Madison Daniels Source 1

Do college campuses emphasize diversity enough and/or  Does diversity in college education make a difference?

Radloff, Timothy D. Levonyan. "College Students' Perceptions Of Equal Opportunity For African Americans And Race-Based Policy: Do Diversity Course Requirements Make A Difference?." College Student Journal 44.2 (2010): 558-564.Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Oct. 2015.

This study discusses the diversity education at a Midwest college. The study's purpose was to see if the diversity courses required for graduation would have an impact on racial prejudice and their views on race-based policies. The overall finding was the following: "As predicted, modern racism was not only lower in students who fulfilled the university's diversity requirement for graduation, but these students were also more likely to support race-based policy." These courses are increasing, becoming required at several universities, beginning with President Clinton's Advisory Board on Race and Racial Reconciliation. Social scientists and those in charge of student affairs are trying to reduce racial prejudice and reduce interracial conflicts on campus, which is why diversity courses are becoming popular in order "to improve racial understanding." However, whites still do have negative stereotypes of African Americas, opposing the race-based policy facet. The goal is for these kinds of courses to have an impact on the way that white students see other students belonging to different racial groups. In the study, three different hypotheses were constructed.

This source changed my thinking because I wasn't really sure if students actually took away anything from diversity courses in college, wondering if they regard diversity classes as not important. If the study proves that diversity education leaves an impact on racial understanding and how we recognize differences, then we should enforce diversity education in all higher education. I agree with the source in that studying diversity in general is important in understanding those different from us. I also agree with the fact that diversity is a  growing topic in the U.S. and it should be further developed. It is known that the diversity education classes have an impact on college students so I want to focus on how it does so. This source leaves me somewhat of an answer to my questions above. The second question is answered, because the study shows how diversity education plays an obvious role.  It's not for certain if college campuses have enough diversity though, since this is a broad and opinionated question. This question will be closer to being answered if I look at a many other sources, in order to get a broader picture of the story.

I still want to look at diversity on college campuses further in depth. So some questions could be:

• What is diversity and what does it mean to different races, especially African Americans?
• Do African Americans feel that there is enough diversity education?
• How diverse are the student populations at universities this year?
• Is the lack of diversity the root of racial conflict on college campuses?