Name your race
Kari Williams
Issue date: 10/15/09 Section: News
Since Oct. 5, when SIUE students log into the CougarNet Secure Area, a prompt emerges asking the student to select his or her ethnicity.
Paul Pitts, assistant chancellor of The Office of Institutional Compliance, said the reasoning behind the prompt has to do with new subgroups for certain ethnicities. For example, there are more options under "Asian" to account for the diversity in that one category.
"[The question is asked] to comply with new Department of Education guidelines for collecting data on race and ethnicity," Pitts said.
Initially, junior secondary health education major Josh Anderson looked for an option where he did not have to state his race, but the new format does not provide such an option.
"I was hesitant, but [I] knew what I was going to select. I wondered if it had anything to do with financial aid," Anderson said.
Institutional Research and Studies Director Phil Brown stated that one cannot choose unknown or not respond to the survey. However, in the future, a button will be on the form that allows students to select 'done,' without having filled out the form.
These new rules break the question into two parts, so as to accommodate those ethnicities with more than one category. According to the U.S. Department of Education Web site, "There is no 'multiracial' or 'other race' category used when collecting data from individuals using this two-part question for ethnicity and race. However, a respondent may report having more than one race."
Reasoning behind this data collection can be traced back as far as the Civil Rights Movement in order to "ensure protection of underrepresented groups," according to University Marketing and Communication Assistant to the Director Bethany Forsythe. This information, which has been collected through CougarNet for many years, is sent to the Integrated Post-Secondary Education System, which is a part of the Department of Education.
Freshman English education major Abby Thompson finds the new format of selecting one's race appealing.
Paul Pitts, assistant chancellor of The Office of Institutional Compliance, said the reasoning behind the prompt has to do with new subgroups for certain ethnicities. For example, there are more options under "Asian" to account for the diversity in that one category.
"[The question is asked] to comply with new Department of Education guidelines for collecting data on race and ethnicity," Pitts said.
Initially, junior secondary health education major Josh Anderson looked for an option where he did not have to state his race, but the new format does not provide such an option.
"I was hesitant, but [I] knew what I was going to select. I wondered if it had anything to do with financial aid," Anderson said.
Institutional Research and Studies Director Phil Brown stated that one cannot choose unknown or not respond to the survey. However, in the future, a button will be on the form that allows students to select 'done,' without having filled out the form.
These new rules break the question into two parts, so as to accommodate those ethnicities with more than one category. According to the U.S. Department of Education Web site, "There is no 'multiracial' or 'other race' category used when collecting data from individuals using this two-part question for ethnicity and race. However, a respondent may report having more than one race."
Reasoning behind this data collection can be traced back as far as the Civil Rights Movement in order to "ensure protection of underrepresented groups," according to University Marketing and Communication Assistant to the Director Bethany Forsythe. This information, which has been collected through CougarNet for many years, is sent to the Integrated Post-Secondary Education System, which is a part of the Department of Education.
Freshman English education major Abby Thompson finds the new format of selecting one's race appealing.
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