A recent study shows that today’s college freshmen are more interracially interactive than in previous years.
The American Freshman: National Norms for Fall 2001, released by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program and sponsored by the American Council on Education and the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, surveyed over 400,000 freshmen at 704 colleges and universities. The data is intended to reflect the attitudes of the 1.2 million freshmen entering four-year institutions of higher learning. Survey results show that 70 percent of freshmen have interacted with someone of another ethnic group, compared to the 67.6 percent of the previous year. Slightly more than 19.5 percent believe that racial discrimination is no longer a major problem in America.
Do you feel inter-racial interaction is more common on college campuses today? Why or why not?
“Yes, because it is inadvertent. You don’t really set up stuff like that it just happens at stuff like the student section at basketball games, Whites and blacks are all there.”
Christian “Kel” Wallace
Freshman, 20
“I don’t know. Basically I see two separate groups. It’s not rare to see two races hanging out, but you still see a lot of separation.’
Lindsay Lippner
Freshman, 18
“I don’t necessarily think it is. Memphis still has a long way to go.”
AnJuli Gustafson
First year student
“Nope, they just don’t (interact).”
Anthony Johnston
Freshman,18
“Yes, ever since the civil rights movement there has been a slow progression.”
Robert Bruno
Freshman,18
“No, not really. It still seems everybody is still in their own group. We have to have an organized event to interact.”
Yvonne Martinez
First year student, 19
