The Impact of Diversity on College Students:
The Latest Research

Written and researched by Debra Humphreys, AAC&U, for the
Ford Foundation Campus Diversity Initiative (1998)

Over the past several decades, colleges and universities have instituted a wide variety of programs and new curricula to better educate all students for a diverse society and interconnected world. Some critics have challenged the usefulness of these programs.

An increasingly comprehensive body of research is now emerging that documents the effects of diversity on student learning and campus relations. A new publication from the Association of American Colleges and Universities, Diversity Works: The Emerging Picture of How Students Benefit, provides an overview of the latest research and includes an annotated bibliography of more than 300 different research studies from across the nation.

Authors of this study surveyed research related to a variety of areas of campus diversity. They summarize research results on efforts to improve access, retention, and success of traditionally underrepresented students and the impact of demographic, cultural and social changes on college and university campuses. These include changes in campus services, intergroup relations, curricular and pedagogical practices, and institutional and organizational policies and procedures.

Taken as a whole, this research suggests several conclusions about the impact of diversity on students:¹

1. Campus diversity initiatives have positive effects on both minority and majority students. They improve students' relationships on campus and affect positively their satisfaction and involvement with their institutions and their academic growth.

2. Beyond their proven capacity to improve access and retention of underrepresented groups of students, comprehensive diversity initiatives also promote satisfaction, academic success, and cognitive development for all students.

3. Despite these efforts, the research clearly documents that many students—including many minority students, white women, gay and lesbian students, and disabled students—still find the campus climate unresponsive to their needs, past experiences, and educational expectations. Students often feel marginalized in existing institutional cultures.

4. Involvement in specialized student groups—such as ethnic residential theme houses, support centers, and academic departments—benefit both minority and majority students. These activities appear to contribute to increased satisfaction and retention of those students involved in such programs.

5. Many students seem to anticipate and desire greater levels of intergroup contact than they actually experience on campus. In fact, opportunities for interaction between and among student groups are desired by virtually all students. When they do occur, such interactions produce clear increases in understanding, decreases in prejudicial attitudes, and positively affect academic success. These interactions are likely to be more beneficial when they are institutionally supported, when the participants are equally valued, and when they involve projects with common goals and outcomes.

6. Research shows that when students perceive that there is a broad campus commitment to diversity, there is increased recruitment and retention of students from underrepresented groups and an increase in all students' satisfaction and commitments to improving racial understanding.

7. Diversity in the curriculum has a positive impact on attitudes toward racial issues, on opportunities to interact in deeper ways with those who are different, and on overall satisfaction with the college or university. These benefits are particularly powerful for white students who have had less opportunity for such engagement.

Research in a variety of areas suggests that efforts to increase the acceptance of diversity on campus and to reduce prejudicial attitudes and actions on the part of students, faculty, and staff are needed and, when they occur, are generally successful. In the areas of campus climate, intergroup relations, and curricular change, there is especially encouraging news.

Special campus services designed to support minority students, including racial and ethnic theme houses, student organizations, and academic departments positively contribute to minority student retention.

• One study found that African American alumni who had participated in theme houses reported more positive experiences than those living in predominantly white residential settings.² Another study found that African American theme houses provided support and cultural enrichment to participating students.³

In addition to providing the necessary specialized support services that underrepresented students need, campus leaders are also designing many programs to increase intergroup communication and learning on campus.

• A series of studies at the University of Michigan found that an intergroup dialogue program was effective in decreasing prejudicial attitudes among students.⁴
  
• Another study at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania found that a program designed to facilitate communication and understanding among college students from diverse backgrounds was very effective. After completing the program, white students were more optimistic about intergroup understanding, more comfortable interacting with minority students, and more aware of racial issues.⁵

Evidence is also emerging which indicates that, beyond special programs, the existence of diverse populations of students on college campuses has positive educational effects on both majority and minority students.

A 1996 study of 300 campuses found that racially-mixed student populations have positive effects on retention, overall college satisfaction, college grade point average, and intellectual and social self-confidence.⁶

Researchers are also documenting the effects of addressing diversity issues in college courses.

• One comprehensive national study found that faculty emphasis on diversity in courses has positive effects on openness to racial understanding and overall satisfaction with college.⁷
• Another study found that cognitive development advances among students participating in a course on multiculturalism.⁸
• A study conducted at the University of Michigan that investigated the impact of intergroup contact and course work dealing with racial and ethnic issues found that this course work had the most significant positive impact on increased support for educational equity.⁹
• A 1996 study examining the impact of multiculturalism on white students' sense of community, cultural awareness, interest in promoting racial understanding and satisfaction with college also reported positive results in each of these areas.¹⁰
• A 1991 study found that a comparative multicultural course requirement at the University of California-Berkeley led students to a greater appreciation of works of culture in different societies.¹¹
• Another study found that students whose professors included racial/ethnic materials in their courses reported higher levels of satisfaction with their college experience.¹²
• Finally, contrary to claims of some critics of women's studies courses, several studies reveal that these courses encourage more debate among students than other kinds of courses and, in fact, improve women's attitudes toward men.¹³
  

It is clear from this growing body of evidence that diversity initiatives, from those that focus on access to campus climate to curriculum change to comprehensive institutional transformation, provide demonstrable benefits to all students, whatever their backgrounds and characteristics. There is considerable evidence that higher education's efforts to address diversity issues on campus and in the curriculum are fostering intellectual development, cultural knowledge, and interracial understanding among college students.

Notes

1. Smith, D. G., et. al. Diversity Works: The Emerging Picture of How Students Benefit. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 1997.

2. Spitzburg, I. J., and V. V. Thorndike. Creating Community on College Campuses. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992.

3. Lomotey, K. "The Retention of African American Students: The Effects of Institutional Arrangements in Higher Education." paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, April, 1990, at Boston, Massachusetts.

4. ZÈøiga, X., et. al. "Speaking the Unspeakable: Student Learning Outcomes in Intergroup Dialogues on a College Campus." paper presented at the annual meting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, November, 1995, at Orlando, Florida.

5. Nelson, N. J., et. al. "The Effects of Participation in an Intergroup Communication Program: An Assessment of Shippensburg University's Building Bridges Program." paper presented at the annual meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, April, 1994, at Providence, Rhode Island.

6. Chang, M. J. "Racial Diversity in Higher Education: Does a Racially Mixed Student Population Affect Educational Outcomes?" Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1996.

7. Astin, A. What Matters in College?: Four Critical Years Revisited. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1993.

8. Adams, M., and Y. Zhou-McGovern. "The Sociomoral Development of Undergraduates in a "Social Diversity" Course: Developmental Theory, Research, and Instructional Applications." paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, April 1994, at New Orleans, Louisiana.

9. Lopez, G. E. "The Effect of Group Contact and Curriculum on White, Asian American, and African American Students' Attitudes." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1993.

10. Tanaka, G. K. "The Impact of Multiculturalism on White Students." Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1996.

11. Institute for the Study of Social Change. The Diversity Project: Final Report. Berkeley, CA: University of California, 1991.

12. Villalpando, O. "Comparing the Effects of Multiculturalism and Diversity on Minority and White Students' Satisfaction with College," paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, November, 1994, at Tucson, Arizona.

13. Musil, Caryn McTighe. The Courage to Question: Women's Studies and Student Learning. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 1992; and Bargad, A., and J. S. Hyde. "Women's Studies: A Study of Feminist Identity Development in Women," Psychology of Women Quarterly 15 1991: 181-201.