July 7, 2000

Minority Students at the U. of Washington

To the Editor:

The recent article on the decline in underrepresented minorities at the University of Washington is lacking some frequently overlooked aspects of the issue ("States Without Affirmative Action Focus on Community-College Transfers," May 26).

First, analyses of admissions statistics often fail to mention that one of the fastest-growing categories is that of students who mark "other" or do not check any of the ill-defined racial categories.