It’s no surprise that among the brightly colored, well-illustrated brochures colleges hand out, diversity is one of the statistics that is a hit and run. Meaning, either the college will take pride in their stats and display the percent proudly or it’s a passing mention that gets drowned out with other mentions of programs doing much better at the college. Bringing up a conversation surrounding diversity on campus seems to be an awkward conversation to start during tours or interviews. But diversity is very important for every student on that campus. As a group, the connections made with one another can impact a life so greatly. The quality of education becomes intertwined with activities outside of the classroom, with ethnic dishes made by the Spanish interest house or festivals put together by the Japanese interest club.
All in all, I believe the diversity outreach and percentage should be a factor of a college that goes under some consideration when applying and accepting. Being a person of color, Native American, looking for smaller liberal arts colleges that had a native population at all was really challenging. And Whitman itself isn’t super diverse either. First generation working class students are majority colored, the FGWC (first-generation, working class) club at my school anchors many of the colored students during their first year into many resources that are available around campus. Academically and socially.
So my point with all this is mainly: pay attention to the diversity statistic but don’t use it against anybody. Go into your college career with excitement of expanding your personal bubble and learning to lean into discomfort with finding out where you can find the resources needed to help you throughout your career. Later this week I’m apart of a panel discussion about “Living Indigenous in a Modern World” that’s apart of a symposium called “Power & Privilege Symposium” that was a collaborative effort of many different clubs on campus. It’s about starting the conversations needed to explore the perspectives from all sides of a conversation that need to be had but aren’t. White privilege, LGBTQ issues and movements, police brutality, diversification, marginalization, etc. It’ll be a day of keynote speakers and workshops lead by students to help the community raise awareness about important issues that are pushed aside because of comfort. It’s an opportunity for me to expand.