Diversity could be more, board members say

The board had many issues to comb through during the October meeting, including new buildings, financial adjustments, and strategic planning for the future.

But one of the most discussed topics was student diversity, which was on the floor for an entire hour at one meeting. Board members feel Covenant could be recruiting more diverse students.

“There is definitely a general awareness that we’re not good, and we want to get better,” said Joel Belz, board member. A tenth of the current student body is made up of minority students.

In the spectrum of colleges across the nation, Covenant’s diversity levels are not very different from schools of similar size and mission. According to the U.S. Department of Education, 13 percent of Wheaton’s student body is considered minority, followed by Bryan at 8 percent, Union 7 percent, and Calvin 6 percent.

Jeff Hall, vice president of academic affairs, agrees Covenant should step up the effort to recruit minority students.

“There have been good changes that have come about, but they’ve happened slowly,” Hall said. “At this point, we’re encouraged by what we have, but we need to be doing better.”

“We need to keep going and not lose our momentum with this program,” said Julie Moore, Director of Student Life.

Investing in diversity is costly.

“Many other schools offer better packages for minority students than we do,” Belz said. “It’s a problem that we don’t naturally attract more diverse demographic, but it’s also hard that we aren’t wealthy enough to compensate.”

Hall believes that increasing diversity ratios means more than attracting students to Covenant. He says It’s equally about keeping students for four years.

“We need to intentionally work on keeping the students we have here,” Hall said.

Retention rates for diversity students have been low, according to Hall and Moore. Typical reasons why diversity students leave early are either financial issues or that the students have trouble connecting with the student body.

Though Covenant can’t improve scholarship packages in tight financial times, the school is taking other steps

The school has recently established a Cultural Competency Committee, headed by Sociology professor Tony Chiarelli.

The CCC has begun work this year to implement its Quality Enhancement Plan, implemented this year, which seeks to integrate of cross-cultural exposure and discussion in the classroom. As part of the plan, this year cross-cultural games were played during orientation,and there was more discussion about the importance of cross-cultural experiences in Christian Mind classes.

Junior Victoria Woodruff, director of the diversity program, says “People need to understand that their peers may have grown up in all white or all black communities, and know how to deal with the blind spots that come with that. People shouldn’t be afraid to ask questions, and people should be willing to answer the questions without getting offended or defensive.”

Moore and Woodruff are excited about new developments in the program including a mentoring system and Culturefest, which happened for the second time last spring.