A Slightly Slanted Viewbook

July 11th, 2008

You’ve seen them — bulletins sent in the mail or galleries linked on school websites — and they’re all filled with the same things: happy, smiling students of every race and color who are either walking around campus or deeply engaged in a professor’s lecture.

But just how accurate are these microcosms of college living? According to recent research headed by Timothy Pippert, an associate professor of sociology from Augsburg College (Minneapolis, Missouri), not very.

Using a random sampling of 371 college and universities, Pippert studied various promotional materials and found that schools often over-represented the number of minorities on campus. For example, while black and Asian students comprise 7.9 and 3.3 percent of the average college student body, respectively, their presence in college bulletins and other materials amount to 12.4 and 5.1 percent of students portrayed.

The effect can be two-fold, gain the interest of students who are interested in attending a diverse college and make minority students feel more welcome. But does this penchant for picture diversity constitute a conspiracy to lure in students? What do you think?

– Genevieve M. Blaber

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