The Story
A Second Approach
 | The way I see it, there are two ways to approach the topic of diversity at the College. You could spew out a googol of statistics: 25 percent of the student body is students of color; students come from all 50 states; and so on. This tactic is simple and frequent in official College publications. |
When used in our admissions material, this tactic so often comes accompanied by photographs that idealize the diversity of the student body. Every photo seems to fulfill a certain quota of black students, Asian students, students with glasses, students with red hair and students in wheelchairs - just to make everyone feel comfortable and included.
A second, different way of approaching diversity will not yield such perpetually positive results, but by actually talking to people, it is much easier to point out even the slightest soupçon of bias and prejudice.
However, as Jonna Knappenberger discussed in last week's column, sensitive topics like religion and diversity are often difficult to discuss frankly.
The Wren Cross snafu was just as much about diversity as it was about religion. In December 2006, former College President (and, if I may say, the College’s patron saint of diversity) Gene Nichol wrote in an e-mail message to students, “It is the very vitality and the increasing diversity of our religious community that calls for a more encompassing and accessible use of the Wren [Chapel].”
Nichol also mentioned diversity in his stirringly contentious e-mail announcing his resignation. He wrote that opening the doors of the College to a racially and economically diverse student body was a decision he made that aroused “ample controversy.”
After the non-renewal of his contract and his resignation were made public, many members of the College community seemed to think it was this open-door approach to diversity that played a part in Nichol’s forced departure.
Assistant Professor Francis Tanglao-Aguas, of the theater, speech and dance department, went as far as to say at a rally for the former President, “I view this non-renewal as a rejection not only of Nichol and his agenda, but as a direct assault on my vision and my ideas that I share with my students.”
The Board of Visitors, through its rector Michael K. Powell, stated that the Board “agree[d] unflinchingly” with attempts to make the College more diverse; however, the notion of an ideologically motivated BOV surely lingers in the thoughts of many.
Much like Nichol’s attempted discussion of religion, the discourse on diversity did not end so well. On the smaller scale of our daily interactions, a fear of backlash for having non-majority views prevents us from saying what we truly feel.
People seem so often to painstakingly edit their thoughts to produce overly P.C. responses, leaving only wisps of speakers’ true intentions and eliminating any actual frankness from the discourse.
In diversity discussions, racial issues seem to be broached first, as the most obvious.
While the statistic commonly proliferated (25 percent of the Tribe are students of color) does shed a positive light on the inclusion of racial minorities, it is necessary to note that initiatives directly to promote diversity are relatively recent at the College.
In 2005 (the pre-Nichol days), the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reported that the College’s population was 5.5 percent black and that the graduation rate for black students was 79 percent, 12 points below the rate for white students.
With such a small black student population (compared to almost 20 percent of the Virginia population, per the 2006 Census), it is logical for groups like the College’s three black sororities and two black fraternities to exist as sorts of community-forging entities, where black students can relish in shared experiences.
But do these groups exist as a way for black students to embrace the similarity of those shared experiences or to differentiate from the experiences of other students?
I don’t claim to know the politics of Greek life on campus, but I do know that only one of the three historically black sororities on campus (Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc.) has an on-campus house, which is isolated from the rest of sorority court by Armistead Avenue. That fact makes me feel something is awry - either with the establishment or with certain groups’ choice to separate.
For students who seek to encounter diversity and discussion, there is the Mosaic House, which offers students of any age a chance to live with others who “wish to expand their cross-cultural understanding.”
Another type of diversity - the type most striking to me upon my arrival at the College - is disparity among students’ socio-economic backgrounds.
Coming from a middle class background, it was as strange for me to hear of students’ parents buying off-campus houses as it was for me to hear of students paying for college completely independently, but both extremes definitely exist at the College.
Most significant in increasing economic diversity at the College is the Nichol-spurred Gateway Program, which allows in-state students with annual family incomes less than $40,000 to receive aid amounting to 100 percent of their financial need, including the College’s standard laptop computer.
The program, somewhat similar to those offered at most of the College’s peer institutions (see this graph from The New York Times), leveled the economic playing field for interested students, making sure that cost was not a dissuading factor to pursuing a higher education.
There are countless types of diversity that would take years to mention in full but are equally important: gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, place of origin, political ideology, field of study, et cetera. Exposure to people with all of these characteristics is an essential part of the college experience, allowing us to continue forming our own opinions and judgments, however politically incorrect they may be.
The great thing about diversity at William and Mary, though, is that all the people you meet - the black students, the Californian students and even the hyper-conservative students - are among the brightest students in the country.
I relish the unique opportunity I have here to probe the minds of intelligent people from all different backgrounds, an atmosphere that will be helpful but surely different than that which I will find in the real world.
Jake Robert Nelson is DSJ Opinions Editor and a regular opinions contributor. His opinions do not necessarily represent those of the entire staff.
TRIBE VIBE, Part 7: “Bridging the Gap Between Us”