Queen's University confesses its guilt

It's too whitebread. Trust the Toronto Star to play this up.

Queen's University, one of Canada's most academically elite schools, admits it has allowed a "culture of whiteness" to take root that fails to welcome visible minority students and professors.

And the university vows to be more aggressive in shedding its reputation as a tony enclave of white privilege, says vice-principal Patrick Deane.

Queen's is responding to a critical report prompted by the resignation of six non-white professors several years ago [!?!] — as well as recent incidents of white students going out to pubs in controversial "blackface" makeup — that suggest the Kingston school has done little to try to reflect the diversity of Canada.

Why the hell should it? It's supposed to give a superior education to qualified students. But a professor does not think so based on what one student said; how's that for a representative sample?

"One student accused us of attracting not the best and the brightest, but the richest and whitest — and that may be not far off," says Prof. Joy Mighty, chair of the university's equity committee, which has proposed sweeping changes to boost diversity at the picturesque campus on the banks of the St. Lawrence.

Perhaps Prof. Mighty might look at the mark average required for admission.

The average entrance grade for 2004 was 89%, (second only to McGill with 89.3%).

Prof. Mighty continues:

"Even in Kingston, some parents tell us they worry that sending their children to Queen's won't prepare them for the diversity of the world," said Mighty, a black professor who notes she has not experienced discrimination herself, but knows professors of colour who feel isolated on campus.

"Some black students told us they have friends back home who ask them how they got `conned' into coming to a white institution. That's the image many students have of Queen's."..

"It can be very frustrating being part of an ethnic minority on campus — you feel as though you're absolutely invisible," said black student Rachel LaTouche, president of the African-Caribbean Students' Association, which represents 50 to 60 students...

I confess to having been a Queen's undergrad in the 60s who, for reasons that are my own responsibility, failed to graduate. I remember looking in the yearbook back then and noticing that those doing post-grad in the hard sciences and engineering seemed disproportionately Asian. Somehow I doubt that has changed. But the Star's piece concentrates solely on blacks.

H/t to Nealenews.

Mark C.

Posted by markc at April 22, 2006 11:37 AM