"Segregated housing, courses and programs disseminate poisonous stereotypes and falsehoods about race and ethnicity [by] limit[ing] interaction between minority and non-minority students," the report reads.
"There's no need to be hugely paranoid about [these issues]," said Professor of Black Studies and American Studies Jeffrey Ferguson. "The paranoia of separatism is more of a concern than a group of black kids or Asian kids sitting together at lunch ... if you see the world in pluralist terms, then you'd expect these cultures to be represented at colleges."
The report states that "racially-segregated campus housing is not so because of a segregated 'interest' in culture, but rather because of an interest in group segregation."
Blake Van Noy '04, president of the Asian Culture House, disagrees with this. "It is possible for students to seek out theme housing for the wrong reasons (i.e. in order to live in a homogenous racial group), [but] each theme house has a rigorous application process designed to ensure that new members have a genuine interest in the theme of the house," he said.
Acting Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life Chari Boykin-East said that theme houses "help to bring a kind of cultural and educational understanding to the broader community. They bring in lecturers [and] professors and they create conversations across campus about different themes. I wish some of the other dorms would do that more deliberately."
The study also concluded that minority student organizations negatively impacted the school community. "While such organizations have the potential to organize activities that encourage interaction and understanding across racial groups, they too often encourage separatism and marginalization of minorities," stated the report.
Gloria Yi '04, chair of Korean American Students Association (KASA) said that she does not believe this finding is true at the College. "Amherst endeavors to foster a campuswide appreciation of different cultures because I have noticed that students join clubs, participate in activities, and live in theme houses that are not necessarily related to their own background but to their interests."
The report was particularly critical of separate orientation programs for minority students which occur prior to regular orientation.
The College used to have such an orientation program for minority students, but abolished it when Professor of History Frank Couvares became dean of new students. "There was a sense that there should be at least as many common class activities but plenty of opportunities for people to cleave off and find what they're interested in," said Couvares.