"The problem is not who we're admitting. It's who's applying. . . . We want to change the perception of the school, and that's going to take time."
-Peter Lange, Provost of Duke University, 11.16.06
Provost Lange appraised Duke students' appreciation of diversity and inclusion at last semester's event, "Black Like Me." At the event, scores of students filed into White Lecture Hall for a panel discussion on the Campus Life and Learning Project. Launched in 2000, the CLLP has examined the "characteristics and qualities of different groups of students' undergraduate educational experiences." With data collected from 1,500 students in the classes of 2005 and 2006, the Project's midstream report laid bare troubling realities about Duke undergraduates' academic, social and residential lives. Perhaps the most disappointing finding was student-reported discrimination during their second year. Black: 44 percent. Bi-Multiracial: 28 percent. Asian and Latino: 19 percent. White: 11 percent.
In its present form, the CLLP offers valuable information, but information isn't enough. Now is the time to draw key insights from the Project's research for the sake of progress.
Since welcoming African-American faculty and students, Duke has produced an outwardly diverse campus. But if 44 percent of black students in the classes of 2005 and 2006 experienced discrimination as sophomores, Duke has institutional evidence that shows its racial diversity has not precluded on-campus discrimination. Indeed, in the latest Strategic Plan, the University Trustees articulated a commitment "to advancing research and teaching on the history, cultures, and contemporary issues affected by and affecting the lives of under-represented minorities in the United States." The Trustees also endorsed lasting "change in campus culture and. inclusion through programming on campus and beyond." Unfortunately, the discrimination cited in the CLLP prevents the full exploitation of such efforts.
Duke cannot easily divorce students from the prejudices and biases with which they enter college, but a concrete change will signal to future applicants that Duke (a) commits to embracing difference and (b) rejects individual and institutional forms of discrimination. As Lange suggests, at stake is the type of student we are attracting.
The concrete change I call for is a new mandatory course for first-year students on the historical foundation and ethical dimensions of diversity. What better way to enhance that culture-to change "the perception of the school" as Lange advises-than by incorporating the enduring theme of diversity into the classroom from Day One?
In my plan, Trinity College's existing requirements for Cross Culture Inquiry and Ethical Inquiry would undergird the proposed course. The rationale for the two CCI requirements currently reads, "To be successful, Duke students need formal and academic experience in the processes of exploring. differences among peoples. within national and international contexts." And the two EI requirements are intended to "sharpen [students'] understanding of a variety of ways in which ethical issues and values frame. human conduct."
What is missing here is a broad treatment of, as the Trustees stated in the Strategic Plan, disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to "issues of race, ethnicity, and gender in the sciences, social sciences, humanities and the professions." Indeed, undergraduates can maneuver through the Trinity requirements (and obviously those of Pratt) without ever truly engaging diversity or gaining academic exposure to contemporary instances of discrimination. Only self-selecting students enroll in those classes that effectively address and interrogate diversity as a subject. Save the once-over-then-done summer reading, we have no "common intellectual currency" (as Jimmy Soni in Duke Student Government Academic Affairs has stated), especially where diversity is concerned.
So, how exactly do I propose we build that currency? The half-credit, pass/fail seminar I propose for first-year students would allow for interactive and meaningful dialogue based on selected readings, but it also would bring each incoming class together for a supplemental lecture series supported by international spokespersons, multi-millionaire CEOs, American politicos, biomedical engineers, financial leaders, celebrities, artists, actors and even comedians. Imagine arriving at Duke to hear 10 of the world's most capable and rousing speakers lecture on diversity in their professional life and global citizenship. The guest speakers would help propel dialogue and make diversity more relevant for incoming students.
The need is clear. More than 40 percent of this year's freshmen are students of color. About 45 percent of all undergrads receive financial aid from the University. More than 500 international post-doctoral fellows conduct research at Duke. One in three graduate and professional students is international.
But these instantly gratifying metrics of diversity mean nothing to the student who chooses not to engage the statistics' variance-an engagement that must begin in the classroom.
Samson Mesele is a Trinity sophomore. His column runs every other Thursday.
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