{"id":91,"date":"2008-07-05T09:00:48","date_gmt":"2008-07-05T16:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/?p=91"},"modified":"2008-07-03T00:41:07","modified_gmt":"2008-07-03T07:41:07","slug":"virtual-diversity-the-diversity-you-wish-you-had","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.harmonicminer.com\/wordpress\/2008\/07\/05\/virtual-diversity-the-diversity-you-wish-you-had\/","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Diversity: The Diversity You Wish You Had"},"content":{"rendered":"

Is this so bad?<\/a><\/p>\n

A sociologist at Augsburg College, together with an undergraduate, recently studied the viewbooks of hundreds of four-year colleges and universities, selected at random. The research team counted the racially identifiable student photographs and also gathered data on the actual make-up of the student bodies.<\/p>\n

The findings: Black students made up an average of 7.9 percent of students at the colleges studied, but 12.4 percent of those in viewbooks. Asian students are also more likely to be found in viewbooks than on campus, making up 3.3 percent of real students on average and 5.1 percent of portrayed students. The researchers acknowledge that appearance does not always tell the story of race and ethnicity, and say that they only counted clearly identifiable photos, and feel less confident about figures for Latino students. But they report relatively few students whose appearance suggested that they might be Latino, which is striking given the growth in the Latino student body. (A total of 371 colleges were studied, and historically black colleges were excluded; the findings were recently presented at the meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I suppose there are all kinds of reasons for fudging the appearance of diversity<\/em><\/a>, maybe even including trying to attract a more diverse<\/em> student body.\u00a0 One assumes that these schools also try to make residence facilities, meal plans and recreation areas look better than the truth….\u00a0 that is, after all, the American way…\u00a0 for some of us.\u00a0 This is not a random failure to be accurate….\u00a0 none of the minorities were represented as being less<\/em> than the real figure.<\/p>\n

And when some of the students who see these viewbooks come to campus, and fudge the data in their academic work, at least they have a good excuse….\u00a0 they learned it from the university they attended.<\/p>\n

Share this:<\/h3>