Reflections on our diversity
Yesterday was the initial round in the Sullivan Leadership Award competition. Annually, while the students are across campus writing essays, listening to panel discussions, and engaged in other tasks I manage a day long program for the family members who accompany them. Yesterday was a long day for the entire admissions staff; most of us arrived ~7:15 and wrapped things up at 5 p.m. Kudos to Pauline Benson who did the yeoman work of coordinating it all.
Our provost spoke during the program for family members and one of the Seattle University distinctions he touted was our noteworthy diversity -- at least 37% of our students are Americans who are "people of color". We see this diversity as one of our greatest learning resources, as well as the fact that it makes for a richer and more vital and engaged campus. Also,we have found that it is perhaps the major attribute in attracting highly motivated students to Seattle University. It has been our experience that bright, highly motivated students who are seeking college education in an urban setting typically have a diverse student body as one of their primary requirements for the university they select. Beyond the satisfaction from being exposed to people from different experiences and cultures they also recognize how familiarity with such diversity leads to enhanced communication and leadership skills.
What prompts today's reflections is a comment made by one of the parents' participating in yesterdays' program. Shortly after the Provost left, and as our academic deans were about to begin their presentation she stopped me and challenged the Provost's assertion that we are a diverse campus (note: we are the most ethnically diverse campus in the Pacific Northwest, and this has been repeatedly confirmed by enrollment statistics for many years). She said to me that she was looking around the auditorium where the family members were seated and didn't see alot of diversity, and that she thought it was a pretty "white" campus (the speaker in question was Caucasian, fyi.) Unfortunately, the moment didn't allow me to offer a thoughful response, as I was about to introduce the deans. However, I was knocked off balance by her assertion and gave considerable thought to it as I sat on the stage, causing me to carefully study the audience. As I did I did note a very significant number of Asian American parents; there were a few parents who were African American (of course, I'd always like to see alot more); I wasn't sure how many Latino parents might have been present, nor if there were any who were Native American (I am not given to assuming ethnicity based upon appearance.) Some people I guessed might be "multicultural".
What I had offered as a candid, knee jerk response to the parent in question in the short moment allowed as that one of our concerns is that the applicant pool for the Sullivan program tends to be less diverse than the student body as a whole. We recognize some of the reasons underlying this. Unfortunately, merit scholarships at any university tend to be tilted toward the advantage of "advantaged" students who tend to have more support (high schools with more resources, less need to work, more opportunity for extracurricular involvement, more support to take advanced coursework). But as I sat on the stage, having reviewed the ethnic breakdown of this year's Sullivan applicants (which I noted was higher than average and pretty signficant) I began to question why the assembly of parents wasn't more diverse. And then I recognized that the obvious had eluded me.
People of color are in all economic strands, but due to the many inequities in society they tend to be underrepresented in the professional and upper midddle class stratas, and more concentrated in the working class/lower income stratas. So, regardless of the increase in ethnic students applying for the Sullivan Leadership Award I recognized that it was probable that the reason that we didn't have more ethnic family members in the audience was that they didn't have the resources to accompany their students to the competition. They were either compelled to work that day, or could ill afford the costs required to travel to Seattle. Many students each year come to the Sullivan competition alone, or with friends. I will go back and study the statistics, but I am pretty confident that more often than not these tend to be students from working class backgrounds (both Caucasian, as well as people of color.)
Concern about possible disadvantage to working class students is something about which the Sullivan Leadership Award Committee gives considerable thought. Currently the University has a separate subcommittee studying this as well as other affects and outcomes of the Sullivan Program. Please know, however, that the Sullivan program is one of the things of which we are proudest at Seattle Unversity. The students chosen do represent a wide variety of backgrounds -- not just geographically and ethnically, but also economically. The Committee of faculty and administrative staff selecting Sullivan award recipients takes its responsibility to all of our students very seriously, and is also very concerned about the need to identify leaders from many different backgrounds with diverse leadership styles. It is recognized that only that way can the Sullivan program have the desired outcome of creating leaders not only who know good, but who can do good in as many different parts of society as possible.