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Sonoma State University Now Has the Whitest and Likely the Richest Students of All Public Universities in the State of California

California Faculty Association (CFA)—Sonoma State University

Contacts: Andy Merrifield: President of CFA, 664-3946, andy.merrifield@sonoma.edu
Erma Jean Sims, Chair: CFA—Affirmative Action Committee: 664-2705 Jean.Sims@sonoma.edu
Peter Phillips, Professor Sociology, 664-2588, phillipp@sonoma.edu, Author of the study, “Building a Public Ivy”

A new research study shows that Sonoma State University (SSU) has recently achieved the status of having the whitest student population of any public university in the State of California. In addition, SSU has the wealthiest freshmen of most, if not all, four-year public universities in California.

The study “Building a Public Ivy - Sonoma State University- 1994-2007: A Study of Student Racial Diversity and Family Income at SSU Compared to Other California State Universities," (http://www.sonoma.edu/Senate/DiversityStudyPhillips.doc.) shows, that beginning in the early 1990s, the campus administration specifically sought to market SSU as a public ivy institution—offering an ivy-league experience at a state college price. Part of this public ivy packaging was to advertise SSU as being in a destination wine country location with high physical and cultural amenities. These marketing efforts were principally designed to attract upper-income students to Sonoma County.

To achieve the desired outcome of becoming a wine-country public ivy the SSU administration implemented a dual program, that included a special admissions screening process using higher SAT-GPA indexes then the rest of the CSU system, and recruitment at predominately white upper-income public and private high schools throughout the West Coast and Hawaii.

The core facts of the study are that:

—SSU is the whitest public university in California

—1994 to 2007 CSU system wide increased ethnic diversity by 9% reaching a white low of 44%

—1994 SSU white students were 79% of the students reporting ethnicity and in 2007 White students remained at 78% of the known students

—SSU enrolls 80 percent of freshmen and 55 percent of the junior transfers from outside the North Bay region, meaning the campus draws for a more diverse pool than just the North Bay, and should be closer to the diversity levels of the entire state

—SSU freshmen students with family incomes over $150,000 have increased by 59 percent since 1994 and freshmen students from families below $50,000 have declined by 21 percent (2007 dollars).

—SSU Freshmen family incomes are higher than UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, and Cal Poly SLO, making SSU Freshmen likely the wealthy student body in the state

—74% of the public high schools visited by SSU recruiters in 2007 had a lower percentage of children using the Free and Reduced Price Meal program than the County averages.

—Students of color at SSU show lower comfort levels in regards to race than other local CSU campuses

A multi-ethnic and culturally diverse experience on university campuses in the US is a strongly held value and considered an important segment of a college education. The SSU administration has consistently articulated support for diversity on campus, however actions by the administration indicate instead support for a type of reverse affirmation action by encouraging enrollments from wealthy, mostly white, out-of-area students.

The resulting lack of diversity and the allocation of resources away from the instructional mission of the University contributed to 74 percent of the SSU faculty voting no confidence in the President in 2007.