This week I researched racial bias in other college judicial board processes. While there is certainly a lot of data available about racial discrimination in punishment for K-12 schools, there is almost no data about this for colleges because many do not release racial demographic information about academic or social violations, Bowdoin included. The University of Virginia, however, does release this information and in 2000 and 2009 their student newspaper published articles about racial bias in their Honor Committee. Black students and men were disproportionately reported to the Honor Committee and found guilty. In fact, even though black students made up only 12% of UVA’s student body, they represented 23% of the investigations. Moreover, there was a difference in the penalization of students, such that black students were found guilty 6% more often than white students.
This data seems to agree with the anecdotal reports I have heard around campus that black men are accused and penalized for honor and social code violations more often than white students. An interesting point in my findings on UVA was that most reporters of violations are faculty members, often accusing students of plagiarism. I initially assumed that black students received unfair treatment because of the judicial process itself, not because of unfair reporting. However, the UVA account seems to suggest that racially biased faculty are the problem and that bias “is lost during the [Honor Committee] process” (Feller). Considering this, I want to look into how both the reporters and the J-Board can influence the racialized outcomes.
The challenge in collecting quantitative data on this issue is that there isn’t any. I can easily find similar data about younger students, but there is almost no data about penalizations in college. That is why I think it’s so important to start collecting qualitative data on campus. I think I’m going to start by asking Nate DeMoranville and Yuejay Reeves to be interviewed. Nate because of his Op-Ed in the Orient about the unfair treatment of black students as well as the higher dropout rates for black students. I also want to interview Yuejay because of his controversial Facebook status last semester that got a lot of attention for asserting that black men are disproportionately punished by the J-Board, particularly for sexual assault cases. At the time, I asked Benje Douglas what he thought about Yuejay’s status, and Douglas gave a similar account as the UVA staff: that black men stand out on a white campus and therefore they may be reported by other students at higher rates. I want to ask each of them if they can refer me to other sources. Next week, I also want to examine some scholarly sources about school discipline, even if they relate to grade school rather than college.
Feller, Cameron. 2009. “University Community Reacts to Diversity Statistics from Committee.” The Cavalier Daily. Retrieved March 24, 2019 (http://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2009/04/university-community-reacts-to-diversity-statistic).
Feller outlines the racial disparities in Honor Committee reports and punishments at the University of Virginia. Although writing for a student newspaper, Feller is likely a fairly credible source for the numerical data, which comes directly from the college’s Honor Committee; some of the data is based on the findings of one student, Carlos Oronce, and because his data is unverified by another source, it is unclear if it is reliable. The intended audience of this piece is UVA students; controversial pieces such as this are likely intended to stir conversation and mobilize action surrounding the issue, although the article heavily focuses on current solutions and hopeful future directions. This piece is different from the Strauss piece in that it encompasses many subjective, individual student and staff perspectives whereas Strauss’ piece gives a general outline of the issue. This article is particularly helpful in my research because it provides some concrete data on the issue when there is a dearth of data otherwise.
Strauss, Valerie. 2018. “Racial Bias in Campus Discipline: When Will Universities Look in the Mirror?” The Washington Post. Retrieved March 24, 2019 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2018/04/22/racial-bias-in-campus-discipline-when-will-universities-look-in-the-mirror/?utm_term=.4368f01795fc).
Strauss discusses the lack of data regarding the judicial systems of American colleges, stating that because of the apparent racial biases in K-12 schools, there must be similar incidents of bias in colleges – however, it is impossible to know for sure, given the unwillingness of colleges to scrutinize their own policies. Strauss is credible source as a notable education staff writer who has worked for the Washington Post for 30 years who has also published scholarly work in a law journal. This article is intended for WaPo readers, who, because of the magazine’s popularity, likely include a large demographic of Americans. Strauss’ perspective is very different from Feller’s, as Strauss’ article provides a broad overview of the topic while Feller’s dives into the specific details of one particular incident at the University of Virginia. This piece pointed me in the direction of a multitude of specific cases of discrimination, including the UVA case, providing me with details and incidents to focus this broad overview. The sweeping nature of this article also provided me with many avenues of research to pursue, in looking at sexual assault cases, academic cases, as well as punishment in grade schools.
Lopez’ Comments:
Aliya, great work on this project. It is really interesting, but not surprising that schools do not report this data. However, I wonder, why was this data made available at UVA? I think that it is a great start to being with Nate and Yuejay. Both should offer some good perspectives. I agree, you are not going to find alot of data on this, however, maybe there are articles written in the Chronicle for High Education, which is primary source of issues in higher education in the US.