Stanford and San José State

About 20 miles up the freeway from San José State is Stanford.  Stanford is an elite college teaching children of the elite.  A majority of Black and Hispanic college students attend colleges that accept over 80% of their applicants; San José State is one of those.  Stanford accepts about 1% of its applicants.  

San José State didn’t need an affirmative action program.  The student body is amazing diverse.  The backgrounds of my students included Indians, Filipinos, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans, and Pacific Islanders.  That was just the Asians, and I may have missed some.  I don’t know who Stanford accepts, but probably not many Mexican farmworkers’ kids.  I had a number of those in my classes, possibly some who were here without papers.  (I never asked.)

If the government is really concerned with diversity and with educating a broad swath of America, pump some funding into the state schools like SJSU.  They are doing their job.  

See Richard Arum and Mitchell L. Stevens, “Affirmative Action Didn’t Go Far Enough,” New York Times, (July 8, 2023), p.A. 15.  If you check the graphic accompanying the article, San José State is at the 80% line, along with such schools as U. of Iowa, Arizona State, Michigan State, and Indiana U.  While Penn State only accepts 50% of its applicants, I don’t think that includes the branch campuses.