Diversity In Higher Education

There is a plethora of aspects that adolescents dream about and think of their upcoming future. These young people dream of traveling to faraway places in all corners of the world or their dreams takes the direction of being the next Freda Cello and or Steve Jobs. Then, there are some who wish to of expanding their minds and pushing them to broaden their perspectives in secondary education. In college, one of the aspects that will drastically challenge and change their perspectives is Diversity. College campus creates an enriching atmosphere in which allows students to grow in their knowledge and experiences of different cultures, ideas, religion and tradition’s; however, college or universes can create a varied of issues with diversity on

their campuses.

Diversity is a prominent aspect of the real world which creates the need for students to have the opportunity to engage and to experience a variety of possible backgrounds and ideas. The American Council of Education states the following in an article “Education within a diverse setting prepares students to become good citizens in an increasingly complex, pluralistic society; it fosters mutual respect and teamwork; and it helps build communities whose members are judged by the quality of their character and their contributions.” (Diversity in Higher Education). The skills that are learned through a diverse college community will translate into the workplace. In the workplace, no two coworkers will process the same history or life experiences as another. Due to this, graduates must have the ability to respect and cooperate with other people so that both parties create the best possible outcome for job performance. If colleges and universities set the foundation for students, it would greatly benefit students in their future career interactions. The article Diversity in Higher Education suggest the statement listed, “It enhances America's economic competitiveness. Sustaining the nation’s prosperity in the 21st century requires us to make effective use of the talents and abilities of

all our citizens, in work settings that bring together individuals from diverse backgrounds and cultures” (Diversity in Higher Education). The vast world within the job market proposes a challenging and competing environment that must be navigated with knowledge and a wide range of social or academic skills in order to provide success created by its employees. Pervious exposure to diversity will help employees be prepared for the job market so that they can understand and thoroughly communicate with people of international origin. These types of skills will construct a greater chance for an outcome resulting in success. Diversifying one’s experience process a great possibility of advantage in the work place; It also can benefit a student outside the workplace.
American, as a whole country, will become more exceptionally diverse in the future which will create the necessity of understanding and respect among groups of people. College campus can provide the exposure that students need in order to experience and to learn about other people’s worlds. According to the Association for the Study of Higher Education, “… an institution's stance on increasing the representation of diverse racial/ethnic groups communicates whether maintaining a multicultural environment is a high institutional priority (Hurtado et al). The Association for the Study of Higher Education suggest that college campuses with a highly diverse population of students will provide the experience that a student needs. Universities similar in ideas can create a melting pilot environment that students will thrive in and give them the help they need to live in a diverse country as America. Awareness of different ideas, traditions, religion, cultures, and many other aspects will create less conflict among different groups of people. With a worldly education, a greater amount of people will be exposed to variety of different aspects and thus will be able to avoid conflict with people of other groups. These skills will also provide a course in which these people will spread ideals of acceptance and peace so that racial/ ethnical divides can be broken down.
When students experience diversity, it allows students to establish growth and development in their worldly perspective.

A majority of students have their options or ideas formed when enter the realm of post-secondary education. For some students, college may be the first time that they have encouraged people of such a variety due to their living situation before a university. Colleges bring the opportunity for students to evolve their perspectives and ideas of the world through the engagement of diversity. The organization of American Council on Education wrote the following information, “It promotes personal growth-and a healthy society. Diversity challenges stereotyped preconceptions; it encourages critical thinking; and it helps students learn to communicate effectively with people of varied backgrounds.” (Diversity in Higher Education). Students have the ability to become self-aware and or advance in their life because they their ideals and principles of understanding have been challenged so that they develop skills such as critical thinking or creating judgements past stereotypes based on their diversified experience. Students with this experience have the knowledge and experience that is needed to make critical life decisions such a career choice or where to start their career. They also are aware of how to create relationships of personal and professional value with people with people from varying region of the world. Diversity is an aspect that brings many

positive influences of the young minds of college students; however, many issues can arise due to diversity.
America has been plagued with the idea that racism, no longer exists because of this belief, racism has begun to reemerge has a major issue. The book, Everything’s an Argument, has suggested the following statement “The general principle here is our commitment to diversity has redefined the opposition to discrimination as the appreciation (rather than the elimination) of the difference. So, with respect to race, the idea is just that racism is a bad thing (which of course it is) but race it is a good thing.” ( Lunsford et al. 728). This quote brings into light a very important aspect that is still present with diversity. There are many people who believe that racism has been destroyed and is not existence in modem America which is unfortunately false. Social media, newspapers, and other forms of media have given people of different racial groups to tell their stories of discrimination and prejudge. These stories are still everywhere today, which should show Americans that racism is present and is still creating many issues. College students should be educated on this and gain awareness so that they can help combat racism in America. College campus can also promote racism by denying that it still exists and can create an environment where racism is tolerated if the issues is brushed under the rug. A major factor in ending racism is knowledge of its prevalence in many different areas in American society. Through education of young adults and others, racism can be a less prevalent problem within in American.
The ideology known as Essentialism among Americans and their peers has promoted racism. Everything’s an Argument’s text defines Essentialism, “The assumption that all members of a category are alike and share similar, if not identical, characteristics” (Lunsford et al. 729). Essentialist are people who stereotype or assume that a person of a certain race will act or believe in a specific manner. This is an incorrect assumption due to the fact that everyone has a different background and or belief system compared to others. Thus, assuming that two different people of the same racial group hold the thoughts and ideas is false because they are unique people and will not be same. College students need to have the ability to understand and recognize that essentialism undeniably still around today. In order to extinguish this manner of thinking, students have to break down the stereotypes and must be willing to broaden their perceptive. The world is a very diverse in which they must adapt to. Colleges have the responsibility to break down stereotypes and to open young adult’s minds to the different varieties of ideologies and perspective that exist.
Universities have falsity portrayed the analysis of diversity rating on college campuses. According to the text from Everything’s an Arguments, “ … in Bakke V. Board of Regents, the Supreme Court ruled that taking into consideration the race of an applicant to the University of California ( in this case, the medical school of UC Davis) was an acceptable practice if it served “the interest of diversity”. (Lunsford et al. 727). This court case promoted the idea that diversity should be considered an important factor in the admission process. This idea is not necessary negative; however, it can propose a plethora of problems for applicants to universities. One of the major it manifests is the possibly for a biased for student of a diverse background. These students could be chosen over more qualified student due to the lack of their diverse background. If this situation became reality, then it is immoral because of the student’s hard work for their qualifications. Students should be admitted to college based on their high school performance so that the University admission remains or becomes equal. Everything’s an Argument illustrated the text, “…University of Illinois at Chicago-is ranked as one of the most diverse in the country, but well over half of the students in it come from Chicago.” ( Lunsford et al. 728 ). This quote presents an example that college diversity lacks truth in their admission process. If over half of university’s population comes from the surrounding region, then the University of Chicago should not be process such a great diversity rating. Diversity rating need to be based on the international and out of state students because these different areas do not obtain a similar verify of ideas, cultures and regions compared to people in the same region of the county. The meaning of diversity is to create an enriched, worldly environment and is not meant to promote and duplicate the same ideals.
Diversity on university campuses can create many positive and negative aspects within student’s educational experiences. With much to change, colleges should thoroughly consider and look upon their own campuses to solve issues that involve diversity. College campus should also not forget to look at the positives of diversity and should embrace it. Diversity is what makes the different parts of the world vary in their culture, thoughts, ideas, and religion. All these unrelated aspects are what make the world a unique place and worth exploring.