With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to determine the legality of race-conscious admissions in higher education, a peer-reviewed study published this month in a leading education research journal contends that, while socioeconomic and racial diversity contribute to a positive racial climate on campus, socioeconomic diversity is not a substitute for racial diversity.
In “Does Socioeconomic Diversity Make a Difference? Examining the Effects of Racial and Socioeconomic Diversity on the Campus Climate for Diversity,” published in the American Educational Research Journal, the authors reject the notion that class-based affirmative action alone will bring about a full range of diversity-related educational benefits to college campuses. Instead, lead author Julie J. Park, an assistant professor of education at the University of Maryland (UMD), says that, on its own, socioeconomic status falls short as a back-door way to diversity.
“Social class and race not only affect who goes to college, but what actually happens to students once they begin the journey of learning together,” says Park. “Class matters, not only because we need to broaden access to universities, but because of how it makes universities better equipped to support racial diversity.”
When Park began working with co-authors Dr. Nida Denson of University of Western Sydney and Dr. Nicholas A. Bowman of Bowling Green University in 2009 on the research that would become the basis for their published study, she did not anticipate the U.S. Supreme Court would be close to deciding the Fisher v. Texas affirmative action case. The study’s intent from the outset was to explore how socioeconomic diversity contributed to the campus social and educational climate, she explains.
“I hope the contribution the study makes is to help people understand not just why we need both but how the two influence each other,” says Park. “[It is] how having a more socioeconomically and more racially diverse student body can positively influence race relations on campus.”
“Readers can see our analysis clearly shows that, while there are some benefits to class diversity, we see direct and independent discrete benefits tied to racial diversity,” Park adds.
