Dartmouth is the only Ivy League institution missing from a recent listing of the 64 schools best-suited for college-bound African-American students.
According to a report published in the January issue of Black Enterprise, five Ivy League schools -- Columbia (no. 15), Harvard (no. 26), University of Pennsylvania (no. 34), Yale (no. 41) and Cornell (no. 50) --provide some of the nation's finest learning environments for black students.
Neither Brown nor Princeton cracked the magazine's Top 50, but each received one of 14 honorable mentions.
Spelman College, a historically black school in Atlanta, Georgia, is perched at the very top of the list.
Dr. Thomas LaVeist, the CEO of Daystar, the company that helped Enterprise magazine conduct the research, said while he could not relate the particulars of Dartmouth's lackluster performance in the survey, he recalled that the College "received rather low scores on the survey of African-American educators."
Approximately 1,000 schools -- having at least a 1.5 percent black student population and/or curriculum "of significant interest" to black students -- were included in the research.
LaVeist told The Dartmouth the most important criterion "by far" was the percent of African-American students within the graduating classes of 1996-97.
Schools on the list "are all doing a good job at graduating black students," LaVeist said.
Daystar ranked the schools solely using the responses of a questionnaire distributed to 1,077 black professionals in higher education including educators, presidents, provosts, recruiters, and assistant deans. Almost half of those contacted responded to the survey.
Acting Dean of the College Dan Nelson, who said that diversity "absolutely is a serious commitment" at the College, felt that "Dartmouth should be on that list."
"We have got consistently one of the higher graduation rates for students in all categories in schools across the country," Nelson said.
Nelson, who owns a copy of the report, said that he gathered that those polled made judgments about the schools "they know about."
He also said that Dartmouth should increase awareness about its qualities.
"We need to do a better job about communicating about the terrific opportunities for all students" at the College, Nelson said.
LaVeist noted that the majority of schools in the top 50 are not historically black institutions. Rather, he said, the list consisted of a "mixed bag of schools" which were "secular and religious" and from "all regions of the country."
To counter the advantage of historically black universities and colleges which graduate a disproportionately higher number of African American students than other schools, LaVeist weight-adjusted their scores.
Academic environment, social atmosphere and the percent of black students in the student body for 1996-1997 were also taken into account in the survey.
Though there is regional diversity amongst the schools, most are located in or near urban centers -- not rural, primarily white settings such as Hanover.
Marjorie Whigham-Dsir, the reporter who wrote the Black Enterprise piece, said in an interview with The Dartmouth that a school's location did not influence its ranking, however, citing the high scores of Oberlin (no. 12), Swarthmore (no. 13) and Bryn Mawr (no. 25)--colleges situated in suburban and rural environments.
According to Whigham-Dsir, factors other than geographic location should play a larger role in one's decision to attend a certain school.
It is important that black students have a social environment where "there's an opportunity to show your stuff and be an integral part of the college experience," she said
She mentioned the experience of an African-American male student from Stanford University (no. 10) who was president of the campus student investment club and member of other organizations.
Stanford fit Whigham-Dsir's definition of a school that allows black students to be leaders "off the courts or football fields."
Whigham-Dsir also said that diversity should be a "serious commitment" for all schools rather than just "lip service" fodder.
She suggested that schools examine how inclusive they are of "people who don't look like you."
College administrators and faculty are not exempt from such scrutiny, said Whigham-Dsir who encouraged schools to ask themselves "where are the black people" employed at the college.
When asked whether the College currently provided enough opportunities for its African American students, Nelson replied, "I think we provide excellent opportunities and support and education experiences for all students, but we always want to do better."
