Closing the Gap

This table compares the percentage of George Mason’s student population who were Black to the percentage of Fairfax County residents who were Black from 1974 to 1989. These data points were calculated in Google Sheets with the formula (Black population / total population) x 100. The fourth “Difference” column presents the difference in the former two statistics each year to illustrate the gap between the two populations. The “Difference” data was calculated in Google Sheets with the formula (%Black in Fairfax County - %Black at GMU). 

In this chart, the black percentage of GMU’s population is plotted and shaded in green, against the black percentage of the broader Fairfax County which is plotted and shaded in orange. Our primary area of interest here is the solidly orange gap between the two populations from 1974 to 1989. The biggest years of note are 1977, before the first version of the Virginia Plan for Equal Opportunity (VPEO) was put into action, and 1983, after major revisions to the VPOE were first implemented.

This graph compares the percentage of George Mason’s student population who were Black to the percentage of Fairfax County residents who were Black from 1974 to 1989. These data points were calculated in Google Sheets with the formula (Black population / total population) x 100. The graph was generated in Google Sheets.

As the graph indicates, for 1977 the gap is noticeably smaller than in the points surrounding it, at 2.85%. Following this, the first version of the VPEO was implemented, which had the opposite of its intended effect, increasing the gap in the two populations again, all the way up to 3.77% in 1982. However, in 1983, there were new revisions to the VPEO that brought the gap all the way back down to 3.15% in 1983, and that positive impact would continue throughout the following years, peaking at only a 2.46% difference in 1987, with another upward trend potentially starting in 1989, with a decrease in gap from the previous year of 0.2%. This can be taken as evidence for both the failure of the 1978 first draft of the VPEO, and the resounding success of the 1983 revisions to it.