In a webinar held earlier this month, Scott Jaschik and Doug Lederman of Inside Higher Ed highlighted ten current debates on “Diversity in the Student Body” on higher education campuses. Hot topics included how to measure diversity, “undermatching,” affirmative action, and policies against diversity.
A few highlights from the webinar are below:
- According to an audience poll at the beginning of the webinar, 60 percent of attendees either disagree or strongly disagree with the statement “I consider my college to have an appropriate level of diversity in the student body.” (Total responses: 188.)
- Climates on social media platforms (such as offensive posts on Yik Yak) can have a major impact on the perception of a hostile environment.
- Undermatching—low income, high-talent students’ unlikelihood of applying single competitive college—is a factor in diversity creation. How can competitive institutions attract these students to apply and attend their institution?
- As institutions attempt to find ways to measure diversity outside of race and ethnicity, many are focusing on income and class and a different type of measurement.
- Institutions are developing alternative admissions Ideas, for example many are going test-optional or rethinking how they use ACT and SAT scores.
- During the Q&A, an attendee asked "Where does the LGBT population fit into the conversation?" While LGBT student were not the focus of the webinar, the presenters acknowledge that there are issues concerning LGBT students but it is often difficult for institutions to address problems due to a lack of data. Many institutions do not know how many LGBT students that have in attendance because they do not ask how many students identify as LGBT.
To learn more about diversity in the student body and to access the free “Diversity in the Student Body” booklet, please visit: https://www.insidehighered.com/content/diversity-student-body.