Report Finds That Large Numbers of Black Students at Duke Face Discrimination in the Classroom and Also Elsewhere on Campus

The Campus Life and Learning Project at Duke University asked students who graduated from the university in 2005 and 2006 about their lives on campus during their freshman and sophomore years. The data showed that 44 percent of the black students reported being the victims of some sort of racial discrimination or abuse either in the classroom, residence hall, or elsewhere on campus. One in seven black students said that their instructors or professors “treated them badly because of their race.”

The study also found that the average grade point average for black students at Duke during their freshman and sophomore years was 2.97. This compared to an average GPA for whites of 3.30.