At the Rev. Scott Pilarz’s first student forum, many issues were rightfully brought up as areas that need improvement. We believe one point, in particular, is an essential but underaddressed campus issue: the lack of diversity.
Pilarz did acknowledge the diversity already present on campus as well as our continuous room for improved diversity.
Because of the recognized lack of diversity in ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation, Marquette Student Government has initiated a Diversity Initiative roundtable series to better consider all segments of the student community — even those who are low percentages of the campus population — when making decisions that affect students. Tuesday marked the first of three discussions with the underrepresented student groups on campus.
MUSG’s discussions focus specifically on issues surrounding race, sexual orientation and religion but are open to considering issues considering any type of diversity on campus.
We think that such efforts are appropriate, especially considering the undeniable homogeneity of campus. Encouraging various underrepresented minorities on campus to vocalize their concerns is always beneficial.
The concerns specifically with racial, sexual orientation and religious diversity are accurately founded according to university statistics, which tell a compelling story.
According to the Office of Information and Research’s annual Common Data Set report, 6,283 out of 8,387 total undergraduates identify themselves as “white, non-Hispanic,” whereas 604 identify as “Hispanic,” 400 as “Black or African American, non-Hispanic,” 24 as “American Indian or Alaska Native, non-Hispanic,” 313 as “Asian, non-Hispanic, 149 as “two or more races, non-hispanic” and 360 identify as “race and/or ethnicity unknown.”
Religious affiliation is not tracked in the CDS but is recorded in the 2011 Senior Survey, completed by 45 percent of graduates. According to the survey, 65 percent identified as “Catholic,” 16 percent as “other Christian religion,” 3 percent as “other non-Christian religion” and 13 percent “I do not have a religious affiliation” with 4 percent choosing not to indicate an affiliation.
Likewise, in OIR’s Senior Survey 94 percent identified themselves as “heterosexual,” 1 percent as “bisexual” and 1 percent as “gay/lesbian” with 4 percent choosing not to disclose any sexual orientation.
According to the most recent 2010 National Survey of Student Engagement, Marquette freshmen and seniors are generally concerned about handling such diversity — or lack thereof — on campus but recognize that we are making an effort, although there remains room for improvement.
For instance, when rating on a scale of 1 (never) to 4 (very often), freshmen averaged 2.92 and seniors averaged 2.84 when asked if their academic experiences “included diverse perspectives … in class discussions or writing assignments.”
In the same survey, rating institutional environment on a scale of 1 (very little) to 4 (very much), and environment “encouraging contact among students from different economic, social and racial or ethnic backgrounds” was rated 2.86 by freshmen and 2.63 by seniors.
All these statistics indicate a clear need to incorporate more discussions of diversity into our academic and campus environment.
The MUSG roundtables are a good start to changing this perspective. However, three discussions will not automatically solve the lack of diversity on campus — and MUSG recognizes this. The short-term sessions will hopefully lead to a complete report that the university can consider in solving more long-term issues of creating a more diverse campus as well as listening, understanding and acting upon the input of currently underrepresented groups.
Moreover, the reports that will hopefully result should be taken seriously by the administration. It should recognize such efforts and student advocacy on campus. Clearly, students are concerned about the lack of diversity and are willing to take small steps to come up with more engagement among majority and minority groups. The administration should be just as invested in the process.
We think that approaching such discussions as a starting point for future, large-scale and long-term initiatives is prudent and realistic. We should not stop our advocacy with several roundtable discussions. We students should recognize the issue of diversity on campus is something that we must consider and be active in tackling, whether at a personal level or a more involved university level.