'U' deemed a leader in diversity education

Fifty-three percent of Americans said every college student should have to study different cultures to graduate. Three in four said diversity education on college campuses can help bring society together.

These statistics, results of the first-ever national poll on diversity in education, were among those announced and discussed at a press conference in Washington yesterday.

The poll revealed overwhelming support for diversity in higher education, said Edgar Beckham, the coordinator of the Ford Foundation's Campus Diversity Initiative, which sponsored the poll.

"I was not surprised with the results of the poll," Beckham said. "I was surprised with the intensity of the results. Americans were so broadly supportive. I was very gratified."

University President Lee Bollinger was among the panelists at the conference who discussed the importance of college curriculums that support racial, ethnic, international and geographic diversity.

Diversity "is something of great importance to the University of Michigan, but also equally important to society," Bollinger said. "It comes as no particular surprise that many people value diversity."

After more than a year of intense debate over affirmative action and minority issues on campus, the University was recognized as a leader in diversity education by the Campus Diversity Initiative.

"We invited Bollinger to speak because we recognized that his university is doing a lot in the area of diversity education," Beckham said. "His university is representative of efforts across the country to improve this education."

Beckham said the University is "doing a lot" for diversity and that diversity itself is something that evolves over time.

"This diversity is still a struggle," Beckham said. "But we think U of M is engaging the challenge of diversity ... in an interesting way."

Bollinger highlighted in his speech the importance of going past the idea of recruiting a diverse student body and beginning to understand diversity's actual role in education.

"Some people think that having diversity is inconsistent with understanding the classics," Bollinger said. "Yet if you take a Shakespeare class ... one of the things that is most compelling and pronounced is the capacity that he revealed as an author to be able to cross over into sensitivities of other people."

Bollinger said this same willingness to learn from others' backgrounds and lives is the key to a solid diversity curriculum.

"One of the important things is to teach ourselves, our students and our faculty what it is like to see through other people's eyes," Bollinger said. "That's true with poetry, it's true with philosophy, it's true in literature, it's true in social science and it's true in law."

The poll, which questioned 2,011 registered voters across the nation this summer, demonstrated that despite the heated public debate on diversity that has plagued universities, Americans appreciate diversity in education, Beckham said.

"We know now that the efforts to educate all our students to appreciate diversity as an asset is widely supported by American voters," Beckham said.

He added that although it is difficult to ignore the negative connotations of affirmative action, the focus on diversity education - including campus climate, student life and curriculum - is extremely important.

Provost Nancy Cantor said the University is known nationally for "taking as strong stand for absolute importance of diversity in education."

The race and ethnicity requirement in the School of Literature, Science and the Arts is one example of the long-standing tradition to take diversity curriculum seriously, Cantor said.

"What's important to remember is that we're always working on how to educate ourselves and each other," Cantor said. "That's what diversity is all about."

10-07-98