Experiencing diversity: what can we learn from liberal arts colleges?

IN MANY WAYS, liberal arts colleges seem uniquely well suited to provide high quality undergraduate experiences. Their relatively small size ostensibly promotes student-faculty interaction and meaningful relations with peers. Many have salient missions--some because of denominational roots, others because of curricular arrangements--that are thought to leave distinctive imprints on their students' attitudes and values (Clark 1970; Kuh et al. 1991; Townsend, Newell, and Wiese 1992). According to Richard Hersh (1999, 192) these structural and cultural features make liberal arts colleges "sui generis, themselves a special kind of pedagogy." That is, they emphasize a range of intellectual and practical knowledge, skills, and competencies and create the conditions inside and outside the classroom that help students integrate and bring coherence to their learning. This is supported by some pretty convincing empirical evidence. Decades of studies show that residential liberal arts colleges "produce a pattern of consistently positive student outcomes not found in any other type of American higher-education institution" (Astin 1999, 77; see also Pascarella and Terenzini 1991).

The Association of American Colleges and Universities' Greater Expectations report (2002) makes a persuasive argument that a liberal education may be more relevant today than at any previous time, given the social, cultural, and economic challenges facing college graduates. Yet, some of the educationally powerful features of liberal arts colleges could be constraints in a world that is becoming increasingly diverse in virtually every way. For example, because of their location or denominational affiliation, many liberal arts colleges are fairly homogeneous in terms of student and faculty racial and ethnic backgrounds. This relative lack of structural diversity reduces the probability a student will frequently interact with someone different from themselves in terms of race or ethnicity. Studies show that experiences with diversity are precursors to such desirable outcomes as improved intergroup relations, critical thinking, and satisfaction with the learning environment (Gurin 1999; Hurtado et al. 1999).

Thus, it would appear that in terms of having experiences with diversity, students at many liberal arts colleges may be disadvantaged compared with their counterparts at larger, more structurally diverse universities. At the same time, it is possible--as Mitchell Chang (2001) has demonstrated--that an institution can compensate for its relative lack of structural diversity by providing students with opportunities to experience and learn more about human diversity. Examples include required multicultural or diversity courses (often part of the general education component), elective ethnic studies courses, cultural awareness workshops, and cultural centers.

All this begs the question, how do students at liberal arts colleges fare in terms of experiencing diversity?

We provide a partial answer to this question by threading together key findings from two complementary projects. The first is the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), an annual survey of tens of thousands of first-year and senior students (Kuh 2001, 2003). For this study we analyzed the responses of 98,744 undergraduates (49,706 first-year students and 49,038 seniors) from 349 four-year colleges and universities who participated in the NSSE survey in spring 2002. Of this group, 17,640 (9,598 first-year students and 8,042 seniors) were enrolled at sixty-eight baccalaureate liberal arts colleges, as defined by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (McCormick 2001). (1)

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The second project is a recently completed two-year study of twenty colleges and universities (Kuh et al. 2005). Known as Project DEEP (Documenting Effective Educational Practices), the schools selected for the study all had higher-than-predicted scores on NSSE and higher-than-predicted graduation rates. The purpose of DEEP was to discover and document the policies and practices at these schools that contributed to the better than expected performance by their students. (2)

Experiences with diversity: How do liberal arts colleges stack up?

The NSSE data point to two general conclusions. The first is about diversity experiences at liberal arts colleges compared with other types of colleges and universities. The second is related to students' experiences with diversity at liberal arts colleges.

First, students at liberal arts colleges report more frequent experiences with diversity on average than do their counterparts at other types of institutions. Table 1 illustrates this where the overall diversity experiences score for liberal arts colleges is set at zero. The pattern of negative effect sizes for all the other types of institutions indicates that students at liberal arts colleges, on average, report more experiences with diversity compared with other schools. The effect size is the proportion of a standard deviation change in the dependent variable (in this instance, diversity experiences) associated with the independent variable (institutional type). The larger the effect size, the more likely the differences are "real." For our purposes, an effect size of 0.20 is worthy of note.

In relative terms, liberal arts colleges appear to have diversity-rich learning environments. This advantage is substantial, even after controlling for student and other institutional features. This pattern is mildly surprising if for no other reason than that many of these institutions are not naturally imbued with structural diversity. For example, many liberal arts colleges are located for historical reasons in rural settings, which are neither populated nor viewed as desirable collegiate environments by students from historically underrepresented groups. As a result, many liberal arts colleges are not structurally diverse. That is, on average, they enroll relatively small numbers of students from racial and ethnic minority backgrounds. Even so, they seem to leave a distinctive diversity imprint on their students.

Second, diversity experiences at liberal arts colleges are positively associated with a host of educationally purposeful activities and outcomes. This can be seen in table 2, which displays the relationships between different measures of diversity and selected indicators of student engagement and student self-reported progress since starting college. The plus signs indicate that a highly significant correlation exists between the relevant measures; a minus sign indicates a negative relationship. The pattern of findings shows that students at liberal arts colleges who more frequently interact with peers from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds or who have serious conversations with other students who hold political and social views very different from their own also engage at higher levels in other effective educational practices, such as working with peers on problem-solving activities inside and outside the classroom (active and collaborative learning).

For this study, we defined structural diversity (table 2) as the probability that a student will interact with a student of another race. As expected, first-year and senior students at institutions with high structural diversity scores are more likely to engage in diversity-related activities and report gains in understanding people from other backgrounds and cultures.

While structural diversity appears to matter in promoting engagement in certain effective educational practices, the institutional climate for diversity is even more important. Climate for diversity represents students' perceptions that the institution encourages and values interaction with people from different backgrounds. As table 2 indicates, climate for diversity is positively related to almost all of the engagement and gains measures. As expected, the strongest effects for both first-year and senior students can be seen in the average engagement in diversity-related activities, such as the frequency with which students encounter diverse perspectives in class and make gains in understanding diversity.

The diversity press measure in table 2 is the overall measure of the degree to which an institution values diversity, or the sum of students' experiences with diversity, students' perceptions of the climate for diversity, and students' exposure to diverse perspectives in coursework. At liberal arts colleges, the diversity press is most strongly related to engagement in diversity-related activities and gains in understanding diversity for both first-year students and seniors.

In only two instances was a diversity measure negatively related to effective educational practices or desired outcomes of college. The more racially and ethnically diverse the student body, the less satisfied first-year students were with their overall college experience and the quality of the interpersonal environment on campus. Apparently, schools need to do more than simply recruit more students from historically underrepresented groups for students to benefit from experiences with diversity.

How liberal arts colleges foster diversity experiences: Some insights from DEEP

What is it about liberal arts colleges that contributes to their relative advantage in creating diversity-rich learning environments? We have some insights into this phenomenon from the Documenting Effective Educational Practices (DEEP) study (Kuh et al. 2005). Common to all twenty colleges and universities in the DEEP project was a commitment to diversity. This was especially evident in the mission statements of the ten liberal arts colleges in the study. For example, multiculturalism and internationalism are two of the "four pillars" in Macalester College's mission. Though Macalester students perennially urge the institution to become even more diverse, in relative terms the levels of interaction among students of different backgrounds and attitudes places the institution above the ninetieth percentile nationally on the NSSE diversity items. Another liberal arts college with strong diversity scores, California State University-Monterey Bay (CSUMB), also emphasizes diversity in its mission: "to build a multicultural learning community founded on academic excellence from which all partners in the educational process emerge prepared to contribute productively, responsibly, and ethically to California and the global community." CSUMB's commitment to diversity and multiculturalism flows naturally from its vision statement, which features serving "the diverse people of California, especially the working class and historically underrepresented and low-income populations." The Evergreen State College, also a strong performer on diversity measures, was founded with a strong social justice commitment. Today, Evergreen's mission is guided by five foci, one of which is "teaching across significant differences."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Another way liberal arts colleges promote diversity is by implementing programs and practices that encourage and support cross-racial interactions. Creating living-learning communities organized around diversity themes is one way to promote more frequent cross-racial interactions. Ursinus College offers two such living units, Musser Hall and Umoja, that are home to students interested in international, multicultural, and diversity issues. But for such facilities to be successful, minority students must enjoy a modicum of academic and social success, enough that they are willing to persist and graduate. For this reason, Ursinus created the Bridge Program, which brings minority students to campus three weeks before the start of the semester to help them "bridge the gap" between high school and college. The percentage of students of color graduating from Ursinus is comparable to that of white students.

Including diverse perspectives in the classroom is essential. CSUMB keeps diversity on the front burner every day, beginning with its first-year proseminar and continuing in classes, even in fields such as science where discussions about multiculturalism are rare. Ursinus College requires two courses that emphasize diversity as part of its core curriculum, one focused on diversity within the United States and another that examines issues from a global perspective.

Evergreen institutionalizes its commitment to diversity with regular activities, events, and organizations that create opportunities for minority students to interact with and support one another and that encourage them to learn about and celebrate their cultural heritages. Groups such as the First People's Coalition, a support group where both individuals and groups can find friendship, common cause, and mutual support, offer a full repertoire of social and service activities, big sibling programs, social and political action opportunities, and community outreach and service programs.

The locations of some liberal arts colleges helps to increase their structural diversity. At CSUMB, for example, fewer than half (46 percent) of the students are white. But other liberal arts colleges do not have the advantage of nearly as much racial and ethnic diversity in their region, yet have found ways to emphasize diversity, especially in the classroom. For example, there is not a lot of racial and ethnic diversity in the region where the University of Maine at Farmington (UMF) is located. To overcome this limitation, the institution intentionally designed programs that connect its students in meaningful ways to people from other backgrounds. One working example is an education methods course where students correspond as "pen pals" with first graders at a Chicago public school. Every few weeks, students read aloud some of the handwritten letters they receive and then discuss the children's progress in writing skills. Student affairs staff members at UMF do their part by offering a full complement of diversity education programming and major productions, such as the Laramie Project, which was complemented by postproduction discussions on themes of intolerance, hate crimes, sexual orientation, and religion.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The new 8,500 square-foot Malcolm X Institute at Wabash College reflects the symbolism and spatial arrangement found in a traditional African village. It is both a physical manifestation of the college's commitment to multiculturalism and a programmatic effort to provide educational, cultural, and social opportunities to the campus and surrounding communities. These range from student study tables, black experience library resources, a Kwanzaa celebration, deejay parties, speakers, and major conferences such as "Negotiating Success: Workshops for Black Men in the Liberal Arts," which brought together students and faculty from colleges around the country to discuss issues affecting the black male in liberal arts colleges as well as the success of black people in general.

Of course, liberal arts colleges are not the only types of institutions that are successfully infusing diversity experiences into the undergraduate program. In fact, some of the more innovative and effective approaches to facilitating cross-group interactions are occurring at large universities such as the University of Michigan (another DEEP school), the University of Maryland, Indiana University Bloomington, and Arizona State University. These institutions have implemented intergroup dialogues that bring together diverse groups of students with the purpose of discussing issues related to their diversity. So far, the research on the impact of these experiences is promising, suggesting that these dialogues are an effective way for students to learn to become citizens in an increasingly diverse society (Schoem and Hurtado 2001).

Conclusion

All things considered, students at liberal arts colleges report more frequent experiences with diversity than do their peers at other types of institutions. In part, this may be because many liberal arts colleges have policies and practices designed to prepare their students for a diverse democracy. At the same time, developmentally powerful experiences with diversity transcend institutional type. Ultimately, what really matters is that students encounter in their studies perspectives that reflect a range of human experiences and that they are encouraged and supported to interact with others in ways that help them think and respond in novel, more complex ways to contemporary circumstances. The few examples mentioned above indicate that institutions can vary substantially in structural diversity, mission, type, size, and location but still present diverse views in the classroom, communicate the value of diversity, and support the academic and social needs of students from different backgrounds. Thus, ensuring that our students gain valuable experiences with diversity during college is not a matter of resources or location, but a matter of institutional will.

Table 1 Engagement in diversity-related activities: Differences between
liberal arts colleges and other institution types (after controls)
represented by effect size

Carnegie Classification      First-year  Senior

Doctoral Research-Extensive  -0.21       -0.19
Doctoral Research-Intensive  -0.24       -0.25
Master's I & II              -0.27       -0.19
Baccalaureate-General        -0.30       -0.28

Table 2 Relationships between diversity experiences, effective
educational practices, and desired outcomes for students at liberal arts
colleges

                                   First-year Students
                                                 Diversity
                          Structural  Climate    in Course-  Diversity
Dependent Variable        Diversity   Diversity  Work        Press

ENGAGEMENT
Academic Challenge                               +
Higher-Order Thinking                 +          +           +
Active and Collaborative              +          +           +
Diversity-related         +           +          +           +
  Activities

SUPPORTIVE CAMPUS
Supportive Campus Env.                +
Interpersonal             -           +
Support for Learning                  +          +           +
Satisfaction              -           +

GAINS
Personal/Social                       +          +           +
Understand Diversity      +           +          +           +
Contribute to Community               +          +           +
Understand Self                       +          +           +
Understand Others                     +          +           +

                                          Seniors
                                                 Diversity
                          Structural  Climate    in Course-  Diversity
Dependent Variable        Diversity   Diversity  Work        Press

ENGAGEMENT
Academic Challenge                               +           +
Higher-Order Thinking                 +          +           +
Active and Collaborative              +          +           +
Diversity-related         +           +          +           +
  Activities

SUPPORTIVE CAMPUS
Supportive Campus Env.                +
Interpersonal
Support for Learning                  +          +           +
Satisfaction                          +

GAINS
Personal/Social           +           +          +           +
Understand Diversity      +           +          +           +
Contribute to Community               +          +           +
Understand Self                       +          +           +
Understand Others                                +           +

NOTES

1. We measured student engagement using multiple sets of items from NSSE that represent level of academic challenge, higher-order thinking, active and collaborative learning, and diversity-related activities. The supportive campus environment measure was made up of items reflecting interpersonal support, support for learning, and overall satisfaction with college. Students' gains in learning and intellectual development were represented by two scales: gains in general education and gains in personal and social development. The data were analyzed in three stages in which a variety of student-level variables were used to control for possible confounding effects. We used a series of hierarchical linear models to explore the impact of differences in student engagement by institutional type, to examine the institutional factors that are related to diversity and the effects of diversity experiences on student engagement at liberal arts colleges, and to probe the relationships between student engagement with diversity-related activities at liberal arts colleges and measures of student engagement and self-reported gains in personal and educational growth. These analytical methods are described more fully in Umbach and Kuh (forthcoming) and online at www.iub.edu/~nsse/acrobat/experienceswith_diversity.pdf.

2. The Documenting Effective Educational Practices (DEEP) project was conducted by twenty-four researchers between June 2002 and May 2004 with generous support from Lumina Foundation for Education and the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College. In the process of two multiple day visits to each institution, the research team interviewed more than 2,700 faculty, staff, and students and reviewed thousands of documents. More information about the DEEP study is available in Kuh et al. (2005) and online at www.iub.edu/~nsse/html/deep/main.htm.

REFERENCES

Association of American Colleges and Universities. 2002. Greater expectations: A new vision for learning as a nation goes to college. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Astin, A. W. 1999. How the liberal arts college affects students. Daedalus 128 (1): 77-100.

Chang, M. J. 2001. The positive educational effects of racial diversity on campus. In G. Orfield and M. Kurlaender, eds. Diversity challenged: Evidence on the impact of affirmative action. Cambridge, MA: The Civil Rights Project, Harvard University, 175-86.

Clark, B. R. 1970. The distinctive college: Antioch, Reed, and Swarthmore. Chicago: Aldine.

Gurin, P. 1999. Expert report of Patricia Gurin. In The University of Michigan, ed. The compelling need for diversity in higher education, Gratz et al. v. Bollinger et al. No. 97-75231 and Grutter et al. v. Bollinger et al. No. 97-75928. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan, 99-234.

Hersh, R. H. 1999. Generating ideals and transforming lives: A contemporary case for the residential liberal arts college. Daedalus 128 (1): 173-94.

Hurtado, S., J. Milem, A. Clayton-Pedersen, and W. Allen. 1999. Enacting diverse learning environments: Improving the climate for racial/ethnic diversity in higher education. Washington, DC: The George Washington University.

Kuh, G. D. 2001. Assessing what really matters to student learning: Inside the National Survey of Student Engagement. Change 33 (3): 10-17, 66.

_____. 2003. What we're learning about student engagement from NSSE. Change 35 (2): 35-44.

Kuh, G. D., J. Kinzie, J. H. Schuh, E. J. Whitt, and Associates. 2005. Student success in college: Creating conditions that matter. San Francisco: American Association for Higher Education/Jossey-Bass.

Kuh, G. D., J. H. Schuh, E. J. Whitt, and Associates. 1991. Involving colleges: Successful approaches to fostering student learning and development outside the classroom. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

McCormick, A. C. 2001. The Carnegie classification of institutions of higher education, 2000 edition. Menlo Park, CA: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Pascarella, E. T., and P. T. Terenzini. 1991. How college affects students. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Schoem, D. L. and S. Hurtado, eds. 2001. Intergroup dialogue: Deliberative democracy in school, college, community, and workplace. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Townsend, B. K., L. J. Newell, and M. D. Wiese. 1992. Creating distinctiveness: Lessons from uncommon colleges and universities. Washington, DC: The George Washington University.

Umbach, P. D., and G. D. Kuh. Forthcoming. Student experiences with diversity at liberal arts colleges: Another claim for distinctiveness. Journal of Higher Education.

GEORGE D. KUH is chancellor's professor and director of the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research. PAUL D. UMBACH is assistant professor of higher education at the University of Iowa.