Univ. changes categories for reporting race, ethnicityPosted in Articles, Campus Life, New Media, United States on 2010-10-14 01:52Z by Steven |
Univ. changes categories for reporting race, ethnicity
Diamondback Online
The University of Maryland’s Independent Daily Student Newspaper
2010-10-11
Latest data expected to reflect true demographic makeup, but may reduce minority funding
The university will release new demographic data this week that administrators said will more accurately convey the diversity of this university. But some students argue the changes are still not good enough.
The standards, which were changed to resemble federal guidelines imposed by the U.S. Department of Education, will reflect similar changes made to the Census this year. So, last academic year, students were asked to identify their race and ethnicity before registering for classes.
The data collected from students’ responses, officials said, will enable the university to get a better idea of its demographic breakdown by allowing students to check more than one box for race and by making race and ethnicity two separate categories.
But because of that change, the number of students who originally identified themselves as minorities prior to last year may decrease, which could decrease funds earmarked for minority students, university research analyst Kyland Howard said…
Read the entire article here.