Satisfactions of Campus Diversity

Introduction

Creating an inclusive, diverse climate to support ethnic minority students is very important for their academic success in higher education. Especially for first year student, an engaging environment will create a sense of belonging greatly enhance the institutional commitment. Colleges and universities have launched a serious of programs to create a safe climate, for example, the Aggies to Aggies workshop in Texas A&M, the Asian American Awareness month in Georgia Tech, and the Diversity Appreciation week in University of California. However, the effectiveness of these programs remains unclear. One of the approaches to assess the effectiveness is to investigate the overall satisfaction level of the diversity climate. There are many factors influencing the satisfaction level, one of them being race. Numerous researchers indicate that students from different racial groups will have difference experience on diversity. This paper is going to conduct a study among first year students, with the purpose to determine the relationship between diversity satisfaction and race.

Literature Review

A number of researchers have examined the relationship between students’ perception and experience of campus climate by their race-ethnicity and fair treatment. Ancis, Sedlacek and Mohr (2000) have conducted a quantitative survey among 578 undergraduates, 307 of them being freshmen, using a Likert-scale to examine eleven constituent factors of diversity satisfaction (e.g. racial tension, cross-cultural comfort, diversity awareness, racial pressures, residence hall tension, fair treatment, faculty racism, respect for other cultures, lack of support, comfort with own culture, overall satisfaction). The result showed that there was a si...

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...ribute to influence the decision-making process of administrators, especially for diversity program advisors or admission officers. Considering the race factor, some specific programs designed for a certain ethnic population may be more effective than campus-wide activities.

Reference

Helm, E.G., Sedlacek, W.E., & Prieto, D.O. (1998). The relationship between attitudes toward diversity and overall satisfaction of university students by race. Journal of College Counseling. 1. 111- 120

Ancis, J.R., Sedlacek, W.E., & Mohr J.J. (2000). Student Perceptions of campus cultural climate by race. . Journal of Counseling & Development. 78. 180-185

Pascarella,E.T., Edison, M., Nora, A., Hagedorn, L.S.,& Terenzini, P.T. (1996) Influences on Students' Openness to Diversity and Challenge in the First Year of College. The Journal of Higher Education, 67 (2), 174-195.