<p>Whitman's one of my top schools, but I was wondering about the lack of diversity, particularly the lack of African Americans. (I'm not AA, but attend a very diverse school, which I see as a plus). Whitman's latest CDS shows that they enrolled only 8 AA students in 2008, and this fall they have only 23 AA students in the entire student body! This number is actually DOWN from the last few years, and is even seriously low compared to very white NE LACs, such as Bates (which enrolled about 34 AA students in its entering class of 2008). On the plus side, Whitman seems to be increasing its numbers for Hispanic and Asian students. I know Whitman, like other LACs, is making great efforts to attract high achieving URMs, but why does Whitman have such a hard time attracting and keeping a diverse student body? I know Whitman is in the middle of nowhere, but so is Grinnell, which has significantly more AA students. What's up?</p>
<p>I just visited Whitman yesterday and also noticed this lack of diversity. A couple of weeks ago I spoke with an admissions officer who visited my school and when I asked him about diversity, he was very upfront with me, which I appreciated. He said that Whitman was not the most diverse place, and he wouldn’t pretend that it was. He pointed out that one issue that has caused Whitman’s diversity to drop in the past few years, especially with African Americans, was a blackface incident that occurred on campus a few years ago. That being said, he also told me that Whitman has been doing its best to improve diversity on campus. Who knows if that will show in the coming years though. Hope this helped.</p>
<p>My impression (as a parent) is that Whitman is doing a very thoughtful job of addressing this issue and that there is very active dialogue among students and faculty on not only what makes a community truly diverse and inclusive of diversity but also on issues of discrimination, privilege, racism et. al in the world beyond the campus. I like it that my kids (who did not benefit from a very diverse high school) have really deepened their knowledge, sensitivity (and diversity of experience, including having friends from very different backgrounds.) Meanwhile, until they gain a “tipping point” number in terms of AA students I think the visible change in that regard will be slow–but steady.</p>
<p>The fact that the school is located off of major fly-ways adds to the complexities of recruiting and many of the programs (like Posse, Upward Bound) tend to focus on urban and eastern schools where access to communities of color is not too distant. It is just a historical fact of settlement/immigration so far that there is not a large AA community in eastern Washington and so it must feel even more “remote” to some prospective students. </p>
<p>The college has launched a major initiative to increase recruitment and support of first-generation college students (of any/all ethnicities) and there is very active involvement in social justice and political study of the “state of the state” of Latinos in Washington and environmental issues impacting Native lands. If you study the website you can get a sense of how diversity is present in the faculty and student body in ways that don’t just show up in photos or CDS stats. And I’m pretty sure the admissions office would put you in touch with some students to talk frankly about their experience–both the pluses and minuses.</p>