This release focusing on minority bias is the second in a planned three-part series

New York City – When families weigh their choices on which college their children should attend, they tend to focus on cost, academic reputation and campus amenities. The Campus Tolerance Foundation today released analysis based on new research that calls for colleges and universities to provide more information to families about the atmosphere on campus, especially the treatment students can expect to face as members of racial, ethnic, gender or intellectual minorities.

The analysis released today focuses on the environment minorities encounter on college campuses, one of the major areas of the pilot study “If I’d Only Known: University Students Talk About Tolerance and Safety on Campus, A Pilot Study to Develop Tolerance Ratings.”

ANALYSIS OF INITIAL RESEARCH ON BIAS TOWARD MINORITIES ON CAMPUS

The pilot research gives reason for concern, according to The Campus Tolerance Foundation, and suggests a need for broader research. Surprisingly high numbers of students report they have either personally been victims of bias incidents or that they have seen bias incidents – defined as graffiti, insults, physical threat or physical assault committed because of someone’s group identification. And although Berkeley’s (49 percent) and Columbia’s (43 percent) ratings are better than MSU’s (64 percent), they still indicate a widespread problem – nearly 1 in every 2 students has witnessed or experienced bias incidents.

The pilot study also produced findings that elicit questions for university administrators about whether or not they are doing enough to understand how truly welcoming their schools are for African American, Hispanic and Asian students.

In the online survey of students from three universities, reports of graffiti and verbal insults aimed at minorities were not uncommon. About 1 in 3 reported witnessing these on campus (31 percent reported witnessing graffiti or verbal insults aimed at African Americans, 28 percent aimed at Hispanics and 32 percent aimed at Asians). The majority of respondents (56 percent) said that the prevalence of intolerance and disrespect toward minorities or other marginalized groups was “sporadic,” while 4 percent said it was “pervasive,” 15 percent said it was “somewhat common,” 16 percent said it was “nonexistent,” and 10 percent said they didn’t know. Interestingly, 9 in 10 students who said they experienced some form of bias discrimination also said they did not report the incident to school administration or security.

Administrators may want to be clearer about the efforts they are making to help minority students feel welcome. When asked, “As far as you know, to what extent does your college offer special programs or student mentors to African American and Hispanic students to help them feel comfortable and accepted on campus?,” half (49 percent) said serious efforts like this are made for minority students all four years, but 15 percent said such efforts are made only initially at student orientation and 33 percent said they didn’t know. Only 2 percent said their school does not offer those kinds of programs. A plurality of respondents (42 percent) said that their college’s office of multicultural affairs is “an active and effective presence on campus, while 23 percent said it has little influence and functions mostly as window dressing, 33 percent said they didn’t know and 2 percent said there was no such office.

The vast majority of students at the universities surveyed in this online survey said that their school is open and accepting to these minority groups. On a scale of 1 to 5, large majorities gave “4” or “5” to their campus on accepting minorities (73 percent gave “4” or “5” on being open and accepting to African American students, 72 percent for Hispanic students and 84 percent for Asian students).

For better or worse, the majority of students say students do tend to segregate. Asked “When you think about places where students gather on campus – at parties, in the cafeteria, in the dormitories – generally speaking, would you say that students of different races and ethnicities…” 57 percent said students “tend to form and segregate based on race and ethnicity,” and 37 percent said students “tend to blend together and mix freely.”

“This research did document reports of bias toward members of minority groups. I believe these are dimensions many universities would rather not be judged on,” said Marcella Rosen, Founder of the Campus Tolerance Foundation. “Are universities doing enough to understand how truly welcome minority groups feel on campus? That’s for each university to answer. But what is clear to me is that universities are not surveying students in a systematic way and allowing families access to that information as they make their decisions about what school their children should attend.”

METHODOLOGY

The overall goal of the research project is to eventually develop a comprehensive, broadly-accepted national survey mechanism that fairly assesses the atmosphere on 200 college campuses across the nation. The researchers developed a pilot test that allowed students at three different schools to contribute their own voices anonymously. The aim of the project and of the Campus Tolerance Foundation is to develop a systematic way to evaluate tolerance and respect on individual campuses, and this pilot study is the first step in the process of developing such a system for rating levels of tolerance on individual campuses.

As a pilot study fielded online, aimed at assessing the viability of possible large-scale survey research with a random sample, the research findings should be considered with interest, but not as a scientific conclusion about the atmosphere on campus. A total of 1,039 students responded to the pilot study’s online survey: 354 from Michigan State University, 310 from Columbia College and 375 from Berkeley. The vast majority of the sample was derived from responses to ads on Facebook targeting current undergraduate students at the three colleges. Prior to fielding the survey, multiple focus groups with current undergraduates were conducted at each of the three campuses (or nearby). A full methodology describing the limitations of the conclusions that can be drawn from this experiment in polling students through Facebook is included in the research report. The report, full questionnaire and top line data for each college are at: http://www.publicagenda.org/files/pdf/if_id_only_known.pdf

This pilot research was conducted by FDR Group for the Campus Tolerance Foundation. Support for the pilot research was provided to the Campus Tolerance Foundation by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Irvin Stern Foundation.

“One of the most promising aspects of this pilot study is that it shows you can develop a system for understanding conditions on individual campuses,” said FDR Group President Steve Farkas. “The instrument is sensitive enough to pick up both positive and negative attitudes about the atmosphere on a specific campus and differentiate between conditions of various universities. We will continue to refine both the instrument and the methodology, but this is a very good start.”

ANALYSES ON INTELLECTUAL SAFETY, SAFETY FOR FEMALE STUDENTS

In the coming weeks, the Campus Tolerance Foundation will release analysis on an additional area of concern. The third in the series will examine the degree to which students believe their campuses welcome a wide variety of intellectual perspectives. The first analysis, looking at safety for female students on campus, was release on April 2, 2008.

“Are America’s College Campuses Intellectually and Physically Safe?” is a pilot study and is, by design, not conclusive. Rather, the authors and sponsors intend to shine a light on the need for more questions about campus safety – in all of its variations – and generate a national examination about what information families need to truly assess the schools they send their children to.

CAMPUS TOLERANCE FOUNDATION was founded in 2002, to counter anti-Semitism on college campuses. Subsequently, the mission was broadened to fight all intolerance on college campuses. It is a group of Americans of many faiths, who champion diversity of opinion and believe in truth, tolerance and equal opportunity. www.campustolerance.com

THE FARKAS DUFFETT RESEARCH GROUP (FDR GROUP) is a full-service, nonpartisan public opinion research company with a mission to help foundations and other nonprofits understand how the general public and other key groups feel and think about their initiatives. www.thefdrgroup.com

Public Agenda is a nonprofit organization dedicated to nonpartisan public policy research. Founded in 1975 by former U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and Daniel Yankelovich, the social scientist and author, Public Agenda is well respected for its influential public opinion surveys and balanced citizen education materials. Its mission is to inject the public's voice into crucial policy debates. Public Agenda seeks to inform leaders about the public's views and to engage citizens in discussing complex policy issues.