Campus Diversity
The Hidden Consensus

Campus diversity is a contentious topic, but this book shows far more consensus than conflict in student attitudes toward diversity.

John M. Carey (Author), Katherine Clayton (Author), Yusaku Horiuchi (Author)

9781108745307, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 December 2019

274 pages, 60 b/w illus. 8 tables
15 x 23 x 1.7 cm, 0.42 kg

'In this exemplary book, they undertake an earnest, innovative approach to add to our understanding of student and faculty attitudes toward campus composition … The book's impressive contribution owes much to the authors' limited scope … As a methodological exercise, the book surpasses expectation. Methods instructors might well consider including it as an exemplar.' Scott E. Page, Perspectives on Politics

Media, politicians, and the courts portray college campuses as divided over diversity and affirmative action. But what do students and faculty really think? This book uses a novel technique to elicit honest opinions from students and faculty and measure preferences for diversity in undergraduate admissions and faculty recruitment at seven major universities, breaking out attitudes by participants' race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, and political partisanship. Scholarly excellence is a top priority everywhere, but the authors show that when students consider individual candidates, they favor members of all traditionally underrepresented groups - by race, ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic background. Moreover, there is little evidence of polarization in the attitudes of different student groups. The book reveals that campus communities are less deeply divided than they are often portrayed to be; although affirmative action remains controversial in the abstract, there is broad support for prioritizing diversity in practice.

1. What we are studying, why, and how
2. Roots of the current diversity debates
3. Our conjoint experiments
4. What students think: Results across all students
5. How attitudes differ across groups
6. How preferences differ by political beliefs
7. What about when all else is not equal?
8. How student attitudes differ from faculty attitudes
9. Evidence from other cases
10. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Political science & theory [JPA], Higher & further education, tertiary education [JNM], Multicultural education [JNFR], Moral & social purpose of education [JNAM], Sociology [JHB], Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies [JFSL1]