Diversity's Impact - Studies on Diversity in College Classes

The diversity of students has greatly increased since the early 1960s, so much so that, as of 2000, there is one minority for every four non-minority persons. This is possible in part due to President Lyndon B. Johnson, Brown Vs. Board, and affirmative action practices. The value of diversity, specifically "the belief that knowledge or understanding flourishes best in a climate of vigorous debate" has been around since Socrates' time, and it continues to be important to this day.

One of the reasons diversity is vital is due to the critical analysis that occurs in diverse groups in which the "common-sense" knowledge is often not so common, that is, not everyone has the same experiences, perceptions, and knowledge. In today's world of inter dependability and globalization, it is increasingly important that future leaders are able to effectively work in environments of difference. College is a crucial point in people's lives where these said leaders can be exposed to diversity and practice accepting and working with the strengths and weaknesses that come with collaborating with these diverse people.

According to Gurin, there are three types of diversity: structural, classroom, and informal interactional. All of which are required to reap the benefits of diversity.  The type of diversity I will be focusing on is interactional, that is "the extent to which the campus provides opportunities for informal interaction across diverse groups." Benefits of classroom and informal interaction include "increased active thinking, academic engagement, motivation, and academic and intellectual skills [in addition to] greater involvement in citizenship activities, greater appreciation for differences as compatible with societal unity and greater cross-racial interaction." Diversity was found in later studies to be so significant as to influence students for as long as nine years after starting college.

Often universities emphasize structural diversity via practices such as affirmative action but this is as far as the "diversity" that colleges tout goes. It is a superficial type of diversity and I am interested in how to move past this surface diversity into the more beneficial types of diversity, more specifically, informal interactional diversity.