Over the last 10 years, accessibility and diversity have become buzzwords in higher education. They are the benchmarks for admissions — signs that elite colleges and universities are doing more than simply securing a future for the already privileged in an era of diminishing social mobility and growing income inequality.
While the College has taken important steps towards attracting a student body that is more diverse on multiple levels and providing supportive spaces for them on campus once they arrive, it is clear that it has not done enough.
Currently, we have clubs and support available for first generation college students; we have the Queer Studies House as a safe space for LGBTQ students; we have PALANA to provide housing and programming for students with an interest in intercultural studies; we have cultural organizations like DMC, WOC, AAA and Alianza; and we continue to expand our Posse Scholars partnership. What we don’t have is a large, public and dynamic space for students from historically underrepresented backgrounds to feel welcome as a broader group, tying together the intersectional oppression that these members of our community experience.
To address this, students have pushed over the past year for the creation of an Intercultural Center — a place where those who have felt uncomfortable in other public spaces can receive the institutional support they need, have an opportunity to expand cultural literacy more broadly on campus and also have a place to just be, to form a community with social and academic foundations that is open and welcoming to people of all backgrounds.
We as an Editorial Board support this proposal and want to keep pressure on the administration to look to students for input every step of the way. Student-led initiatives on this campus tend to fall into the bureaucratic sinkhole once they are successful, turning them into administrative projects that become deprived of the student input that gave them energy in the first place. We have plenty of overly-formal, dead spaces on campus as it is, and this center cannot join that list. The Administration has been clear in its intent to include student input throughout this process, and thus far students have been involved, but we need to be sure all the students who want a voice in this process have a chance to contribute.
It is important to note that socio-economic background and racial or ethnic background are not synonymous when talking about diversity. That being said, average family income in the U.S. does break down along racial lines, reflecting endemic structural inequalities that continue to inform class and social mobility. This is our reality, and while we must work for system-level change to shift this paradigm, today it is up to the College to provide resources for students who come from or identify with historically underrepresented backgrounds. There is no reason for our student body to be substantially less racially and economically diverse than those of our peers. It is simply a matter of priorities.
Earlier last month The Upshot, a New York Times blog, took a deeper look at accessibility among “top colleges” using Pell Grant recipients as indicators of socio-economic diversity. Among peer institutions Middlebury ranked an abysmal 51st, with only 13 percent of our student body qualifying for federal assistance (compared to a college like Vassar with 23 percent).
Here’s another way to look at it: roughly 13 percent of our student body comes from the poorest 40 percent of American families, while over half of our students come from families who can afford Middlebury’s staggering $60k price tag without grant aid. To put this into perspective, this is half the annual income for the wealthiest 10 percent of American families. If Middlebury is committed to bringing a truly diverse student body to campus, changing this picture is the first place to start.
This is not to say that we have not made progress. We should celebrate the fact that within the class of 2018, 14 percent are first generation college students (a new record), 26 percent are students of color from the U.S. and 48 percent received financial aid. We are need-blind for domestic students, and we meet 100 percent of demonstrated need (as determined by the College).
These are impressive statistics, but they are falling behind the trend as other colleges and universities work to extend opportunities to communities with fewer resources. Harvard, Yale and Princeton have endowments that dwarf Middlebury’s and unsurprisingly are able to offer more financial aid and attract a broader range of students. Vassar, however, has an endowment and student body similar to Middlebury’s and has been able to make a much stronger commitment to diversity. Vassar’s class of 2018 has 10 percent more domestic students of color than Middlebury’s and roughly the same number of international students, yet Vassar as a whole ranks first on the New York Times accessibility index. Those are numbers worth striving for, not because they would make Middlebury look better statistically, but because they represent values of equality of access that we claim to have and need to uphold.
But this process does not end with an acceptance letter. Middlebury must support students who do not fit the “typical” profile throughout their four years here. A 2007 internal study found a 19-point gap in the graduation rate for students of color compared with the overall average. Without more recent data, we can only speculate that this significant margin has not been wholly ameliorated. The Intercultural Center is an important and highly visible step towards supporting diversity on this campus.
We as a community need to recognize that cutting the ribbon at Carr Hall and hiring a new staff member are just the first steps. Over time, one of the challenges a space like this can address is the current lack of cultural literacy on this campus by providing institutional support for this education and removing some of the burden from students who may just want to be students. We must push ourselves to think of innovative ways to make the most of the opportunity the Intercultural Center provides.
Creating a more inclusive campus will not happen overnight, and approving the Intercultural Center should not be a sign that we can let this issue rest. Ultimately, this center must signify an increased financial and social commitment to supporting all students on this campus on all fronts, not just attracting statistics and leaving them to sink or swim.
Artwork by NOLAN ELLSWORTH
