Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Re: Viewbook Diversity   [George Leef]

Responding to Roger's comment (also posted on IHE), Shirley Wilcher, executive director of the American Association for Affirmative Action, writes:

There is value in depicting a diverse student body in university recruitment and other materials, but not in misrepresenting the actual diversity of the students. Mr. Clegg and others fail to appreciate that students of color considering colleges need to know that the environment in which they will be spending four or more years will be welcoming and that they will not have to be alone. There is much written about the stresses of being the token in university settings or in the workplace.

I wonder if there are many (or any) "students of color" who are so emotionally fragile that their decision on where to go to college depends on finding one that will be sufficiently "welcoming." Is there a single institution in the United States that doesn't try as hard as possible to make sure that all students who enroll want to stay? Is there even one where the administrators wouldn't go nuts if any student or group of students said or did anything that could possibly be construed as racially hostile? Would any student of color who looked at a school's viewbook and saw few similar faces think, "Oh dear, I'm just not sure I'd feel welcome there"?

I don't think there is any reason to treat 18-year-old kids who are smart enough for college as if they were 6-year-olds venturing away from the family for the first time.

07/02 12:38 PMShare