Is Capella a Black College?

I'm doing a search for African-American colleges and came across Capella's web page. It doesn't say anything about attracting African-Americans but the pictures on their home site seems to target this population.

www.capella.edu

Rarely are there any pictures of Asians, Hispanics, Whites, Indians, etc. Please understand this is not a racial motivated post. I'm new so I'm just wondering about this online institution.

 

Among the better-known distance learning doctoral-granting universities, Nova Southeastern University www.nova.edu and the Union Institute and University www.tui.edu have been mentioned as having substantial African-American student populations. However, in both instances, neither one was the result of the universities attempting to become known as African-American institutions of higher educations. Not sure about Capella, however. I've never heard anything about them marketing themselves as a black school. Also, my post was not intended as a racial thing, either, just so everyone understands.

 

When I got information from the University of Minnesota's public health program, I was tempted to write them and ask if they admitted white people. The photographs in their catalog represented nothing remotely like the population of the school (or the state), and finding a white student pictured was something akin to playing Where's Waldo.

Overrepresentation of minorities is a pretty common happening in catalog photos, so it's quite likely that Capella's images and their student body are quite different.

 

I don't think it is intentional, but it is a great maketing move by Capella University to attract Africans, African-Americans, and Afro-Carribbeans living in North America. A few years ago Union Institute was listed among the historically black institutions (HBCU) of higher education list, I don't believe they are listed now.

 

I am a student at Capella. I find it amusing that in this day and age we have to have this kind of discussion. I thought that we had all that behind. Nevertheless, I am a minority student (Hispanic) and I have attended three colloquias as part of my doctoral requirements. I consistently saw many minorities represented among the student body and the faculty.

My current dissertation course professor is African American.

The former dean of the Business and Technology school was Hispanic and a woman. The current director of the school of psychology is Asian Amercan. I have at least 5 fellow students in my current course ranging from Africa, African American, Asian, Filipino, Hispanic, Jamaica, etc.

If this means so much to the person on this forum then they can contact Capella and ask, since that info is public ans required.

Call 1-888-227-2736

 

Would a similar question be asked had most/all the faces been white? Or would that not raise an alarm?

Although it's not quite the same, the post reminds me of how people will say things like "this big black guy blah, blah, blah...".

I guess "big black guy" just paints a more menacing picture than "big guy". Doesn't it? I mean why else would someone mention race in this scenario unless there was also a big white guy in the room and it was the only way to distinguish between the two.

 

As posted on the Capella website:

Learner Profile
• Gender:
o 63% female;
o 37% male.
• Ethnicity:
o 35% learners of color;
o 65% white, non-Hispanic.
• Age:
o 40 (average);
o 20-89 (range).
• Where they live:
o All 50 states and 63 countries;
o 84% urban and 16% rural.
• Military: 15%.
• Percent receiving financial aid: 76%.
• Enrollment status:
o 11% full-time;
o 89% part-time.

 

Because some schools that target a minority will only accept minority group. And there is nothing wrong with that but I was not sure about Capella.

 

Probably, by the African American community. Its happened before. Just look at the news and you'll see complaints that they are underrepresented in a lot of places and often they are right.

I'm just wondering why a school that has a diverse population of students underepresents other ethnic groups then on their web site.

I don't have a clue what you're trying to say here. This is not a racist post if thats what you are trying to imply.

 

And why not? This is a democracy. What would you say if the home page of an average college only had pictures of Caucasian students and faculty? I don't think you'd be too happy and I wouldn't either.
If Capella is not a black school, then its great that they are targeting minorities but I'm also a Latino/Hispanic but I have not found many pictures of latinos or students representing other ethnic groups on the Capella web site. I don't think this is so unreasonable unless Capella, as a for-profit, is looking to exploit the African-American community.

Maybe you might ask the Capella people to represent their Asian, Hispanic, Indian, etc student/faculty too and not just the African-American only on their home page.
Honestly, there is only one picture (if any) of an Asian student. If this was an only black school then fine, but seems like it isn't.

I already contacted them in a nice way. Maybe you, as a Latino, should too. If Capella is not a black college then maybe they should represent other minorities on their home page as well rather than focus exclusively on one alone.

Anyways, thanks for the information.

 

Re: Re: Is Capella a Black College?

Ted,

Thanks for the information and for clarifying this. I spoke with them yesterday and they are definetely an open-admission school.

 

You're question seems legit to me. I don't believe anyone should have been offended by it. I wonder if the same offense would have been taken if you were asking about gender. I say this because there are schools for women, such as Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, that only allow men in their distance programs, not that campus programs. http://www.smwc.edu/cgi-bin/site.pl?332&ceNews_newsID=28

 

Is that so? Care for an example?

 

Jeremy, I'm sure you mean well as I do. I simply think that bringing up questions about any race creates an automatic partition. I personally don't believe that quotas are healthy and that individuals should compete fairly on their own merits. I never think about race issues concerning my education. I would do so only if I would encounter racism against me or someone I care about. So far, I have not.

 

My thoughts exactly. In fact, I personally know a white student and white alumnus of Florida A&M.

 

As a so-called minority, (tri-racial) I have felt the effects of racism within higher education. The beauty of online education, is that unless you tell your instructors that you belong to a certain ethnic group or race,they just don't know. Perhaps, certain non-European sounding names, excluding Spanish might ring a bell.

The point that I am trying to make is that we have a good thing with DL. It is a place were an academic can be just that, an academic. In the real world we still have some ways to go to eradicate racism in education. Perhaps, DL can lead the way.

Perhaps off topic, but just my two cents.

 

I hope that there will be a time when we can close the gap relating to ethnic and cultural differences and instead speak in terms of the commonalities that we all share as humans. I believe that unless this occurs the perception will continue that ethnically oriented schools appear to be operating on a different level of academic standards than do other schools that do not.

I can understand the cultural and ethnic sensititvity of many individuals and their desire to attend schools that are attuned with their world views and belief systems. However, to primarily focus on race, religion or cultural factors as a major determinant for attending a particular school actually widens the gap between diverse groups in terms of misperceptions and misunderstandings.

A good example of a people who have risen above extreme discrimination in academia and who focus primarily on academic excellence rather than on racial issues, are the Jews. Many may not be aware but in New York City there were quotas (yes quotas) for the number of Jewish students who were admitted to such highly regarded universities such as Columbia and New york University as recently as the 1950s! Yet the Jewish people overcame this institutional racism and as we all know their academic and professional achievements are disproportionate to their relatively small numbers. Yet we generally do not hear that this group of people search for schools using their race as a primary basis for whether to attend a university or not. Ideally their success in dealing with institutional racism and focusing on academic excellence will be emulated by others.

 

I believe the playing field should be fair for everyone. Lowering the standards so that one group can get in is, in my humble opinion, a crime and also racism. It is not fair that folks that worked very hard to get into a school have fellow students that would have flunked the same guantlet, be accepted. Other than physical handicaps, everyone should compete on the same plane. I am Hispanic and find it horrific that we accept folks into programs that are inept or subpar, then these go on to take public positions in fields with quotas also. Hence incompetence is greatly multiplied and the general public suffers for the mistakes and failures at consumer/tax payer expense. I am not for quotas and feel that they create reverse discrimination plus does the general public a great diservice.