Caltech has no black freshman

 A university that has been basking in a top ranking has no
  black freshmen.

  The California Institute of Technology -- which claimed the
  No. 1 spot in this year's rankings by U.S. News & World Report
  -- is sorely lacking in racial diversity, according to a
  survey by The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. "It turns
  out that people who rate colleges and shape educational
  opinion really don't care very much about the state of racial
  diversity on a particular campus," says the report, in the
  autumn issue.

  Seven of the 520 applicants Caltech admitted were black, but
  none enrolled.       
  
  The journal studied the racial makeup of this year's freshman
  classes at the top 27 research universities and the top 29
  liberal-arts colleges, as determined by U.S. News.

  Robert J. Morse, deputy director of data research for U.S.
  News, confirmed that the magazine does not include racial
  diversity in its criteria for ranking academic quality, partly
  because it's difficult to assign a value to diversity. And for
  some colleges, he noted, racial diversity is not part of the
  mission.

  David L. Goodstein, vice-provost of Caltech, said the
  university tries hard to admit black students, but that they
  typically opt for more diverse institutions.

  "Caltech is hurt by not having every possible kind of student
  here," he said.   
  
 This story from The Chronicle of Higher Education

  From the issue dated December 10, 1999