Unfair Decisions or Learning Enhancers?

http://www.nysut.org

Colleges talk a lot about diversity in their university. Sometimes, though, it is unclear why they look for other races and ethnicities over White Americans. So why do they want the diversity? According to Jeremy Hyman from U.S News, diversity is used for improving students' learning in the University and preparing them for a diverse workforce.

“Diversity expands worldliness. College might be the first time you have had the opportunity to have real interaction with people from diverse groups” (Hyman) With diversity, there will be more ethnicities that you can socialize with and learn about. This is one of the reasons why colleges will select the ethnic enriched student over the White American student, because they want their students to expand their minds to more parts of the world. Another reason Hyman explains is, “Diversity prepares students for work in a global society. No matter what profession you enter, you'll find yourself working with employers, employees, coworkers, customers and clients from diverse backgrounds—worldwide.” In any job you have you will have to interact with different types of people and colleges want to socially prepare their students before they enter the workforce.

Although diversity is good for the students that are at the University, are there other motivations behind the mix of students? Colleges say that diversity is very good for education but it could be for their benefit instead. The Universities want to appeal to many more students so having the diversity invites a mix of students to their school. This will make the college look better. This will most definitely play into the college selection process as well, for the college and student. Colleges want diversity and sometimes so do the students. So ultimately it benefits both sides, but is it unfair to the White Americans? I guess it just depends on the student.

Future Research Topic: How does Economics Play into College Selection? and is it Fair?