupporttheRedBikes buyat-shirt! tured Davidson family might not DavidsonOutdoorsiscurrentlyselling"SavetheRedBike"t-shirtsfor $10on graduate Allen Lee 1 be comfortable the first floorof Alvarez. Thecampaignisaimed to raisemoney tofixbikesin '01 as the group fa- "I'mnot sayingthatI withit,andIhave disrepair andtoadvertise need torespectpublic property. cilitator. to take that into Lee, who has wouldn'tdatea black girl, consideration." Studentssponsoring trip toprotest previously led other but it wouldbeharder to Students AgroupofDavidsonstudentsplans tojointhepeacefulprotestofSchoolof the discussions at the " credited the gen- Americas in Fort Benning, GA, this weekend. Formore information,please BSC', conducted the make that connection here. erallack ofdiver- contact Elizabeth CampbellorGregHarris. discussionby posing - sity on campusas asetofquestionsfirst Caucasianmale a factor in their Baldwinscholarpresents film,speech to the women in the tendencies to not James groupand then to the w^^^^^^^^^m m pursue partners MauriceWallace,AssistantProfessorof AfricanAmericanStudiesandEnglish men. The questions with different at DukeUniversity, wfli be showinga short film and speakingonWednesday, dealtwithissues suchas whetheror notgroup backgrounds. November20,at 4pan.hitheSloanMuskBuilding,Rm The filmis 100. "James members wereopposedtotheideaofintercul- One Caucasian male in the group said, Baldwin AnotherPlace" byTurkish filmmaker, Pakay. from American Sedat tural dating in general, whether they would "When Iwant to date someone, it's usually The film follows through during eight year Baldwin Istanbul sometime his personally choose to have an intercultural someoneIhangoutwithalot.AtDavidson,alot residence there. Prof. Wallace will give a short presentation of his work-in- relationship, and which cultural differences ofthe-groupIhang outwithhappenstobe white. progress World, titled'The TheTextandtheWitness: JamesBaldwin'sSecular wouldbethehardesttoovercome.Leedefined I'mnotsaying thatIwouldn'tdateablack girl, Criticism." "culture" asnotmerelytermsofrace,butalso butit would be harder to make that connection religion,class,ethnicity, and political views. here." Studentbandswillcompete Thecrowd wasunanimous initssupport Lee'sfinalquestionto thegroupconcerned BattleoftheBands willbeheld thisSaturday,Nov.16inthe9W)Roomat 10p.m. of intercultural relationships, but there was whether or not anyone in attendance had evei Contact AlexEly [email protected])formore information. somedisunityinitsconsensus on whether 01 beenmistreated atDavidsonbecause of a rela- not each of them would personally pursue tionship,intercultural ornot,by either apartner Student-directedplayopensnext week such a relationship. Group members cited or someoneontheoutsideof therelationship. religious 'The Memory of Water," a play directed by Bill Neville '03, opens next andpolitical differences as the two Responded one participant, "Davidson is Wednesday,Nov.20intheblackbox theaterof CunninghamFineArtsBuilding. main potentialbarriers to cross-culturalrela- just like the rest of the world;