How is Miami University doing on racial diversity? Depends on who you ask

By DUNCAN STEWART

Miami University journalism student

Miami University continues to lag behind other Ohio public universities in its efforts to recruit minority students despite ongoing efforts to attract them to Oxford, according to 2016 enrollment data.

And that has a group of minority students pointing the finger at the administration saying it needs to do more to make the campus attractive to those students - many of whom are being recruited elsewhere. Administrators, they said, also need to do more to make minority Miami students feel safe and welcome on the largely white, upper-class campus.

“We need to diversify the student body. Stop bringing in people from only rich areas,” said Austin Hogans, a black senior from Westerville.

As of fall 2016, Miami had the lowest percentage of domestic students of color among Ohio University, Ohio State University, and University of Cincinnati.

Of Miami's 16,981 students at the Oxford campus, 12,544 were white. A breakdown of the other races:

• 681 or 4 percent were Hispanic/Latino
• 555 or 3 percent were multi-racial
• 521 or 3 percent were African American
• 361 or 2 percent were Asian
• 35 or .02 percent were Native American/Alaskan
• 5 or .0002 percent were Hawaiian/Pacific Islander

When U.S. News and World Report ranked their top 100 schools for academics by diversity, Miami had the 95th lowest rate.

Ronald Scott, associate vice president for institutional diversity, said the university is doing all it can to recruit more students of color.

“We’re not sure what else we can do,” Scott said.

Miami is not alone its struggle to recruit and retain minority students. Two years ago at the University of Cincinnati, a group of minority students who called themselves the Irite 8, formed to protest and demand more diversity on that campus. Eight represented the percentage of black students on that urban campus in 2015.

Universities around the country have faced difficulties in increasing their diversity rates. In 2015, 70 percent of white recent high school graduates enrolled in college, versus 55 percent of black students, according to a report released by the Department of Education in 2016. And the college degree attainment gap between white students and black and Hispanic students has increased over the past fifty years.

Perceptions make recruitment difficult

Jonika Moore, senior associate director of diversity initiatives in the admissions department, said Miami faces unique challenges in recruiting students of color.

The three biggest issues are location, tuition price and perceptions about Miami.

“Some students think that rural means low opportunity,” she said. “And we have the highest tuition of public schools in Ohio. That can keep many students from even applying.”

There is a perception among high school students that Miami is strictly a white and upper-class school, she added.

“Students think the KKK is walking up and down the street,” she said. “We have to recruit around these perceptions.”

Miami has the highest median parent income of Ohio public universities at $119,000, according to a New York Times study published in January 2017. It also has the highest tuition and fees of Ohio public universities at nearly $15,000 in-state and nearly $32,000 for out-of-state students.

She said she believes Miami students who believe the school doesn’t try to recruit diverse students aren’t seeing the bigger picture.

“Just because certain students aren’t here doesn’t mean they weren’t recruited and admitted,” she said.

She pointed to the Bridges Program, an initiative that brings high school students from underrepresented groups to visit Miami for an overnight visit, as one example of her department's recruiting strategies.

Divisions between students, administration persist

But Austin Lamewona, a black sophomore from Cincinnati, said he believes the school doesn’t do enough to reach out to inner city schools

“You never see Miami at Withrow High School in Cincinnati,” he said. “I feel like they think they’re above it.”

Miami recruiters go to every public school in Ohio, Moore said.

There remains distrust and a lack of understanding between students and administrators related to race on campus.

Scott, the diversity administrator, said in an interview that minority students need to take personal responsibility for changing the campus climate around race.

“It’s not the institution that has a problem,” he said.

De'Vante Montgomery, a black junior from Cincinnati, was upset by Scott's remarks.

“He needs to take a black world studies class here at Miami to understand being not privileged.'' Montgomery said. "I’m assuming Dr. Ron Scott is an older Caucasian male?”

Scott, whose job is partially to communicate with students on racial issues, is black.

Lamewona balked at Scott's comments as well:

“It shouldn’t be the students’ job to create equality among the students,” he said.

An issue of safety

The issue goes deeper than just numbers and feeling at home. Some minority students said they don't feel safe on Oxford's campus.

At the Combatting White Supremacy Rally on September 28 cohosted by The Collective and Black Women Empowered, the moderators asked the students of color in the audience if they felt safe on Miami’s campus.

The answer was a loud, “No!”

There haven’t been any reported hate crimes on campus since 2015, when two freshman students vandalized a bulletin board in Wells Hall with misogynistic, homophobic and racist language. However, students of color say they still don’t feel safe.

Lamewona said part of this feeling of unsafety is simple a result of being a minority.

“I’m even more of a minority than I am in other areas, which can make me feel like a target,” he said.

He also believes that much of Miami’s student population doesn’t respect the rights of African Americans.

“Knowing the views of other students, that a large portion of the population doesn’t believe that oppression is a thing. That’s a microaggression,” he said. “It makes me hesitant to put myself out there in some spaces.”

Microaggressions are comments or actions that unintentionally reflect a prejudiced attitude towards a minority.

Jenn Islam, a graduate student, feels she was singled out during her assistantship in the Office of Residence Life because she is Hispanic.

“My boss told me I had to ask permission before I left [the residence hall she worked in],” she said. “It made me feel like a child, like I wasn’t autonomous.”

Islam said her boss looked up her comings and goings from the dorm using the MyCard system, something that is not usually done for staff members.

“She didn’t understand that I was leaving the hall because I didn’t feel comfortable there as a woman of color,” said Islam.

Scott said students need to report any instances of prejudice or feeling targeted.

“I’m not discounting that folks don’t feel comfortable, but from our standpoint, so tell us what the specifics are,” he said. “Are there hostile acts on campus? Where?”

Scott said students need to take their concerns to the administration.

“Don’t just say it’s hostile and not do anything about it,” he said.

Miami has a bias reporting system through the Office of Ethics and Equal Opportunity that students can use to report instances of prejudice. But Lamewona said he isn’t aware of this system and wouldn’t necessarily trust it.

“It sounds like how businesses have a complaint box, and it’s not really used and people don’t take it seriously,” Lamewona said.

C.J. Witherspoon, the associate director for diversity affairs, said student may not want to ruffle feathers by reporting through the bias system.

“It’s one thing to have it on the website and another to talk folks through. There has to be safety behind that,” she said.

Ohio University has a similar reporting system that is also used for sexual assault and academic misconduct incidents. University of Cincinnati and Ohio State both have bias incident teams designed to investigate allegations of discrimination.

Looking to the future

Scott hopes that students who believe the university should be doing more to help students of color will take the One Miami Climate Survey.

“If we believe there are things we can do to make this place better, here’s a place to get it in writing,” he said. “When the data is released, you can hold us all accountable to it. But if you don’t fill it out, how are we supposed to know?”

Montgomery doesn’t think students of color feel comfortable enough with the administration to take their concerns to them:

“People who feel like they’re in fear, or feeling like they’re being placed in a box, are not going to feel comfortable enough to come to a system by the way, that they already don’t trust.”

Photo 1: "A rally is just a rally," said Scott. -- Photo by Duncan Stewart

Photo 2: Complaints about the administration abounded at the Combatting White Supremacy Forum. -- Photo by Duncan Stewart