Is College Diversity a Response to Gen Y?
Embracing diversity and multiculturalism seem to be two huge persuaders for college and universities who want to attract Gen Y students. They have established programs for recruiting both internationally and intranationally, and it is not uncommon to see a school boast of their student population representing “40 states and 37 countries around the globe.” Was college always like this? A mashup (I love GLEE) of cultures, perspectives and influences from around the world, or is this a recent transition? And with our generation being the most “liberal” generation ever, is this academia’s way of catering to our demands and desires, or are we merely the beneficiaries of decades of transitions towards this end? Which came first, GenY or collegiate diversity?
If we look back at the generations before us, race and ethnicity were major issues in American life and in college life. The assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are still fresh in their minds. We see those worries resonating in power issues of today like homeland security and the apprehension/excitement over having a black president. We have grown up with “common sense” ideas that were new ways of thinking not too long ago. It’s only 2010, after all.
Recently the Pew Research Center showed that the Millennial generation is the most ethnically diverse generation of Americans ever, with 61% White, 19% Hispanic, 13% Black, 4% Asian and 2% other. Although these numbers are not mirrored in all colleges and universities, they do provide for a wider, more ethnically oriented pool of individuals from which colleges may choose. So naturally schools are accepting students who meet their criteria, from all ethnicities and races, because that’s who is available.
All colleges want to bring in students that will add to the success of the overall school. Programming and courses of study are also being adjusted to fit the needs of this more diverse population of students. My school recently added courses in International Business, Mandarin, and Japanese as well as a special topics Prison Management program for Saudi Arabian professionals.
Colleges have always been centers for progressive thinking. As our generation moves on in our education and enters the professional world, having experience with as many different kinds of people as possible will only helps us navigate the “real world” easier, which is what a college education is supposed to do in the first place. But we are not being catered to. The universities of today are taking the ideas of yesterday and hoping to shape us students, so that we can in turn build a better tomorrow.
What do you think? Which came first, GenY or collegiate diversity?
Photo Credit: Frerieke
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Hey dude – while I think ethnic diversity is important to Gen Y, I think we need to back up before we take credit for it. Gen Y has a tendency to think that just because most of the tech we use today wasn't around twenty years ago, neither was anything else.
Here's a story to illustrate:
I went to my parents' place for dinner one night, and after dinner, started channel surfing. I stopped on a channel that was showing a local show called “Soul Montreal” (ten bucks if you can guess what ethnicity was represented on the show). The host of the show was a big black dude, wearing a Fubu shirt (this was a couple of years ago, and I have to believe the producers made him wear it). My mom said, “Hey, it's little Anthony.”
“You know him?” I asked, surprised.
“Sure,” she said, “We went to school together.”
In my mind, my parents went to schools that were entirely homogeneous, and everyone came from the same background, and spoke the same language at home. I had no reason to believe this, because that's certainly not what I experienced prior to University. In my elementary school, I'm pretty sure white kids were a minority. Despite that, that's the image I had in my mind for my parents.
My mother set me straight and I realized that if anyone had had a homogeneous schooling experience it was me in university. On my application, I was asked to check one of twenty boxes (including “Other”) for ethnicity for affirmative action policies. Despite that, my class was predominantly WASP-y and Jewish (insert law school joke here).
All that to say, Gen Y likes to think we're at the vanguard of multiculturalism, but we're just reaping the benefits of actions that happened two generations ago.
Ya know Adam, given time and some distance from this post, I tend to agree. It is only 2010, after all.
As much as I hate to give big media credit, I think the media had a profound impact on our multicultural outlook. To use music as an example, we were doing the Macarana in Middle school dances and then listening to Gangster rap by 12th grade. I'm not saying everyone was rocking Dr. Dre on their Discmen, but the point is we were not only exposed to other cultures, we were having them marketed to us.
Another aspect to consider is that the 90's were golden years for the USA (kiss them goodbye, we'll never see $.99/gallon gas again). Now this aspect runs on the premise that during bountiful economic conditions there will be less racial tension and when times get tough, people will become (racial) exclusionists, Under this premise, we (as a generation of Americans) would have developed under a decade of huge economic highs, and thus very low racial hatred. Our diversity may simply be a product of cheap oil and free internet money by this theory.
The Economics of Racial Hatred: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/396938…
oh and let's not forget the Animaniacs
I agree with Adam that we are reaping the benefits of other generations' work. My problem with diversity and education, especially with higher education, is that colleges often use “diversity” and “multiculturalism” as marketing tools. Open a brochure of any university and on every single picture there will be a representative of the minorities. Every brochure has a percentage of how “diverse” the college is. Every brochure or website says that they have students from all states and X countries. And it appeals to us. We want to go to meet people with diverse backgrounds and choosing a college is probably the first significant independent decision we make. It is a shame that universities use such tactics to attract students, especially when a campus is not diverse at all.