Student protests around the country and here at Emory revolve around claims that institutions of higher education engage in discrimination, especially against black Americans. In Emory’s case, we currently lack some important evidence needed to assess those claims. Before the administration responds to protester demands, it should collect and produce that evidence.
At the undergraduate level, we lack evidence in at least two key areas that might involve discrimination, namely admissions and financial aid. I call on the Office of Admission and the Office of Financial Aid to collect and produce all relevant data that would enable us to compare the experience of black applicants with other applicants. The work of Princeton University sociologist Thomas Espenshade — who found that, at selective institutions, Asian applicants typically need to meet higher standards than blacks and whites — suggests the hypothesis that Emory data will show no disadvantage to black students.
In their recent list of demands, black students claim that, “not all Black students are adequately prepared for the rigor of Emory University” and that they are at a disadvantage due to “ill preparation.” Since I have taught many talented black students who were well prepared for their studies here, I do not accept the point at face value. However, it fits UCLA law professor Richard Sander’s disputed “mismatch” hypothesis, which holds that the admission policies of selective institutions cause minority students there to be relatively less skilled than their peers. To test the hypothesis that such a mismatch exists at Emory, I call on Emory College to collect and produce all relevant data that will enable us to compare the performance and well-being of black students and other subgroups.
Protesters here and elsewhere have also called for new diversity requirements. As a contributor to the Voluntary Core Curriculum, I have reservations about any involuntary core courses on diversity. But in order to proceed on the basis of evidence, I propose that any such new mandate be implemented in experimental fashion, first applying a new requirement only to a randomly selected treatment group of students and then comparing outcomes with those of a control group. My hypothesis would be that, whatever form a diversity mandate may take, the comparison will not show any academically significant gains in the treatment group but may show adverse reactions similar to those provoked by administratively driven requirements.
Finally, protesters have called for higher compensation for minority faculty. Since conditions in the current academic market, with many institutions pursuing “opportunity hires” and “diversity initiatives,” appear to favor minority scholars, I would expect empirical analysis to show no under-compensation for them at Emory. I call on the University administration to collect and produce all relevant data, taking into account academic control variables, to test that hypothesis.
In response to recent protests, some other institutions appear to proceed without much evidence regarding the issues at hand. At Emory, we can do better. It would be unfortunate if at an institution “where courageous inquiry leads,” with a College focused on “the nature of evidence,” we fail to consider the best evidence we can gather.
Frank Lechner is a Professor of Sociology at Emory University.
Frank Lechner: What does “admissions and financial aid” have to do with the daily experiences of micro- and macro-aggressions that we have faced and will continue to face (especially with articles such as this by an Emory professor) on this campus?
Because the BSA specifically said that admissions and financial aid discrimminates against black students.
For summer financial aid, I would argue disparate impact of lower socioeconomic status students as the summer offers are diminished versus packages during the normal school year. This is quite interesting given my general observation that many summer courses are actually easier (if not significantly-often non-Emory faculty or post-docs teach such classes or normal faculty relax their standards due to time constraints) than the normal academic year. This is especially the case in STEM courses for a large part. STEM students can essentially buy higher STEM GPAs by taking the course during the summer.
Actually, I’m really happy this is the Opinion section because you can really show the Emory community where you stand in the struggle to end discrimination and racism that plagues this community. Thank you, Professor Lechner.
Studies show that blacks have a lower standard for admissions to college than Asians and whites.
Are you saying you want to lower the standards even more?
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” -MLK Jr.
Based on the empirical evidence, you just implied you want to judge applicants by their skin color. Isn’t that racism? Thank you for showing the Emory community where you stand.
I’m sorry, I didn’t imply any of these claims you are making. I asked a question and followed it up with my opinion on the author of this article. So what’s your argument again?
What is your argument?
My argument is, let us see your evidence that blacks are discriminated against.
I didn’t have an argument, I posed a question, because I don’t waste my energy arguing with individuals who approach an issue with the idea that “because I have not experienced what you claim, I have to disagree with you and believe that your claims lack facts and therefore cannot be real”. I will not waste my time with you either because you are doing the exact thing as the author of this vile article with the mere statement “let us see your evidence that blacks are discriminated against”?
If there is no evidence that blacks are discriminated against, why should the administration concede to BSA’s demands.
You don’t want equality. You want privilege.
You’re assuming that there isn’t any evidence, that evidence isn’t being gathered to further justify demands, and that evidence of past discrimination can actually be quantified. Three assumptions that make your comments misguided.
If there is evidence, show it. That is all the author wants.
No evidence presented means no evidence exist.
If this professor, or you for that matter, wants to “see” the evidence you will have to be apart of the institution’s team looking to invoke change in the racial climate. Otherwise, just because you ask for evidence does not mean you’ll get it. That is something that this professor’s privilege has made him comfortable doing: getting what he want when he wants it. When there is substantial evidence gathered (because data collection doesn’t occur in a short time frame) I hope that you and this professor will both accept that we black students, faculty, and staff experience an entirely different Emory than our white counterparts. Hence, why this professor and you want evidence because you don’t have the experiences to support these claims of discrimination. I also hope that both of you actually care to change your views and opinions afterwards, but that is a long shot based off of this article and your commentary above.
Give proof.
No proof, no argument.
The evidence shows blacks have lower standards for college admissions, medical school admissions, law admissions, etc…All you have to do is look at the scores/gpa of each ethnic group.
You successfully managed to not address anything I just said. I think we’re done here.
“Jon Stor” is clearly a casual racist troll with a childish understanding of the concept of racism. I’m guessing he’s the “Al Sharpton making me uncomfortable is actually worse than centuries of chattel slavery, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration/ It doesn’t happen to me, so it must not exist” type of person who thinks that activism is “racebaiting.” Basically a cranky, ignorant reactionary who thinks people of color are just making it everything up. I hope he’s not involved with Emory. That would be embarrassing.
John, this is literally the definition of an ad hominem argument. You should focus on the issue at hand instead of making personal attacks to dismiss someone’s views.
John Nolan is clearly a ignorant misinformed troll with a less than childish understanding of logical reasoning.
Since you brought in Al Sharpton, he did make anti Semitic remarks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MlUtZ5F_Mk
This “John Nolan” is clearly an ignorant dismissive troll who thinks that black people should get preferential treatment just because they are black. The empirical evidence already shows that blacks get preferential treatment in the job hiring process and college admissions. Isn’t that racism?
Now show me your evidence.
Here is my evidence. This is a Princeton study.
https://www.princeton.edu/~tje/files/webOpportunity%20Cost%20of%20Admission%20Preferences%20Espenshade%20Chung%20June%202005.pdf
I hope he is not involved with Emory. That would be why Emory is top 21.
Or access to evidence is prevented or difficult. As I mentioned above. Emory no longer even makes its Common Data Set available through its institutional research website and that is the most common thing to give access to. Instead you get these watered down “academic profiles” which provide some useful information…..I guess.
I just want to point out here too that we don’t want privilege, we want equality. We see what privilege does to a people, and you’re reinforcing what privilege looks like.
jon stor,
Be careful here. You cannot assume that because URMs are advantaged in admissions processes, that discrimination does not exist. You are going the whole Affirmative Action route which severely limits a discussion of discrimination to a very small sphere of topics, if not a singular one. Also, AA discussions require much more nuance than is usually displayed…..like, I’m surprised when a poor person tends to get in with a lower score and I imagine many URMs are more likely to fall in lower income brackets than their non-minority counterparts. There are some that can do ultra-well like you, but the fact is, if you are less in lower SE brackets, chances of even decent success levels on standardized tests are diminished…..as an anecdote.
I am black and am in a lower SE bracket and one Vietnamese acquaintance of mines (same middle school) who went to Emory, same grad. class…had much lower scores than I did and his family would be considered poor. We both got in. There is likely even nuanced admissions at many schools when it even comes to Asians. Context matters. If he had been wealthier and had a lower score, I am sure he would have been denied.
In addition, citing an almost purely multiple choice (other than the fill in the blank maths and the poorly put together writing section) test as a “qualification”. I mean, for all we know, the student could have scored well on subject specific standardized tests like AP’s, but colleges do not publish and monitor that data. It would be interesting to see how many URMs at elites got 4/5 on any of their AP exams, especially in lieu of their HS quality and SE context. If they managed to do so, their “qualifications” are likely more than can be indicated by the SAT/ACT which isn’t subject specific. The fact is, you get to college and find an academic major, so GPA and AP scores (APs at least have a much more sizeable free response section which is more aligned with college level examinations) when available are often more useful metrics. There is a reason why European countries and countries that have a European like University system of education just use A-Level scores. There isn’t some equivalent to the SAT really. They just look at how well you do in the subject area you claim an interest in.
Either way, going in this direction is equivalent to pivoting during a debate (though it was fun to address it). The fact is that institutional racism (and/or its remnants) are still an issue and that not even easing the access to higher education has made access and comfort within other spheres of life easier for many URMs. Access to certain types of high paying sectors is still a barrier. It is easy to find data supporting this sort of thing. Even many insiders to certain job sectors would admit that the “there are not enough qualified X people” claim is myth. It is also difficult to find actual data on discrimination against students or faculty on college campuses (although things like pay grade and promotion and tenure can be documented). You do indeed have to resort to a conglomerate of anecdotal evidence (like interviews). I once found these videos on MIT’s techtv website with several African Americans discussing with themselves and non-minorities some of the interesting things they’ve encountered at MIT. Sadly, I found some, if not all of it believable (there were things like faculty and TA’s just assuming that URMs would perform poorly so they would refuse to regrade assignments if the student passed with a C even if they had tallied the points incorrectly….this was in the early 90’s I believe, where there was also a lot of activity at Emory). What was described in the video are what I call true microagressions.
In the midst of all these debates, I thought it was worth noting and tried to find it again, but could not unfortunately. But the idea is that some things are somewhat subtle or noticeable. Often there is this undertone by even other students who don’t even know you that just assumes that “you shouldn’t be here, you didn’t earn it”….in my case, little did they know, I actually performed as well or outperformed them.
I call on Frank Lechner to resign immediately. How irresponsible and dismissive. This is incredibly offensive.
Yes, he’s being dismissive, but only for the points he is talking about in the article. He’s doing it because there is no data from the university to support some of the claims of the BSA.
You, and many of the others that seem to be angry about this, are making assumptions that he doesn’t think micro/macro aggressions don’t exist. Does the lack of him not mentioning this imply anything? I don’t think it should.
Every single introductory sociology course presents data on institutional racism, so I am confident that this professor is not blind to the racist backbone of our society.
You call on him to resign because he proves your claims are false and racist?
How on earth is claiming to experience racial discrimination as a person of color “racist?” Do you realize how ridiculous you sound? Would kind of grade school level of understanding of racism do you have? Discussing the realities of systemic racism is “racist?”
How is calling on a professor to resign because he asked for evidence a compelling argument?
Do you realize how ridiculous you sound?
What kind of grade school level of understanding of academics do you understand.
Asking for evidence is dismissive?
If you go to Emory, you are part of the reason why we are top 21.
Please…..stop. It is dismissive, but irresponsible and resignation worthy…..nope! If anything it leaves several questions such as “what does the data say and can we see it”? Emory and private schools (as mentioned by another poster) are notorious for selectively presenting data or just making it inaccessible to the public. Emory is running so scared after its SAT scandal that its Common Data Set can no longer by access by us regular folks who aren’t education administrators or part of university faculty or staff.
He approached these issues the way that any sociologist (and every college student and graduate student) should. We cant expect campus wide policies to be made based off of personal anecdotes alone. There has to be empirical data to back them up. Basing policies off of evidence and not just activist pressure is how sound policies are made.
That doesnt negate anyone’s personal experience and it doesnt ignore micro-aggressions. Dr. Lechner in his article addresses specific demands from the activists letter and how they are not grounded in empirical evidence.
What is wrong with that? You cant just call for the resignation when they dont agree with you.
I agree with most of what you are saying, however, it IS that “activist pressure” that fuels policy change. That is what lobbyist do to influence changes in policy. Activism isn’t the end-all-be-all, but without it, policies would stay the same.
You claim racism/discrimination without providing any proof.
Have you watched the news lately? Looked on social media? Stepped out of your bubble of privilege that blinds you from seeing what is right in front of you? That’s where the proof is, I don’t need to give you any more proof than that. You think all of this stuff is lies created to seek privilege for Black people? NO! The Black community sees privilege as something that makes you lose sight of the injustices happening around you. We don’t want that, we want to end the status quo that privilege creates and have equal opportunities for all. The Black community is targeted in more ways than your small mind can fathom, unless you could experience it firsthand, which you can’t and believe me you don’t want to. You’re too weak-minded to handle it. You keep asking for evidence just as the author does, but from the “safe place” behind your computer screen. I am confident in believing that you would NEVER announce/boast any of these views publicly in the presence of those affected most negatively (i.e. Black students and people in general). You would probably rather share your views publicly with someone who’s going to agree with you, right? Trying to prove that racism/discrimination exists is like trying to prove that your goldfish lives in water; it’s right in your face.
Just to clarify, Lechner’s essay is not “pure” empirical evidence. He does use at least one personal anecdote: ” Since I have taught many talented black students who were well prepared for their studies here…”
First of all, I don’t believe that delivering justice is a matter of
evidence and one need only to look at the American penal system to see that.
That being said, I am going to try and engage with the editorial on its own
terms.
This article, while touting the scientific method, has lost sight of another
academic principle that, as a humanities student, I have learned well: look
beyond the situation directly in front of you. Think broadly, look for
patterns.
Since Ferguson, we have seen a string of student agitation across the nation, led by
black students, and with parallels to the Black Lives Matter Movement. Mizzou,
Yale, Claremont McKenna, Brandeis, Emory, and more. As U.S. students we all
know it, being connected through Facebook, Twitter, study abroad programs, etc.
All that aside, I think Lechner’s basic request for more access to information is a good
thing for student activists. From my point of view, administrations, especially
at private elite schools like Emory, depend on their ability to control
information like the data Lechner requests in order to shape rankings or manage
an image (SAT score scandal, anyone?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/20/emory-university-sent-fal_n_1810287.html)
This non-transparency is also useful to quell student demands. If students don’t
know what is happening, they won’t complain or can’t organize. Those who do
will soon be swept away by the “activist turnover” that occurs every
May at graduation. It’s a neat system, really. So Lechner is right to ask for
more transparency.
However, I find it hard to believe that requesting information was his only motive for
writing such an article. If it were, wouldn’t that goal be better served by
writing his request up as a petition, soliciting student signatures, and
lobbying the administration? On the contrary, I don’t think we’ll see Lechner
anywhere near the front lines of student activism anytime soon because we can
read between the lines of this essay.
Whether he intended to or not, Lechner just placed himself in a growing camp of mostly
white, male faculty, administrators, and columnists across the country who have
decided to dismiss a rising wave of student activism with a take-your-pick
lofty principle – in this case “evidence-based-ness.” (for more on
this see:
https://medium.com/@juliaserano/how-to-write-a-political-correctness-run-amok-article-9b828d443018#.8b7fv1hwv)
With all the other responsibilities Lechner must be juggling at the end of this
semester, it does fascinate me that he took the time to write this particular
article. In its self-righteousness, especially in its concluding lines, it
reminds me a bit of the white, male professor we read about at Mizzou who, on
the supposed basis of principle, refused to cancel class when white students
threatened to murder black students on campus.
(http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/u-of-missouri-professor-offers-to-resign-after-declining-to-cancel-class/106597)
The next thing we read is that he quit, in what seemed to be quite an emotional,
unprincipled decision. I don’t pretend to know the private details of that
situation, but from a distance it sure appears like there might be some double
standards or at least some complexes about race, authority, and academia out
there.
Wait a second, what were black student activists protesting again? Bingo.
As an Emory alumnus, I applaud Prof. Lechner and the Emory Wheel for taking this rational stand. Students’ protests need to be addressed, but it’s incumbent on both the students and the university to make sure that there is objective evidence which supports the assertions made in the protests.
Alum here (black alum at that) that hadn’t looked at the demands but
read this article. I am concerned about the one that refers to lack of
academic preparation: What exactly is the solution to this if any? I
mean, Emory is much more generous in academic resources than many peer
institutions. Is remediation being suggested? Because I don’t know if
that will help as it will certainly be stigmatized (simply by virtue of
the fact that we supposedly “earned” our way into an academically elite
school so should manage to use the resources so that we can perform well
assuming that we are trying). There is evidence that certain modes of
teaching, especially in STEM are perhaps linked to closing achievement
gaps between that of Asian/white males and women/under-represented
minorities. Namely, supposedly active learning strategies as opposed to
large lecture are supposed to facilitate closing of the gap and honest,
Emory tries far harder than most private (including peers) schools in
doing this especially if one looks at STEM. I believe general chemistry
has been flipped this year for example, and you don’t see basically any
instructors doing this for a large service introductory course at
similarly ranked (between 15 and 25) universities. The general biology
instructors here also gear more toward active learning which again, is
uncommon at comparable institutions. I mean, maybe it isn’t enough, but
based on the evidence about learning, Emory deserves credit where it is
due. The learning support, teaching, and advising programs
specifically geared toward helping those who may be unprepared (which,
by the way, is much more than just URM students….others from weaker
high schools will also have a more challenging transition) seem more
robus than many peer institutions.
I also have a critique on
Professor Lechner’s methodology for measuring the success of one group
versus another: You must be careful when comparing performance as
things such as grading practices per department can result in large
differences. In addition, a lot of grading and level of intensity, even
per course, especially when it comes to multi-section courses, can have
very large variability. It is quite easy for many students to simply
choose every easy or less rigorous instructor when they have the chance.
Others may opt for a more balanced schedule and opt to challenge
themselves or receive challenging instruction in one course. Unless
this sort of nuance is taken into account, then one cannot do such a
comparison. Simply comparing GPAs, (kind of used in professional school
admissions) will result in too superficial of an analysis. Perhaps
what could be an interesting study could be to identify the more
rigorous instructors (this requires honesty in recognizing that some
instructors are indeed far more rigorous than others teaching the same
course or within the same department) in each division (social science,
humanities, natural, computational, and physical sciences) and using
those to measure and compare performance. This would reveal how
students perform when faced with challenging coursework (as in courses
that reflect what one expects to be dominant at elite institutions but
really isn’t that dominant).
What could also be informative is a
study on which departments minorities end up in over time. Often the
STEM enrollment can be telling. It would be interesting to see
enrollment patterns and attrition levels over say, a decade in
comparison to other groups. If URM’s still fall far short, then it is
worthwhile to investigate what could be done to improve it outside of
recruitment changes. Also, a negative or flat trend should perhaps lead
to questioning of recruitment attempts, which one would expect to
improve over time I suppose.
-I do see where this professor is
coming from in a sense though. If the demands spurred or were presented
as a series of investigations to be done, it would have more
intellectual weight. The current presentation suggests that Emory just
doesn’t care at all. However, strategic planning documents and various
articles suggest that Emory is well-aware of its weaknesses in terms of
things such as diversity and inclusion and indeed has been attempting to
improve it. It isn’t where it needs to be yet, but self-awareness is
always a start.