Ethnic Background

On an application for graduation at one of my colleges this is at the end of it:

Ethnic Background: To provide us with the information required for state and federal reporting, and to assist the college in developing its educational programs, please indicate one of the following.
___ African-American, non-Hispanic
___ American Indian/Alaskan Native
___ Asian
___ Asian Indian
___ Cambodian
___ Central American
___ Chinese
___ Filipino
___ Guamanian
___ Hawaiian
___ Hispanic
___ Japanese
___ Korean
___ Laotian
___ Mexican, Mexican-American, Chicano
___ Samoan
___ South American
___ Vietnamese
___ White, non-Hispanic
___ Other Asian
___ Other Hispanic
___ Other Pacific Islander
___ Unknown, non-respondent
___ Declined to state

Click to expand...

It's always bothered me.. but what do you put if you are Portuguese or something else not on the list? All of the above would be a lie unless you decline to state, or if you have a mixed ethnicity.

I typically do decline to state.. but in this case I would decline to "declined to state".

At the same time I can understand why they do the things the way they do.. they list the people they know there are more of, and leave off those who there are fewer of. But if they are going to bother to list all of those things they should have another option being "none of the above".

Maybe they need to know this stuff so they can get funding for ESL classes or something... that's the only thing I can think of.. but then if that where the case they should have phrased it differently.

So if anyone knows why they even ask the question, let me know.