Diversity Reflection Essay

Journal #2

The point of these journal entries is to see how my understanding of diversity and my own personal identity evolves throughout this course. Looking back at this past month I realized just how many key factors we have covered, some that I might have heard of before and others that were brand new to me. Although every discussion and reading was important, there were two main topics that influenced my train of thought the most: privilege and the impacts of a campus climate.

Privilege

Privilege is a difficult topic to discuss, at least it is for those that are privileged. During the past month we discussed the variety of groups that make up a college campus and the inequalities that they are met with. Over the past month we spent time discussing the variety of groups that make up a college campus as well as the inequalities these groups are met with, based on first hand experiences from classmates, and concepts from the book Privilege Power, and Difference

by Allan Johnson.
I truly enjoyed this book and felt that it was extremely helpful in my development and multicultural competence. Sometimes while reading the articles for class I get caught up and forget to reflect back on my relation to such topics. Johnson’s book provides a simple breakdown of the privilege and inequality that occurs all around us.
The book allowed me to not only understand my own identity better, but it opened my eyes to viewpoints and experiences of marginalized students. Since I am a woman and I am white I receive privileges over people of color, non-traditional students, and students with disabilities. Johnson’s points caused me to reflect back on the discussion of equality and equity. For example, due to the location of the neighborhood where I grew up I went to a competitive high school that offered advanced placement courses and several academic and leadership benefits that many underrepresented communities don’t receive. Since these privileges and marginalization exist it is not fair to assume that by providing equal opportunities in college students will be able to achieve the same outcomes. It is not to say that some students are better than others but rather privileged students have had an 18-year head start and are still receiving advantages from society.
Campus Climate
Campus climate is an aspect of higher education that I thought I had a grasp on, while in fact there were still attributes I was unaware of before. What was interesting to learn though was how to incorporate our discussions on diversity into developing a campus climate. Although we had several articles that covered the topic I was intrigued by Sherry K Watt’s article Designing and Implementing Multicultural Initiatives: Guiding Principles. In the article Watt provides and discusses “three guiding principles” to developing a multicultural initiative on campus.
She explains how it is important to have a balanced dialogue that incorporates the head, the heart, and the hands. By this she means it is important for students to dive into the topic of diversity through intellectual exploration, emotional consideration, and ultimately analysis and consideration for ways to take action and improve the current multicultural environment. Considering this concept as a student affairs educator I found myself excited about the possibilities.
Many of the students on campuses, especially the privileged, need opportunities like this. By providing opportunities that allow students to intellectually an emotionally discuss and analyze difference it allows them to open their eyes to concepts and occurrences they were unaware of before. For example, this course we are taking right now provides us with an incredible opportunity. Diversity courses allow students to learn about and discuss sensitive topics in a structured safe environment. Granted our class is quite diverse, especially for a PWI, and is full of students who volunteered to take part, it is a model for how similar courses can provide intellectual and emotional discussions on diversity. Opportunities to broaden ones mind is what higher education is all about and as someone interested in international education it is a crucial benefit that study abroad and international experiences offer.
When I consider the complete inequality, it makes me reconsider my views on MSIs (Minority Serving Institutions). One of the privileges of this course, and program, is its constant ability to make me recognize my own biases that I have held on to for years. I have never been a huge fan of MSIs. It’s not to say I thought they were bad, I just never understood wanting to isolate oneself from diversity. I guess that is my privilege speaking though. During the past month we touched on the subject of campus climate and MSIs and in many ways I think the two are intertwined along with the influence of privilege.
One of my favorite articles about MSIs was Marybeth Gasman’s Five Myths About Minority Serving Institutions.

In the article Gasman pretty much listed every opinion I had about the institutions as myths. My strongest opposition was the lack of diversity and preparedness for the real world, which was myth #2. Gasman challenged that many MSIs actually are made up with a diverse student body including Asians, African Americans, Latinos, and White students. She also stated that there are diverse representations of religion, socioeconomic standing, and sexuality. After reading more about MSIs and listening to discussions held in class I started to realize that my preconceived notions were not based on facts and were simple stereotypes. In fact, after learning more about the importance of campus climate, and the marginalization that many underrepresented groups face, I started to see how in many cases MSIs could be extremely beneficial in providing certain students with the best learning environment for

them.

So what does this all mean? I think that these realizations are steps toward a better multicultural competency. It is unrealistic to assume that taking a traditional approach, of memorizing and test taking, will suffice when it comes to a topic like diversity. Instead, it is important to not only read about but reflect and discuss these general topics, of privilege, campus climate, and more (access, race and ethnicity, etc.), and do so through the use of personal experiences, current events, and research.