Dartmouth is not the only institution that has struggled to improve diversity on its campus. This issue has been ongoing at other colleges and universities -- and many of the College's peer institutions have already implemented plans to promote cultural understanding on their campuses.
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Brown universities and Williams College all have versions of multicultural offices, while Cornell University and Amherst College have recently created campus-wide programming aimed at promoting cultural awareness and tolerance.
Alex Willingham, director of the multicultural center at Williams, said the existence of diverse cultures centers is very important to the "big challenge" of diversity and tolerance on college campuses. The permanent presence of an office that will "continue to fight the good fight" sends the message that cultural prejudice will not be tolerated, he said, adding that it has made Williams a very comfortable place for minority students.
Willingham admitted his office is still addressing many unresolved issues, including dealing with homophobia and homophobic incidents and increasing academic offerings in Latino studies. He said the center particularly needs to concentrate on hiring more "good staff from diverse traditions."
Bob Harris, vice provost for diversity and faculty development at Cornell, said several diversity initiatives are currently underway at the undergraduate college. Many of the college's cultural societies have united to write a "Statement of Diversity and Inclusiveness," a list of principles regarding diversity that has been displayed on posters across the campus. The principles will be printed for new students in their college handbooks and on mousepads.
Harris said the statement has been endorsed by all participating college groups and by the Board of Trustees, and the general campus has also been "very receptive" to the principles.
Cornell is currently in the process of enhancing its cultural programming and curriculum, Harris added. There are already many options for cultural housing, as well as a fund offered to cross-culture groups to create their own programs.
The "Campus Climate Committee" was recently formed with the purpose of "promoting greater diversity," and last April a "Bias Activity Response" was created to investigate incidents of bias, as well as promote the reporting mechanism for victims of bias incidents and to evaluate the patterns of bias-related incidents on campus.
Amherst's Dean of New Students Francis Couvares said increasing diversity is an admissions issue, but he believes that making the campus a welcoming environment is also a task for all members of the community. He cited Amherst's new orientation program as an example of campus-wide education.
Four years ago, Amherst dissolved its old orientation program that had featured a separate orientation for minority students. The controversial decision resulted in the continued existence of a common opening day for all students, with a large portion of the orientation programming "heavily leaning toward multicultural education," Couvares said.
Though the first year of the new program was met with a boycott by student groups that felt minority students benefited from a distinct orientation, students have since been "very happy" with the united orientation, he said.
While Amherst does not have a specific multicultural center, there is a student-run "Diversity Educators" program, Couvares said. He feels that students are also satisfied with the college's cultural theme houses and diverse academic offerings. There are still steps Amherst needs to take, he admitted, but there is no major structural change planned for any of the college's programs at this time.
"This is America," he said. "There are always unresolved issues when dealing with diversity and tolerance."
