“It’s understandable that students could innocently misbehave in this way, but it is indeed misbehavior,” he says.
About 70 of UT’s roughly 1,300 law students are Black, according to the university’s preliminary enrollment figures. There are about 800 White students, 225 Hispanic students, 75 Asian students, 55 foreign students and 75 who did not report an ethnicity.
Black enrollment plummeted after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1996 in favor of Cheryl Hopwood and three other White applicants, who sued the UT law school after they were denied admission in favor of minority candidates. There were only 17 Black students enrolled in the fall of 1999, though that number has been steadily climbing.
The university as a whole also has had trouble with diversity and racial insensitivity.
Former UT President Larry Faulkner ordered sweeping changes in the university’s curriculum and culture in 2004 following a series of incidents that included the egging of the Martin Luther King Jr. statue and fraternity parties where Blacks were portrayed in Jim Crow-style racial stereotypes.
The university hired Vincent last year to improve diversity on campus. Last month, UT announced the appointment of an associate vice president who will work to diversify the faculty and staff.
Transier says he and other partygoers have met with members of the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society and apologized.
“In hindsight, is it something I won’t do again?” he says. “Yes. It’s one of those things that you learn from and move on.”
— Associated Press
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
