UGA Milestone of Sorts

We spend a lot of time talking about UGA's lack of African-American students compared to the state population, but I just noticed that in Fall 2016 the school reached a different milestone of sorts, this involving Asian students. For the first time, the percentage of Asian students at UGA topped 10 percent (actually, 10.1 percent if you want to be persnickety).

This number represents undergrads, grads, and professional students. In other words, everyone who is a student and indirectly pays my salary. There were 3,706 total Asian students in Fall 2016, up from last fall's 9.8 percent and, if we reach back into the dark ages, higher than the 3.7 percent seen in Fall 1998 (as far back as my data go). I could graph it out over time, but you get the idea, that it's inched up steadily. Factoid: You have to dig back to Fall 2008 before, in a fall semester, you find a higher percentage of black students than Asian students. by Fall 2009 Asians had passed blacks on campus.

What's this all mean? That I need another hobby than staring at numbers in a desperate search for story ideas. But it also reflects what we're seeing at other major universities, though of course here it's nothing like what's seen at West Coast schools.

Factoid II: Asians made up 2.1 percent in Georgia, based on 2000 Census numbers and in 2010 were only 3.2 percent, so the numbers at UGA far outstrip the general population.

Factoid III: In Fall 1998, 63.4 percent of UGA students were listed as white. Back in Fall 1998, it was a lilly-white 83.9 percent.

There's also interesting stuff if you dig into the "not reported" race numbers, or the multiple race numbers. In Fall 2016, 2.4 percent listed two or more races. That was 1 percent in 1998. Also, 4.6 percent did not report a race 2016, up from 3.7 percent back in 1998.