Not necessarily quotas, do you know if admissions departments actuall have them? Or are they some sort of myth?(like that one where they say cafeterias put laxatives in school food)

Apologies for my short response. I’m reading your comment on my phone and don’t feel that I could do justice to such a great comment without having the chance to sit down and properly think about it. In the meantime, I’ll comment on something you mentioned at the end — when you say “Unfortunately, being satisfied with being deemed a “homogenous” school is not enough.”

I wouldn’t say that it’s satisfaction with being deemed a homogenous school. Rather, it’s a dissatisfaction the way we see schools addressing, homogeneity. I agree with you 100% that it must be a difficult task to diversify a school, but at some point (however naive it may be) it’s hard not to wonder if students from different ethnic/racial backgrounds are made into a commodity by admissions departments.

Books could be written on the subject, I’m sure — but at the heart about it, maybe schools aren’t to blame. It could quite possibly be geography, culture, or — who knows — global warming?

Thanks for your response!

(Ok, ok — I had to pull over)

I understand where you are coming from, but it is easy to believe that college administrators are simply “coloring in” the student body. What you do fail to bring up (which you may or may not understand) is that diversifying a college campus is HARD. People will always be critical of the ways that a school’s administrators recruit students that will add to their school’s diversity.

I am sure you know that there are ways that students of all colors can add diversity to a school (living in cities v. suburbs, having mental or physical disabilities, etc.), so I will stick to speaking about race as a diversifying trait.

Adding different races, not simply COLORS, to a college campus not only adds to the enrichment of the minority students, but also to the students who are the majority in a “homogenous” (in this case meaning all white) school. Classrooms are still places where a student can “speak critically about culture”. In fact, they are the perfect places in which to speak critically about culture. In the presence of these people that you may not have ever come in contact with without this classroom, you can ask tough questions and listen to the experiences of people who look different from you. I assure there will be a range of differences (and similarities). In addition to enhancing the classroom experience, these students also create groups on campus and create events that engage the larger student body in learning and discussion.

Though we can all attest that every human being is different and that all people, regardless of their race or color, will bring diversity to any school, we must also recognize the place that color has in our communities, schools, and world. Unfortunately, being satisfied with being deemed a “homogenous” school is not enough. Saying so, is also saying, “We have all the diversity that we need.” That is simply not the case. There is no question in my mind that schools recognized as having a “homogenous” student body, should attempt to reach out to students of all races and colors. If not, their students may miss out on great debates like this one!

Great topic! Keep writing.