A recent study I conducted at Florida A&M University shows that students here in Tallahassee claim a type of diversity that is not defined specifically in federal court decisions. I’ve identified four different types of students based on their view of diversity. Diversity plays a significant role in the lives of each kind of student, even though the university itself has lost non-Black enrollment in the past 15 years.
In 1991, nearly 12 percent of FAMU’s 8,335 students were non-Black. That figure was splashed all over state newspapers as a herald of a new era. But racial diversity has slid over the years. There were almost 4,000 more students at FAMU in 2005 than there were in 1991, but there were fewer White students on campus. Statistics show FAMU is the only state university in Florida to have seen its racial diversity decline in the past 20 years.
So, I was surprised when FAMU students said they were not opposed to admitting more White students. At many historically Black colleges and universities, such a proposal is often met with criticism and seen as a threat to the existence of the university. It is hard to overlook the fact that FAMU was an underfunded stepchild of the Florida university system for a century.
In the study, 48 students representing a variety of majors, equally split by sex and academic year, were asked to rank order 36 statements regarding diversity. Through a method called “Q-factor analysis,” developed by British psychologist William Stephenson, the responses were correlated and analyzed, resulting in four main personality types.
This methodology generates hypotheses, but does not seek to prove or disprove them. It relies on grounded statements from the people themselves, describing their own thoughts. The methodology is a wonderful way of learning what people are thinking because it gives them a chance to describe their own reality.
The “didactic” student believes solely in the process of education, and appears not to be concerned primarily with the amount of diversity represented in the student community. This student comes to school to learn, and not primarily because the university is historically Black. This student says an influx of non-Blacks students would not result in an appreciable change in this institution of higher learning.
