Demographics of Two Campuses - USM Forum -- Message Board

Date: Apr 23, 2007

Demographics of Two Campuses

LVN · Status: Offline

That's the sort of information your Institutional Research office will have at their fingertips.

Date: Apr 24, 2007

Have you met USM's Institutional Research office?

oldtimer · Status: Offline

LVN wrote:

That's the sort of information your Institutional Research office will have at their fingertips.

Just one problem here, since the Bureau of Institutional Research is one of the casualties of the Thames Gang.

Dr VanNostren · Status: Offline

Anonymous wrote:

Has anybody seen percentages on the ethnic demographics of our two campuses? A few of my students said that they did not want to go to the Coast Campus because it seemed so "white." I suppose this would be my guess, but I am not sure. Has there been any study of the black population on the coast post-Katrina?

This post is garbage. If students want an education, they will go to school. If they're worried about social hour, then they can join a social group that suits their liking. USMGC may be "white," but that's because "black" students are choosing to go elsewhere. When "black" students decide to go to USMGC, then USMGC won't be so "white." Shelby doesn't turn down "black" tuition dollars in Hattiesburg; why would he do so at USMGC?

This is a tempest in a teapot.

Date: Apr 24, 2007

For some real perspective, I have two African American female students who normally attend class on the coast but are in my Hattiesburg-campus class because the class they need is not offered on the coast this semester. They go to the coast campus because they live on the coast. I haven't asked them but they haven't suggested that that their college experince is diminished due to any supposed racial make-up of that campus. This seems to be a non-issue.

LVN · Status: Offline

You still have an Institutional Research office. A certain amount of record-keeping and reporting has to be done, for federal purposes if no other. Don't they publish a Fact Book? I know about the lock-out of Dr. Pisani and her staff, but the IR function itself wasn't eliminated. The demographics of any branch campus are basic statistics that should be available.

Date: Apr 24, 2007

Dr VanNostren wrote:
This post is garbage. If students want an education, they will go to school. If they're worried about social hour, then they can join a social group that suits their liking.

Dr. V, I respectfully disagree. Educational psychology includes social support among factors that promote learning. In fact, the original universities were intimate social groups,and that impress lingers. The academy today is still largely a white, upper-middle-class institution, so it will be more immediately comfortable to those of us who are white and upper-middle-class, often in ways we don't recognize.

Jameela Lares

Date: Apr 24, 2007

I teach on both campuses and the racial makeup is about the same, nearly 60/40 in the classes at the various locations. Perhaps the observation that the coast was "too white" was of a limited sample. Or perhaps it varies by discipline.

asdf · Status: Offline

From my quick calculations for Fall 2006:

HBG: 65.8% white; 27.5 % black; 6.7% hispanic/asian/native american/other
GC: 72.1% white; 19.1% black; 8.8% hispanic/asian/native american/other

Date: Apr 24, 2007

Thanks for your stats, asdf. From what source did you cull the numbers? Also, the original reference may actually refer to the ethnicity of the professors.

Date: Apr 24, 2007

Given our enrollment, wouldn't the figures below make us number two in black enrollment, behind Jackson State, but ahead of everyone else?

asdf wrote:

From my quick calculations for Fall 2006:

HBG: 65.8% white; 27.5 % black; 6.7% hispanic/asian/native american/other
GC: 72.1% white; 19.1% black; 8.8% hispanic/asian/native american/other

stinky cheese man · Status: Offline

in terms of headcount enrollment--yes. i've presented the data on this board numerous times. if you want to double check--got to the IHL's website. they have lots of this sorts of data there.

asdf · Status: Offline

I got this info from:
http://www.usm.edu/ir/factbook2006_2007.htm

And yes, as far as I can tell, we enroll the second most african american students in the state.
http://www.ihl.state.ms.us/research/

Dr VanNostren · Status: Offline

Anonymous wrote:

Dr VanNostren wrote:
This post is garbage. If students want an education, they will go to school. If they're worried about social hour, then they can join a social group that suits their liking.

Dr. V, I respectfully disagree. Educational psychology includes social support among factors that promote learning. In fact, the original universities were intimate social groups,and that impress lingers. The academy today is still largely a white, upper-middle-class institution, so it will be more immediately comfortable to those of us who are white and upper-middle-class, often in ways we don't recognize.

Jameela Lares

According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2000 data), "black" (African-American and other) ancestry makes up about 12% of the total ancestry of U.S. residents. Given what asdf and scm have posted now and in the past, USM looks like the epitome of diversity.

If students think USMGC or USMH are "too white," then they need to (1) look around at the ethnic makeup of colleges and universities in other states and/or (2) enroll in an HBCU. If you're living in a country where 12% of the people are "black" and you're going to a school where 19.1% are "black," then you're really atending a school that is "too black," not "too white."

Date: Apr 25, 2007

We're not talking about Montana here, Van Nostren. It's Mississippi remember.

Dr VanNostren · Status: Offline

Anonymous wrote:

We're not talking about Montana here, Van Nostren. It's Mississippi remember.

Right. So let's allow our little charges to expect that they'll always be able to live in the progressive, comforting state of Mississippi. Give me a break.

There are plenty of other state schools from "diverse" states that don't have USMGC's diversity. As I said before, it's a tempest in a teapot.

Want a "blacker" school? Go to Alcorn, Valley, Jackson, etc. Want to make USMH&GC less "white"? Force integration to a higher level. As is, individuals select where to go to school based on a number of factors, not least among them cost, ability to be accepted, and geography.

If the student who has chosen to attend USMGC doesn't like that it's too "white," then they should give up a little of that geography and go to Natchez.

Date: Apr 25, 2007

Somewhat weak attempt at changing the point you were making Van Nostren. You were talking about national demographic averages and propping up USM's diversity. We are a regional school, and our region has a majority black population.

asdf · Status: Offline

Anonymous wrote:
We are a regional school, and our region has a majority black population.

Mississippi is 37% black (largest percentage in the nation), Louisiana is 33%, and Alabama is 27%.

LVN · Status: Offline

Are we hard up for stuff to talk about, or what? Of course given the past five years, that's not really a bad thing. A few days ago I told a faculty friend, "I can't wait until the worst thing you guys have to deal with is fighting over room assignments." Fussing about whether a campus is too white is right up there as a "serious" issue. Ain't it great! wink

-- Edited by LVN at 15:57, 2007-04-25

Dr VanNostren · Status: Offline

Anonymous wrote:

Somewhat weak attempt at changing the point you were making Van Nostren. You were talking about national demographic averages and propping up USM's diversity. We are a regional school, and our region has a majority black population.

Not weak at all, really. The only way a Mississippi student's expectations (which are based on his or her experiences) regarding racial percentages could be met is if he or she chose to stay in the areas that are home to large black populations. The rest of the U.S. isn't as black as Mississippi.

So my point remains, if you're willing to encourage students to seek employment only in Deep South states, then your argument has merit. If, however, you encourage students to branch out and take jobs or graduate school opportunities in cities and states that might expose them to a broader view of the world, then you probably want to encourage them to jettison this "I need to be with a group of people like me" idea. Unless they stay in (to cite asdf) Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, or a very specific locales in some urban areas, they will have to be a part of a group that is "more white/less black" than the town in Mississippi in which they were raised.

Of course, if you're into the whole "come back home to work on the plantation" mentality, then you're spot on.

Date: Apr 25, 2007

asdf wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We are a regional school, and our region has a majority black population.
Mississippi is 37% black (largest percentage in the nation), Louisiana is 33%, and Alabama is 27%.

Yes, but this mostly comes from the northeast corner of the state. Most of the southern counties have a majority black population, including Forrest, Perry, Jones, Harrison, and Jackson.

Date: Apr 25, 2007

With all due rerspect, the heavily black counties in Mississippi are located in and near the delta which is located in northwest Mississippi. The pine belt counties and coast have some of the smaller black populations as there is no history of commercial agriculture which required a large number of agricultural workers. There is no majority black county in south Mississippi. The large black student body at USM is the result of being attractive to black students from other regions in the state.

While USM's white students tend to be from the pine belt and the coast, many of our black students come from Jackson and points north.

Date: Apr 25, 2007

Anonymous wrote:

With all due rerspect, the heavily black counties in Mississippi are located in and near the delta which is located in northwest Mississippi. The pine belt counties and coast have some of the smaller black populations as there is no history of commercial agriculture which required a large number of agricultural workers. There is no majority black county in south Mississippi. The large black student body at USM is the result of being attractive to black students from other regions in the state.

While USM's white students tend to be from the pine belt and the coast, many of our black students come from Jackson and points north.

With all due respect, I just looked up the numbers through census data. Previous comment on counties in southern Mississippi stands. Stats should inform your conjecture.

Cossack · Status: Offline

Dr. V, I respectfully disagree. Educational psychology includes social support among factors that promote learning. In fact, the original universities were intimate social groups,and that impress lingers. The academy today is still largely a white, upper-middle-class institution, so it will be more immediately comfortable to those of us who are white and upper-middle-class, often in ways we don't recognize.

Jameela Lares

If it does not bother African-Americans to shop at Walmart, why would it bother them to sit in a class. Many of our African-American students went through grade school, middle school, and high school with white students, particularly in rural areas. After graduation, most will enter the work place where there will be white employees. In that work place, they will have to compete with people who are not like them and they will have to cooperate with people who are not like them. I am betting that most do just fine and feel comfortable. If not, it is far better to aclimate in college than on the job.

Tom Lindley

asdf · Status: Offline

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, but this mostly comes from the northeast corner of the state. Most of the southern counties have a majority black population, including Forrest, Perry, Jones, Harrison, and Jackson.

With all due respect, I just looked up the numbers through census data. Previous comment on counties in southern Mississippi stands. Stats should inform your conjecture.

Percent black:
Forrest 34.5%
Perry 23.2%
Jones 27.4%
Harrison 22.6%
Jackson 21.8%

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/28000.html

Date: Apr 25, 2007

Percent black:
Forrest 34.5%
Perry 23.2%
Jones 27.4%
Harrison 22.6%
Jackson 21.8%

http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/28000.html

Thanks, ASDF.

My conjecture was informed by a familiarity with the stats and a basic knowledge of Mississippi history.

LVN · Status: Offline

Why is it that Lamar County has such a lower percentage of black residents? I was struck by that when we first moved here ten years ago.

asdf · Status: Offline

LVN wrote:
Why is it that Lamar County has such a lower percentage of black residents? I was struck by that when we first moved here ten years ago.

If I did my math right, roughly 22,000 of the 26,000 african americans that live in Forrest County live in Hattiesburg. Therefore, the rest of the county has just a little over 5% of the black population. In that light, maybe Lamar's 14% does not look as odd. Additionally, the history of white flight into northern Lamar starting in the late 80's, has probably had a big role in skewing the demographics.

Now that I think about it, the numbers are probably not exactly right since Hattiesburg stretches into Lamar County. But I still think that it is probably urban vs rural more than Forrest vs Lamar.

Invictus · Status: Offline

asdf wrote:

From my quick calculations for Fall 2006:

HBG: 65.8% white; 27.5 % black; 6.7% hispanic/asian/native american/other
GC: 72.1% white; 19.1% black; 8.8% hispanic/asian/native american/other

The USM-GC demographics are in line with the overall demographics of the Coast. The Hattiesburg Campus is a NHBCU (non-historically black college or university) by comparison. There are historical reasons why south Mississippi has a fairly large white population & why the black population centers tend to be in Hattiesburg, Moss Point & Lumberton. It dates back to the timber boom. Prior to that, most of south Mississippi was uninhabited.

But I agree that the original post was kinda dumb. I mean, who cares? Nobody is turning anyone away if they have tuition money to pay or a grant to pay it for 'em. For all intended purposes, USM is open admissions.

-- Edited by Invictus at 13:20, 2007-04-28