More Researchers Try to Measure Diversity's Effects

Ashley Thorne

The Chronicle of Higher Education has graciously made one of its articles available for free. "Q&A: Researcher Describes Mixed Educational Benefits of Campus Diversity" is an interview between Chronicle editor Peter Schmidt and James Sidanius, one of the authors of a new book, The Diversity Challenge: Social Identity and Intergroup Relations on the College Campus.

We note that Mr. Schmidt asks some good questions regarding the usefulness of affirmative action and diversity policies, but Sidanius answers them evasively. One interesting quote from Mr. Sidanius shows that he and the other authors found racial grouping on campus to have a deleterious effect on students' ability to get along with others: "Relatively high ethnic identification leads students to join ethnically oriented groups, and once in the groups, ethnic identification increases further, leading in turn to an increased sense of ethnic victimization." 

To read the interview in its entirety, CLICK HERE. The article will be free until March 18, 2009.

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