Director: Paula Caplan
The aim of the Voices of Diversity project is to develop a textured understanding of the impact that increased diversity of student bodies in predominantly white institutions of higher education in the United States is having on African American, Arab American, Asian American, Latino/a, and Native American undergraduates at these institutions. For decades the focus has been largely on access, and now it is time to intensify the focus on outcomes. Although the authors of recent studies and of decisions in court cases have reported that diversity is an important and beneficial part of the educational process, a disproportionate amount of the focus has been on diversity's benefits to white students. The Voices of Diversity project will involve gathering information from both public and private institutions and with varied degrees of selectivity in admissions. Through detailed questionnaires and in-depth interviews with African American, Arab American, Asian American, Latino/a, and Native American students, we aim to identify both the benefits and the currently most pressing problems for which solutions must be sought in order to optimize the benefits from dversity for these students, too.
Although some effects of increased diversity on some campuses have been well documented, it is essential to know whether there are forms of de facto segregation or discrimination and discouragement of other kinds that do not appear in the sorts of data that have been collected up to now, as well as to identify important factors that enhance the experiences of these students. What do these students themselves consider the most frustrating factors, the highest barriers they have to try to surmount, and what do they consider the most helpful factors, those that make them feel welcome and supported on their campus and thus increase the likelihood that they will remain on that campus and graduate with the students in their entering class? With regard to the barriers, key aims will be to develop a picture of how stereotype threat and microagressions affect the target groups and how those effects vary from one group to another.