Diversity has become one of those ideals that influences all sorts of decision-making. Corporations, governments and colleges all must remain aware of the role that diversity plays in shaping their actions. The composition of organizations affects both external perceptions of the group and its own internal perspective.
Sunday night, the University Judiciary Committee released demographic statistics about its most recent round of recruitment. In comparison to last year's numbers, it seems that increasing ethnic diversity among UJC staffers has been given top priority. As one problem gets addressed, however, another rears its head: compared to the College of Arts & Sciences, other schools at the University suffer from clear underrepresentation on UJC.
The good news outweighs the bad. Since last year, UJC has worked with the Minority Rights Coalition to deliver informational presentations in dorms across Grounds that reach out in particular to minority students. That effort has paid dividends. Of the 162 students responding to the recruitment survey, 20 percent reported that they were Asian, 13 percent black, 5 percent Latino and 1 percent Native American or other. The data shows great strides since last year's survey, in which 12 percent self-identified as Asian, 5 percent black and 0 percent for both Hispanic and Native American. Also remarkable was the high number of international student applicants, who comprised 12 percent of the pool. Naturally, efforts to recruit from minority communities should be sustained in the future, but UJC is off to a commendable start.
The next major issue that warrants attention is the overwhelming proportion of College students seeking positions within UJC. Of the respondents, an astounding 87 percent identified themselves as from the College. Engineering students comprised only 12 percent of the pool, and potential members from the Commerce and Nursing Schools totaled less than 1 percent of the group. Information on school breakdown from last year was not available.
For its part, UJC recognizes the overrepresentation. Senior Educator Portia Henry noted Sunday that UJC was unable to attend several other schools' activity fairs because of a lack of notice of their dates. In the future, UJC plans to broaden its scope during the recruitment process. "We need to make sure when we're reaching out that we don't just focus on race when we're looking at representation, but also on the different schools," UJC Chair Michael Chapman said. "Our next goal needs to be reaching out to the different school councils and getting more people involved."
In some ways the high proportion of College students is understandable, as these members of the University community are perhaps more inclined to identify with the values and mission of UJC. Moreover, UJC primarily focuses its recruitment efforts on first-year students, of which the Commerce and Education Schools have none.
As Chapman pointed out, however, first-years from schools like Architecture should be zeroed in on as well. The College is the largest school and thus should be strongly represented, but only in a way that is proportional to the University community as a whole.
These statistics merit attention. Though school diversity may be seen by some as less pivotal than ethnic diversity, it does cost organizations like UJC some legitimacy in claiming to represent the entire University. UJC could benefit from the change in perspective that more non-College staffers would bring. Furthermore, when navigating the administrative channels of each school, it would be helpful to have adequate numbers from each population to assist in the process.
Ethnic diversity is always an important end to pursue, but it is only one component of adequate and equal representation. UJC has taken the first step toward building a more inclusive organization. Now it must follow through with that goal and address the College's overrepresentation.
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