| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Frederick Douglass |
Posted - 2006 August 18 : 17:08:05
The first part of the Student Body section, “St. John's student population is not as racially diverse as most American colleges and universities. 99% of students are Caucasian,” was recently deleted from Wikipedia while the second part of the section remained intact: “As of the 2005 class, 35 U.S. states are represented in Annapolis and 32 in Santa Fe; there are also several students from foreign countries. Approximately 65% of students receive financial aid.” The anonymous poster gave two reasons for the deletion. First, he or she felt that information pointing out the lack of diversity is irrelevant. Inconsistently, the second part of the section, proclaiming the student body’s geographic and economic background diversity, was deemed to be relevant. Second, the anonymous user criticized the 99% figure as absurd; this figure replaces the previous 92% cited in the college’s own website. While the deleter has a point in that the 99% figure lacks a source, he or she is wrong to view the number as absurd. If the college has 450 students in each campus, then the college claims that 36 students in each campus are minorities. The college must be defining minority pretty broadly because I believe that I can count the number of non-white students on the Santa Fe campus of the college with the fingers of one hand. I hear that there is a similarly low number of minority students on the Annapolis campus. As 4 ½ students = 1 %, the 99% figure is accurate, and the college’s own 92% figure is absurd. The anonymous deleter must have his or her head in the clouds to believe that the 99% figure could be far off base. I’ve been on several college campuses, and it is obvious that St. John’s lacks the racial diversity of other colleges. The real absurdity is that the college feels that a 99% white campus is acceptable. |
| 1 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| tumnus |
Posted - 2006 October 19 : 19:47:07
According to the Princeton Review, the student body of St. John’s College in Annapolis is 1 percent African American, 3 percent Asian, 89 percent Caucasian, 3 percent Hispanic, and 1 percent Native American. The student body of St. John’s College in Santa Fe is 1 percent African American, 2 percent Asian, 87 percent Caucasian, 6 percent Hispanic, and 0 percent Native American. I don’t know how these statistics were gathered; they may have been provided by the college. I also don’t know why the sums of the percentages don’t add up to 100 percent. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of these statistics; my experience at the college suggests that they overstate the percentage of non-Caucasian students and understate the percentage of Caucasian students. |
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