Whenever psychology freshman Laura Mitus walks around Snyder Hall, she sees the same girls every day. Mitus says most of the girls are white, and she regularly sees “only a couple of Asian girls, and about three black girls.”
No-preference freshman Tony Rocha said he experiences the opposite of Mitus. He says Armstrong Hall, especially his floor, has a healthy mix of black and white residents.
According to 1999 residence hall statistics published by Residence Life, out of 1,830 freshmen living in the Brody Complex as of August 31, 1999, about 26 percent were minorities. Out of 2,306 freshmen living in the South Complex, about 17 percent were minority.
The dorms with the lowest percentage of minority freshmen were Mason and Abbot and Landon with 8 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Some of the dorms with the highest percentages were Rather Hall and Shaw Hall at 35.2 percent and 31.9 percent, respectively, according to the 1999 statistics.
Statistics have not been published since 1999, but whether the statistics are a reflection of today’s racial and ethnic makeup on campus is unknown.
But the amount of diversity in residence halls has been a debated issue among students, faculty and administrators.
Computer engineering freshman Jevon Booker described minority placement in dorms as being “like cows herded into a corral.
“We know that we’re being grouped, and we’re trying to make a change,” said Booker, who is sergeant-at-arms of the Armstrong Hall Black Caucus.
But University Housing Director Angela Brown says those charges are false.
“There is no one hall where there are more minorities than others. I don’t think there is any minority concentration,” she said.
Brown said incoming freshmen applying to live in residence halls are placed dependent upon their living options, such as enrollment in the James Madison College or the Lyman Briggs School.
“We don’t assign dorms based on ethnicity. There is nowhere on our forms that ask for ethnicity,” she said.
“The only way we place students is based on gender, whether they’re a smoker or nonsmoker, and if they want a quiet or nonquiet floor,” Brown said. “After that, it’s totally at random.”
Next year, incoming freshmen who live in university housing will be able to rank their top three dorm residences, Brown said. She said the option was previously available only to upperclassmen.
Although ethnicity is not a factor in residence hall placements, Mitus wishes the dorms were more diverse.
“When I came to MSU, I was looking forward to meeting new groups of people,” she said. “But here (Snyder Hall), it’s all the same background. It’s a problem. I want more diversity.
“We’re at Michigan State. You can’t have just one big group together. You have to have different kinds.”
