In my day, freshman orientation was a rather sloppy deal. You arrived on campus a little early, set up your room, met some other freshmen and a couple of juniors and seniors, and took a tour of the library. At the time, Mount Holyoke College, my alma mater, was fairly lily white and pretty much middle- and upper-middle class. There was no talk whatsoever about “diversity.” The idea was that freshmen could manage to mix together on their own and help form the college’s own little melting pot.
Nowadays, colleges openly promote diversity and make it a point to both recruit and welcome students with a wide variety of religious, racial, ethnic, cultural and even sexual backgrounds. Many freshman orientation programs today even include pre-orientation programs designed to give students — many of whom have little experience mixing with people who are not like them — a head start on the range of diversity issues they’ll encounter during their college years.
For example, this fall Mount Holyoke will host a new, entirely voluntary pre-orientation program, entitled, “Promoting Intercultural Dialogue and Creating Inclusion.” The program (with what strikes me as a pretty preachy title — although who knows, maybe incoming freshmen will like the sound of it) will divide students into three groups — international students, minority and mixed-race students, and white students. Each will have a staff member leading it, as well as upperclassmen who will conduct smaller group discussions. The groups will meet separately at first, and then later together, to try to openly and respectfully discuss such issues as racism, empowerment, and respect for diversity. According to dean of students Liz Braun, the program’s goals range from promoting “self-awareness and self-reflection” to developing the skills to understand “multiple perspectives and engage in passionate discussions with civility and respect.”
Hofstra University, where I teach, also hosts a pre-orientation. Unlike Mount Holyoke’s, ours is compulsory. Students must attend one of eight three-day sessions offered from June to August. The stated goal is more modest than Mount Holyoke’s — to introduce students to university policies and procedures regarding academic and social life.
Even so, diversity is still a big part of our pre-orientation program. As is the practice at an increasing number of colleges, upperclassmen put on skits about sexual orientation, date rape, eating disorders, heavy drinking, and diversity issues — in particular, conflicts stemming from cultural or religious differences — as well as a host of other problems that can make college life less than idyllic. (I hear that the skits get a fair number of laughs from the incoming freshmen — if only because they’re a little amateurish.) Afterwards, students gather in small discussion groups.
Almost all colleges now offer a freshman orientation or pre-orientation emphasizing the value of diversity, and they all seem well intentioned. But they inevitably end up striving to make their diverse student body in action look like one of those Benetton ads from the 90s, where students of every stripe frolic benignly together.
Once school actually starts, take a walk around your college campus — or better yet, drop into the dining hall — and you’ll see those erstwhile diverse students gathered in groups made up of little clones of themselves. Freshman orientation programs teaching respect for diversity mostly result in a gorgeous mosaic made up of islands of tiles with an awful lot of grout in between them.
