DIVERSITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION
HOW INSTITUTIONS VIEW DIVERSITY
By Sobeida Rosa
In the United States, going to a college or university is seen as a novelty; the last step in achieving success. But with this success comes a price and that price is not very feasible for many citizens living in the United States.
The U.S. Census Bureau in 2015 stated that 43.1 million Americans lived in poverty, that equals a poverty rate of roughly 14 percent. According to data from The Institute for Research on Poverty, almost 30 percent of African Americans and Hispanics living above the average poverty line from the 1970s to 2015. According to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the poverty guidelines for a family of four people is an income of $24,600.
With little financial aid, going to college can become a financial burden. Especially if the student wants to attend a private institution where the average tuition cost is $33,480. That is more than the income the family is receiving.The average state tuition costs $9,650, this does not include room and board, books and other expenses. So, imagine a Hispanic or African-American family living in poverty and working toward sending their child to college.
I currently attend Ithaca College, an institution that prides itself on its efforts in making the community as inclusive as possible; but when comparing their mission statement to statistics, it does not seem that they have been practicing what they’re preaching.
On the official Ithaca College’s Diversity and Inclusion page they define diversity as:
“Diversity encompasses multiple dimensions, including but not limited to race, culture, nationality, ethnicity, religion, ideas, beliefs, geographic origin, class, sexual orientation, gender, disability, and age. We are dedicated to addressing current and past injustices and promoting excellence and equity.”
They also include their diversity statement, which is as follows:
“Ithaca College continually strives to build an inclusive and welcoming community of individuals with diverse talents and skills from a multitude of backgrounds who are committed to civility, mutual respect, social justice, and the free and open exchange of ideas. We commit ourselves to change, growth, and action that embrace diversity as an integral part of the educational experience and of the community we create.”
In an effort to understand the overall consensus of the college and their main goal, I created a word map from the mission statement to see what words were used the most. As seen in the word map above, the largest words are community and diversity, followed by ideas, backgrounds and educational.
These words encompass many different meanings but when put together they are supposed to have an overarching meaning that applies to everyone when it comes to their definition of diversity. But in terms of racial diversity, the college is lacking in it’s efforts to diversify the school.
Within the college there are initiatives and programs that have been set in place to promote diversity within the campus community, but it has not been received well by the student body. Within the past year there has been a lot of vocalization of the dissatisfaction with the institution's efforts.
One program that has received a lot of criticism is the Ithaca College Core Curriculum. This program is the institution's unique approach to general education courses. This program aims to create a student that will flourish into a “global citizen” once they graduate. Within this program there is a diversity requirement that has been the focus of the criticism.
In an article published in The Ithacan on April 26th, 2017 students commented on the ICC diversity requirement and constructed a letter to the administration. One comment that was made to explain why the diversity requirement is not effective was: “to list so many facets of diversity and yet only require one course is hypocritical, because it is unreasonable to assume that one could learn about the many dimensions of diversity listed by the college in only one course.”
One dimension that this project is especially trying to focus on is racial diversity. This is something that has been very apparent in the campus climate of Ithaca College. There is such a predominant white population which does not support Ithaca College’s claim to an inclusive and diverse environment.
Ithaca College released their official data for Undergraduates that attended the college in 2016. The data shows that the racial majority is White, more than 70 percent of the campus. The largest ethnic group on campus are Hispanics.They make up over 7 percent of the student demographic, followed by African American and Unknown category.
With the data from Ithaca College, I compared was curious about other schools and their scope of racial/ethnic diversity. With the help of other team members I was able to find two other colleges that were roughly the same size and price as Ithaca College. The only difference is that they are located in in different regions of the United States; this has an effect on how the diversity on campus is effected.
Marist College is located in Poughkeepsie, New York. It has a student population of about 7,000 and tuition costs are about $35,000. Similar to IC which has a student population of about 7,000 with tuition costs at $42,000.
Marist College however seems to be lacking in their initiatives to promote diversity on campus. Their diversity statement says “At Marist, we foster an environment that is welcoming, safe, and inclusive for all of our community members, and celebrate our diverse backgrounds, perspective, and contributions.”
Although Marist’s diversity statement is concise and to the point, it is very vague and lacks content. This could be reflective of the institutions efforts to diversify the school. Looking at their published statistics on their racial diversity for their full-time undergraduate students, the majority of their student body is white. Meanwhile, the colleges credit themselves as being diverse.
In efforts to improve the school's inclusive environment the college has constructed a Diversity Council. The purpose of this council is outline on the Marist College website. Some of their responsibilities include to “Discuss and recommend strategies for increasing the diversity of the workforce and student body.”
Another institution that is also similar in size and cost to Ithaca College is Pratt Institute main campus, which is located in Brooklyn, New York. Their student population is 5,000 and their tuition costs $48,000. Although their student population varies it is in the same range as Ithaca College.
On the Pratt Institute Diversity and Inclusion website they talk about how diversity is represented on their campus:
“At Pratt Institute, diversity is represented by a mosaic of unique individuals from a variety of racial, ethnic, religious, gender, gender presentation, sexuality, geographic, cultural, age, abilities, and socioeconomic groups. Each individual brings their own unique intellectual, artistic, and creative gifts to create a richness of differences in our community. As a leading college of art and design devoted to a creative learning community, Pratt recognizes the strength that stems from a diversity of perspectives, values, ideas, backgrounds, styles, approaches, experiences, and beliefs. We aspire to continue to grow as a place that always welcomes and encourages individuals of all backgrounds to contribute to and be part of the Pratt culture.”
Pratt Institute holds true to their promise of “[recognizing] the strength that stems from a diversity of perspectives,” and it is reflected in their student body. Even though the majority of their students are white there is a better balance of other races and ethnicities in comparison to Marist and Ithaca.
Pratt has initiatives and programs like the President’s Diversity Initiative that was furthered to help bring consciousness to faulty about these topics. Diversity orientation sessions were organized for the faculty in where they had a “presentation and discussion on the case for diversity, how it is defined and core concepts, the current state of diversity at Pratt.”
The Institute also has a Center for Equity and Inclusion aimed to help educate, advocate and empower. The primary reason that this was created was to foster an inclusive and diverse community on campus.
Pratt has recently made plans to expand their diversity initiatives. In 2016 four diversity planning committees were created to generate new initiatives and goals for the school. They have been bestowed with the responsibility of “[developing] goals and objectives to facilitate progress in areas that include recruiting, retaining and graduating a diverse student body and hiring and retaining a diverse faculty and staff.”
In comparison to Ithaca College there is a lot of work that still needs to be done. Dr. Roger Richardson is the Interim Chief Diversity Officer at Ithaca College. I asked about his thoughts on diversity and he said “my general thoughts are that diversity education is essential for all students, and is especially critical for becoming an engaged citizen, and a future professional in the twenty-first century.”