terrapinsanity.com

Yesterday we praised the administration for having a professional response to the report that Admissions attracted fewer black students into this fall’s class of new freshmen. We should have known this would never last.

Today the handwringing begins. The overnight administrative about-face (now they are ‘shocked, we are, just shocked, and we intend to do something!’) is pandering at its worst, and we don’t envy Rob Waters for having to march out and mouth an entirely different party line from the honest one he gave to reporters for yesterday’s story.

The greater embarrassment is to the administration, however. How long have we been saying they’re asleep at the switch?? Here is what we learn from today’s Diamondback article:

• It takes a full news cycle for the administration to go from the point man’s honest reaction to the knee-jerk position articulated today.
• “University officials … said though they were initially caught off-guard, efforts are being set in motion to amp up the recruitment of high-achieving minority students.” Translation: “We screwed up again by listening to Barbara Gill’s reliably-rosy reports of recruiting successes and not investigating further.”
• “Attempts to contact Director of Undergraduate Admissions Shannon Gundy for comment were unsuccessful.” Translation: We may not have known what was going on, but at least one of us knows to keep our yap shut.
• “It’s really the mix of students that make the classes interesting. You need the rowhouse kids, and you need the mansion kids.” Translation: White kids are racists who live in mansions, and black kids are oppressed victims who live in rowhouses. What’s important for a good education is not structured classes where smart kids sit next to smart kids, but class structure where we can reinforce racial stereotypes.

This is an embarrassment for campus, but does set up an interesting prospect for future situation art. Having roused from its self-important slumber, the administration has now promised to get to the bottom of this, yet … Admissions has proven time and again it is the one operation on campus that is utterly impervious to the Strategic Plan’s values of accountability and assessment. What will happen when the irresistible force (racial genuflection and pandering) meets the immovable object (Barbara Gill, director of admissions)? Our bet: they’d declare it’s all the economy’s fault, paper over the Admissions Office screwups and whip the rest of us to pour even more of our scarce resources not into reaching top students (no matter what their color) but to black students (whether or not prepared for the rigors of a flagship campus, or would be well-served to attend here when they’d have a shot at a better-name campus.) Time will tell.