September-October 2000

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Why Race Matters

It's a win-win proposition. Recent research shows how individuals and institutions gain from greater diversity on campus.

By Jeffrey F. Milem

Over the past few decades, administrators and faculty have come to embrace diversity in higher education because of the opportunities it creates for teaching and learning. Ironically, during the same period, our ability to ensure that students and faculty of different racial and ethnic backgrounds can come to our institutions has become subject to more and more constraints.

Challenges to the use of race as a factor in college admissions, employment, and financial-aid decisions have been filed in the courts; ballot initiatives in California and Washington have prohibited affirmative action in those states; and efforts to end race-sensitive policies are gathering steam in other states-including Florida, where Governor Jeb Bush issued an order to bar consideration of race as a factor in admissions decisions in public colleges and universities.

Misconceptions

Much of the momentum against affirmative action in higher education is fueled by myths (or misconceptions) about racial dynamics in academia and society. Left unchallenged, these myths can give rise to misguided policies.

The first myth or misconception is that we no longer need affirmative action in higher education because the playing field has been leveled-that is, inequities in access to higher education for members of racial and ethnic minority groups are a thing of the past. Yet abundant evidence documents the effects of persisting inequalities on low-income students and students of color in the United States.

The gaps in access to higher education are most apparent among African American and Latino students. More African American students than ever go to college now. But the percentage among the pool of African American students eligible to attend college who enroll has decreased as the population has grown. Gaps in access also exist among Latinos, who make up the fastest-growing population in the country.

A second misconception is that merit in college admissions can (or should) be defined exclusively by standardized test scores. Tests can be useful when they count as one of several indicators of merit, but it is inappropriate to overemphasize them. Standardized tests are designed only to predict students' grades at the end of their first year of college. Moreover, the correlation between test scores and first-year grades is modest. Research reveals that the average correlation between the scores and first-year grades is approximately 0.4. In statistical terms, that means we can attribute only about 16 percent of the variance in first-year grades to students' test scores.

The tests are misused in another way when institutional leaders assert that their students' scores reflect the quality of their college or university. Most of us have heard claims such as, "The average SAT score for our entering first-year class rose again this year." Some administrators go so far as to see elevating the test scores of their entering students as a key institutional priority because of a misguided belief that attracting students with high test scores increases the quality of their institution.

According to this line of thinking, students are resources that can enhance an institution's reputation, not the focus of the educational enterprise. Campus leaders who look on standardized tests in this way place inordinate (and inappropriate) significance on them, helping to reinforce the misconception that test scores should be the primary, or even the only, indicator of merit or quality.

Another myth supporting the backlash against affirmative action is that race-neutral approaches to admissions, employment, and other decisions lead to fairness. This argument implies that racism is no longer an issue in our society. Yet research in social psychology clearly demonstrates that racism persists. A "color-blind" approach to admissions in higher education will not improve conditions in our society; in reality, it is likely to preserve the racial status quo.

Yet another misconception of critics of affirmative action is that increased racial diversity in higher education benefits only students of color. My own recent research, as well as that of other scholars, refutes this claim by showing that all students and their institutions benefit from diversity.

Benefits of Diversity

Students who interact with peers of different backgrounds or who take courses with diversified curricular content show greater growth in their critical thinking skills than those who do not do so. They also tend to be more engaged in learning and are more likely to stay enrolled in college, to report greater satisfaction with their college experience, and to seek graduate or professional degrees. Similarly, students educated in racially and ethnically heterogeneous institutions assess their academic, social, and interpersonal skills more highly than do students from homogeneous colleges and universities.

In addition to these benefits, diversified environments give students opportunities to develop the skills and competencies they will need to function effectively as citizens of an increasingly diverse democracy. Those who interact with peers of different backgrounds while in college are more likely to engage in community service. They also demonstrate greater awareness and acceptance of people from other cultures and are more committed to improving race relations in our society.

A recent study of law students at Harvard University and the University of Michigan found that exposure to diversity in law school significantly affected students' views about the U.S. criminal justice system and improved their understanding of civil rights and social and economic institutions in our society. The students reported that interacting with peers of different backgrounds permitted them to engage in discussions they would not otherwise have had and improved their ability to work and get along with others.

Because racial segregation has increased in high schools across the country, college may be the first (and only) time that many students get to interact in a meaningful way with someone of a different racial or ethnic group. These interactions are important because of the role they can play in breaking down segregation in our society. Students who get to know peers from different racial or ethnic groups while in college are more likely to work in diverse occupational settings and live in diverse communities after graduating.

Many opponents of affirmative action have argued that it lowers academic standards. But most faculty members-the group with primary responsibility for the teaching and learning that occurs on our campuses-reject this claim. They agree overwhelmingly that having a racially and ethnically diverse student body enhances students' education. They believe that helping students to understand and appreciate other racial and ethnic groups is an important goal for institutions of higher education-one that enables them to achieve their missions.

A recent study I did on behalf of the American Council on Education revealed the benefits diversity brings to institutions. I examined the relationship between the race and gender of faculty members and the three missions of the university: research, teaching, and service. I found that women faculty and faculty of color differ from their colleagues in ways that advance their institutions' missions. For example, they are more likely to use active pedagogical techniques, which have been shown to improve student learning. In addition, their teaching methods tend to encourage students to interact with peers from different backgrounds through class discussions, collaborative learning, and group projects. And many engage in service-related activities and scholarship that addresses issues of race, ethnicity, and gender.

The scholarly interests of these faculty members lead them to incorporate readings in their courses that represent the experiences of women and people of color in society. The readings expose some of their students to new perspectives and allow others to see aspects of their own experience included in the curriculum. The importance of this practice cannot be understated. In the preface to A Different Mirror his multicultural history of the United States, Ronald Takaki explains how he chose his title: "What happens, to borrow the words of Adrienne Rich, 'when someone with the authority of a teacher' describes our society, and 'you are not in it'? Such an experience can be disorienting-'a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing.'"

Climate

Enrolling a racially and ethnically diverse student body-while important-does not guarantee that benefits will accrue. Diversified learning environments present challenges as well as opportunities. To create such an environment and to profit from it, institutions must pay close attention to the racial climate on their campuses.

Institutions that have histories of excluding students who come from racial and ethnic minority groups will probably have a hard time increasing enrollment among such students in the first place. Underrepresentation of students of color can contribute to the maintenance of stereotypes, which can keep people from different groups from coming together. A few institutions have taken a comprehensive approach to assessing diversity and have developed programs to improve the atmosphere on their campuses. But most colleges and universities still fail to understand the dynamics of the external and internal forces contributing to campus climate.

Although growth in enrollments among students of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds will help to improve the climate, institutions must do more. Race relations theory tells us that as the representation of people of color increases in an organization or community, conflict will probably also rise. Regrettably, we try to avoid all forms of conflict in higher education, especially any discord arising from issues of race. But as the writer, teacher, and activist Parker Palmer argues, we cannot have community without conflict.

For conflict to be a positive force in a community of learners, we have to provide ways for people from different backgrounds and experiences to talk to one another. Communicating across our differences can help us understand how we are similar and how we differ. Through such discussions we can form an intellectual community.

To create the kinds of learning environments that will allow us to benefit from the "robust exchange of ideas" that Justice Lewis Powell described in his opinion in the 1978 Supreme Court ruling in Bakke, we must make thoughtful and purposeful decisions about how diversity adds to the educational mission of our institutions. But first we have to define for ourselves, and for others, why race matters in higher education. Doing so will help us build the vibrant intellectual communities that are possible at racially and ethnically diverse campuses.

Note

Much of the information discussed in this article derives from research done by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Panel on Racial Dynamics in Higher Education, as well as from work that I did with Kenji Hakuta on behalf of the American Council on Education's (ACE) Office of Minorities in Higher Education. The findings of the AERA panel will appear in Compelling Interest: Examining the Evidence on Racial Dynamics in Colleges and Universities, which will be published by Stanford University Press this fall. The ACE research appears in the special focus section of the ACE's Minorities in Higher Education: Seventeenth Annual Status Report.

Jeffrey Milem is associate professor of education at the University of Maryland, College Park.