Racial Breakdown of the LARGEST California PUBLIC Colleges

Students are rallying across the country today in protest of rising tuition fees and increasing budget cuts in public colleges.

And it all began in California, home to two of the largest college systems in the U.S. -- the University of California, whose 10 schools are attended by some 191,000 students, and the California State University, whose 23 campuses are attended by more than 417,000. Numbering at nearly 37 million, the Golden State is the most populous state in the country, and it's a minority-majority state: Hispanics, Asians, African Americans and those of mixed races make up the majority of California's population.

That diversity is not necessarily represented in the state's top schools, as proven by recent racist events at the University of California-San Diego. Here's the racial breakdown of some of the state's largest public schools.

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University of California--Berkeley

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Total number of Undergraduates: 25,151; African American/Black: 4%; American Indian/Alaskan Native: 1%; Asian/Pacific Islander: 43%; Hispanic: 12%; White: 32%; International: 3%

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Total number of Undergraduates: 25,151; African American/Black: 4%; American Indian/Alaskan Native: 1%; Asian/Pacific Islander: 43%; Hispanic: 12%; White: 32%; International: 3%

comments(98)

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Comments

[lbcyclist]

12:33 PM on 03/31/2010

"international" is not a race.

[GravitonX]

09:29 AM on 03/18/2010

Asians are technically a minority but not an oppressed minority. White males are technically a minority, but everyone knows they are far from oppressed in the United States. Often distinctions are blurred in order to make fairly uninformed and misleading blanket statements.

The numbers are consistent, especially with regards to AfricanAmericans, when one considers their treatment and statistical profile in nearly every other aspect of American society. Quite honestly, I wonder why they call themselves American in the first place. They clearly do not come from the same country as it's most vested dominant members. Stockholm syndrome perhaps?

[drymartini3]

01:30 AM on 03/14/2010

grades are not objective because different schools have different standards for different teachers.

test however is uniform and objective because all students take the same tests.

and who says the universities are not diverse. Most of the examples cited have minorities % higher than whites (the highest % of the population). that by definition makes it obvious that minorities are getting a fair shake.

and regarding high percentage of the Asians, well they are the minority too. so why segregate the minority vrs non minority.

[whitemerlot]

01:06 AM on 03/13/2010

I'm all for diversity to the extent that it provides people with equal opportunities. But I don't buy the argument that diversity (of race or ethnicity) is necessarily always a great thing in and of itself. I don't think a racially diverse group has any real advantage in finding a more effective cure for cancer, building a better computer, or making a more energy efficient car (I'm an engineer, as you might guess). Diversity of thought is simply not the same as diversity of kind, although they may be weakly correlated. I just wish the people endorsing diversity would stick to the equality of opportunity and fairness argument rather than the "it's just naturally better for everyone" argument, which is much harder to prove.

[GravitonX]

09:36 AM on 03/18/2010

Your observations miss the obvious. Most opportunities within a society are tied to race, caste, and class. Diversity provides opportunities to all groups, but more importantly groups that are denied opportunities on the basis of race, etc. That "in and of itself" is a good thing.

[davidgoldmandg]

08:35 PM on 03/09/2010

The better the college the more asians...

Considering they are also non-white and came to this country poor like any immigrants, wonder what the others have been doing all this time?

[JamesAndre]

12:12 PM on 03/10/2010

What an absurd question. A great example of American Myopia.

[davidgoldmandg]

03:03 AM on 03/12/2010

Perhaps. But net worth of immigrant coming in from Asia - not enough to buy a cheap compact car.

After a generation of two - rich and productive.

African americans, mexicans and others have been in us for generations...

[TheWanderer]

12:35 PM on 03/11/2010

How do you know they came to this country poor? How do you know they're immigrants?

[jcwtts1]

10:58 AM on 03/09/2010

PART II

Testing isn't objective. Grades over the entire high school career are more objective and more representative. For example. George Bush, as governor, in an attempt to end affirmative action but still address needs of minority communities in Texas change the UT rules. Anyone who graduates in the top 10 percent of their class can go to UT. That way if you are a rich suburban school or a poor inner city school you are competing against other students in your community for access to the state system. Guess what happened? UT went from 25,000 students to 58,000 students and the black and hispanic numbers, went from 5% to 22%. Blacks are still underrepresented in the state but that is because very good black students have a ton of options for schools. What did Rick Perry do his first day in office. Reverse the system back to what it was before. Why because with the 18% asian population 38 - 40 percent of the school was minority. Bush wasn't trying to do that, he was trying to create a system that was actually fair and guess what. He did it. Stunning I know, but he did. The top ten percent of every high school class in CA would change the demographics of the UC system. It would be fair, representative, take a students entire body of work into account and not penalize students based on class.

[LegalCodex]

10:55 PM on 03/11/2010

"Why because with the 18% asian population 38 - 40 percent of the school was minority."

I find it weird that Perry or anyone would have a problem with that as TX is a majority minority state so UT should be at least 50% minority.

[jcwtts1]

10:58 AM on 03/09/2010

As an educator let me explain some basic facts. Objectively there is a baseline of academic skill necessary to go to certain schools. Let's say on a test, out of 100 pts, everyone with a 90 on the test is "qualified" to attend. So, how do you decide which of the people with 90 or higher get in? One way is a lottery. Draw names out of a hat and everyone you pick gets in. Another way is to privilege higher scores over lower scores. So a 92 is worth more than a 91 etc. But is that way any fairer than drawing from a hat? That system takes one day, one four hour chunk out of a entire academic career and makes it more important than everything else. To me, that is almost like drawing a name out a hat. But if that is what you want to do then the test needs to be untutorable. What I mean is, because I have money and can hire a tutor for the test, I shouldn't do better on it than people who can't afford a tutor. Because then we aren't selecting on the test anymore we are selecting on access to agency, on money, on class. Right? My point is that this isn't an objective thing.

[LegalCodex]

11:03 PM on 03/11/2010

"But if that is what you want to do then the test needs to be untutorable. What I mean is, because I have money and can hire a tutor for the test, I shouldn't do better on it than people who can't afford a tutor. "

There isn't a single test in the world that isn't tutorable, and I doubt there ever will be. This doesn't mean that they are biased towards the rich. Especially in today's world. If you don't have access to a library, you can find test preparation materials online for cheap or, if you don't care about legality, for free. What it does mean is that those who lack the initiative to learn as much about a test before they take it are left in the dust, as they should be.

[MadMarv]

01:02 PM on 03/08/2010

What is the point of this? There was a time when Asians were a downtrodden minority, whose ancestors started off as near slaves to the railroads, but who by hard work, strong family values and diligent studies have brought themselves to the top of the academic and economic ladders.

There is a lesson to be learned here for all current and future minority groups (including Caucasians once they are in the minority). In America today, especially in business, merit will in the long term trump race, politics or political correctness. And as we continue to advance socially, this will be even more so. Anyone expecting to get ahead on "quotas" will be left behind.

[zeppelingirl89]

03:43 PM on 03/08/2010

excellent post!

[GravitonX]

09:45 AM on 03/18/2010

Only to a small mind.

[jcwtts1]

10:35 AM on 03/09/2010

A surface look, one that has been debunked about a million times in the last 20 years.

The difference between almost being a slave and being a slave? Massive. Start with that. Second, all the asian students in the UC system aren't chinese. Right? They say Asian for a reason. Right?
The very fact that the rail-workers, since you want to back that far, were able to maintain their language, religion, culture as well as community, demonstrates the difference. Those essential elements were crushed out of the black community. Imagine a world where there are no ethnicity? Where Chinese, Japanese, Indian, etc are all one group. Where their continental cultures and languages are suppressed by violence. Have that take place from the 1600s until the 1860s. Then afterward, have the exact same process that happened to the Chinese happen to the blacks. We didn't start as immigrants in the 1850s/70s. We started as slaves. When an immigrant comes to a country there are specific actions that they take. The men come first, they save and bring over their families. When the women come there are community structures in place. There is self segregation as well as functional societal norms. The slave is not an immigrant. They have already gone through an assimilation process, people from different nations, different ethnic groups, were forced into one group, black. Africa isn't a country it is a continent with many different ethnic groups on it.

[supergenius02]

02:30 AM on 03/08/2010

If non-Asian minority groups want to increase their numbers in California public schools (where raced based affirmative action was struck down), they are going to have to study harder and make more of an effort to prepare for standardized tests. The UC schools just go off SAT's and GPA. It's cold and hard but fair in an academic environment. When I was in high school, my Asian friends just flat out worked harder than everyone else. It was a cultural thing were academics were the primary focus of their kids' life. Other kids at my school just cared about sports, being "cool", partying and hanging out with their friends.

[jcwtts1]

10:41 AM on 03/09/2010

Not a fair assessment. The urban school system is broken, not sure what the racial make up of the schools in LA are, it is a sprawling city, same for san fran, but access to safe, productive education isn't something that is available to everyone in this country. It should be but isn't. Ward Connerly single handily changed the racial make up of UC schools. If you allowed me to set the criteria for acceptance I could get a completely different racial makeup of the student body. The mistake you are making is that you believe that there is some static objective criteria that is being used and that blacks aren't measuring up. That is false on several levels. By prizing test scores, tests that are tutor-able by the way and in that way invalid, over class room achievement, the UC system, created a hierarchy. Are the people who test well always the best students? No. Does a diverse campus benefit students and the university. Yes. Diversity is a good unto itself. But hey, If I were a good student in CA I wouldn't go to any of those school and be the only black kid in class forever. I'd go somewhere out of state where I could interact with out black college students.

[LegalCodex]

04:04 PM on 03/09/2010

You are definitely right on standardized tests being trainable. For example, I am attending law school in the fall, and the LSAT is such an exam. There is an entire section of the test that is comprised of logic games; while one may do poorly if you have never experienced a logic game before, one can easily study or be tutored to the point where on a normal test day you would miss 0 questions on that entire section. There are similarly tactics for the other sections as well(Logical Reasoning and Reading Comprehension).

Guess which groups spend the most amount of time/money on studying or getting tutors(due to the fact that they are far more likely to have been raised to appreciate the need for studying such exams)? If you guessed Asians and Whites, you would be correct. They also are the two highest scoring ethnic groups when it comes to the LSAT.

[herecomes]

06:22 PM on 03/07/2010

As a minority myself, I don't understand why every campus must be "diverse".

If diversity is so beneficial, why don't we abolish all the HBCUs

[LegalCodex]

06:17 AM on 03/08/2010

HBCU's actually do employ affirmative action.... that benefits whites and non-black applicants. They just don't tend to get that many applicants from white/asian students.

In the case of the UC and other systems, they have the applications, they just are denying blacks disproportionately.

[avocats]

12:28 AM on 03/09/2010

Dispropotionately? What, now we just admit people in proportion to the number of APPLICANTS? Why not a lottery?

[jcwtts1]

10:42 AM on 03/09/2010

Diversity brings different perspective, differ vision, different ways of seeing. There is value in that. What there isn't value in is only educating people with the highest test scores. As one of the people with great scores I don't see the value in that.

[Camille21]

11:04 PM on 03/06/2010

Well the Ivy's still value the contributions of a racially diverse student body. Thanks goodness. But then that's why they are the best schools in the country. You have to look at the whole person if you want a dynamic student body. The una-bomber had good test scores. Look how well he turned out.

[LegalCodex]

07:31 AM on 03/07/2010

"The una-bomber had good test scores. Look how well he turned out."

He contributed some fascinating work to the field of mathematics... and homemade explosives.

[jcko]

08:55 PM on 03/07/2010

He was a blast to work with.

[zeppelingirl89]

03:46 PM on 03/08/2010

What the heck. How are the UC schools not "Racially diverse." Based on those demographics, they seem to be the most diverse in the country perhaps. How many other public universities have a white minority? People who want to get in should study harder. And test scores are important because they are impartial. Your silly example of the unibomber doesn't change this. But I suppose in your "perfect" world-view, then they should look at the whole person and admit someone who goofs off over some studious kid who's been toiling for years to get those optimal test scores.

[simplejourney]

02:30 PM on 03/09/2010

A standardize test written by the majority and upper class population is not impartial. It can't be. You should look at the whole person.

[suec03]

01:34 AM on 03/10/2010

UCLA used to have more than 1% African American students. I find the 1% figure, especially in Los Angeles, with a sizeable Black population, to be appalling. Many wealthy and upper middle class white families stress going to elite private universities such as the Ivy League schools or to engineering or technical programs at MIT, Cal Tech (private), or Stanford. That leaves fewer of them attending the UC and CSU schools. If they qualified for those elite schools, they could also have qualified for UC or CSU but chose the elite private colleges.

[Camille21]

10:54 PM on 03/06/2010

THANKS WARD CONNOLLY FOR SCREWING EVERYTHING UP. That jerk got rid of affirmative action in the UC system and now minority students are relegated to the low single digit percentages. What exactly did he expect would happen?? Racial intolerance perpetuated in a whole generation of californians. When I went to UC 10% of the student body was african american. I had a fabulous time, learned a lot and had a peer group for support. I cannot imagine being the "only one" in a class anymore. I grew up like that in Nebraska and it was awful. When will people realize that diversity is what makes America strong.

[LegalCodex]

07:34 AM on 03/07/2010

"now minority students are relegated to the low single digit percentages."

So Asians and Latinos aren't minorities?

That minor issue aside, I agree with you that it is ridiculous that African-American representation in college has dwindled in the UC system(as well as many other systems that have abolished Affirmative Action). It's rather ridiculous when the only people of African ancestry in your classes are international students from countries like Nigeria and Ethiopia.

[zeppelingirl89]

03:48 PM on 03/08/2010

Could this be because those international African students work harder and have more motivation than the Californian ones of African ancestry?

[Thinklongterm]

12:53 PM on 03/06/2010

What difference does any of this makes when the power elite aren't gonna pay you a decent wage when you get out of school anyway. Oh and good luck paying off your student loans making 7 bucks an hour. Oh thats right you think YOUR the exception and your gonna go to Wall St and start a hedge fund. Keep dreamin. They have 99% of us at each others throats while they plunder all the $$$$.

As long as you think your better than someone else you will continue to fail to see the big picture. The fewer people they let in school the less they have to pay the labor force. If your uneducated and without other options you'll gladly work for walmart or some coffee joint.

Thats been the neo-liberal/Ayn Rand/Thomas Freedman economic plan all along. Bankrupt the treasury so that there's no money for anything but war.

The race thing is a smoke screen. Sure there is still plenty of racism. However if your working and making good money for your family you could care less about Obama's race, where he came from, and how he's some sort of socialist.

Our country is headed for a second Civil War. Unless of course the masses wake up in time and unite and take on the corporations and the politicians who do their bidding. You can go back to hating black people some other time. Now is the time for unity.

[realitytrumpsbull]

04:20 PM on 03/06/2010

I disagree, I think that companies packed up, lock, stock, and barrel, and moved overseas. There's going to be 7 billion people, so say the 'experts' by 2011-2012, so there's more and more competition. In theory, unless you slacked off and smoked dope for 4 years, when you exit college, you could be just about ready to start your OWN business, keep yourself employed, no matter what happens on the 'job market'. Plus, like you said, some people think they're better than everyone else, and thus entitled to tens of thousands more per year in compensation, for essentially the same work, on account they have a fancy degree. Doesn't work that way.

[belyeu]

08:03 PM on 03/05/2010

Seems that Asians and whites are the best students?

[suec03]

10:42 PM on 03/05/2010

Admissions only tells you who presented the best combinations of Grade Point Average in the required high school subjects plus SAT scores and personal essay. The "best students" cannot be determined until they get admitted and start attending classes. Some students who didn't score as high on SAT's and GPA do very well once admitted to university. Many of my Latino classmates and dormmates in 1979-1981 were the first in their family to go to college. Many of my white classmates had parents and grandparents going back generations who had gone to college, and college attendance was expected of them. Congratulations to ALL first generation college students who set a goal and worked hard and got admitted to a UC or CSU campus!

[belyeu]

06:06 PM on 03/06/2010

"Some students who didn't score as high on SAT's and GPA do very well once admitted to university."

And SOME fail and drop out. The SAT as well as LSAT and MCAT are gauges used to to determine the likelihood for success. Those who score well have a much greater chance for success.

[LegalCodex]

01:17 AM on 03/06/2010

They are the most privileged students; these two groups tend to overlap.

[Conservative in NJ]

07:12 PM on 03/05/2010

Having lived and worked on the East Coast my whole life, I knew that Asians made up a big percentage of class, but i had no idea it was this high. Good for them and Good for America.