Alienation of Ethnic Minority Students at a Predominantly White University

Abstract

Despite civil rights legislation, the national goal of providing ethnic minorities with equal access to quality institutions of higher education and opportunities for academic success has yet to be realized. Actualizing this educational vision requires understanding the forces that preclude and those that promote equal opportunity and academic success. Higher college dropout rates, lower levels of academic preparation in high school, lower socioeconomic status, and greater alienation or isolation in the white college environment have been cited as problems facing ethnic minority college students [2, 3, 14, 22, 29, 30]. There is a need at the national level for research on ethnic minority and white college students' attitudes and perceptions. Despite this need, little such research has been conducted [10]. Comparative studies have either been conducted among various white student populations [12, 18, 24] or between white students and only one ethnic minority group [13, 25, 28]. At a state and local level, the underrepresentation of ethnic minori-