As Mercer University continues to celebrate 50 years of integration, students are taking their campus’s temperature on race.

Emily Wilson is among a group of sociology students who surveyed 360 of their peers.

“I personally was a little surprised by the overall response, in that for the most part students really did seem to perceive a positive racial climate,” she said. “I think I may have expected to see a little more controversy than we did.”

However, Wilson says there were some students who thought there should be more diversity on campus. Currently the student body is just over 58 percent white, 23 percent black and Hispanic.

Recently, a flier went out suggesting that there be a white history month.

“A few students did think that perhaps there’s a reason that they thought that. Perhaps they felt that because there’s Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month and all those sorts of things that whites are left out,” said Wilson. “ But again, a lot of peoples’ response would be that there is so much history that’s white history.”

Over 58 percent of the student body at Mercer’s Macon campus is white.

According to the survey results, 10 percent of students think there are racial issues that need to be addressed.

Tags: race, Mercer University, Macon, integration, sociology, Black History