Student Diversity - Military vs Civilian

We are all equal under God

Thursday, 2/19/2016
I visited the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) situated about fifteen miles north of downtown Colorado Springs.

The academy allows for visitors to drive around their northern campus, which houses the cadet sleeping quarters, athletic fields, other stuff I didn't visit, and a modern architectural religious facility. The Cadet Chapel (wikipedia) has areas for a diversity of faith-based congregations: Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and ... Miscellaneous.

Cadet Chapel, USAFA

Diversity would be a recurring theme of my visit. How well do young service men and woe-mans represent the ethnic diversity of the civilian population from which they find their way to the academy?

Best is an amorphous assessment

At the visitor's information center, there are many proud displays of the excellence and top caliber of cadets admitted to serve. However, I found an interesting statistic among the information panels. The Academy sets admission quotas ahead of time for women and minorities.

For example, in 2019 the entrants will be 32% minorities and 26.5% female. If these truly are the best of the best, how can you determine ahead of time what are the racial and gender compositions?? The best seems like an artificial distinction that can be molded to suit claims however one wishes.

We have seen a bright future
It has more women and minorities

Give us your weak, your colored, your underprivileged masses

I like how as a black woman, Cadet Brodie (pictured above) makes for the perfect poster-child for ethnic diversity. How many entrants did they have to search through before they found her? :Kappa:

Anyways, I want to investigate the question: How does the racial minority and female demography at USAFA compare to that of a non-military university?

I would expect that minorities in the military would be higher, 'cause the stricter regiment and mortal danger would deter affluent whites who want a cushy ride to their family fortunes, etc. Female populations I would expect to be lower, 'cause fighting like a girl still loses to their male counterparts.

Two data points to prove a hypothesis

Of course, I don't have the time or resources to make a proper comparison of student demographics between military and civilian universities. But at least, let's take a look at the University of Colorado: Colorado Springs, a mere ten miles away, for comparison.

First, let's check how competitive the admissions process for UCCS. Typically around 60% acceptance. OK, not very comparable to the acceptance rate for USAFA at 15.4 % . A more comparable university, selectivity-wise, would be Colorado College at 22.4%, but as we'll see later both college demographics tell a similar story.

Acceptance rate for UCCS. source

Note the spike in UCCS 2013-2014 admissions from 60% the previous year to 91%. 'Come one come all!' I think the reason for the high admissions was because the university expanded construction of dormitory housing around that time. ref.

Either they had too much extra space, so they invited more students (unlikely, they built the dorms because there was a housing shortage) ... or because the university wanted to recoup the cost of their $17.5 million project through tuition revenue from increased enrollment.

No, I apologize - I take all of that back. The real reason must have been that Seniors 2013 were the best graduating class from 2009 to 2014. :Kappa:

Eye candy

I know it's sexist, but beyond fairness and gender equality, there's another good reason to enroll females. It keeps the fighting boys happy. Honestly, I think the one-fourth population of females in the USAFA are over-represented in part to a maintain a tolerable environment for the males. Only 15% of active duty personnel are women, yet 22.8% of the cadet student body are female (236/1035 in  class of 2016. see Cadet Brodie above)

http://www.statisticbrain.com/demographics-of-active-duty-u-s-military/

First year cadets are under legal drinking age and have to relinquish psychological comforts. Dorms are routinely inspected for tidiness and contraband. Up until their final year, students cannot leave the base freely and are stripped of all privileges such as television and radios.

'No beer and no T.V. make Homer something-something.'
- The Simpsons, Treehouse of Horror V.

I wouldn't be surprised if the whole 'breaking you down before we build you back up' process leaves a few loose screws rolling around inside the skull casing. Combined with the high testosterone diet these meaty teenagers are eating, depriving them of the opposite sex could lead to some explosive temperaments - or sodomy.

Plus, having women around probably helps their effort to keep gays out of the military.

'I can't shoot this beautiful man, he is too lovely.'
'Here, look at these girls - that'll fix you up, son. Now get out there and bag me some Kuwaitis.' 

:Kappa:

Can't live without 'em

Here's the gender distribution of the UCCS university. As expected, a lot more females than the USAFA.

source

Twice as many females in civilian university. It's nice that enrollment in 2013 was exactly 50-50 between men and women. See, the world is fair. Two babies to every family, a boy and a girl. A white picket fence with a car in the garage and apple pie cooling on the windowsill.

Sunrise. Sunset. Men go out and end life. Women stay home and create life.

Skittles

I've had difficulty internet searching a national average for diversity in universities to compare, so I'm going to go by gut feel to say that UCCS is fairly diverse. 33% of the student body are minorities, with a large portion of them being Hispanic.

UCCS student demographics

Let's look at the categories. Blacks are under-represented as usual. Asians aren't really at a disadvantage when it comes to education, so that statistic doesn't really matter. (They probably went to some better school instead of coming here.)

The surprising number to me is the Hispanic population. 14.1% at university compared to the local 6.9% population are Hispanic. Good for them. :thumbs up:

At Colorado College, which has more selective admissions, the demographics are similar, although Hispanics are more excluded. (Or plain suck at school. Which came first, the chicken or the egg?)

Colorado College student demographics

A feel for the numbers

Figures on paper are somewhat unclear measurements. A more convincing assessment of ethnic diversity can be gained by a stroll through the campus at UCCS and seeing the faces of those who are anonymized in data tables.

I do see a fair number of Latino looking crowds around campus. There is a small, but close-knit circle of Blacks who meet in the library late at night. A miscellany of off-white mixed race types kinda blend in with their purer progeny. So I'd say the numbers reflect the actual experience.

I was at the ESM social services house in downtown Colorado Springs. A guy came in and was verbally asked his race while filling out a form. He answered, 'Everything. Yes, yes, and yes. All of the above. My grandmother was Eskimo. I have Native American, black, Mexican... they're all in there. I don't know what I am." So sometimes simple categories fail to capture eloquently the extent of diversity that can be found!

Conclusion 

I was right about the female population being lower in the military academy than at civilian universities, and that they are over-represented in the academy compared to active duty service. But to my surprise, I found that the minority population was not higher than other local universities.

I have a few crackpot theories to explain the similar numbers of minorities in USAFA compared to other non-military universities in the area. Either affirmative action is still as hard at work as ever to raise minority enrollment in civilian universities, or the military wants to keep its top commanding ranks of officers predominantly white.

Possibilities for further investigation (a.k.a please provide additional scientific funding)

I think the prestige and sexy uniforms at top military establishments still attracts many poor and/or patriotic white men to wear the flag. Plus, tuition is fully paid for along with health and insurance benefits that could help mid-west farming families with more children than incomes. What's more, these graduates go on to become ranking officers - not the bleeding grunts at the front lines.

Where servicemen come from

Geography is a clue

Perhaps where people come from can explain why they join. You see numbers from local Colorado as expected, since they live close by and military bases in the area have families with military history. Then there are large numbers from Texas, the Great Lakes region (Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio), Georgia (long live the confederacy), and what looks to be Jersey and New Hampshire in the northeast.

I'm curious if the geographical hometowns of the cadets match with a map of military sites in the United States, since it seems reasonable that children of military servicemen and woe-mans would be more likely to find their way into the academy.

Perfect match? Not quite, but there is enough similarity to suggest a strong correlation.

map of military installations

Not as impressive as the map of Walmart sites vs spread of a virus epidemic comparison I found previously, but still, a reasonable explanation.