As one of the folks who worked on this — this graphic has already been flagged off the front page three times today, and may well continue to be. Perhaps it's not a subject that the HN community wants to look at ... But I would hope that it can be. So please take an extra minute to read closely and consider carefully before jumping in with a comment or a flag.

To head off some FAQs at the pass (and feel free to ask more):

* The multiracial and Native American categories are calculated, but only displayed when they go above 5% in any year for a given school. Multiracial was recently introduced as a category in 2008 — you'll notice some big jumps because of this (U. Hawaii @ Manoa)

* International students — which often make up sizable component of undergraduate diversity in Ivy League schools — are excluded from these. It's U.S. residents only.

* You'll notice some gaps in the 1980's before the data starts being reported consistently in 1990's by the Department of Education.