February 1 marked the first day of Black History Month activities at Carnegie Mellon. The first event of the month, held that evening, was the Speak Your Mind Diversity Discussion and Dinner, entitled "Improving Measures of University Diversity" and facilitated by Patrick Larkey, Professor of Decision Making and Public Policy in the HeinzSchool.  

Larkey began by presenting ideas on diversity goals and diversity measures. As diversity goals, Larkey touched on the issues of access, participation, and inclusion. The issue of access involves providing all students with opportunities to compete fairly for admission based on functionally relevant talents and motivation, as explained in a handout provided to the Speak Your Mind attendees. For example, Larkey said that universities could look for correlations between economic standards and how many people take the SAT in a given geographical region. Larkey believes analysis of this information would make more progress toward getting minorities into institutions than just looking solely at race.

In response to the recent comment by Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers that perhaps innate genetic differences between men and women are responsible for the different levels of success in math and science, Larkey alluded to the fact that, "Everyone shares 99.9% of the genetic code…. No one has shown that gender has anything to do with achievement in any field."   

On the participation and inclusion issue, Larkey supports a move from civil rights to functional rights.

"People are treated [a certain way] based on what they can accomplish based on the function. It's a socialization and selection process," said Larkey.  

Larkey commented on the challenges with affirmative action. "The problem with affirmative action is that there's been little follow-up with regard to the differences in graduation rates for students admitted under affirmative action as opposed to those who were not. Measurement by itself is not adequate," said Larkey. 

Larkey also commented on societal expectations and their effect on academic achievement. "We have built a culture to make sure people don't fail. People have to understand that it's okay to really, really try hard and get your brains beaten out some percentage of the time, otherwise you don't stretch it."

The event drew a mixed crowd consisting of students, faculty, and staff from the Carnegie Mellon community. Some students commented on the challenges with diversity they've seen throughout the University.   

One drama student made the following comments: "The shows that we do don't necessarily display the diversity that we have in our department. It's been a slow process, but we've been improving."

Several members of the University Planning Office (UPO) were also in attendance. In response to a student concerned with the fact that some minority students come from impoverished backgrounds and that the University must accept a certain number of students who don't need financial aid, the UPO representatives proceeded to describe the University's admission and financial aid practices. 

"The admission process is need blind; we don't know the financial need of our students or indeed whether or not they applied for aid [when offering admission]," explained Stacey Lopez, the UPO's senior planning analyst.

Lopez described the three-fold process used to assign financial aid to students. Financial Aid is determined by factors of magnetism and desirability (for example, if the music department needs an oboe player to complete its orchestra, an oboe candidate in the applicant pool will have great magnetism), academic potential (SAT scores, high school academic performance, leadership experiences, interviews, etc.), and financial need.

There was mention of the Michigan race-based admissions case. Lopez clarified that Carnegie Mellon may use race as one of many factors in the admission of students, but it cannot be a deciding factor in admission. 

In creating a desirable class of students, the only numerical quota is the number of students required by each college to fill its incoming class.

The UPO conducted an end of the year satisfaction survey in the Spring 2004 semester. The purpose of the survey was to determine how members of the Carnegie Mellon community feel about diversity at the university.  These results are available on the University Planning website.

Some audience members offered their perspectives on how to impact diversity on campus. 

Kristina Alagar, a December 2004 Heinz School graduate who received her undergraduate education in the University of California system, commented on the need for students' involvement in shaping admissions policy, a component she states is present in the University of California system.

"If we really are an inclusive community, then I believe that all facets of that community should be involved in the creation of it. For instance, the admission policy: what are the ideal characteristics you want with regard to student? Students make up the majority of the campus population, and having their voice would add value to the community," said Alagar.

For more information on the Black History Month events at Carnegie Mellon, please visit http://www.cmu.edu/cmnews/extra/050128_bhm.html or contact Emily Half in the Division of Student Affairs at ehalf@andrew.cmu.edu or 412.268.2075.

 talkback to the pulse