School scores low on ‘completion equity,’ ‘black student-to-black faculty ratio’
The University of Florida received low marks for “racial equity” in a recent report, with one student claiming that “consistent racist incidents” on the school’s campus have lowered its racial standing.
The report card, issued by the University of Southern California’s Race & Equity Center, found that, in matters of “racial equity,” the University of Florida “ranks in the midtier with public institutions in the state and behind a number of its peers nationally,” The Gainesville Sun reports.
“In equity indicators, UF received an F for representation equity, a C for gender equity and B grades for completion equity and black student-to-black faculty ratio,” the paper reports. “The data was based on enrollment figures from 2016-17 throughout the country.”
The school’s failing grade for “representation equity” was calculated by examining “its percentage of black students (6.1 percent) compared to percentage of blacks ages 18 to 24 years in the state (21.5 percent).”
One student, campus NAACP student president Ashley Marceus, told The Sun she was “not surprised” by the low marks:
“It’s disheartening,” Marceus said. “But it’s the reality that we see on campus.”
Marceus, a senior political science major, said from the first day she stepped on campus as a freshman in 2015 she felt the population of black students at UF was not representative of the population of blacks within the state. Over more than three years, Marceus said, not much has changed. She pointed to two specific incidents that have damaged UF’s reputation in attracting black students — allowing white supremacist Richard Spencer to speak on campus last November and last May’s commencement ceremony in which students from black fraternities were manhandled by an usher while performing strolls.
“If you consider the fact there has been consistent racist incidents on this campus, then of course the students don’t want to come here,” Mareus said.
Though the university has received low grades regarding its racial climate, it has attempted to advance various social justice causes in other ways. Earlier this year the school was graced with a new diversity officer (one who makes over a quarter of a million dollars a year). And a while ago one professor banned the terms “husband” and “wife” in her classroom, claiming that doing so was a matter of “ethical conduct.”
MORE: University pours almost $7 million per year into diversity payroll, benefits
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