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January 25, 2008 > Opinion > Rice, race, athletics and statistics

Rice, race, athletics and statistics

By The Rice Thresher Editorial Staff | Thresher Editorial Staff

For the year 2005-‘06, Rice had 200 black undergraduates, constituting 7 percent of the undergraduate student body. Of these, 99 were male full-time students. Subtracting the 47 who were scholarship athletes leaves 52 non-athlete black men (see story, page 4). Divide the number by four — for the four years of college — and then by nine — for the nine residential colleges. By these numbers, Rice can be a very lonely place for non-athlete black men.

One-third of incoming non-athlete black males will be alone at their college, at least demographically. And while Orientation Week may try to bond all new freshmen under the banner of their new college and adopted home, one cannot deny the inevitable discomfort of having no one with whom to share a similar background or experience.

So given these inherent problems at Rice for the black community, given the recent history of racial tensions at Rice, and given the events at Sid Richardson College over the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, one can only wonder: What can Rice do? (see story, page 1).

Is there anything the Office of Multicultural Affairs can do? Is there anything the Admissions Office can do? Is there anything the colleges themselves can do? It seems that racial problems at Rice are the inevitable result of a small population divided by athletics and split through the college system. So until a time when the black population at Rice grows or the college system shrinks, it will fall upon students to ensure that just because an ethnic demographic is geographically isolated on campus, it does not mean that they are alone at Rice.

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