Panel discusses self-segregation

The University has a limited role in combating self-segregation in the student body, a student panel concluded in a discussion yesterday evening.

Moderated by Wilson School professor Stanley Katz, the discussion ranged over several stereotypically self-segregating groups, including athletes, eating club members and ethnic minorities. Panelists noted that people tend to group themselves by both visible traits, such as gender and ethnicity, and invisible ones, such as shared interests. Such segregation, they added, may be just one example of a broader tendency for people to avoid approaching well-established social groups.

The discussion, held in McCosh 20, attracted an audience of about 60.

Much debate centered on whether self-segregation was necessarily bad. "One person's segregation is another person's bonding," Katz noted. Other panelists noted that self-segregation is ubiquitous and inevitable, citing extracurricular groups and the broader social phenomenon of suburbanization as examples.

"Athletes live on a different schedule than other students," Center for Jewish Life president Jonny Fluger '08 said, "so they will naturally associate with each other." Fluger is a member of The Daily Princetonian Editorial Board.

Others, however, were less enthusiastic about self-segregation. Black Student Union president Dwight Draughon '08 said that white students often incorrectly assume that groups of minorities would be unwelcoming.

Some students also discussed the effect that the University's decision to extend financial aid to eating club fees is likely to have. Most agreed that it would have little effect on the Street, which some praised as a hub of social mixing and others criticized as creating insular groups.

Near the end of the discussion, the panel considered the question of the University's role in regulating self-segregation. With the exception of David Feliciano '08, the vice president of Accion Latina, who said that more funds should be allocated to ethnic student organizations, there was general agreement that the University's role in regulating self-segregation, if any, should be minimal.

A proposal by Harvard to assign roommates for all four years, intended to foster more student interaction and curb segregation, was widely criticized. The burden, most said, lies on individual students to effect the change they believe is necessary.