Thursday, June 18, 2009

A Veritable Rainbow of Diversity!

Dear friends,

I came across a little tidbit today that reminded me of exactly why we shouldn't entirely trust Wikipedia, and why it's so easy to. Pomona College is an exclusive, pricey, and upper-crusty liberal arts college in the hills of Claremont, California. How exclusive and pricey? The student body is comprised of only 1,500 students, and tuition, room, and board come to around $43,000 a year. And just how upper-crusty? It provided the setting for a Yale scene in an episode of Gilmore Girls. I loved the witty exchanges between Rory and Lorelei as much as the next person, but I think we can all agree that a story that involves being forced to spend time with your filthy rich grandparents in exchange for them paying your way through prep school isn't exactly a plot, say, David Simon might pen. In any case, I learned all these fun facts about Pomona (home of the mighty Sagehens!) from their Wikipedia page, in which I found this cleverly misleading nugget regarding the student body:

"It is composed of 7% African American students, 16% Asian American, 11% Latino American and 1% Native American, according to a self-identification survey.[9]"

The source is the College's own "Pomona Profile 2007," and it certainly seems innocent enough. But do the math. 7 + 16+ 11 + 1 does not 100% make. In fact, that adds up to 35 percent. Conspicuously missing? The background of the other 65 percent. Whatever could it be? (Scratches head. Wonders if anyone in Stars Hollow, Connecticut might know). And yet, as my dear friend Hans pointed out, progress is progress.

Also, in their defense, Frank Zappa went there, and that's pretty cool.

1 comment:

Hansel Castro said...

Still, way more mixed than the cast of the Gilmore Girls! They had a 1% Asian thing going...