Statistics a hindrance when promoting and maintaining diversity

I have spent a great deal of time during the past several months staring sadly outside my window as light, white flakes fell with a vengeance upon Pittsburgh. Yet, no moment was as tragic as those in which I was forced from my room and dropped into the midst of the haze to heroically blaze a path to class. The wanting of a snow day can easily drive a student to insanity, or, as exhibited by the students of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, racism.

When students at Illinois were informed that they would not receive a snow day on a particularly frigid school day, they took to social media to verbally attack Chancellor Phyllis Wise for reasons that soon escalated beyond her unpopular decision and toward her Asian heritage. Likening her to a variation of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and insinuating a communist agenda, students propagated the newly emerging hashtag, #f*ckphyllis.

Wise used the opportunity to promote the necessity of the university’s diversity efforts through her chancellor’s blog, stating that, “Of all places, a university should be home to diverse ideas and differing perspectives, where robust — and even intense — debate and disagreement are welcomed.”

Wise is not alone in her goals for diversity, as her statement is synonymous with that of many different institutions, including that of Pitt. Yet in a world in which racism and prejudice continue, how can a university hope to achieve this idealized state of diversity? Pitt, like many schools across the nation, battles with this very question of how to diversify on all levels. Though, based on the effects of Pitt’s efforts, it appears that the diversity on the college campus is not hindered or enhanced by any particular factor, but rather, by the combined effects of the University’s efforts to address individual factors.

When asked about Pitt’s diversity goals, Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey said, “It is critical for our campus to reflect diversity so that we can all learn from one another and be enriched by our differences,” while also stating the University’s role: “A University should be a place where diversity of thought is respected and cherished by everyone.” 

Despite the beliefs of the administration, these goals are not always prevalent on the campus, and diversity statistics remain skewed toward the white majority. Outside of population statistics, what other factors could conflict with the diversity goals of the administration?

Social psychologist and Pitt professor Martin Greenberg said, in relation to diversity of viewpoints, the intensity to which one holds certain viewpoints may result in hostility, especially once students verbalize and argue their beliefs, thereby, becoming more committed to those beliefs. These beliefs can range from opinions on controversial world issues to those resulting from family backgrounds. If these beliefs are held strongly by an individual, they have the potential to become strengthened, rather than broadened, through the interactions with differing opinions when made part of a classroom discussion.

Alternatively, sociologist and Pitt professor Mike Epitropoulos said a university is a reflection of the larger, dominant society in which it resides. Regardless of individual university efforts, it cannot completely distance itself from practices of the dominant culture.

Social psychologist John Levine, who teaches a course called Inner Group Relations, points out that attaining diversity on a university level is dependent on how one defines diversity. 

In my opinion, diversity can be defined as differences in racial, educational, sexual and other conflicting backgrounds that can affect a student’s thoughts, behaviors and interactions, which result from combining these differences.

Levine also emphasizes the effect of the classroom on diversity, which depends on the setting of the classroom itself, stating, “diversity can be in the foreground or in the background, depending on the education goals of the classroom,” to describe the degree of attention paid to the influence of diversity within a classroom.

Also noting the limitations on the effects of diversity within different classrooms, junior Grace Kim said, “In [general education courses], I see different majors come together who have different goals, work ethics and views, which gives you a wider view of how people think,” while going on to point out that “In large classes, diversity doesn’t have as large as a role because you don’t really get to interact with other people.”

How would Pitt go about minimizing or eliminating these factors to promote its diversity efforts?

Greenberg states, “To get the most out of a diverse population, you need both a diverse population and trained individuals” believing in the value of professors as classroom facilitators for diversity.

Despite shortcomings in its attempts to maintain a diverse population, Pitt has programs to encourage its students to engage with each other — such as those established by the Office of Cross Cultural and Leadership Development, along with the OCC curriculum — to allow students to learn about different cultures. Additionally, Pitt has resources for faculty to become better adept at facilitating diverse settings, with programs including the Faculty Diversity Seminar and the Allies Network, in which faculty pledge to increase their awareness of LGBTQ issues, as well as signaling their participation in training orientated toward developing sensitivity to students’ differences.

Taking a more radical approach, Epitropoulos claims that “the best education is not tolerating discrimination” and believes in utilizing infractions to prevent individuals from having negative effects on others as well as making it clear that the behavior is intolerable.

At Pitt, students can contact the Office of Affirmative Action, Diversity and Inclusion if they feel that they have been unfairly treated, and the office resolves to investigate and remedy any conflicts.

Diversity of education is also taken into consideration through programs such as the Academic Resource Center, the Writing Center and other educationally based initiatives that promote diversity by helping diminish any disadvantages that differences in a student’s educational background might have on his or her classwork. Regardless of whether students take advantage of these resources, they are informed of the value that Pitt places on diversity through the Pitt Promise that every new student recites at the convocation held during orientation week.

It’s admirable to note the way the student body at Pitt perceives the administration’s diversity efforts. Freshman Nicole Berardinelli said, “Compared to my high school, Pitt is very diverse because my high school was predominantly Caucasian.”

Additionally,  junior Danielle Levsky said, “Over the past two years, Pitt has become a lot more diverse.” However, she also notes feeling fazed her freshman year by a dominant white majority, or 74 percent of the student population. 

While Pitt claims to utilize its best efforts at maintaining a diverse population, whites make up 72 percent of the student body, decreasing by about 1 percent each year as the population sizes of minority groups increase at about the same gradual pace.

However, regardless of the minimal changes in statistical diversity over the years, students and faculty still note a greater increase in Pitt’s diversity. As a contrast, students at Illinois exhibited racial insensitivity, despite Asians occupying 14 percent of the student body, proving that population demographics alone do not always accurately portray how effective an administration is at inciting diversity.

By intitiating a focus on the connections between students of differing demographics, attendance of faculty to student diversity and minimizing hindrances to diversity, Pitt has managed to obtain diversity in ways that it is unable to generate through demographic statistics alone.

Yet, there is only so much that a university can achieve in relation to diversity goals when limited by population statistics. We can only hope that prospective students currently touring the campus perceive the potential of Pitt’s diversity based on the interactions found between current students of differing backgrounds and choose to attend, if not for the diversity found today, then for their ability to play a part in the diversity of the future.

Write Bethel at beh56@pitt.edu.