The White Girl Who Speaks Chinese.
We all know one — the girl from New Jersey who sits in the front row of economic policy class copying out Chinese homework while randomly interjecting her little known facts. The girl from Wisconsin who is furiously learning Arabic and spends her summers in Egypt. The boy from Long Island who speaks Swahili and studies development in Africa. Maybe this is AU’s version or definition of diversity: Not that people are so very different from one another when they arrive, but when they leave they no longer fit where they came from.
No one else in South Jersey will be able to speak to the white girl who has learned Chinese — except for maybe her language partner also from Jersey, or the kid who sat behind her, also from Jersey.
Maybe diversity doesn’t lie within the students, but in our experiences here at AU. The discussions professors ignite about world politics, current events, controversial issues and philosophy. There are few schools where it seems normal to discuss international economic policy, Hemingway’s style of writing, and whether Locke was racist or not all in one day — and that doesn’t even include our coffee talks on the elections (I am referring to the Student Government elections, not the congressional ones in November). Perhaps diversity should be measured as we leave school, not enter it.
This past week, Newsweek ranked AU sixth on their list of “The 25 Most Diverse Schools”. However, not all college rankings have been so generous to AU in the diversity factor. College Prowler, a prominent ranking publication, gave AU a C+ for diversity. Newsweek was impressed with the variety of religions represented at AU, and for our gay-friendliness that has been praised by several college rankings systems. However, Newsweek also mentioned AU’s study abroad program in their review. They note not only that 6 percent of our student body is from countries all around the world, but almost 75 percent of AU students go back into the world through study abroad. Also, 6 percent is great compared to most state schools, but hardly compares to Boston University’s 17 percent. The 75 percent going abroad though blows away most of our competitor’s study abroad statistics. As we all come back from our times abroad with genuine interest in another culture and often a newly acquired language skill we add a new level of diversity not measured by incoming freshman diversity statistics.
This observation on studying abroad, however, is not a measure of diversity of incoming students. College Prowler makes a fair point saying that examining diversity depends on what one considers diverse. It, too, praised AU’s multi-religious and gay-friendly atmosphere, but was rather harsh when it came to minorities and socioeconomic diversity. “A majority of students are white, and some say they expected to see more minority students on campus. Considering how culturally and racially diverse D.C. is, AU is not a great reflection of that,” College Prowler said. Compared to other universities on Newsweek’s “The 25 Most Diverse Schools,” AU’s percentage of whites/Caucasians is much higher than most.
I am still not convinced though that this qualifies AU as only a religious and sexually-orientated diverse school. As Newsweek said, our study abroad program is robust and offers students opportunities few other schools can. We have excellent majors, ranging from Bio-Chemistry to Business to International Development, and if none of the majors offered appeal to you — you can create your own! Professors too come from a range of backgrounds.
Maybe we as the student body are not diverse, but our experience certainly is. This diverse experience will change us for life and expose us to far more then if we had stayed in the same small upper-middle class town in New Jersey where we grew up. The fact that we all even know a white girl who speaks Chinese is often far more then our high school friends can say.
Sarah McHaney is a junior in the School of International Service and an AU affairs columnist for The Eagle.
edpage@theeagleonline.com
