Succeeding on White Campuses

Black Issues in Higher Education, Feb 18, 1999 by Ronald Roach

Once admitted and enrolled, Black students often flourish in an environment where, in many cases, they receive more individual attention than they did when they were in high school, Phillips says.

Better Places To Be

Swarthmore College, which participated in the Bowen/Bok study, is an institution that has traditionally gotten high marks for having a progressive campus environment where minority students can thrive. Willie believes that Swarthmore's cultural and financial aid resources make it "one of the better places to be" for a minority student on a small, predominantly White liberal arts college campus.

"It's not enough to just admit minority students. But admit them in large enough numbers where they can form a community of support for each other, and institutions have to make sure they follow through with support so that students don't fall through the cracks," she says.

Not long after enrolling at Swarthmore as a freshman in the fall of 1996, Desiree Peterkins began working with the college admissions office to help it recruit minority students. During her first two years of college, Peterkins served as a liaison between the admissions office and the Swarthmore African American Student Society.

"I wanted to make sure Swarthmore didn't fall short of its promise to enroll Black and Latino students," says Peterkins, a 21-year old junior from New York City who is majoring in political science and is an All-American triple jumper on the track team.

Peterkins says the college has exceeded her expectations because it provides a friendlier place to Black students than she had imagined. She cites the month-long pre-freshman joint orientation for minority students at Bryn Mawr College, Haverford and Swartmore, and the Swarthmore Black Cultural Center as programs that provide both academic and social opportunities for Black students in the tri-college community.

Though she acknowledges that a number of White students publicly question the existence of student groups based on ethnicity and entities this doesn't suprise her.

"I didn't expect [Swarthmore] to be different from the real world," she says.

Willie cautions that schools like Swarthmore are still "on the road" to becoming truly diverse institutions. She says that too many institutions, even those considered progressive, operate with an attitude of noblesse oblige or paternalism toward their minority students rather than in accepting them in a more egalitarian manner.

At least one institution included in the Bowen/Bok study, Tufts University, has recently elected to undergo intense scrutiny of its commitment to diversity. Tufts University spokeswoman Cindy Pollard says school administrators are convening a series of open meetings during February for the university community to discuss diversity initiatives on campus. Student groups have recently criticized the administration for not making sufficient progress on diversity.

"The events of recent weeks, exemplified by strong student action, reveal many of the challenges remaining as Tufts continues its efforts to increase and enhance campus diversity, among its students, its faculty, its programs, and its curricula," wrote Dr. Mel Bernstein, vice-president for arts, sciences, and technology at Tufts, in a letter to the university's arts and sciences community.