Black freshmen numbers up at UC San Diego despite 'Compton Cookout' controversy

Despite much-publicized racial tensions on the campus last semester, UC San Diego has managed to slightly raise its still small numbers of African American freshman for the fall, according to statistics released by the campus Tuesday.

Some students and faculty had feared that black enrollment on the campus could be negatively affected by the "Compton Cookout," an off-campus party in February that mocked African Americans and led to protests about UC San Diego's small numbers of black students. That led to extra efforts to recruit African American students without violating the state’s ban on racial affirmative action in college admissions.

Although still less than 2% of the incoming freshman class of 4,206, 68 black students have said they plan to enroll at UC San Diego as freshmen in the fall, up from 50 last year. Among the 2,943 transfer students, 87 are black, up from 46 last year.

Students who described themselves as Asian Americans will make up 48% of the campus' freshman class; whites 20%, Latinos, 16%; Filipino, 4%. (Nearly 290 students declined to state their ethnic background or defined it as "other.")

UC San Diego Chancellor Marye Anne Fox said in a statement that the school would continue "to enhance our efforts to recruit and admit well-qualified and diverse students." Representatives of black student groups could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Other UC campuses had also been expected to release their enrollment figures Tuesday but decided to delay them until next month as part of a university-wide report to the UC regents.

-- Larry Gordon

Comments

[WTF]

48% Azn? Holy crap!

[GoBears58]

look at those composition numbers... time to bring back affirmative action

[kuruc]

filipino's are NOT asians? what are they then, spanish? do they also differentiate africans from blacks? why don't they have admission tests like in every other country and admit the top students ONLY? or they assume that blacks and "latinos" would not pass? that is what racism is, the assumption.

[Chuck]

The endless obsession with race and ethnicity continues undiminished. Notice how UC/San Diego never ever dares to mention the actual graduation rates and numbers of students by race and ethnicity or the number of years it took for them to complete an undergraduate degree.

[MW]

Well, it is good the actions of a few stupid people didn't scare off new students too badly.

[DW]

How can Black Americans, who make up less than 15% of the U.S. population, be expected to be represented by significant numbers on every campus ? This is not television, you just don't get perfectly proportioned percentage figures every time out.

What exactly do the beach culture campuses including UCSD, UCSB or UCSC have to offer sophisticated university bound black freshman with both grades and financial resources to justify being on the short list when choosing a school? Especially when compared to Berkeley, UCLA, USC or Stanford.

[Tony]

Yeah, I don't get why filipino is separated from Asian either? Last time I checked (and I made two cruises to the Philippines while in the Navy)the Philippines was in "Southeast Asia"?