 "Photo: Kirby Yau, Photo Editor")
Marking a significant change, an annual study reported this year's college freshmen class is much less likely to have interracial friendships or see racial discrimination as a problem - compared with past classes.
"We were somewhat surprised," Linda J. Sax, UCLA associate professor of education and director of the study, said. "Those of us in academia are acutely aware of continuing racial discrimination that exists, but the students seemed to be less concerned."
Differences were reported along racial lines, with 24.9 percent of white students saying discrimination is no longer a problem, compared with 12.5 percent of black students and 18.3 percent of Hispanic students.
Out of the UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, "The American Freshman: National Norms for 2004" report marked the 39th year the study was conducted. Results were based on the responses of 289,452 students at 440 colleges and universities nationwide.
Though the data alone does not indicate what is causing the trends, Sax said students may have interpreted the word "discrimination" to mean overt actions and may have been unaware of the more subtle inequities that exist between racial groups.
"Students may be interpreting decisions in various states to dismantle affirmative action as a sign that discrimination is not so much of a problem anymore," she said.
Jill Esbenshade, assistant sociology professor at San Diego State, said legislation attacking affirmative action programs, such as California's Prop. 209 in 1996, shows a culture of backlash that emerged during the time when many current college freshmen were growing up.
"There has been an upsurge in the belief that whites have somehow been disadvantaged by the system and that people of color are being unfairly advantaged by the system," she said.
Since the abolishment of affirmative action, many higher education institutions have seen declines in minority enrollment and reports have shown many neighborhoods and schools across the nation remain overwhelmingly segregated.
According to Esbenshade, who teaches a minority-group relations course, many students in her classes - whites in particular - do not fully grasp the prevalence of discrimination still prevalent in America, which she attributes in part to the lack of interaction between groups.
"Unless you're in a situation where you are with a person who is racial minority, you're not likely to be aware of how other people are treated," she said. "If you have only seen what you've experienced, you believe that to be the norm."
If the environment lacks diversity, she said, students of different ethnic groups will be less likely to interact because they will have fewer opportunities to do so.
According to SDSU Media Relations Director Jason Foster, though the university is unable to directly target potential students by race, it has continued outreach programs that indirectly promote ethnic diversity.
Scholarship awards, assistance funds and partnerships with inner-city school districts, such as City Heights and Sweetwater, target underprivileged groups and help prepare students for college, which will increase diversity on campus, Foster said.
Current SDSU numbers show 45 percent of students identify themselves as Caucasian, 20.7 percent as Hispanic or Mexican-American, 14.3 percent as Asian and 6.9 as Filipino or Pacific Islander. African-Americans make up 3.7 percent of the student body and 0.7 percent identify themselves as American Indian, according to Analytic Studies and Institutional Research. International students and those who declined to state their ethnicity are excluded from these numbers.
For many immersed in the university setting, the study's recent findings come as no surprise.
Biochemistry freshman Diana Bustos said though she does not consciously avoid making interracial friendships, she sometimes finds it is easier to relate to students who share her Mexican-American background.
"We can relate to how things are back home," Bustos said. "We have been raised the same way."
According to the study, fewer freshman students said "helping to promote racial understanding" was an "essential" or "very important" personal goal than in any other year in the history of the survey.
Laura Benson, a liberal studies freshman, would have aligned with the 23.5 percent of white students who agreed with the statement.
According to Benson, growing up in Long Beach helped to expose her to many different types of people, an experience she hopes to pass on to her future children.
"As a parent, I want my kids to be with other groups of people," she said.
"I want to invite African-American people and Spanish people - or whomever - over to my house with their kids so that my kids can see that (interracial friendships are) totally fine and that there is nothing wrong with that."
The number of students who indicated promoting racial understanding was an important personal goal peaked in 1992, the year riots broke out on the streets of Los Angeles.
Sax said it may take another event of national scope to raise awareness of racial tensions. However, she did not predict whether she believes the survey will report changes in racial interaction and understanding in the future.
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