To the editor:

The problem for Kansas University in trying to defend their dismal retention and graduation of minorities is that, unlike their excuses for not hiring more minorities, KU can’t complain that they just aren’t attracting enough minority students. Poor retention rates, whether of minority students or faculty, are proof of problems with the climate for minorities who are already within the university.

But as you reported, KU continues to blame the victims of racism on campus, taking only those steps that require minority students to help themselves. In fact, that response is indicative of racism; the negative assumption that it’s the minorities’ failure. Pushing minority students to socialize with others of their own groups does nothing to resolve the problem. KU’s minority students may be the most culturally aware and sensitive people on campus, but that won’t help them graduate.

Solely providing minority students with more opportunities to be with other minorities does not help those students deal with racist educators who grade them more harshly than white students, who help them less adequately, and those who simply don’t want minorities in their fields. The racists among their fellow students, those who contribute to social isolation and exclusion, don’t hang out at the multicultural center.

The KU administration still has its collective head buried in the sand, denying that racism and discrimination are serious problems on campus. Until the university begins a program of antidiscrimination education for their educators and begins to respect and enforce civil rights laws, this gap will persist.

Mike Cuenca,

Lawrence