Universities and colleges must obtain diversity by developing strategies to reach out to minorities, Yolanda T. Moses said Monday.
"But just how do we do that?" Moses asked the audience during her speech, "The Promise of Diversity in Higher Education: A 21st Century Imperative."
"Universities want to maximize minority enrollment, but they are not developing strategies to reach out to them," Moses said.
Moses, a cultural anthropologist and president of the American Association for Higher Education, outlined several key factors educators must consider when wanting to increase the diversity of student populations.
Moses said some minority students do not enroll in four-year colleges because they believe it's too expensive, or they attend two-year schools and never transfer to four-year programs.
"Colleges must do a better job of fulfilling their own mission than imitating others," Moses said.
They can do this by focusing on who students are and how they learn, she said.
"There's a need for excellent student-centered universities," Moses added.
Provost Beverley Pitts said Ball State has a strategic plan to promote diversity among its students.
"We've really made a strong commitment," Pitts said.
Ball State established the Diversity Policy Institute to develop programming to attract and retain minority students, Pitts said.
Under the institute, she said, the Speaker's Bureau brings outside lecturers as well as Ball State professors to speak on diversity issues.
Also, the Core Curriculum Task Force is a group of faculty members who have been given grants to restructure the university curriculum to concentrate on racial issues, Pitts said.
These steps are only the beginning to creating true diversity on the campus, Pitts said.
"It isn't going to happen with one bullet," she said.
Moses agreed.
"We must become more deliberate in our commitment to diversity," Moses said. "We're at a crossroad with this work."
Moses also said besides discovering how students learn, it is also important to stress what diversity means.
"Educators must link an understanding of diversity to understanding globalization," she said. "While many students will grow up here (at Ball State), they will become citizens of the world one day."
"We must teach them and engage them," Moses added.
But some students said Ball State is not accomplishing this objective.
Senior Michelle Anderson said she thinks not enough Ball State faculty attended Moses' address.
"It seems that this was the type of meeting that deans of colleges should have come to," Anderson said. "They should educate themselves on ways they can take steps towards diversity."
Senior Brandy Bounds said that student silence about the topic is one reason why diversity is not a reality at Ball State.
"Diversity is an isolated issue, and if the students are quiet, then it's quiet with the university," Bounds said. "The university doesn't make it a big issue unless the students do."
But it is important for students to understand diversity, Bounds said.
"Everyone comes from a different culture, and to co-exist peacefully we need to become aware of similarities and differences in our population," Bounds said.
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