From: Amber Gallup (ambergallup@yahoo.com)
Date: Wed Apr 10 2002 - 12:21:47 EDT
Thanks for the good math, Aaron, and for the wake-up call and discussion catalyst.
A small bit of nerdy additional information that is relevant to your conclusions, and that you alluded to, is that the list I sent out is official affiliates, not contacts at all schools that USAS has contacts for in our database -- which is the case for the 1999 list that you compared it to. USAS' contacts list for 2002 includes around 1000 students doing some sort of student-labor solidarity work at several hundred schools. They're just not all affiliated. Scanning that significantly larger list would probably alter the percentage findings a bit now, though probably very little.
Also, folks, we're all building this organization together -- I'd like to read some more discussion on this list -- especially now we're moving towards our next national conference -- not only recognizing the problem, but what our (read: everybody in USAS') work needs to be as we build a more representative, diverse organization.
Amber
Amber Gallup
United Students Against Sweatshops
888 16th Street NW Suite 303
Washington, DC 20006
(202) 667-1155
Fax: 202.347.0708
----- Original Message -----
From: Aaron Kreider
To: usas@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 8:33 PM
Subject: Re: [usas] USAS affiliates
When compared to previous listing of USAS groups (from 1999-2000 - as
compiled by Ashley, these were lists of USAS "contacts"), USAS groups are
still more likely to be found at high-ranked/privileged universities and
colleges at about the same rate as before.
Using US News and World Report Rankings (by quartile)
USAS Chapters
rank 1 - 49 schools - 50.5%
rank 2 - 30 schools - 31%
rank 3 - 12 schools - 12.4%
rank 4 - 6 schools - 6.1%
(Note: previously, from around 2000, the quartiles were 53%, 24%, 16%, 5%
-- and 3% community colleges)
So, for instance, a school ranked in the top quartile is over EIGHT times
more likely to have a USAS group than one in the bottom quartile (50.5/6.1
= 8.3)
The major difference between this and previous lists of USAS groups is the
large number of high school groups, and the absence of any community colleges.
I suspect that the reason USAS, by the statistics, isn't making
improvements in gaining representation at lower-ranked schools is because
this list of affiliates is smaller than the previous list of contacts (110
vs 130+). The smaller the list, the more of the schools are elite (eg. look
at where there have been sit-ins). So in a sense, there is a bit of an
apples versus oranges comparison here. But the general finding remains.
My theory is that upper-middle class kids are socialized by their parents,
peers, and schools to expect to take on positions of leadership in society,
are more likely to have the time and money resources to do so, and that is
why many student movements are dominated by them.
-Aaron-
USAS sociology caucus =)
ps: give or take a percentage or two for these findings, as there was some
missing data and I was eating too much chocolate to be purely rigorous.
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