While Miami University enrolled the most ethnically diverse first-year class in its history in 2008, The Princeton Review 2009 Best 368 Colleges Rankings found that Miami is lacking in diversity.
The rankings placed Miami at No. 11 for "Alternative Lifestyles Not An Alternative," No. 4 for "Homogeneous Student Population" and No. 2 for "Little Race/Class Interaction."
According to Jeanne Krier, publicity director for Princeton Review Books, surveys are administered through e-mails sent out by university administrators or in paper format. Formal surveys are taken on each campus at least every three years, although students can go online to fill out a survey about their school at any time and once each year.
Bryan Nance, the associate director of admissions for multicultural recruitment, said he finds the survey results a reason for concern because they are not an accurate view of Miami's diversity-due, in part, to the time elapse between each survey as well as the reviewers' inability to see the overall picture that is Miami.
"It is easy to look at this one set of student survey data ... and come to the conclusion that Miami is not a very inclusive climate," Nance said via e-mail. "But that conclusion is one that is much like the numbers themselves-figures absent the bigger picture, figures that do not entirely reflect who we are and what is happening here."
Nance also said he is concerned prospective students will see such surveys and take them as their single authority during their college search, stressing that students should use multiple sources when searching for information.
However, Krier says the data's stability over time, in terms of a campus's consistent appearance on certain ranking lists, is a sign the results are representative.
"By-and-large ... what makes it representative is ... whether we surveyed an average of 100 students in 1992 or 300 in 2000, ironically, the ranking lists that the schools are on stay the same," Krier said. "There are some things that are just fixtures in the institution."
Miami is bringing a representative from the review to campus in mid-September in an effort to help qualify the results and give him a chance to see first-hand how Miami operates.
"I hope that (The Princeton Review) will discover, as I did when I first visited this campus, that this is a highly engaged living learning community," Nance said. "We hope that they see our commitment to making this campus more diverse and the great strides that we've made in just the past few years alone."
Christine Taylor, associate vice president for institutional diversity, believes Miami has struggled with diversity but is making strides for improvement.
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"Clearly, as we move forward as an institution, one of our goals for our students is that you leave with an asset of cultural competencies that will help you work and live in the world you live in, which is a global economy," Taylor said.
Taylor said Miami has hundreds of organizations, a large number of them devoted to diversity and multicultural awareness, and said she wants to see Miami students taking advantage of these opportunities.
"We have students from 50 different states and perhaps 30 different countries," Taylor said. "It is a question of how you choose to maximize your use of tuition dollars. There are opportunities we need to develop but students need to recognize it would make a difference to understand the environment they live in."
Taylor stressed The Princeton Review rankings are done through student responses, so the surveys reflect how the students see the university. Because of this, Taylor believes students need to take some responsibility in broadening their experiences on campus.
"The Princeton Review is not asking me," Taylor said. "This is a mirror. This is what you say about yourself. This is what you do. This is what you say about your experience."
Nance agreed.
"My suggestion is simple: Go about learning and ultimately answering those questions that currently vex the world," Nance said. "Do so in a manner that gives validity to the comments and contributions of students who bring different points of view to the conversation."
Nance wants students to step outside their comfort zones and learn as much as they can from one another in and out of the classroom.
First-year Maks Babuder said he believes Miami's diversity is not lacking at all.
"Miami's diversity is more than just race, color and skin ... it should be the way you think, the ideals you give, the background you come from, not your skin," Babuder said.
Associate Student Government (ASG) Secretary for Diversity Affairs and Miami sophomore Una Hrnjak agreed with Taylor that students need to take the initiative in increase Miami's diversity and amount of acceptance.
"It's in the hands of the students to come out and see the groups offered on campus and get involved," Hrnjak said.
Sophomore Jennifer Aldrich thinks Miami offers diversity through multiple organizations devoted to it.
"I think there's a lot of different organizations for diversity but we're not really lacking," Aldrich said. "They could make more if they feel like we're lacking."
Hrnjak said out of the approximately 360 groups on campus, there are about 60 directed toward diversity.
Hrnjak believes The Princeton Review rankings are not great, but pointed out they do not encompass Miami as a whole.
President of Miami's Asian American Association (AAA) Liz Kwon recognizes a lack of diversity in Miami's student body.
"We are definitely lacking (in diversity) but with different organizations, like AAA we definitely try to promote our Asian culture and history to both Oxford and our university," Kwon said.
As Hrnjak enters into her second week as ASG's secretary for diversity affairs, she is working on ways to help increase diversity on campus, as well as increase recruitment among high school students.
"We are going out of the usual recruitment area and thinking outside the box," Hrnjak said. "We are going to reach earlier high school students, like freshmen and sophomores."
Hrnjak also said a diversity affairs committee will represent a different realm of students starting a letter writing campaign, letting high school students know there are options for diversity on campus.
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