Making them all orphans seems unnecessarily cruel and unlikely to work at large scale.
So how'd they do it? How'd they graduate so fast?
The other important point, that I took from the article, was making sure that African Americans were a large and visible presence on campus so that students didn't feel isolated (and that the % of the student body doesn't have to be that high when there's sufficient institutional support.
UC Riverside enrolled about 1,200 black undergraduates last fall, making up 6% of the student body. Of the UC campuses, that's a percentage second only to UC Merced, according to UC data. And though the proportion of black students at Riverside has declined over the last decade, administrators say one reason is that competition for high-achieving black students has intensified.
Since he took the helm in 2013, Wilcox has added 15 African American faculty members, with two more arriving this fall. He's stepped up efforts to get faculty to mentor students of color and reached out to black community organizations
....
Angel Robinson, a freshman majoring in sociology, said UC Riverside's diversity was a key attraction -- especially after her experience with racist incidents at Berkeley High School, including an online lynching threat and a noose hanging from a tree.
"Coming here is a breath of fresh air because nobody cares if you're black and there are so many people like you," she said.
I have a very vague memory that the... Swedish navy? ... found that 5% of a crew was enough women for the women to integrate and the ship to run well. So 6% is an interesting "so many".
the... Swedish navy? ... found that 5% of a crew was enough women for the women to integrate and the ship to run well.
You're misremembering, I think - IIRC that was the Smurfs.
5% women? Not if there are more than 20 Smurfs.