Inclusive Illinois in the Era of Ferguson

By Leah Matchett on September 2, 2014

Photo Credit: US News and World Report, Colleges Rankings and Review, http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/university-of-illinois-urbana-champaign-1775/photos

As everyone should be aware at this point, an unarmed, black teenager by the name of Michael Brown was shot six times by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri on Saturday Aug. 9.

What happened in Ferguson was not an anomaly. It was not a fluke. It was the product of racial and socioeconomic tensions that have been building for years. As income levels in Ferguson dropped, and unemployment rose from 5 percent in 2010 to 13 percent by 2012, an already delicate situation became deadly.

In a community that is 67 percent black, 25 percent of people live below the federal poverty line. Meanwhile, the school board, police force and other authority figures are majority white. People far more intelligent than me have written about this, and I would encourage you to read their work.

Most people I have talked to this about, particularly my fellow white Americans, nod sadly, remark that it is a tragedy, then move on to topics they are more comfortable with.

I don’t know that I have the right to speak to the pain or anger of those in Ferguson, or the injustices that they have faced, but this tragedy has inspired me to take a new look at race relations at our university.

We attend a public university. A university that promises to “serve the interests of the diverse people of the state of Illinois and beyond.”

However, according to the most recent numbers, our student body is 58 percent white and only 28 percent domestic minorities, with the rest being international students. Of this, only 5 percent of the student body is black. That is compared to 14.7 percent overall in the state of Illinois.

As state funding has decreased (it now accounts for only 14.5 percent of the University’s budget, and more cuts are expected), the university has less funds for affirmative action and scholarships for low-income families (remember that race and socio-economic status are highly correlated), and has made a huge move towards recruiting international students who, coincidentally, pay higher tuition and receive less aid.

The university’s admittance decisions are made for a variety of reasons, but the fact remains that African American students have one of the lowest retention rates at UIUC, with almost 12 percent of those in the class of 2016 not returning after freshman year.

They also have the lowest six-year graduation rate, with only 71.9 percent of black students at UIUC graduating in six years, compared to 87 percent of white students.

It is easy to say that we live in an age where race doesn’t matter, but for the students who wake up every day knowing that they represent 5 percent of the campus, and that three in 10 of their schoolmates will probably drop out, that isn’t an option.

The university has made efforts to promote diversity in the general sense including funding cultural centers and introducing mandatory diversity training for freshman. These are important first steps, but they need to be backed up by a reaffirmed commitment to providing the black youth of Illinois and the rest of the United States with the resources they need to be educated.

Until the university makes good on its promise to the people- all the people of Illinois- our university will not be the inclusive place it claims to be.

Sources:

http://illinois.edu/about/overview/facts/facts.html

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/17000.html

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/14/michael-brown-ferguson-missouri-timeline/14051827/http:/www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/14/michael-brown-ferguson-missouri-timeline/14051827/

http://www.dailyillini.com/news/campus/administration/article_84f79d7e-a974-11e3-af08-001a4bcf6878.html

http://www.dmi.illinois.edu/stuenr/#retention

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