Despite recent concerns over the university’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, senior administrators sat down with prospective students over Zoom on Dec. 8 to talk about the university’s commitment to diversifying their undergraduate population.
Director of Admissions Bruce Bunnick and Vice President of Equity and Inclusion Donald Outing worked in tandem to educate and inform these students about the nature of diversity at Lehigh as well as efforts being made to encourage it.
Outing discussed the four on-campus offices that cater to students’ needs on issues of diversity and inclusion: the Center for Gender Equity, the Pride Center, the Office of Multicultural Affairs and the Student Access and Success Office.
The university sees these offices as a way for them to take a more systematic approach to ensure inclusion, Outing said. He said they can always do better and emphasized that diversity, equity and inclusion is not a destination, rather an ongoing journey.
The university is working to allow for all students to have equal access to experiential learning opportunities such as research, internships and studying abroad, Outing said. The diversity of the student body has come into sharper focus, especially as the university’s plans to add 1,000 more undergraduate students over the coming decade through its Path to Prominence plan has officially begun.
Not everyone on Lehigh’s campus may have previously had the resources or the knowledge to explore these high impact experiences, and the Student Access and Success Office is working to bridge the gap.
“This is a community effort, a university effort,” Outing said. “You’ll see that it is our faculty, staff, alumni, student body, that are engaged and assuring that all of our students have the opportunity to participate in these opportunities.”
The number of students participating in these high impact programs has increased, he said.
“Everything from our internships out at the NASDAQ center in Silicon Valley, to those traveling to Shanghai, to those interning at the U.S. State Department, are actual experiences that our students have been able to take advantage of,” Outing said.
Some students believe there are still many diversity and inclusion problems that need to be fixed and have done their part to address it.
Chloe Sider, ‘20, and Nina Alameno, ‘21, both started the Diversity Peer Educators program to help transform Lehigh into an actively anti-racist institution by bringing awareness to the student body.
“We wanted to tackle the issue we thought was the biggest on campus: the lack of diversity and inclusion and racism on campus,” Sider said.
Alameno said diversity and inclusion remains a big problem at the university and Diversity Peer Educators is working to enact change in ways Lehigh facilities can’t. Alameno said Diversity Peer Educators exists to facilitate the conversation.
“What’s lacking at Lehigh is that there is no discussion of it,” she said.
Bunnick and Outing, during their talk, provided prospective students with a statistical breakdown of the racial makeup of Lehigh’s undergraduate student body.
But Sider said the statistics are an inaccurate reflection of life on campus.
“A percentage is out of a whole, but you would have to assume that everyone in that percentage is equal to give it a basic percentage,” Sider said. “That’s just not the case at Lehigh.”
Alameno said Lehigh misleads it’s prospective students and gives them a false sense of what the student body is like.
“It’s unfair to students who want to see what the real student body is,” she said. “When they are coming to Lehigh, to see advertisements of people that look like you and to then come to school and realize that is not the case is an issue.”
Sider said the students should have the ability to feel proud of the institution and their actions in response to diversity issues.
“We are so literally segregated that once you leave the picture-perfect advertisements of Lehigh, people are physically separated from one another,” Sider said. “It is not only classes or acceptances, it is a community where people are pushed to one side.”
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2 Comments
https://hechingerreport.org/can-universities-keep-the-minority-students-they-woo/
Thank you students Sider and Alameno for your activism and courageous efforts in speaking the truth. Thank you to Ms. Turkeltaub and the Brown & White for always following true north and shining a light on the issues that matter most as you take us out of the darkness, always. Thank you Jordan Wolman for your leadership and brilliance, for you went where no student should ever have to go to find and disseminate the truth — you define the word journalist as your presence has had profound positive impact as you have served the Lehigh community like no other since Marty Baron, ’76,’77G, my editor-in-chief.
Students, I commend your spirit and the torch you carry as generations before you have done in a culture that presents as insular and resistant to achieving authentic inclusion. The above link will affirm that what you cite today is mirrored in the happenings of 2011 regarding aggressive race recruitment and the unwelcoming environment that all the marketing tactics and illusions in the world cannot change or retain protected and diverse populations that Lehigh may woo. Indeed, reality is something entirely different that what is being sold…and this is very sad. As an education advocate and the complainant in the racial civil rights case 2014 to 2018 I suspect these tactics are clearly unethical, unconscionable and clearly deceptive practice. These tactics undertaken by our leadership contradict and defy the Principles of Equitable Community as they also overtly disrespect the entire Lehigh family. Deceptive practice that victimizes those of race/color defines the very essence of racism. I am disheartened to read the perspective you share, and what is reported herewith. Also clear is the Lehigh leadership perspective which holds no merit and reflects spin. I would encourage Lehigh to attempt something new….honestly, truthfulness in statements and accountability. These aggressive recruitment actions of minority populations and the creation of illusion is the very core of creating a toxic hostile educational environment of inequality in which survival outcome is rare and failure is eminent. Lehigh appears to be playing with the lives of our future scholars and leaders and this is unacceptable. As a civil rights education advocate and concerned and engaged alumna who spent 7 + years of my life attempting to bring corrective relief and remediation to a discriminatory alma mater, I remain heartbroken as it is clear Lehigh’s soul has yet to be healed. The Glacier has yet to melt and in the words of a Lehigh mentor, one day when least expected the activism will triumph!
I encourage you Ms. Sider and Ms. Alameno to continue to seek authentic inclusion and to always have Hope.
Thank you for all your good work, you are both Justice Warrior Women!
Susan
If it’s any consolation — and I don’t see why it should be — this is how it goes at all the selective private universities. It’s right there in the admissions process:
Tranche 1: Questbridge etc. Tick your diversity boxes, ensuring some terrific and very hardworking kids will be fighting a label forever, don’t commit to demolishing the on-campus/post-campus racism and white entitlement that’ll be aimed at the kids, which means you’ll leave the kids to fight it and the self-doubt it brings themselves. Few seats, so not very expensive. Hand them through the 4-year minuet, take photos, apply liberally to all external comms.
Tranche 2: Early Decision. This is the main event, or at least you hope it will be: kids with very respectable college resumes, very solid SAT/GPA game, sports, activities, legacy, and serious net worth. They’re your Now & Later, your real clientele, your future donor core. Admit all you can.
Tranche 3: EA/Regular Decision. You need these kids to polish up the stats and boost diversity figures, but they’ll need money, so go easy. Make sure they’ve shown all the love and hope they turn out rich. At better-ranked schools they’ll spend four years wondering why people aren’t very smart at this prestige palace, but won’t notice for a while that they’re the non-building-fund side of the prestige, and a little dab’ll do ya when it comes to that. Again: photos, photos, photos with the prizes and accomplishments.
Tranche 4: EDII. Hey, they have money, and you can get them from one side to the other. Solid filler for a place like Lehigh. Average scores, will go to games, will donate. Don’t overbalance or you’ll blow your academic stats and alienate Tranches 2 and 3.
Admissions: tell me it’s not how the game is played.
Chloe and Nina: Ask the admissions people how they plan to integrate informal social groups at Lehigh and break open the suburban cliques. When they hem and haw, ask them when admission’s going to flip the stats and build classes that are minority wealthy-suburb kids. When they make excuses again, you’ll have your answer. Your real problem here, btw, is a phalanx of suburban moms named Lori and Jackie who think you’re very nice and admire all your hard work, and think you should be proud, but will defend their kids’ advantages with everything they’ve got. I think a public event with Lori and Jackie would be an amazing thing.