Of course, the way in which people find out if diversity is a positive force on education is to simply ask in opinion polls:
Opinion polls are not always useful. Too many people answer the questions the way they think they are expected to. Doing so is a lot less likely to get them in trouble than answering truthfully or thoughtfully. It's the easy way out.
No one should be surprised, therefore, that when students are directly asked if they believe "diversity" has improved the quality of their education, they frequently answer "yes" even when they actually think "no" or have no particular basis for answering either "yes" or "no." Their teachers have been singing diversity hosannas to them since kindergarten. If the students are remotely well-socialized, they know exactly what answer is desired from them. And they dutifully give it.
Thus the mantra of diversity improves education has become so ingrained into our thinking that we don't question the response. The bell of diversity rings and everyone salivates like Dr. Pavlov's pooches.
Diversity became the new catchphrase on university campuses in the 80's and 90's as a way to justify affirmative action programs that favor some races over others. But Heriot points us to a study entitled "Does Enrollment Diversity Improve University Education?" (note: it will cost you $25.00 to get the report) in which the authors asked about diversity in an indirect manner.
Rather than ask students what they think of diversity, the authors asked students how satisfied they were with their overall university experience on a seven-point scale with 1 meaning "very dissatisfied" and 7 meaning "very satisfied." Students, faculty, and administrators were also asked (1) to rate their institution’s job of educating students as excellent, good, fair or poor; (2) to estimate the proportion of students at their institution who are academically ready prepared to be there-- almost all, most, only some, or almost none; and (3) to rate student work effort on a seven-point scale from "very lazy" to "very hardworking."
Contrary to what the "diversity" model would predict, students tend to be less satisfied with the their overall university experience the more racially diverse the student body. Students, faculty and adminstrators similarly were less impressed with the more "diverse" universities and their students. All this was done controlling for a host of factors concerning the kind and quality of the institution at issue as well as socio-economic and academic factors about the respondents.
Diversity may be a laudable goal and if diversity meant that all things being equal, a school may look at race, ethnicity or national origin when making determinations, I don't think people have a problem--or at least they have a different problem.
The failing point of diversity initiatives is that people, students in particular, feel, according to this study, that a school that pushes diversity above other academic goals somehow dillutes their educational experience. When people are shellling out tens of thousands of dollars for their education, they have a right to expect the best quality education for the money.
The side effect of diversity I witnessed at the University of Maryland, College Park was a growing insularity of races. The more diverse the campus became in terms of racial mix, the more the individual racial groups tended to congregate and isolate themselves from the rest of the campus. Part of this phenomenon was in doubt related to the natural desire to be with people like youself. On a micro scale, there is nothing wrong this, but on a macro scale, a big push for a diverse university community actually leads to a sort of self-imposed, de facto segregation. Such a scenario favors no one and does not improve the quality of education because there is no significant interaction between the groups.
Granted, I have only anecdotal evidence for my belief, but I would surmise that the hypothesis holds true. In a large campus, the greater the effort on diversity in admissions, the greater the self-imposed segregation among groups.
Linked at TMH Bacon Bits; EuphoricReality, Don Surber, bRight&Early
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