Diversity

>> The issue of Diversity has been floating around the Claremont Colleges far before the current population of students arrived. Two major issues that were brought up involving diversity amongst Asian Americans of the 5-Cs were socioeconomic class and ethnic variation within the Asian American race. As much as the 5-Cs claim that they value diversity, administrative institutional research shows that students’ race is considered the “main” factor of this so-called diversity, and this leaves out other factors like class or generations. Grouping Asian American/Asian Students into one large group is a false misrepresentation. Many students in the focus group asserted that the Asian Americans at the 5-Cs are often upper-middle class East Asians, as opposed to working-class Asian Americans, for instance. Another critical issue was the fact that Asians and Asian Americans are often lumped together despite clashing differences.

>> In essence, different viewpoints call for different support strategies and dialogue. First generation college students or international students most likely will encounter a completely different experience than second generation API’s whose parents previously attended college. Such unique make-ups and categories of Asian American students must be pronounced and respected as such.

As Linda Hahn ’05 PO states,

“All Asian American students should be invited to the weekends regardless of socioeconomic status because class is not a proxy for race.”--Linda

>> In Pomona’s student newspaper The Student Life, an article written about the Minority Student Action Program (MSAP) that hosts weekend overnight tours for Black, Latino, and only low-income Asian students, it was asserted that underrepresented groups of Asian Americans are minorities as well. Not all Asians are categorized as Japanese, Korean, Chinese or Vietnamese. Other marginalized Asian groups deserve to be treated as minorities, and should also be represented in the MSAP weekends.

The 2003-2004 Scripps College Diversity Chair said,

“Scripps is very secretive concerning this stuff, so I’m not sure what you can dig up.”

>> Compared to the other three colleges, administrative institutional research at Pomona College and Pitzer College take very direct and public outlooks on race. At Pomona College, for instance, racial background is heavily considered when hiring faculty. However, in the annual “Faculty Affirmative Action Report”, Asian faculty are placed in the same category as Asian Americans faculty, which skews numbers due to the fact that foreign language departments hire numerous faculty members from the native lands respective to which language they teach. At the end of the report when studying overall faculty makeup trends, all minorities are grouped together. Scripps College has conducted campus climate research mainly focusing on race as well, but in reference to the data collected that is private and only accessible to the administration, Harvey Mudd admitted in their “Blueprint for Diversity” documents that they lack racial diversity on campus. We were not able to obtain institutional research on race, class, generation, and home communities for neither Claremont McKenna College nor Harvey Mudd College.

Sandhya, a Pomona student of South Asian descent states

“Here there aren’t very many South Asians [at the 5-C’s]; I’ve had class with, like, one.”

>> When talking about diversity amongst the Asian American students of the 5-Cs, we must not just look at the numbers of Asian Americans percentage wise, but also of the diversity within the Asian American students. Different ethnicities bear different languages and traditions, as well as different cultural values similar to how the Spanish, French, Italians, and Germans, though all European, would not be done justice all lumped together as one. In an article in AAMPlified, a Pomona AAMP publication, an article talks about the lack of South/South-eastern Asian representation on Pomona’s campus. Many times, when we talk about Asian Americans, the less represented demographics are often excluded, making it even more important to further ethnic diversity on the campus/campuses.

In pointing out the difference between Asians and Asian Americans, Ruka from Harvey Mudd states:

“ The way I see it when I’m here is foreigners, like the Japanese and the Jamaicans, against the Americans.”--Ruka

		>> The issue of Diversity has been floating around the Claremont Colleges far before the current population of students arrived. Two major issues that were brought up involving diversity amongst Asian Americans of the 5-Cs were socioeconomic class and ethnic variation within the Asian American race. As much as the 5-Cs claim that they value diversity, administrative institutional research shows that students’ race is considered the “main” factor of this so-called diversity, and this leaves out other factors like class or generations. Grouping Asian American/Asian Students into one large group is a false misrepresentation. Many students in the focus group asserted that the Asian Americans at the 5-Cs are often upper-middle class East Asians, as opposed to working-class Asian Americans, for instance. Another critical issue was the fact that Asians and Asian Americans are often lumped together despite clashing differences.
		>> In essence, different viewpoints call for different support strategies and dialogue. First generation college students or international students most likely will encounter a completely different experience than second generation API’s whose parents previously attended college. Such unique make-ups and categories of Asian American students must be pronounced and respected as such.
		As Linda Hahn ’05 PO states, “All Asian American students should be invited to the weekends regardless of socioeconomic status because class is not a proxy for race.”--Linda >> In Pomona’s student newspaper The Student Life, an article written about the Minority Student Action Program (MSAP) that hosts weekend overnight tours for Black, Latino, and only low-income Asian students, it was asserted that underrepresented groups of Asian Americans are minorities as well. Not all Asians are categorized as Japanese, Korean, Chinese or Vietnamese. Other marginalized Asian groups deserve to be treated as minorities, and should also be represented in the MSAP weekends.
		The 2003-2004 Scripps College Diversity Chair said, “Scripps is very secretive concerning this stuff, so I’m not sure what you can dig up.” >> Compared to the other three colleges, administrative institutional research at Pomona College and Pitzer College take very direct and public outlooks on race. At Pomona College, for instance, racial background is heavily considered when hiring faculty. However, in the annual “Faculty Affirmative Action Report”, Asian faculty are placed in the same category as Asian Americans faculty, which skews numbers due to the fact that foreign language departments hire numerous faculty members from the native lands respective to which language they teach. At the end of the report when studying overall faculty makeup trends, all minorities are grouped together. Scripps College has conducted campus climate research mainly focusing on race as well, but in reference to the data collected that is private and only accessible to the administration, Harvey Mudd admitted in their “Blueprint for Diversity” documents that they lack racial diversity on campus. We were not able to obtain institutional research on race, class, generation, and home communities for neither Claremont McKenna College nor Harvey Mudd College.
		Sandhya, a Pomona student of South Asian descent states “Here there aren’t very many South Asians [at the 5-C’s]; I’ve had class with, like, one.” >> When talking about diversity amongst the Asian American students of the 5-Cs, we must not just look at the numbers of Asian Americans percentage wise, but also of the diversity within the Asian American students. Different ethnicities bear different languages and traditions, as well as different cultural values similar to how the Spanish, French, Italians, and Germans, though all European, would not be done justice all lumped together as one. In an article in AAMPlified, a Pomona AAMP publication, an article talks about the lack of South/South-eastern Asian representation on Pomona’s campus. Many times, when we talk about Asian Americans, the less represented demographics are often excluded, making it even more important to further ethnic diversity on the campus/campuses.
		In pointing out the difference between Asians and Asian Americans, Ruka from Harvey Mudd states: “ The way I see it when I’m here is foreigners, like the Japanese and the Jamaicans, against the Americans.”--Ruka