Faces in the crowd: part three of three

With the 1999 creation of the Chancellor’s Diversity Council and efforts to admit more minority students, it appears everyone is working to increase diversity at UCSD.

Pat Leung
Guardian

However, the issue poses many questions.

What does “”diversity”” really mean and why is it important? Are the changes being made to increase it actually working and are they even needed? Whose responsibility is it to address these questions?

Ask students, faculty and staff and you’ll get different answers to each of these questions.

UCSD Chancellor Robert C. Dynes stresses the importance of on-campus diversity — ethnic, racial and otherwise — because it fosters the type of strength that he says comes “”from people that aren’t part of the Establishment asking questions that the Establishment won’t ask,”” and from people “”bringing their own culture and their own wealth of ideas, wealth of perspectives together.””

He continued, “”The strength comes when we all learn — we don’t have to agree with everybody — but the strength comes when people begin to appreciate and respect different views.””

Dynes said racial diversity is not the only key to achieving this strength; benefits also arise from “”diversity in the broadest sense.””

Some feel it is the school’s responsibility to provide UCSD students with an education that includes diversity.

“”If we are graduating students who have no background and understanding of diversity, community and multicultural issues, we are not meeting our responsibilities as an institution of higher education,”” said Edwina Welch, director of the Cross-Cultural Center.

On the other hand, UCSD Conservative Union Vice Chairman John Allison says diversity is important at a university, but that making it “”more important than academic excellence”” compromises that excellence.

Ethnic studies professor George Lipsitz feels that such a view is detrimental to diversity at UCSD.

“”The toughest thing is for people to see this as a matter of academic and intellectual excellence rather than reparations for other forms of social inequality,”” Lipsitz said.

He also said that many people see the effort to increase diversity on campus as “”an act of charity, but it’s a matter of self-interest for our own selves because good scholarly conversation draws on the widest pool of voices.””

Lipsitz said he thinks there are several problems with current admission procedures, which he says help reinforce a lack of diversity at UCSD and give rewards to already privileged students.

The policies and efforts of the Chancellor’s Diversity Council, Lipsitz said, are “”well-intentioned but not likely to succeed. I don’t think they’re seriously going to change the climate on campus.””

So what needs to be changed to make tangible differences in UCSD’s diversity?

According to Revelle junior Adam Richards, nothing.

“”I do not believe that changes need to be made to the ethnic and racial diversity of UCSD,”” Richards said.

“”Though change would certainly be beneficial for all, this change should not be a result of a mandate or regulation involving quotas,”” he continued. “”If more students are admitted that happen to fit into underrepresented groups here at UCSD based on current admission policies, fantastic. However, deliberate changes in admission policy to promote this diversification by allocating quotas are unfair and illegal.””

However, there are many people who do feel changes in diversity at UCSD are necessary, though they do not agree on what those changes should be.

Marshall sophomore Jennifer Richter said any future differences in diversity would require “”people being open to see new cultures … and get out of their ethnic rut; people being able to feel they are welcome to [do this] no matter what race they are.””

Shaun Travers, director of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Association at UCSD, seconded the demand for a change initiated not by administrative programs, but by individuals.

“”Money can only do so much,”” Travers said. “”What would be better is more of a community.””

Allison does not think efforts being made on campus will affect diversity at UCSD. Student organizations that try to promote education about their various cultures “”do not change the ethnic make-up of students on campus,”” he said. “”The only way the diversity on campus can change is if the people applying to school change.””

How those people applying to UCSD are evaluated, however, affects who is admitted and ultimately who registers.

According to Lipsitz, “”our admissions policy is the worst in the UC system in producing barriers to minority enrollment.”” He suggested several ways to boost enrollment of minority students.

Instead of admitting the top 10 percent statewide, admit the top 3 percent from Imperial and San Diego counties, Lipsitz said.

He also suggested de-emphasizing AP courses and adopting a policy that makes A’s in a high school’s hardest classes the top grade. That way, students are not being punished with lower, weighted grade point averages for attending a high school where few AP courses are offered.

Lipsitz also said UCSD needs to ask students how much S.A.T. preparation they had and then weight scores accordingly. Students from a more affluent socio-economic class, who can take multiple preparation classes for the S.A.T., are compared directly with students from lower-income families who may not have had the same level of preparation.

“”[The S.A.T.] does not measure merit, but measures preparation,”” Lipsitz said.

Finally, he wants to see more emphasis in hiring new faculty in areas where UCSD’s curriculum has trailed comparable institutions, areas such as African studies, Chicano studies and African-American studies.

According to Dynes, a policy that has improved the diversity at UCSD is our unique transfer program.

“”If you want a diverse set of people on campus, you [have to] accept that people have different avenues to get here,”” he said. “”A lot of young people, for whatever reason, would prefer to go to community college for two years than to move into residence here [as freshmen]. But if you look at the performance at graduation of those that came as transfer students compared to those who came as freshmen, their GPAs are indistinguishable, which means that we’re doing something right.””

Rebalancing the weights given to numerical factors such as GPA and S.A.T. scores is not the only step some see as important to creating an admissions policy that encourages more ethnic diversity.

UCSD psychologist Linda Young, also the director of a peer support program, said as well that more minority students will be admitted to UCSD by “”changing admissions criteria … giving weight to attributes such as leadership skills and experiences, oral communication, interpersonal skills, personal responsibility, community service and multicultural competency.””

Some think that increased outreach programs will help foster connections with younger minority students and help prepare them for college. Young said that more funding is needed to conduct outreach and to give greater support to programs that increase ethnic diversity, such as K-12 outreach programs and scholarship funding for underrepresented students.

However, there are those who feel that nothing UCSD does will increase its racial and ethnic diversity.

Marshall junior Lauren Rau said, “”I don’t think UCSD can do much because I think the problem starts before people get to college.””

Dynes acknowledged the limitations faced by anyone seeking to increase ethnic diversity in higher education.

“”This really is a long-term issue,”” Dynes said. “”The problems are created … from pre-K all the way through. We can’t turn that around overnight. [But] we can help, we can dig in, we can go at what we think are the key issues.””

For change to take place, however, someone needs to assume responsibility. Who that someone is depends on who you talk to.

Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Joseph Watson said underrepresented students, if concerned, will take on some of the responsibility to make UCSD more attractive, and that these students carry obligations.

But when asked to speak about diversity, some students hesitate, feeling they aren’t familiar enough with the topic to express a valid opinion.

When interviewed, Roosevelt senior Jessica Shpall said, “”I don’t know if I’m the right person to talk to. I don’t know much about it.””

Other students simply aren’t concerned.

“”When I go into class, I don’t really notice what races are in the class. I could really care less: I’m concentrating on getting good grades,”” said Muir senior Jetson Nguyen.

Lipsitz believes that ultimately, the responsibility of increasing diversity at UCSD lies with the faculty.

“”If the faculty demanded a different admissions process, we’d have it,”” he said.

Travers, however, said it is the responsibility of the entire campus. He said that when every member of the faculty, staff and student body “”feels their own personal commitment to increase diversity, we’ll improve by leaps and bounds.””

In 1999, UCSD’s administration created a new position, the chief diversity officer, to oversee diversity. Dynes filled it himself.

Dynes explained, “”I feel that diversity is everybody’s job on the campus — not one person’s, not a few people, not the administration, not the students, not the faculty. It’s everybody’s job, and I felt the only way to make that statement was to appoint myself [as chief diversity officer]. That way, the vice chancellors would be held accountable to me for what they were doing on diversity on campus.””

In light of so much disagreement about changes that need to be made, Lipsitz sees little hope for the future of diversity at UCSD.

“”There is little prospect for improvement in the future,”” he said. However, he noted that “”up until now, there hasn’t been sufficient will to do it, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.””

Most people feel more confident that UCSD’s future will include a more diverse campus.

“”I’m optimistic,”” said African-American Student Union member Sarah Abukar. “”With the new open admissions policy, we can only hope to see a greater number of minority students attending the school in the future.””

Dynes shares that optimism.

“”The real goal is to have a community on this campus, and I mean a community … that is welcoming to any and all differences, so that you can embrace and respect differences that people bring, and celebrate them,”” Dynes said. “”We’re going that direction, we’re just not there yet. If I didn’t believe we could get there, I wouldn’t push it.””

Also hopeful for a future with increased diversity, David Brown Mitchell, a member of the AASU, said that with more diversity, “” the campus will gain new ideas, perceptions, intelligence, creativity, culture, music and interests. In short, it will itself become more well-rounded.””

Travers shared this sentiment, saying that with increased diversity UCSD will gain “”wisdom … it will be vibrant. There will be energy, disagreement and protest … and that creates education.””

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