Opinion piece on Discovery Weekend from Swat newspaper

<p><a href="http://phoenix.swarthmore.edu/2007-10-04/opinions/17483%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://phoenix.swarthmore.edu/2007-10-04/opinions/17483&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>A very insightful editorial from the Swarthmore campus newspaper by a student who learned about Swarthmore when she attended Discovery Weekend as a high school senior. Her opinion is that Discovery Weekend should be opened up to non-minority students who are from less privileged backgrounds. She makes the point that socio-economic diversity is as important as ethnic diversity, and that many of these students would not be able to visit distant colleges without programs like Discovery Weekend.</p>

<p>I really enjoy the student op-ed pieces. They are often quite nuanced.</p>

<p>Discovery weekend is open to non-minority students. There were people of all ethnicities, black, hispanic, asian, and white. It was actually pretty diverse. Maybe they've changed it since she's beent there.</p>

<p>I don't know anything more about it than what I read, but this recent article on this year's Discovery Weekend says that attendees "self identify as students of color". <a href="http://phoenix.swarthmore.edu/2007-09-27/news/17457%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://phoenix.swarthmore.edu/2007-09-27/news/17457&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>DW is only for students of color. The program is for students of color to get a sense of the community, the different cultural groups on campus, and what it is like to be a person of color at Swarthmore. It wouldn't make sense to tack on people who are white. Although for a white person, it surely would be enriching to learn what it is like to be African-American, Latino, etc at Swarthmore, the program is not geared towards that. It is for students of color to get a sense of the place, cultural outlets, and to see how Swat values difference and people from different backgrounds. So, another program could be created, but it would be odd to have a "socio-economically" diverse program. What would the programming be like? All students who are admitted to Swat can get a sense of the culture of the place during the accepted students program in the spring.</p>

<p>"Discovery weekend is open to non-minority students. There were people of all ethnicities, black, hispanic, asian, and white. It was actually pretty diverse. Maybe they've changed it since she's beent there."</p>

<p>I know for a fact that the program is open only to students of color. Were you at the weekend? There certainly are multiracial students, including those who may "look white", but, as people have said, self-identification as a person of color is necessary to apply for the program.</p>

<p>DW is absolutely only for self-identified students of color. ;)</p>

<p>You have to understand that, for example, to be considered Hispanic you only need to have 1 Hispanic grandparent (1/4). So even though the Discovery Weekend is for "students of color" I am sure there were quite a few white students around. In this day and age socioeconomic considerations should be more important than your skin shade.</p>

<p>And you only need 1/32 Native American to be registered as such and therefore get the URM tip benefit. My niece is blond and blue eyed and comfortably middle class, but got the URM tip at a top-25 college, so the whole thing is logically weird, but it's the reality of college admissions.</p>

<p>I think it's a dangerous line to cross by trying to downplay the idea of 1/4 heritage of anything...while yes, there are probably plenty of students who retain none of those cultures, there are probably also plenty of students who do, and trying to say that they aren't "really" students of color for something that is really personal, even if they're "only" 1/4, is not good. Being "white", in that sense, is incredibly subjective. The problem is that there is no way to prove one or the other, so I'd rather give students the benefit of the doubt.</p>

<p>I agree, though, that socio-economic diversity should really be considered. It's unfortunate that that is not really the case.</p>

<p>Sorry,I did not mean to downplay anything. It's just that the term "students of color" (and I keep using the quotation marks) is not appropriate and not as innocuous as it seems. We agree and you can already see the misunderstandings that it can create.</p>