TO THE EDITOR:
In response to “A disproportionate reality,” published on Oct. 11: As a junior transfer student who has attended four other colleges across the Southeast, the lack of diversity within UNC’s student body is extremely apparent to me.
At Georgia State University where I began in 2009, the percentage of self-identified black students was 39 percent, and 34 percent were white, according to the university’s demographic statistics.
Likewise the demographic percentages at Wake Technical Community College, where I transferred from, closely mirrors the racial breakdown of the state, with 24 percent of enrolled students identifying as black, and 52.9 percent identifying as white in 2011.
I commend the Office of Undergraduate Admissions for making additional racial classification categories available. However, it is problematic and misleading to suggest that a single person who identifies as belonging to two racial or ethnic categories can increase the percentage of each of the two racial minorities in proportion to the entire student body.
As a native North Carolinian, I also think that UNC’s diversity problem stems from an unspoken statewide perception of the university as being a “white school.”
Where I grew up in eastern North Carolina it was not difficult to gauge this perception, and I do not doubt that it contributes to many African-Americans self-selecting out of applying to UNC.
We face the challenge of changing this reputation in order to prove that we are ready for acceptance of diversity instead of mere toleration.
Paddy Cavanaugh ’15
History
Religious studies
