The University of Oregon welcomed its most racially and ethnically diverse class in fall of 2014. According to Vice President of Enrollment Management Roger Thompson, the most recent UO class is made up of 27 percent domestic minority students and 11 percent international students, representing almost 100 countries.
“In our Enrollment Management division, we work with great enthusiasm and passion to share all the positive aspects of the University of Oregon,” Thompson said via email. “One of those positives is the diversity of our student body.”
Vice President for Equity and Inclusion Yvette Alex-Assensoh works with the Division of Equity and Inclusion to increase diversity on campus.
“While there is more work to be done with respect to the continuing recruitment of Native and Black students, our campus has made significant strides or progress in terms of domestic students of color,” Alex-Assensoh said via email.
According to Alex-Assensoh, the UO hopes to increase the following: the number of faculty of color, the retention rate among all students to 90 percent within the next five years, the numbers of faculty, students and staff of color who are recognized above the university’s top honors and the number of administrators of color at all levels of the university.
Some students agree that the diversity of the student body is important for the university, as well as increasing racial and cultural competency.
“I will say that it has to do with the initial first year. I do think that the school would benefit a lot, and honestly, schools around the nation would benefit a lot in changing their language requirement to a cultural requirement,” said David Colón, a senior from Puerto Rico.
Sophomore Bryce Keicher, a recipient of the Diversity Excellence Scholarship, agrees. Keicher, having participated in leadership trainings in which groups of students addressed aspects of race relations such as discrimination and micro-aggressions, thinks students could benefit from similar training.
“I absolutely think there should be a required training that everyone goes through freshman year with cultural competency and racial ethnicity competency,” Keicher said, “similar to AlcoholEdu that we have to do, but tack on sexual assault issues, racial and cultural issues.”
Thompson and Alex-Assensoh agree that diversity in the student body benefits the way students learn.
“Diversity from a race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status standpoint is important for our students because learning is enhanced,” Thompson said. “We learn in the classroom, outside the classroom and from each other.”
“Over a decade of research by economists, organizational scientists, psychologists and sociologists have pointed out that institutions which are rich in a diversity of racial, intellectual, class, gender and ethnic backgrounds are more innovative because diversity enhances creativity and the search for novel information, leading to better decision making and problem solving,” Alex-Assensoh said.
“Most encouraging, as we witness our increasingly diverse student body, are the research findings which transparently demonstrate that even being exposed to diversity can literally change the way we think for the better.”
Follow Francesca Fontana on Twitter @francescamarief
