While Philip Kurian, and many others, are willing to focus only on fraternities and other campus social institutions as causing structural segregation, many other large factors are ignored.
Affirmative action is the elephant in the room. Affirmative action at peer institutions results in admitting African-Americans that have SATs that are about 200 points lower than their non affirmative action peers.
Having a group of clearly identifiable students that are part of an educational cohort that is considerably lower than the general population of the school is bound to lead to ghettos, socially and academically.
Defenders of affirmative action clamor against Alumni preferences. At peer institutions, alumni admitees have SATs that are statistically the same as the general university population. Furthermore, alumni admitees are not physically recognizable.
While it would be sad for students to make judgments based on physical attributes, it is easy to do. Designing structures that encourage interaction based on non-racial factors involves making interaction as easy as possible. Making academic excellence, as opposed to academic competence, a universal standard will encourage beneficial interaction.
The end of affirmative action would allow students to interact with each other as true peers, and thus increase the chances for racial mixing. Try ending institutionalized discrimination before killing frats and selective living groups.
Paul Musselwhite
Trinity '06
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