Diversity And Diversity

Higher education institutions have adopted diversity affirmative action policies that seek to enhance the diversity of their student body. Diversity affirmative action also helps individuals to become more tolerant within a college campus because it exposes people to a dissimilar student body that includes cultures and ideas that are different from their own. Affirmative action also helps prevent individuals or groups excluded from opportunities on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender. The practice of affirmative action has often been misunderstood in a way that opponents of it have the idea that those who benefit from it are unqualified to gain admittance to their respective college/university. In reality, it is a just way to make sure the …show more content…
Since the United States is so diverse, having a university that reflects the variety of people would help individuals learn how to get along with those who see things in a different perspective. Colleges encourage students to learn outside of the class; however, having a homogenous group of students would hinder one’s ability to learn outside of the classroom. For example, you can learn from a fellow student who overcame living in the ghetto when you lived in a nice affluent suburban neighborhood. This helps students empathize and realize things that go on around them that they’re not aware of until someone points it out to them. Research has also showed that having diversity outside of the classroom has positive effects on students’ cognitive development while increasing one’s college experiences and leadership abilities. Students can learn in many different ways outside of the classroom by having a diverse student …show more content…
Many are unaware of the positive results of having a diverse classroom and that it is important to keep affirmative action policies that looks at having a diverse group. From experience, I find find myself more comfortable when I see other minorities in the classes. This is because when you feel more welcomed and you have a sense of belonging since you know that at least one other person in the class looks like you. Having a diverse classroom leads to more enhanced conversations. For example, a class may have a discussion about discrimination in the United States that would consist of a students with diverse backgrounds and experiences. With the diverse backgrounds, the group would be able to discuss the different viewpoints and perspectives on discrimination. This creates open dialogue and it allows students to have a broader understanding of issues that may not necessarily affect them. Studies show that when a student has a diverse group of peers in the classroom meaningful engagement rather than casual and insincere integrations led to greater benefit from interaction with racially diverse peers. Students who have a diverse group of peers in the classroom also benefit from active thinking engagement, growth in intellectual engagement and motivation, and growth in intellect and academic skills. All of those positives in the classroom are justification to why we should maintain policies