Most Americans say that college students need to know about different kinds of people and how to get along with them. There also seems to be a national consensus that colleges should have diverse student bodies and faculties, as well as courses that focus on diversity.
Those are the results of a new poll released by the Ford Foundation's Campus Diversity Initiative in an attempt to redirect the national conversation on affirmative action.
The poll, conducted by DYG, Inc., found that a substantial majority of Americans -- 71 percent -- think that diversity education does more to bring society together than drive society apart. Additionally, 91 percent agree with the statement that "our society is multicultural and the more we know about each other, the better we will get along."
In a press conference announcing the poll results, Daniel Yankelovich, who heads DYG, Inc., said that the public distinguishes between diversity and affirmative action. Policies to achieve diversity are seen as "a win-win situation" -- everyone benefits. However, affirmative action policies are considered "zero sum" -- in which some people benefit at the expense of others.
Two-thirds of the 2,011 poll respondents said that colleges and universities should take explicit steps to ensure diversity in the student body, and 75 percent said that such steps should be taken to ensure diversity among faculty. Only 38 percent say that diversity is used as an excuse to admit graduate students who wouldn't otherwise be qualified.
Additionally, the poll found that the word diversity means different things to different people. Half of those polled said diversity means differences in ethnicity, race, nationality, or culture; 18 percent defined it as people with different thoughts and ideas; 12 percent said it means different social status or economic and education levels; and 8 percent said it means people of different religious backgrounds. As such, about half of all those polled -- across all strata of income -- said they lived in "diverse neighborhoods."
