Things have changed a lot in Yorktown, Va., since British troops last fought there more than two centuries ago. Among the more welcome trends, according to four students who attended high school there, is the downfall of racism.
Ian Gallagher and Brian Rock are first-year College students from Yorktown who share a room in Old Dorms, where they acknowledge relatively few black students reside. Still, neither of the two believes that the division is particularly sinister, and they are opposed to removing the housing option for incoming first-years.
"If self-segregation is what students want, that's what they're going to get," Rock said.
Two of their friends from home aren't so sure that's for the best. First-year College students Rachel Harless and Sandy Su also live in Old Dorms, where they have noticed a striking lack of diversity.
"It's an elitist University," Harless said. "Everyone is pretty much the same economically."
Still, Harless agreed with her friends, downplaying the impact of prior socioeconomic status on a student's ability to achieve at the University.
"Once you're at a University where everybody is treated the same, race is not a factor," she said.
The students said that despite the University's noticeable self-segregation and established history of racial incidents and discrimination, they did not describe the current racial climate at the University as an overwhelming problem.
"If you hadn't told me there are racial problems, I wouldn't have understood it as such," Rock said. "I guess I was in a privileged place to grow up."
Harless described existing racial tensions as a lingering problem from her parents' generation that has been perpetuated by the family beliefs of an isolated few.
Others in the group agreed.
"With me and a lot of my friends, equality of the races has never been a question," Rock said.
Though she thought this may be the case for many students, Su suggested that sparks of racial tensions still persist.
"I think discrimination in the slightest form is perpetuated by it being okay to play on stereotypes," she said. "It makes it seem like there is more of a problem. Some people are seriously offended, but other people might not necessarily realize that."
The group seemed to disagree on the extent of racial diversity at the University as compared to their high school in Yorktown, but there was a general consensus among the four that a lack of overall diversity on Grounds serves to limit the wealth of perspectives students have to share.
"You see a lot of people a lot like you," Rock said. "A lot of people have very similar outlooks."
When it comes to the marketplace of ideas, Gallagher added, diversity can be a critical factor.
"The whole idea of a university is being exposed to different ideas," Gallagher said. "Diversity isn't just dependent on race."
Though the four students said they appreciated the gravity of recent racially-charged incidents at the University, they did not think the diversity commission report holds all the solutions.
"No one really knows the right answer," Rock said.
--Compiled by Jason Amirhadji
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