The Effects of the Black Student and the Black Cultural Center Concept on the WSU-La Crosse Environment: A Study of White Student Attitudes
File(s)
Date
1970Author
Esquilin, Luis Ramon
Advisor(s)
Ideus, Harvey
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
This paper is centered on one event, the phenomenon of
black cultural centers and specifically the black cultural
center at WSU-La Crosse, it's relationship to the university
environment, with emphasis on white students' attitude and
behavior towards the black student and the black center.
A questionnaire was used to obtain the data. Subjects
for the study were a systematic sample of the 1969-70
WSU-La Crosse student body. Special and graduate students
were not included.
Assumptions made were: (1) There existed a covert,
strained black-white relationship and a negative concept
of the black cultural center: (2) That discrimination towards
the black student existed on this campus; (3) That students in
this institution are not willing to accept more blacks on campus;
and (4) Student attitude reflects the discriminatory practices
of the society towards blacks.
It was hypothesized that the student population, 99 percent
white to less than 1 percent black, were not ready to accept
black students. Consequently, that under these conditions,
the attitudes of the white students would reject the black
cultural concept.
It was found that the overwhelming majority of the white
students on this campus, felt the black student should not be
excluded from institutions of higher learning and the corresponding
total life of the college environment. However, when it came
to accepting more black students on this campus, white students'attitudes had a lower acceptance level. This is in direct
contrast to what they assumed to believe and what they would
actually practice. In fact, when asked directly, their
willingness to accept more black students on this campus was
less than 50 percent.
Acceptance of the black center produced ambivalency and
mixed feelings on the white student. Only 40 percent of the
sample favored the development of a black cultural center on
campus.
Subject
Wisconsin State University (La Crosse) -- Students -- Attitudes
Race relations
African American college students -- Wisconsin -- La Crosse