Results of race survey presented

A surprising number of students view self-segregation in a positive light, according to a campus-wide race survey presented at a Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) meeting Monday afternoon.

Students and University administrators were on hand to hear the results of the survey, which was conducted by the Undergraduate Student Government Survey on Race Committee last year.

The presentation was the culmination of a survey conducted last year to gauge student perceptions of race relations on campus, committee co-chairs Chris Willis '07 and Matt Shapiro '05 said.

Presiding over the meeting, President Tilghman called self-segregation a "truly deep problem."

"The themes in this report are similar to those found in [surveys done at] other Universities," she said. "This is not a singular finding for Princeton, but a challenge that all colleges and universities face in this very multicultural country in which we study and live."

Shapiro stressed the importance of the survey's findings, calling race "a perennial issue that keeps coming up here at Princeton."

He added that there is "little consensus on whether a problem exists and, if so, how to address it."

These are some of the questions that the report attempts to address, he said.

Questions on the survey — which was emailed to the undergraduate student body last February and received 2,477 responses — were broken down into the categories of general, academic and social.

Willis emphasized what he called "disturbing disparities" revealed by racial groups' differing responses to the survey's questions.

In particular, he said it was "very statistically significant" that among African-American students, the mean rating of racial integration at the University was 2.91 on a scale of one to seven — compared to mean rating of 3.48 from white students.

Responses to a question about selfsegregation were another major issue, Willis said.

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"The major theme we saw in response to that question was that a surprisingly large number of people thought that self-segregation was to some extent desirable," he said.

Rather than making specific policy recommendations in the report, Shapiro and Willis said they plan to ask for input from campus organizations with a vested interest in the report's findings.

This approach will allow various racially-oriented campus groups, such as the Black Student Union and the Latino Caucus, to be involved in providing solutions to the problems revealed by the report, Shapiro said.

Following Willis and Shapiro's presentation, Vice President for Campus Life Janet Dickerson discussed an initiative she is co-chairing to promote diversity in University staff — an area she said has been overlooked compared to the faculty and student body.

Dickerson and Vice President for Administration Mark Burstein are forming a Diversity Working Group to identify "barriers that might prevent recruitment and hiring of diverse administrative staff," she said.

Following the race survey presentation, Tilghman discussed her view of her role as president, then opened the floor for questions in a town hall-style meeting.

She was asked about funding for University programs that promote civic responsibility, a review of the tenure process and whether the University would establish more pre-professional programs.

During the town hall portion of the meeting, Tilghman promised a review of the tenure process within the next two to three years. In response to a question, she said she believes the University's tenure process is due for review but that it may not be possible in the next year because "there is only so much administrative bandwidth."

USG president Leslie-Bernard Joseph '06 asked Tilghman about funding for organizations that promote civic responsibility.

He alleged that the main group promoting this goal — the University's Community Based Learning Initiative (CBLI) — is "underfunded and understaffed."

Tilghman responded that she disagreed with Joseph's premise that the CBLI is the main source of student civic engagement.

"We need to look across the spectrum of all organizations [associated with the University] promoting civic engagement," she said, citing Project 55 and the Wilson School's task forces as examples of such groups.

Tilghman also addressed a question about whether the University will move toward a focus on pre-professional majors and certificates or will maintain its current emphasis on liberal arts.

In response, Tilghman said the University has "purposely, consciously retained its devotion to the liberal arts as the right education to prepare students . . . even for the 21st century."

She said the popular certificate in finance is an exception, but that she "would not like to see the model set by [the certificate] to spread."