2008 Woodie Awards
Diversity: more than a buzz word?
Editorial Board
Issue date: 8/21/08 Section: Editorials
As Saint Louis University students step back onto campus this week, they are bound to notice more than a few new faces.
Just as China has prepared to welcome thousands of international visitors for the 2008 Olympics, SLU has mobilized its recruitment forces in Asia to court more international students. And, this year, those efforts paid off: the number of incoming freshmen from China has doubled over last year's figure. Nearly one-sixth of Reinert Hall residents will hold citizenship in a foreign nation.
All of this, it seems, comes in an attempt to increase "diversity" on campus. Diversity, already a buzzword for more than a decade, is commonly used by corporate executives and university administrators nationwide in a cultural, national and racial context. Its purpose is to combine a bevy of social groups and traditions into one campus community. And at SLU, it is likely meant to be the antidote for the upper middle class, Catholic high school-educated, culturally homogenous reputation for which this university's students was once infamous, and which the administration dares not hedge again.
SLU administrators have taken great steps to ensure that the University's cultural stands up to the challenge of cultural diversity, both in recruitment programs and services for those international students who are already here.
But one needs not look past the Busch Student Center or the West Pine Mall to notice that SLU students still tend toward cultural segregation, and that they segregate themselves.
It is human nature to feel comfortable with those most like yourself. A shared tradition often means shared experiences, shared values and shared worldviews. Thus, it makes sense to see students with similar cultural upbringings-be that in a rural Midwestern American town or that of a sprawling city on a different continent-spending time together. Ask any of SLU's myriad of study-abroad students, current or veteran, and you'll hear that it's tempting to spend time speaking English to a small circle of American friends.
Just as China has prepared to welcome thousands of international visitors for the 2008 Olympics, SLU has mobilized its recruitment forces in Asia to court more international students. And, this year, those efforts paid off: the number of incoming freshmen from China has doubled over last year's figure. Nearly one-sixth of Reinert Hall residents will hold citizenship in a foreign nation.
All of this, it seems, comes in an attempt to increase "diversity" on campus. Diversity, already a buzzword for more than a decade, is commonly used by corporate executives and university administrators nationwide in a cultural, national and racial context. Its purpose is to combine a bevy of social groups and traditions into one campus community. And at SLU, it is likely meant to be the antidote for the upper middle class, Catholic high school-educated, culturally homogenous reputation for which this university's students was once infamous, and which the administration dares not hedge again.
SLU administrators have taken great steps to ensure that the University's cultural stands up to the challenge of cultural diversity, both in recruitment programs and services for those international students who are already here.
But one needs not look past the Busch Student Center or the West Pine Mall to notice that SLU students still tend toward cultural segregation, and that they segregate themselves.
It is human nature to feel comfortable with those most like yourself. A shared tradition often means shared experiences, shared values and shared worldviews. Thus, it makes sense to see students with similar cultural upbringings-be that in a rural Midwestern American town or that of a sprawling city on a different continent-spending time together. Ask any of SLU's myriad of study-abroad students, current or veteran, and you'll hear that it's tempting to spend time speaking English to a small circle of American friends.
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Jim
posted 8/23/08 @ 9:18 AM CST
I don't think people are concerned about "what they look like." The real question is, will these Chinese put on a fake opening ceremony to welcome themselves to SLU?
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