The shades of the class of 2016

Each year, the incoming class’ test scores, class ranks and GPAs soar to new heights.

Every new first-year class pushes the standard farther than the last. Did you know more than 90 percent of the class of 2016 had a GPA of 4.0 or higher?

There are other wondrous things the newest UNC students have achieved in the span their young lives.

Did you know the class of 2016 includes a Guinness World Record holder, an inventor with patents pending and activists who have changed the lives of thousands?

Without a doubt, we all have reason to be proud of the class of 2016 for all of its academic, athletic and personal achievements.

Although I look at the freshmen beaming with pride, I can’t get past the numbers. No, not SAT scores, the other ones — racial demographics.

When broken down by race, the diversity of the class of 2016 has garnered mixed results.

Students identifying themselves as African American fell nearly one percentage point to 10.1 percent when compared to the year before. Students identifying themselves as Hispanic fell, too, to 6.2 percent.

The decrease in black and brown faces in the first-year class is notable. In comparison to 2010 census calculations, African-American and Hispanic students are largely underrepresented in class of 2016.

African Americans make up more than 13 percent of the nation and 22 percent of the state of North Carolina, yet their representation in the class of 2016 is significantly lower.

Similarly, Hispanics make up nearly 17 percent of the nation and nine percent of the state, yet they remain underrepresented in the freshman class.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is often called the University of the People by students, alumni and faculty, but can this institution rightly boast that prestigious title if it doesn’t accurately represent the spectrum of racial and ethnic difference that appears in this nation? Or even the state?

The value that diversity adds to the pulse of UNC shouldn’t be forgotten. Part of the excitement of UNC is its cultural gatherings, organizations and events.

The amount of students of color learning in our classrooms, joining our clubs and walking through our corridors doesn’t match North Carolinian or American reality.

This University’s student body has the capacity to be reflective of the diversity that exists in this state, if not the nation.

Life on this campus should be a microcosm of life outside the red-bricked walkways of our beloved University.

Without a true spectrum of viewpoints, backgrounds, races and ethnicities, students cannot come away from four years of undergraduate learning with appropriate exposure to what makes this country so unique — its diversity.