College diversity and institutional inclusion practices

Multiculturalism

Diversity has been an element that is widely considered these days in many institutions, whether it is in school, in a community, or at work. If in the past, racial discrimination is rampant, differences in cultural background and origin is no longer a big issue these days. We can now see people of different races and colors who go along together very well, such as at work or in school. We can even now see people of different ethnicity who get married.

The principle of the Lehigh University to promote diversity in its educational institution is one measure that can present advantages and disadvantages to its students, faculty, and parents of the students. Though the reasons to the desire of the school to promote multiculturalism is straightforward, the fact that not all people already accepts diversity can still be considered as sources that may cause issues and problems.

The question of whether diversity is a measure that works or not is a challenge that involves sensible issues requiring deep understanding and consideration. Diversity is not a matter of acceptance or rejection of others' origin, race, religion, and culture. Rather, it is a matter of understanding the advantages and disadvantages that it can bring to an individual. As what the article indicates,

Of course, diversity is not just about people, it is also about thinking and attitudes. Our goal is a community not a collection. Open doors are essential, but if they lead to closed minds, they lead nowhere.

In the Lehigh University, the attitude of emphasizing on diversity is being promoted to everyone. That is, both the students and faculty staff must do their part to achieve diversity. Again, the question is "Will the school successfully achieve diversity or not?." One may have an instant viewpoint that diversity will not work in Lehigh University because the fact that it needs the cooperation of everybody in the school to achieve the goal is an impossible objective to attain. Most likely, even a small number will reject the idea of diversity. This small number can cause the start of another rejection by another individual. On the other hand, if we put our mind on the positive side, it is not impossible for everyone to open their doors and welcome multiculturalism. Perhaps, all that the school needs to become a successful diverse institution is a constant campaign for diversity. According to University of Winconsin Online,

If we can round out a class to include people from a broad range of backgrounds, we provide a learning environment that enables our graduates to be effective in the kind of world in which they'll be living and working."

Diversity in Lehigh University, if not supported by a continuous promotion, will not have the possibility to work well. The attitude of everyone in the campus regarding differences in race and color cannot be totally changed or altered. It is a fact that even with an unremitting reminder and endorsement to respect and maintain diversity, still, we do not know how an individual's mind thinks behind his actions. However, with strategies and techniques that can cause an individual to change his viewpoint about people with diverse culture and origin, such as by providing incidences that ends to positive results and benefits to the other race, opening one's about diversity is an objective to achieve.

Adaptation is one major step to diversity and multiculturalism. For a group to be able to completely become diverse, everybody must know how to accustom himself of the others' culture, religion, or characteristics. As in the Lehigh University, though the school upholds admission of students and faculty staff who are of diverse origin, the need for everybody's adaptation to everyone's ethnicity is still essential. If this goal is achieved, then we can perhaps say that diversity works in the institution. Otherwise, even if we can see diverse individuals in the campus but there is no connection between each individual, we can say that diversity does not work in them. The physical existence of diversity is not important if there is no correlation between the being of diversity.

Another example of diversity in Lehigh University, and where we can measure success of divesity, is the process of attracting women faculty to teach academics that were used to be taught by men faculty. The ability of the students to learn does not depend on the gender of the instructor. This is one principle that the Lehigh University perhaps believes when they started to attract women faculty to the academics of engineering, science, and business. This is in contrast to how the process or hiring used to exist in the institution, indicated as follows.

Too often hiring pools for faculty positions in these areas do not include women and minorities, and too often talented and successful women and minority faculty are wooed away by other institutions.

Even in terms of principle, belief, and reality, that diversity of people in an educational institution can provide wider learning experiences to students is a fact, because students are provided with larger information from the diverse origin of every student, it cannot be denied that the measure of diversity may not work properly.

Measuring the effectiveness of diversity in Lehigh University does not only include aspects in the existence of diverse students and faculty staffs. Also, diversity is supported by the institution in terms of accepting volunteers who can provide life examples to the students. This measure of Lehigh University, again, may work and may not work. Also, again, the success in this principle of diversity depends on the attitude of the students and the faculty staff to sincerely accept the commitment being shared by the volunteers. The potential perspective of leadership role, as provided by the volunteers, and if accepted by the school members, can lead to the success of the school's belief in diversity.