31 October 2014
Shawna Watson
Eng115-8
Essay #2
Diversity at North Central College
Look around for a minute. Do the people you see look the same? What differences do you notice? Where are you located? If you are at North Central College, you mainly see people of the white race since it is not a diverse campus. Diversity, as defined in the Merriam Webster Dictionary, “is the state of having people who are different races or who have different cultures in a group or organization.” Places such as a school, a city or a work place can be examples of having diversity. Besides the diversity of race, it could also include sex, class and sexuality. North Central College is not a very diverse college campus.
High school and college diversity are completely different. Few students get to choose which high school they want to attend. Usually it is based on the location of where their family lives. If that student’s community is ethnically diverse, then so will the high school. A high school is not allowed to deny a student’s education based on his or race. College is a different story; people from all ethnic backgrounds can conform to one location. Depending on the location, it may be more diverse. When applying to colleges, every application asks for the applicant’s race and sex. Most colleges have a quota to meet each year. According to US News, diversity at college matters for reasons that include, “promoting creative thinking, enhancing self-awareness, enriching multiple perspectives and several more.” Colleges want students to become open-minded and global thinkers, hoping to change the views of race in society in the generations to come. In high school one becomes “safe” and “comfortable” with whom they are surrounded with; little do they know there are many more different types of people out there. Weather there is people with different sexual appeals or just different cultures and traditions. As an example, an article in Metro Parent Southeast Michigan, “nearly two-thirds of students reported feeling unsafe and ostracized in school because of their sexual orientation.” In college they have organizations that support these types of groups and find others who accept them. Colleges also have activities or groups to spread the word about differences in cultures. Many people can enjoy college more than high school for reasons including diversity.
North Central College is a Division Three school that is in the CCIW conference with other colleges that include Augustana, Carthage and Wheaton. Like North Central, these three schools have a large majority of white students, making them not very diverse in race (“North Central College Diversity”). Also, these colleges almost have a pretty even boy to girl ratio. The Big Ten schools are more likely to have more diversity when it comes to race than D2 or D3 schools. The reason behind this is because these colleges are more widely known. As well as the population of the student body and the athletics attracting most applicants. According to Forbes, “the Newark campus of Rutgers is almost evenly divided into black, white, Hispanic and Asian students. It ranks No. 1 on Forbes’ list of America’s Most Diverse Colleges, beating out every other school in the United States in racial and ethnic diversity.” Though this college is not widely known,