User:Georgnic/sandbox

Racial inequality has been present and a prevalent issue within universities across the United States. There are several factors that perpetuate racial inequality within education at the University of Michigan still today.

== Acceptance  == The University of Michigan has strived over the years to create a diverse student population with individuals from a variety of backgrounds. To do so, admission and acceptance methods have been crucial in establishing this diversity and are the first step of achieving this important balance. With over 44,136 students enrolled during the 2019 Winter semester, whites still made up the majority of student population with 23,568, about 53%. The second largest demographic are asians who have 5,655 students enrolled, 12.8%. The two previous figures still show the great gap between races further highlighting the racial inequality that is hoped to be avoided. Compared to historical data, the percent of accepted students by race has remained relatively consistent as well. Regarding the acceptances for the 2018 entering class, there was an overall 23.5% acceptance rate with approximately 65% of these students being white. Similarly to the Winter 2019 enrollment, the asian race follows with 15% of the overall class population. African Americans contribute about 5% and Latinos about 6%. Overall, the levels of acceptance per race and demographic has maintained relatively the same over the past 5 years. Native Americans and Hawaiians make up the smallest percentage of accepted students with less than 1%. An interesting fact to supplement the student acceptance per race breakdown is that 26% of current Michigan faculty members belong to a minority group.

Financial Aid
When studying racial inequality of education at universities like the University of Michigan, it is important to take into account financial aid distribution. Tuition in the US is very expensive (although it varies by institution) and many students rely on financial aid to attend school. Roughly $46 billion in student financial aid is handed out every year. This is a combination of federal aid, institutional aid, and third party scholarships. The University of Michigan itself gave out a total of over $1 billion in financial aid awards for undergraduate and graduate students combined during the 2017-2018 school year. There is a lot of data that shows the distribution of aid based on yearly family income and how need based decisions are made. However, this data does not give any indication of whether financial aid contributes to racial inequality of education.

Does the distribution amounts of financial aid differ for different ethnicities and does this contribute to racial educational inequality at universities, specifically the University of Michigan? The data on financial aid amounts given to different racial/ethnic identities at the University of Michigan is either limited or not publicly available. The financial aid office at the University of Michigan does not keep records on the ethnic identities of students receiving financial aid at the University. This is in order to comply with Michigan’s proposal 2, part of which prohibits the awarding of financial aid based on ethnic identities.

Proposal 2
Proposal 2 (Michigan Civil Rights Initiative) was voted into Michigan law in 2006. Once voted in it was written as an official amendment to the state of Michigan constitution. The purpose of the initiative was to end the practice of using race, gender, and sexuality in determining entrance into educational institutions and the workforce. This essentially prohibited the use of affirmative action programs in the state of Michigan. Although the language of this law (as it pertains to higher education) is written around admissions processes, it has had effects on institution’s disbursement of financial aid.

The passing of this amendment prohibited discriminatory practices, meaning that institutions like the University of Michigan could not hand out financial aid awards based on race, gender, or sexuality. This means that scholarships specifically for minorities were now eliminated. This includes scholarships whose criteria included being African American, Latino, Native American, etc. Although this proposal prevented discrimination based on race, it also limited aid programs aimed towards providing equal opportunity for typically disadvantaged minority groups. Many of these groups rely on aid packages to abate the high cost of tuition at public universities in order to attend and graduate. Studies have shown that dropout rates improve drastically for minorities proportional to the size of grants they recieve for school, primarily Pell Grants. The dropout rate for white students remains relatively the same, regardless of the size of grants received.

==  Representation == The implementation of diversity, inclusion, and representation initiatives for underrepresented minority students and multicultural student organizations at universities across the country has been a major issue today. Historically, the University of Michigan’s diversity and inclusion initiatives were inefficient to many minority students who faced mass discrimination in classrooms and campus. In 1970, a class boycott organized by the Black Action Movement (BAM), began a legacy of student activism at the University of Michigan. As a collective effort of several Black student organizations, the primary goal of BAM was to challenge the university’s lack of diversity and civil rights initiatives. The result of these efforts led the university to address many of the concerns around admissions, space, and support for Black students. Shortly after the Trotter House was created in 1971, the Ofﬁce of Special Services & Programs began as a central area for communities of color at UM. This new unit had staff advocates that served a variety of ethnic constituencies. In 1977, the name changed to Minority Student Services to meet the needs of minority students and to promote the cultural diversity represented across the University. By 1995, the office changed its name to Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs, and included the Trotter Multicultural Center. In 2014, MESA and Trotter became individual units working collaboratively to support students. This movement led to the introduction of the Office of Academic Multicultural Initiatives (OAMI) that was created in 1988 as the result of the Black Action Movement (BAM) and United Coalition Against Racism (UCAR) student protests. With the introduction of several of these organizations that promote and embrace diversity and inclusion initiatives, the University of Michigan has made an attempt to appreciate the importance and richness of multiculturalism, and understand the need for collaboration and relationship building with underrepresented students, faculty, staff, and external constituencies. The University of Michigan then introduced the 42-page Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Plan. This plan was initiated by the university in 2015, and aims to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the institution and community. Strategy one creates an inclusive and equitable campus climate. Strategy two involves recruiting, retaining and developing a diverse community. Strategy three supports innovative and inclusive scholarship and teaching.

== Graduation Rate == Overall graduation rates at the University of Michigan have been rising since 2003. In 2003 the graduation rate was 72.6% for 4 year domestic students and rose to 79.3% in 2012. The graduation rates for domestic students staying a 5th or 6th year after initial entry has almost been steadily increasing.

In 2012 there were different graduation rates for racial or ethnic groups that are below and above the overall rate. Some groups did not have such a steady increase like the overall student body. The graduation rate for African American students has fluctuated during this 10 year period. The graduation rate for African Americans has increased from 53.9% in 2003 to 56.2% in 2012 which looks like a positive trend but in 2007 and 2010 the rate was 58.6% and 58.2% respectively.

There are no racial or ethnic groups that have only increased in graduation rates over the 2003-2012 period. The group that comes the closest to being entirely linear is whites. In 2003 the white graduation rate was 75.1% and in 2013 it was 81.3%. The lowest rate in this 10 year span was 74.4% in 2004 which is 15.8% greater than the highest level for African Americans. Asian Americans come in close second for highest graduation rate in 2012 of 80.4%. The rates for Asian Americans are very similar to the rates of whites with their lowest rate also being 74.4% in 2004.