"… Most university administrations have responded to the diversity challenge in a predictable way: by hiring administrators. More than 100 institutions now employ “chief diversity officers,” who oversee an army of staffers at multicultural centers, counseling offices and so on. Hundreds of schools offer diversity training and other programming, aimed at changing the overall racial climate on campus.
But there’s no strong evidence that these costly efforts have changed anything." …
Of course, lots of college students do not live in college dorms (even in frosh year), so such a thing will have no effect on them.
This is actually really interesting. I requested my roommate freshman year that I had “met” through the class Facebook page- she was of another race. I met a lot more people of color through her, and she met a lot of white people through me. It’s funny how much we self-segregate subconsciously. I definitely have more friends from different backgrounds/races in college than I did in high school, but I can’t trace it to my roommate specifically because my college is significantly more diverse than my high school/hometown. Aside from race, we were also from entirely different parts of the country and had a decent amount of differing views in general. It was really nice to have that experience. I think it’d be a worthwhile initiative to more carefully “randomly” assign roommates; bridging the gap between domestic/international, white/PoC, high/low income, etc. might become a lot easier when they are forced to at least acknowledge the other exists.
Diversity isn’t a problem at my school. I have friends of different races, religions, sexual orientations, etc. High school was the same way. In fact, I even talk to more black people now lol. I spent most of high school being labeled an “oreo” by 90% of the black students at my school -_-
We could achieve perfect diversity thoughout society if the government simply assigned people a place to live and forced them to comply. It’s an outrageous notion, but no more outrageous than forcing innocent college freshmen to share a dorm room with a person not of their choosing.
^ Forcing?? Many students go random for their first roommate. I’ve done it twice. That’s where the change would be made, no? Presumably you wouldn’t be told, “No, you can’t have this person you requested because we’re giving you diversity instead.”
@bodangles You might want to re-read the article. The proposal is to outlaw single rooms and make random roommate assignments mandatory for all students.
My own freshman roommate was of a different race than me, and he was also an in-state student, but from the opposite end of the state (6 hours away; North Carolina is a large state). We both meshed together really well and complemented each other really well, as we’re both easy-going guys. He’s a pleasure to be around and he made my freshman year better.
My son found out his roommate is Aftican-American and he, as many of his generation, didn’t give it a second thought. He has been fortunate to attend very diverse schools and I am grateful that his college experience will mirror that. I’m more worried that conflict will arise from my kid being a complete slob and not matched equally to another slob. There’s the real challenge :-/
“chief diversity officers,” who oversee an army of staffers at multicultural centers, counseling offices and so on. Hundreds of schools offer diversity training and other programming, aimed at changing the overall racial climate on campus.”
“diversity” is an industry that can be very lucrative for those who land jobs in it.these people often times help play up/create issues on campus to keep themselves relevant (job security)
penn and teller did a segment on their showtime series bulls–t about the “diversity” industry several years back it is really good.
earl van dorn…I agree most people go to college to say become an mechanical engineer and live on campus because driving 500 miles to and from school 5 days a week is not practical. they are not going to college for a social engineering project. everything need not have someone else’s agenda involved. freshman year with a single would be awesome. ( I wold have loved it!) I did not go to college to “learn” how to share a room or diversity training or anything other than to study. a single room would have been a sanctuary for sleep, study or down time if I did not feel like socializing.
Most college students commute to a local community college or university and do not live in dorms. So roommate selection in college dorms is irrelevant for them.
While it’s true that most college students commute, that is certainly not true of the CC community of posters and their parents. Many CC posters describe students who select schools within commuting difference or close to it but opt for dorm living for the “full college experience.”
What percentage of frosh who live in dorms choose specific roommates or have single rooms?
I think having (frosh) roommates assigned is the norm at most LACs, maybe elsewhere too. Anecdotally, it seems like public schools have more of the “pick your own roommate” FB groups and apps and such.