Quantitative Approaches to Measuring Student Body Diversity: Some Examples and Thoughts

Abstract

The simplest approach to measuring racial composition is to calculate only the proportion of White students in the total undergraduate enrollment (%White). This was the most common approach in earlier studies of student body racial diversity (see, e.g., Astin, 1993).² A slightly different alternative, at least conceptually, is to calculate the percentage of students of color or racial minorities (students who reported their racial/ethnicity to be non-White). Recent studies are more likely to use this alternative (see, e.g., Antonio, 2001; Gurin, Dey, Hurtado, & Gurin, 2002; Terenzini, Cabrera, Colbeck, Bjorklund, & Parente, 2001). This measure centers the focus of analysis on students of color and thus may be more advantageous than “%White” for interpreting findings. Still, the basic assumption underlying both approaches is that as the proportion of White students decline and by definition the proportion of students of color increase, the student body necessarily becomes more diverse. Accordingly, these approaches presume a zero-sum game for diversity on college campuses, where gains for one group come at the expense of other groups.

Citation

Chang, M.J. and Yamamura, E. (2005), "Quantitative Approaches to Measuring Student Body Diversity: Some Examples and Thoughts", Allen, W.R., Bonous-Hammarth, M., Teranishi, R.T. and Dano, O.C. (Ed.) Higher Education in a Global Society: Achieving Diversity, Equity and Excellence (Advances in Education in Diverse Communities, Vol. 5), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 369-386. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-358X(05)05018-7