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Building Community and Intellectual Engagement

If you rely only on counting faces to measure diversity at Susquehanna, you could easily be misled.

"You just have to look beneath the surface at Susquehanna to see how diverse we really are," points out Assistant Professor of Sociology Simona Hill, co-coordinator, with Assistant Professor of English Amy Winans, of a new diversity initiative project at the university. "It may not be the racial or ethnic variety, but there's plenty of diversity to be had here," she says, explaining her group's focus on invisible diversity, such as social class.

And, stresses Hill, careful attention to all kinds of diversity - both inside and outside the classroom -- is a crucial point in improving student learning. It is also essential to creating the intellectual diversity that is the lifeblood of an academic community.

Individual Learning Styles

Grants from the Degenstein Teaching Innovation Program and Susquehanna's new Center for Teaching and Learning are funding the current diversity initiative, which will focus on often-invisible differences, such as socio-economic status, religion and sexual orientation. Nine members of the faculty, deans and administrators attended the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) summer academy in Mt. Snow, Vt., to help lay groundwork for the project. The program targets professional development of faculty, staff and administrators through a series of workshops and speakers in the 2002-03 academic year.

Winans draws on her own experience on a trip to India last year to illustrate some of the issues. "Being in that very different place really raised a lot of new questions for me -- about comfort and discomfort in teaching situations and whether someone is really comfortable enough to speak or not," she says.

The current initiative also pays close attention to the needs of the estimated 30 percent of Susquehanna students who are first-generation college students. Some students, especially those from working class backgrounds, may have families with different attitudes about intellectual pursuits such as reading, for example, says Winans. "There's struggling in some cases to negotiate that conflict between their intellectual life at school and life at home," she adds. "We see this project as one that will make a classroom experience much more tailored to the individual student in terms of who they are and how they learn."

Commitment to Increasing Diversity

The initiative builds on a foundation of existing programming and priorities to increase diversity and connections to the wider world. In Fall 2002, the percentage of 1,865 full-time students identifying themselves as members of a racial or ethnic minority group totaled 7.3 percent, an increase from 5 percent in 1994-95. Susquehanna has set a goal for increasing the minority group representation among students to ten percent and among faculty to 14 percent by the year 2004.

In fact, the university's new draft Statement of Strategic Vision and Themes features diversity prominently in each of its twin commitments to intellectual engagement and community. Endorsed by the faculty and board of directors, the statement will guide the university's preparation for both a new strategic plan and its ten-year accreditation review by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

Enlarging Perspectives

The emphasis goes beyond the practical commitment to prepare students for lives in a global society, says Professor of History Linda McMillin, who serves as both chair of the Middle States group and a member of the planning advisory group. She also stresses the need for a larger commitment to intellectual diversity as the university prepares students to tackle human problems.

"It has to do with asking questions about what you know and what you do not know. And who else might know things that you can't know," she explains. "If you're not able to recognize the limitations of your own perspective, then you're not going to get very far in any kind of intellectual environment."

"Faculty members who really engage students want them to connect with the coursework and have lively debates and discussions, but those types of things are really difficult to have if everybody thinks the same and comes from the same kind of background," points out Brian Johnson, the university's director of multicultural affairs.

Such goals are increasingly supported by research into the educational benefits of diversity. "Students educated in diverse classrooms learn to think in deeper and more complex ways, and are better prepared to become active participants in a pluralistic, democratic society," reports the American Association of Colleges and Universities, citing data from an in-depth analysis by University of Michigan researcher Patricia Gurin.

Expanded Curriculum

One of the newest examples of the university's commitment to diversity in the curriculum is a recently introduced minor in anthropology. The option will be especially valuable for students planning careers in education, business, the health professions, or work in multinational settings, says Shari Jacobson, assistant professor of anthropology. "A background in understanding cultural difference is essential in these circumstances."

Susquehanna's Task Force for Diversity in the Curriculum, now in its seventh year, has played a key role in expanding awareness of diversity issues and promoting programs that support the needs of a diverse student population. Efforts to incorporate diversity issues into courses and classrooms include the creation of minors in diversity studies, women's, and Jewish studies.

Co-Curricular Opportunities

The task force also supports initiatives designed to engage students, faculty, and staff with the larger community, including the ongoing Holocaust-Genocide program and an annual Latino symposium. Other public lectures and performances at Susquehanna also connect with academic diversity goals. Fall events included Nina Huntemann, producer of the documentary, "Game Over: Gender, Race and Violence in Video Games"; and a drama directed by Assistant Professor of Theatre Doug Powers, "The Sacred Hoop," which focuses on the relationship between American Indians and Caucasians.

Susquehanna students also have an opportunity "to live in a residential academic community where bumping up against the beliefs of other people is part of their co-curricular experience," says Chaplain Mark Wm. Radecke. The university's population currently includes 17.9 percent Lutheran, 2.6 percent Jewish, and 37.5 percent Roman Catholic, as well as others who practice Islam and paganism. Such exposure, he says, can help students "get beyond the obvious differences in holy days and attire to talk about what's really substantive and grow to respect and learn from each other's traditions, even if they don't find them persuasive."

Recruitment and Retention

Susquehanna's rural campus location poses an ongoing challenge to recruiting minority students and faculty, many of whom come from diverse urban communities. The Office of Admissions offers extra attention and support through events such as a spring 2002 reception hosted by Susquehanna President Jay Lemons at the Cotton Club in Harlem for accepted minority students. The university is also exploring targeted outreach programs with inner-city schools, including the SEED school, a charter public boarding school in Washington, D.C.

The university established an Office of Multicultural Affairs in 1989 to provide additional support for enrolled students of color and international students. "I want people to understand that our numbers are small but we are committed," says director Brian Johnson. "We always talk about ourselves as being close knit, like a family," he adds. "My intent is to make sure that anybody who walks through the door to Susquehanna knows that they are a welcome part of the whole."

The office also provides support for nine different recognized student groups such as Hispanic Organization for Latino Awareness (HOLA) and the National Organization for Women. Each group has a different focus, but all share common goals to educate students and explore cultural diversity.

"Our purpose is to enrich the lives of Susquehanna students," explains Mary Hennighan '03, president of the Asian Student Coalition. "We want to make them aware that the Asian culture consists of more than just fortune cookies and chopsticks."

"A lot of people have that misconception that you have to be Asian to be in the Asian Student Coalition or black to be in the Black Student Union, but it's not our intention to limit anybody," stresses Elizabeth Palmer '04, vice president of the Black Student Union. "If that was the case, we wouldn't be educating."

Embracing a Culture of Inclusion

Student Government Association (SGA)President Stephen Bealer '03 has observed relations between minorities and non-minorities at Susquehanna from a unique double perspective. Bealer, who is white, is also a former president of the Black Student Union and past secretary and senior advisor to The Brotherhood. "I can see the situation has improved from my freshman year to my senior year," says Bealer. But, he points out, at the same time there is resistance from some segments of the community, demonstrated last spring with the circulation of a series of anti-gay hate flyers.

The incident prompted swift condemnation from the office of the president and others. "But you don't want to see the campus just rally around an issue when it's blatantly attacked," says Bealer, who stresses the need for an ongoing culture of inclusion in the community.

The Right Thing to Do

Bealer hopes to do his part by making support for diversity a priority for SGA this year. The eighth annual Race Relations Forum, sponsored by The Brotherhood, will provide yet another opportunity for reflection. These, the current invisible diversity initiative, and other efforts, follow in the spirit of the administrators, faculty and students who gathered to discuss the issues at the first-ever Presidential Forum on Diversity, sponsored by Simona Hill's minorities class in April of 2001, just two months after Jay Lemons arrived on campus. "From that point forward we have had people who have kept this issue of diversity on the front burner," points out Hill.

Lemons himself is adamant about the educational imperative of all forms of diversity. "A more diverse campus will produce more diverse student learning. It will create opportunities for more persons in our society to partake in the benefits of studying at an institution like Susquehanna." And, he adds, "It's the right thing to do."