Education and Scholarship

Americans See Many Benefits to Diversity in Higher Education, Finds First-Ever National Poll on Topic

Public Says Diversity Education Can Bring Together A Society That Is Growing Apart

Two in three Americans say it is very important that colleges and universities prepare people to function in a diverse society. Fifty-five percent say that every college student should have to study different cultures in order to graduate. By a margin of more than three to one, those who have an opinion say that diversity programs in colleges and universities raise rather than lower academic standards. Nearly three in five (58 percent) say our nation is growing apart, and 71 percent say that diversity education on college and university campuses helps bring society together.

Those are among the conclusions of the first-ever national poll on diversity in higher education, conducted by Daniel Yankelovich's firm, DYG, Inc., for the Ford Foundation's Campus Diversity Initiative. The findings were released at a news conference here today. The telephone poll of 2,011 registered voters was conducted July 14 to August 4, 1998. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percent.

Fifty-one percent of respondents self-identified as either "very conservative" politically or "more conservative than liberal."

"This poll shows that, despite the heated public debate over diversity, Americans are very clear in their views," said Alison R. Bernstein, a Ford Foundation Vice President. "They support diversity in higher education. They recognize that diversity is important to student success. And they believe that diversity education can help bring the country together."

"A college education must address differences of racial, ethnic, international and geographic diversity," University of Michigan President Lee C. Bollinger said. "There are all kinds of diversity, and it's critical that our students come to terms with differences."

The Campus Diversity Initiative also released oversamples of the poll for Arizona, California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Tennessee; those results also were released by higher education leaders in their states today. A similar statewide poll was released in Florida in April of 1998, and in Washington state in April of 1997.

"Higher education fulfills a need by creating spaces where people from diverse backgrounds learn from and with one another," said Carol Geary Schneider, President of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. "Diversity challenges educators and students alike to reexamine our most fundamental assumptions. Above all, diversity asks us to address the links between education and a developed sense of responsibility to one another."

The national news conference also featured Oberlin College President Nancy S. Dye, United Negro College Fund President William H. Gray, III, and pollsters Daniel Yankelovich and Madelyn Hochstein.

Other findings from the DYG, Inc. poll were:

• Ninety-seven percent of respondents agree that, "in the next generations, people will need to get along with people who are not like them." Ninety-four percent agree that the "nation's growing diversity makes it more important than ever for all of us to understand people who are different than ourselves."
• Just one in five Americans (22 percent) say the nation is doing a good job of preparing itself to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
• By a margin of more than three to one, respondents say that diversity education does more to bring society together (71 percent) than drive society apart (19 percent). Ninety-one percent agree that "our society is multi-cultural and the more we know about each other, the better we will get along."
• Clear majorities say that:
  • diversity on campus has a more positive (69 percent) than negative (22 percent) effect on the general atmosphere on college campuses;
    
  • a diverse student body has a more positive (75 percent) than negative (18 percent) effect on the education of students; and
    
  • courses and campus activities that emphasize diversity and diverse perspectives have more of a positive (69 percent) than negative (22 percent) effect on the education of students.
• Two-thirds (66 percent) say that colleges and universities should take explicit steps to insure diversity in the student body; 75 percent say that colleges and universities should take explicit steps to insure diversity among faculty. Thirty-eight percent agree and 52 percent disagree that diversity is used as an excuse to admit and graduate students who wouldn't otherwise make it.
• Nine in ten (91 percent) agree that the global economy makes it more important than ever for all of us to understand people who are different than ourselves. Ninety-four percent say it is important for colleges and universities to prepare people to function in a more diverse work force. Eighty-eight percent support offering courses in business schools on managing a diverse work force.
• One in three respondents (34 percent) say that "diversity education is nothing more than political correctness, which hinders true education." More than half (58 percent) agree that "diversity education always seems to have a liberal political agenda."

The Ford Foundation's Campus Diversity Initiative is a partnership with American colleges and universities to promote understanding of cultural diversity as a resource for learning.

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The Ford Foundation is an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization. For more than half a century it has worked with courageous people on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. With headquarters in New York, the foundation has offices in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.