CL-ATL: Is white student disengagement a problem at Georgia State University (Atlanta: townhome, dorm)

[aries4118]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

...

Partly, for now, other races are embracing the hip-hop culture. White kids are listening to rap and Asian kids are big on break-dancing. Must drive the black community nuts whenever they come up with some new trend and the other races copy it.

...

[jsvh]

From a related thread, GSU is moving up the rankings and named "Most up-and-coming" school.

I don't think there is really a problem here. Just CL trying to make headlines to sell some views.

[ChefRamsey]

Originally Posted by jsvh

From a related thread, GSU is moving up the rankings and named "Most up-and-coming" school.

I don't think there is really a problem here. Just CL trying to make headlines to sell some views.

They're not moving up the rankings, but they are named 14th most up-and-coming schools...but I mean... that doesn't mean much.


We're so far behind... we SHOULD be up-and-coming dammit! We're not even average in terms of student body in the USG let alone in the nation or region. Endowment = 112 when the national average is 400 million.


Personally, I think CL is talking about something relevant and important, but you all already know my opinion(and hopefully by now some facts) regarding the USG and GSU.

[jsvh]

Originally Posted by ChefRamsey

They're not moving up the rankings, but they are named 14th most up-and-coming schools...but I mean... that doesn't mean much.

Ah, my error.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by ChefRamsey

They're not moving up the rankings, but they are named 14th most up-and-coming schools...but I mean... that doesn't mean much.


We're so far behind... we SHOULD be up-and-coming dammit! We're not even average in terms of student body in the USG let alone in the nation or region. Endowment = 112 when the national average is 400 million.


Personally, I think CL is talking about something relevant and important, but you all already know my opinion(and hopefully by now some facts) regarding the USG and GSU.

If you take out the private colleges and universities, the average should come down a lot. The 800-lb gorillas in Georgia in terms of endowments are Emory, GT, and UGA in that order. And with such poor returns on investment, I'm not sure how useful a large endowment is right now unless you are earning a legacy interest rate.

And fundraising at GSU has improved as it raised over $38 million over the past year.

[residinghere2007]

Originally Posted by waronxmas

Ahahahah! Test scores? You kids crack me up.

When I'm hiring someone for a job, I'm not going to say to myself "Well, you ware perfectly qualified for the this position, but you went to a school with low SAT test scores. I'm sorry, but I can't hire you."

You're an adult now, time to stop worrying about test scores. Seriously, no one in the corporate world gives a ****.

I agree with this. People really put too much emphasis on test scores in this country as if a whole person and their talents/experiences can be summed up in one number.

There is more to the "real world" than one's SAT score or any other standardized test score. And even in most colleges SAT scores aren't the primary factor in admission.

Originally Posted by jsvh

I don't think there is really a problem here. Just CL trying to make headlines to sell some views.

I agree with this.

The article/interview did not include any sort of hard data to back up the researcher's claims.

Also, it was not mentioned that GSU has a large "non-traditional" student body in that many students, and I'm sure quite a few white students, work full time jobs and go to school, which is evident in the comments section beneath the article where many of the white students said they couldn't participate in events due to work commitments.

I know a lot of older black people who go to GSU who are in the same boat - work a lot so only go to GSU for class.

I will also say that, I find it odd that, once again, the perceived low status of (insert neighborhood/institution/agency) was blamed on black people, in this case black students and a few posters insinuated that GSU is dumbed down due to the black student body . It gets so old.

There was another good comment on the article posted by a former student which said:

This just really sounds like White Flight to me. I think that whites leave when
there is an influx of non-whites is their sense of privilege and superiority.
They are simply used to everything reflecting them and that changes, it's
uncomfortable. They also tend to feel that non- whites are inferior ( although
many wont admit this). I applaud those white students who are still active on
campus. They will be able to relate to all people in the real world as well.


It's funny, I've gone to majority white schools for my whole life.
Black students were told that we excluded ourselves when we talked about not
having a voice on campus. So now we get involved and the white students exclude
themselves. This is so ridiculous. If you want to be heard get involved! It
doesn't take a white student union. That isn't necessary. The administration and
the larger society is still white dominated. Just get to REALLY know some people
who are not just like you. You will be surprised at how alike you really are.

I find it interesting that in the article the researcher stated that white students were basically afraid to interact on campus. This may not be common in Atlanta itself but as a black person, until I moved here, I have always been in a minority and always around predominately white people, even though I grew up in a pretty racially and ethnically diverse area. It is always amazing to me how afraid others are of black people, like we are some sort of pseudo alien who damages everything in sight and I truly do feel that in many ways that some of the majority in this country and this may be the case at GSU just feel that others are inferior or less than them.

I can attest that many native black Atlantans, Chicagoans, and Detroiters I have known and know who grew up heavily segregated from other ethnicities, also feel uncomfortable around white people and are mistrustful and somewhat afraid of them and see white people as "less than" them as well, so I don't think it is a unique phenomenon among subsets of Americans, but I would hope that once we grow up and go to college, we would be more willing to interact and find common ground instead of focusing so much on the negatives of one group over the other and socially segregating ourselves due to fear. It is soooooo 20th century.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by ChefRamsey

We're so far behind... we SHOULD be up-and-coming dammit! We're not even average in terms of student body in the USG let alone in the nation or region.

Behind what? And if you didn't realize what the school's demographics were when you applied to GSU and are now complaining about it, than that's your fault.

[berkeleylake]

While GSU is known as much as being a "commuter school" for a large part it still is, especially for graduate programs. I believe because GSU has not been a traditional university in the sense that most of us know its history, more of its students are "disengaged" from social activities than they are at GA Tech or UGA. Demographics of students have been changing over long periods of time [shrugs], no big deal to me, except for those who want to make a big issue of it.

I don't know the percentage of non-traditional or part-time students at GSU as undergrads, but I bet you a dollar, that that percentage is way higher than it is for Tech or UGA. In some ways while GSU is striving to be more like a typical large university, and has made some progress, however, GSU is still known as a commuter school full of non-traditional students who are busy working.

The same can be said for commuter schools KSU or Clayton State, which are in some ways more comparable to GSU than UGA. I don't know the demographics without using the Internet search engines, but I would bet Clayton State is probably on par with GSU in terms of its current students' racial make up while KSU is probably more white.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by MathmanMathman

Partly, for now, other races are embracing the hip-hop culture. White kids are listening to rap and Asian kids are big on break-dancing. Must drive the black community nuts whenever they come up with some new trend and the other races copy it.

You can only imagine how people felt when Mylie Rae Cyrus went on VH-1 and acted like she was the one who thought up twerking.

Excuse me?

[GeorgiaLakeSearch]

Originally Posted by arjay57

You can only imagine how people felt when Mylie Rae Cyrus went on VH-1 and acted like she was the one who thought up twerking.

Excuse me?

Ms. Cyrus wasn't even twerking. I wonder who told her that was twerking?