<p>Has it improved over the last few years?</p>
<p>One of the college books I read called Hamiton "uber-whitey land".....but apparently the administration is trying really hard to increase diversity. In fact, they have an enviable 12% non-caucasian population.</p>
<p>Thanks, Adeline. I always thought about Hamilton in the same way as your college book, but had heard they were working on diversifying. That's certainly ggod to hear regarding the percent improvement. Any students out there who can tell us how diverse the campus feels? Does it feel diverse and integrated, or is there self-segregation?</p>
<p>Guys, why do you care how "diverse" the campus is? I thought it didn't matter what color a person's skin was, but the content of their character...The fact that most colleges pander to the racist institution of affirmative action shows how ingrained silly differences in pigmentation can mean even today...</p>
<p>I totally agree (with Myself- how ironic), it seems to me that the more focus there is on racial "diversity" the more people end up segregating themselves.</p>
<p>part of being racially diverse also means being culturally diverse, which colleges always want so that students can experience different cultures, and in most cases, it means being socioeconomically diverse, which the colleges want for their statistics.</p>
<p>ugh, politics.</p>
<p>Being black or asian or any sort of minority in America doesn't mean those students have different cultures. They have American culture because they <em>are</em> American. Instead of trying to fill quotas, colleges should invest the time and effort they put into promoting diversity, into improving the academics and standards of their schools instead.</p>
<p>Normally when people look at a person's race they automatically think "this person must believe X and X because their skin is X." Instead of treating people as individuals, minorities are viewed as part of a group, which is racism in just another form. The only type of diversity which is valuable is <em>intellectual</em> diversity - not cultural. When todays liberals finally stop viewing people in terms of groups and instead as individual human beings, maybe racism will finally begin to fade.</p>
<p>i think the OP just wants to see if Hamilton is a bubble. (Well, most liberal arts colleges are, but yeah). i completely share the opinion that standard, black/white diversity doesn't really matter, but sometimes things can become overwhelmingly unlike the real world (bubble effect), and that's what would worry a lot of people.</p>
<p>I have to disagree with Myself (wow, typing that can make for really awkward and confusing sentences). Part of the reason that America is considered a melting pot is because everyone brings something different. I go to an extremely diverse high school (over 45% minorities) and you can see the differences in people's cultures based on their ethnicity. You are able to see how different people celebrate different holidays, or things that they value, etc. You may not consider this a high priority, but it's something that I'm glad to have had in my school since I was 4. I agree, that many of us do share the same "mainstream" culture, but I look around my friends and I think we have all taught each other a lot.</p>
<p>I don't usually reply to these types of questions, but the amount of people out there with closed minds forces me to. I can only hope that open dialogue and conversations about social phenomenons and intellectual endeavors can broaden our views and allow us to get rid of once deeply held biases and prejudices. With that said, I'll add my two cents.</p>
<p>Like so many have already stated, diversity can be defined in multiple ways, not just skin color. Indeed, what first comes to mind when people mention diversity is race because the issue has been so ingrained in the culture in the last couple of years that it is really sickening. It is quite understandable when the United States Supreme Court defines diversity as a compelling state interest, meaning that it is mostly something that the nation cannot function without. What would an attorney who grew up priviledged in New England (WASP) know about the hardships and circumstances lesser priviledged people of color go through except through what he/she reads in books? It is quite understandable the High Court would seek to increase diversity in law schools (Grutter v. Bollinger) because they want people who can relate to the growing social problems that has and is plaguing this great country of ours.</p>
<p>Hamilton is trying its best to increase diversity (not just ethnic or racial) but also in socioeconomic and demographic terms. The views a person from South Dakota holds might be different from the views a person from New York might have and bringing them together to learn from each other is great. I would never like to live my entire life in a bubble only to realize too late in my life that maybe life is not the way I always thought it was. That there are problems in this world that needs to be redressed. Although Hamilton along with a host of other colleges signed statements as Friends of the Court supporting the Affirmative Action decision, the fact remains that minorities (however you define that) still feel a bit on edge with the student body. This is a work in progress that no one should expect handled overnight. I personally don't waste too much energy on it (other than replying on this message board) and accept and welcome everyone for who they are.</p>
<p>Whenever I hear quotas, I want to find out about the person that mentioned the word. When I think of quotas, I think of the University of California at Davis Medical School for having a quota of 16 seats available for students of color each and every year. That specific number is a quota. Affirmative Action does not act upon meeting any quotas, but rather on a critical mass! I'll leave it you to do a bit of research on that one. </p>
<p>I agree that we should stop viewing each other categorically or along racial lines, but it seems this country is all talk but no action. Is Affirmative Action a necessary evil? I don't know. Hopefully one day this country will never look at people along racial/ethnic lines but then again that seems ideal and as though it might have connotations of other maligned consequences. Be that as it may, I'm open to criticisms.</p>
<p>great post minorityman...thanks</p>
<p>As a parent assessing colleges for my kids, here's why I am interested in "diversity"........and its much less the process (e.g., quotas, etc), and much more the resulting environment. The first leap in this discussion, at least IMO, is the underlying belief that "diversity" in virtually any form is a good thing, especially in educational experiences.......if you do not believe this, stop here. </p>
<p>Racial diversity has obviously been the subject of much study & it is easily measured and there is a history of those measurements.....hence, much of the discussions on diversity center on racial diversity because the data are there. However, I agree with the posters that diversity is much more than racial & ethnic, but as a simple surrogate measure for diversity in general, racial diversity is a decent start. In the end, I'd like my kids to have the benefit of being exposed to a myriad of views and cultures while they are being educated, so they learn more, are respectful of diverse views and personal conditions, & are capable of integrating a diversity of views into their thinking later in life. So when assessing colleges in the search process, I would generally like to see a higher degree of racial diversity, which is easy to gauge, assuming that a large number might also mean there is a economic & cultural diversity as well, the latter which require more investigation.</p>
<p>Going back to Hamilton, without knowing much about the school, I can see that one, easy-to-obtain measure of Hamilton's racial diversity is % minorities, which happens to be 14%....not bad in comparison to places like W&L (8%), Bates (9%) & Skidmore (12%), about the same as Colgate (15%) and Trinity (16%), but way short of the top LACs such as Amherst (29%), Wesleyan (23%), and Williams (27%). In my case, Hamilton's 15% also is way short of my S's HS experience, so in investigating Hamilton, I'd like to know if Hamilton's trajectory on diversity, so to speak, is static or changing, & hopefully changing for the better (i.e., more diversity).....I am picking up from this thread that perhaps Hamilton is on a positive trajectory.</p>
<p>btw, here's a thread on diversity & small colleges:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=135317%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=135317</a></p>
<p>Based on everything I've come to know about Hamilton in the past year or so, I would feel confident saying that diversity is an issue the administration is aware of. Hamilton knows that it want to see more diversity on campus, and is doing everything it can, I'm sure, to realize their hopes.</p>