Less Segregation on Campus
Today, Study Says
PONTIAC, Mich. — College students today are less likely to segregate themselves by race than they once were, according to a Ford Foundation report.
Increased campus diversity and special programs have made students comfortable enough to cross racial and ethnic barriers in academic, political, organizational and social situations, according to the report. It is titled "Campus Diversity and Student Self-Segregation: Separating Myths From Facts."
"Contrary to popular reports, student self-segregation is not, in fact, a dominant feature of campus life today," says Debra Humphreys, who prepared the report for the Ford Foundation's Campus Diversity Initiative project.
"A racially and ethnically diverse university student body has far-ranging and significant benefits for all students, non-minorities and minorities alike," it quotes University of Michigan psychology professor Patricia Grin as saying.
Students with similar backgrounds continue to cluster on campuses where they live, socialize and study, Humphreys says. That clustering, she says, helps them deal with the stress of being in unfamiliar surroundings. But the clustering does not prevent them from crossing barriers to mix  with others different from themselves.

University of Georgia Asks Judge to Allow Race Consideration
In Admissions in 2000
SAVANNAH, Ga. — The state of Georgia has asked a federal court to allow the University of Georgia to continue to use race as a factor for admissions next fall, saying it would not harm the women who filed suit to block the practice.
In papers filed this month in the federal court here, the state says that continuing to use race in year 2000 admissions poses "no real threat of impending injury" to the women.
"In addition, the manner in which race will continue to be used as a factor in admissions has not yet been finalized by UGA," the state contends, adding that an immediate ban would be "inappropriate and premature."
"This court should not now put the brakes to a system that has served UGA and the state well, that has resulted in the increased opportunity for a significant segment of our population," Attorney General Thurbert Baker says in a brief.
Jennifer Johnson, Aimee Bogrow, Molly Ann Beckenhauer, Lindsey Donaldson and others asked Judge B. Avant Edenfield last month to bar the university from using race as one factor in admitting borderline applicants for next year.
The plaintiffs seeking the injunction are responding to an announcement by Dr. Michael Adams, the university's president, who on Sept. 30 said the school would continue using race in admissions as a way of ensuring diversity.
Edenfield has not set a hearing on the motion for an injunction yet.