<p>i've been brainstorming about a way to get rid of self-segregating housing at cornell (technically) but still having a place for people interested in living these cultures...</p>
<p>i have the idea of turning clara dickson hall (the largest dorm in the ivy) into an entirely multicultural living learning center (note: dickson already hosts mcllu in first and 2nd floors of side 5). </p>
<p>i propose having each floor being dedicated to the cultures of africa, asia, latin america, native americans and europe...</p>
<p>The people who want to live on those floors cannot choose those floors unless it is a program house, and if it is a program house, the entire thing will then be self-segregated as well. Only this time Asians and Europeans will be a part of the mix.</p>
<p>Having a house that is dedicated to ANYTHING is going to cause self-segregation.
And you cannot remove these program houses because they provide an extremely beneficial community for those who want them.</p>
<p>Just quit trying to see the negatives in it, and let them be.</p>
<p>If people wanted to mix and mingle (or were comfortable with it), then we wouldn’t need the program houses in the first place. The point of program houses is to allow people who are attracted to a certain culture to live together and interact and often that means you have the same race living together. It works for a group like African Americans or Native Americans because these groups are so underrepresented in college. Often these kids have little idea of what college is like and it can be comforting to be around others like you. This self-segregation is just human nature. When you’re an extreme minority, you want to be around others like you so you don’t feel so alone or different all the time. When I went to Africa, there was a reversal of roles and it was the white expats who were self-segregating in their expat bars and night clubs. This is my no-BS analysis, looking beyond the “celebration of culture” component of these programs. I don’t think these programs were truly meant to celebrate AA or Native American culture but rather to facilitate the transition of URM’s into college (that’s why it’s silly to have white or asian program houses).</p>
<p>it would be interesting to figure out the retention rate and success rate of students living in program housing versus URMS not living in program housing…</p>
<p>You’re thinking only from an academic standpoint. The program houses may or may not make a difference in that regard. The program houses play a much bigger role in the social lives of the inhabitants (your satisfaction with your social life may or may not translate into academics; god knows, premeds experience a discord b/w the quality of their social life and their grades).</p>
<p>there is now an A3C center on the works…although i dont think it involves housing…</p>
<p>it just makes me wonder why it is necessary to have an entire living place dedicated to a socially similar group when there are plenty of resources already in place for that…</p>
<p>i dont know if it’s just me but i find that URM from the city (NYC) are more eager to self-segregate than OOS URMs</p>
<p>Your social life, especially in your freshman year, revolves around the people living next to you. That’s who my friends were. That’s who I went to parties with. That’s who I interacted with the most on a daily basis. So, the living situation is tremendously important to the social life of a freshman.</p>
<p>the problem i have with freshman year is that students are not given the option to live with other asians and europeans are not allowed to live in a place where they might feel comfortable…it assumes that URMs are the only ones who might struggle socially here…</p>
<p>when one goes to the military one isnt given the option of living with people from similar cultures…unless you do the buddy system but even thats just 1 person…</p>
<p>LSC, the Office of Minority Educational Affairs just to name some…and not to mention the multicultural greek system…</p>
<p>ps: i hope i’m not ****ing you off, that isnt my intention. i just want to hear more people’s thoughts on the subject</p>
<p>Aren’t you hispanic? if so, you’re a URM yourself…is there some kind of special housing for hispanic students/students interested in latin culture? although i’m guessing you wouldn’t want to join regardless :)</p>
<p>and if you are a Tex-Mex, does it bother you more to see other URM’s self-segregating because you feel it reflects negatively on the entire URM community, that blacks stick to blacks and latino’s want to be around each other and certain groups of people retreat into their little ethnic bubbles? Btw, I don’t know anything about these groups, just going by what you’re making them sound like. sorry if I’m totally wrong here.</p>
<p>Blacks from NYC most likely grew up around…other black students in NYC, and in a NYC public school, everyone’s a minority (whites included). maybe they feel more comfortable in a similar atmosphere to where they grew up. This happens at every college, btw. We don’t have ethnic-themed housing at my college (we have program floors though, like “French immersion” and stuff) but I still see tables in the dining hall that are all-black, or herds of indians who won’t socialize with anyone else (I know this because they talk to me).</p>
<p>There’s Asians and Caucasians everywhere. I don’t understand why you need an Asian/European dorm when every dorm on campus is an Asian/European dorm! It’s like white people complaining about Black History Month and not having White History Month. Every single month is White History Month! That’s who our textbooks are written by. That’s who we see on TV, on billboards, all around us. </p>
<p>My only problem is with people complaining about how minorities tend to self-segregate. It’s easy to complain when you’re in the majority. Like I said, when white people are in the minority, they self-segregate as well. </p>
<p>You’re not ****ing me off. I know that the program houses are rather controversial and a lot of people (typically those in the majority) want to eliminate them in order to assimilate minorities into the larger college culture. They just don’t understand that you can’t just throw people into a foreign place and expect them to thrive. I work with low-income minority kids on a weekly basis. Most of these kids have no one, and I mean no one, around them to tell them what college is like. Their parents didn’t go to college. Their friends are dropping out of high school. Forget about analyzing yield rates or calculating average SAT scores or whatever else people on CC tend to get their panties in a bunch about, many of these kids don’t know what careers are out there, they have no idea whether a 18 on the ACT (which is the average at the schools I work with) is a good score, outside of the 1-2 colleges around them, they don’t even know what other colleges exist. For them, going to college is a scary ordeal. They have additional difficulties beyond just your normal transition from HS to college. If what you say about the declining enrollments in the program houses is true, then I see that as a sign of progress and that the university is doing a better job at accommodating minorities.</p>
<p>what i’m saying is, getting rid of program housing won’t stop self-segregation. We don’t have the program housing at my college, but we still have self-segregation. </p>
<p>We have floors with certain “themes”, similar to what you’re describing, called “Explorations floors” Themes can be cultural - African, japanese, etc, but we have other ones, like Art, Music, theatre - the point is to create unique communities in the dorms where students connect through a certain theme. </p>
<p>I notice self-segregation…it’s easy to spot the all-Asian table in the dining hall, but the all-White table doesn’t catch our eye because it’s nothing special. I notice the self-segregation, but it’s not a huge deal - sometimes cultural similarities bring people together. as a south-asian american, sometimes it bothers me more when I see the Indian-exclusive group, but I don’t get upset by it…live and let live. My friends come in a bunch of different colors.</p>
<p>btw kudos on not following every clause with an ellipsis - that makes it sound like you keep trailing off! lol :)</p>
<p>I wish these things were not so controversial but they will be because what makes one person happy makes another person indignant. that makes me sad.</p>
<p>“I notice self-segregation…it’s easy to spot the all-Asian table in the dining hall, but the all-White table doesn’t catch our eye because it’s nothing special. I notice the self-segregation, but it’s not a huge deal - sometimes cultural similarities bring people together. as a south-asian american, sometimes it bothers me more when I see the Indian-exclusive group, but I don’t get upset by it…live and let live. My friends come in a bunch of different colors.”</p>
<p>Haven’t posted in months, but I so love the above comment from stargazer. I don’t even believe in the term “self-segregation” because the word segregation implies enforcing a system in which people from different groups are separate. What you see at Cornell is people just hanging out with who they are most like. And that is how the rest of the world is anyway. Is it a bad thing? I don’t think so, as long as people don’t discriminate, oppress, act violently towards, and stereotype others of a different group then I believe we can all live peacefully together. Which we don’t anyway. But at Cornell at least it would be impossible to mandate who gets to hang out with who and getting rid of program houses would not make that process any easier. Besides whoever complained or complains when white people hang out together, which they always do!</p>
<p>But I don’t think bringing up the retention/success rate of minority students in program houses is smart, Resurgam. You’re almost implying that minority students cannot focus on academics when they are around each other, like company amongst themselves brings them down. That’s borderline prejudice, but would not be if you suggest the same for white and Asian students who live in multitudes together in traditional housing. </p>
<p>But basically, yes there are some Black, Hispanic, Asian, (the)Native American people/person that don’t want to hang out with other groups of people, or the white majority. I know some Black people that can’t stand being around white people, and just came to Cornell for the white man’s education so they can get by. Does that mean that is the same for every Black person you see hanging out with their fellow Black classmates? No, just because I’m with my girls who happen to be Black does not mean I do not like white people or talking to them, it just means these girls are people I’m cool with and we click and maybe that does have to do with the fact we’re Black, but so what? Because I’m Black I can’t hang with Black people or even live in an African themed dorm with them? Okay now I’m on the verge of ranting…but I hope that was some discussion you were looking for.</p>
<p>you make some good points but you were presumptious when saying this: </p>
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<p>I was actually wondering if URM students living in program housing performed better than URM living outside program housing. Because as norcalguy said, program housing is just another way to get URM to succeed.</p>
<p>As a parent of biracial children, I have a problem with the whole idea of themed housing by race. I think it is a mistake. How can anyone defend the black student who doesn’t like white people and doesn’t want to deal with them while at college? How is that student going to manage his/her life after college? Hide in Harlem?</p>
<p>My kids are more racially ambiguous than say Barack Obama. My daughters have been mistaken for Arab, Italian, Columbian, Fillipina, everything but African American. They’ve always gone to schools that were 95%+ white and never self-segregated with the tiny number of African American students. Instead they befriended whites, Asians, blacks, and other biracial kids. </p>
<p>It is 2009, not 1959. I don’t get the self-segregation thing at all, and I think it’s just as bad for whites to do as minorities. I could totally understand it back in the day, but today?</p>
<p>You’re missing the point. “Back in the day” it was forced segregation. Self-segregation (which is somewhat of a misnomer) is part of human nature. People self-segregate not because they hate other races. Asians self-segregate even without themed housing. Even subgroups within the Asian race (Koreans, Chinese, etc.) self-segregate among themselves. It’s natural to want to hang around with others like you. This is the basis for having clubs, frats, and sororities. The themed houses are open to all races and are not exclusive. If you want to live in a culturally themed house, you can. The problem is that none of the majority races (Asians and Whites) want to do it, presumably because they’re uncomfortable living in a situation where everyone is of a different race from them. Gee, does that sound familiar?</p>
<p>Why do you want the program houses to be shut down? you could argue that the Greek system self-segregates as well - there are some frats which are heavily Jewish, for example, compared to the overall population - should they be shut down? nope. </p>
<p>You think that if there was no program housing at cornell, the self-segregation would stop. It wouldn’t. it exists at many colleges/high schools whether they have program houses or not.</p>