Daily Mississippian

Data compiled by the university shows that student concerns about the racial makeup of the freshman residence halls Martin and Stockard are justified.

The data, collected from the housing department, supports students' concerns that the population of students living in these dorms is overwhelmingly white.

A group of more than 75 students recently attended the One Mississippi retreat focusing on diversity on the Ole Miss campus, and they raised concerns about the lack of diversity in residence halls.

"The general consensus from the retreat was that students felt the dorms were divided," retreat attendee Artair Rogers said.

Statistics show that minority students make up 10 percent of Stockard residents and 10 percent of Martin residents.

Nine of Martin's 11 floors have more than 70 percent white students, and two floors house no minority students at all.

In Stockard, white students count for more than 90 percent of the inhabitants on eight of the 10 floors.

Recent Ole Miss graduate Wesley Hurston lived in Stockard Hall his freshman year.

"(Stockard) wasn't really diverse. There was some diversity, but it was not equal to the campus' diversity," he said.

Anna Hailey, a sophomore from Muscle Shoals, Ala., said she noticed there was a definite lack of diversity in Martin hall.

"I don't remember seeing anybody but white people on my floor last year," she said.

There are several factors that could contribute to this imbalance, according to housing director Lorinda Krhut.

The option of race cannot be found anywhere on any form related to housing, she said.

"Housing does not intentionally segregate in any form," she said.

However, there are factors inherent in the housing system that could naturally contribute to the apparent segregation of residence halls, Krhut said.

The housing application gives students the option of choosing their own roommates before coming to college, she said. Often, segregation is simply self-segregation, she said.

All students are subject to a "first come, first serve" policy in the room assignment process, Krhut said. Students who apply first receive their room assignments first. Those with later applications receive the rooms that are left over, she said.

Historically, white students submit their applications earlier than black students, she said. As a result, the top choices of rooms in Martin and Stockard for freshmen are filled relatively quickly. Late applicants are relegated to alternative dorms on campus, she said.

Another reason for the seeming segregation is that there are simply more white students than minority students on the Ole Miss campus, Krhut said. Of the 11,731 undergraduate students on the Oxford campus in 2007, only 17 percent belonged to minority races.

The same percentage is true for the freshman class of 2007. Black students make up only 13 percent of the freshman class for the 2007-08 school year.

Because of these differences, even if the floors were proportionately inhabited, the percentages for all the residence halls would still lean heavily in favor of white students, Krhut said.

While the two dorms most popular with freshmen exhibit unbalanced percentages, other dorms on campus are much more integrated. For example, Miller, Howry and Falkner Halls have an approximately even ratio of white students to minority students. In Falkner, minority students actually outnumber white students by a small margin.

Residence halls Deaton and Hefley are much more popular among the international student community because they are open all year long, Krhut said.

In 1991, 18 percent of USM's student body was a minority. Since that time, USM launched a comprehensive effort to recruit more black students. This year, 43 percent of USM's student body is a minority, and 40 percent are black.

In conjunction with USM's efforts, its housing department consciously attempted to integrate the growing population of minority students with the white students, he said.

Although USM also operates on a "first come, first serve" basis, the housing department reserves a set number of rooms in particular buildings for the purpose of integration, he said.

Kimble also noted that black students tend to be later in applying for housing than white students. Having reserved rooms in dorms ensures that these later applicants are not placed in separate areas from the earlier white applicants, he said.

At one point, USM allowed students to manually choose their rooms online, he said. Students tended to label certain halls black or white, however, and would then choose accordingly, he said.

To combat this self-segregation, USM discontinued the option for students to pick their own halls.

The Ole Miss housing department is also willing to work to introduce more diversity into its dorms.

"If I saw that there was a diversity imbalance that should be corrected manually, I would do it," Krhut said. "I wouldn't do it unless it was an extreme case, as in only one floor, one race."

Krhut maintained, however, that each university is different.

"It's different at different universities," she said. "This university is not as diverse as others. We simply may not have enough minorities to be truly diverse."

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