Zach Kram & Noah Jodice, Student Life
Over the course of the fall semester, Student Life spoke with nearly 50 University community members, comprising administrators, faculty, staff, students and alumni. We were searching for evidence of a plan to counteract the University’s history of homogeneity; we hoped to hear tangible, specific tactics that the administration will either continue or adopt to increase the low percentages of black students and faculty and to improve the campus climate.
Instead, we heard from deans who openly questioned whether Wash. U. has concrete strategies in place to increase its racial diversity, a director of admissions who shifted blame from her office onto student activists for not doing more to recruit black high-schoolers, and an administration plagued by false and inconsistent beliefs about where current efforts are falling short.
