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[aandsdean]

Thinkuniversity,

After you're done with this, I have a big white whale that could use some killin'.

[thinkuniversity]

It would be interesting if there is anyone in this forum who is from a university's institutional research admin. department. It would be nice to hear their comments on why almost every US university does not follow the US Census Bureau's Guidance on the Presentation and Comparison of Race and Hispanic Origin Data.

[zharkov]

It would be interesting if there is anyone in this forum who is from a university's institutional research admin. department. It would be nice to hear their comments on why almost every US university does not follow the US Census Bureau's Guidance on the Presentation and Comparison of Race and Hispanic Origin Data.

OP, I think you said you were a sociologist. If so, rather than waste your time here, why not research, write, and publish?  I see at least 3 papers.....

1. A qual paper -- notes on...... -- based on some field interviews of IR people, what classification approach they use, and why.

2. A quant paper sampling 100 colleges, say, and testing the use of that Census Bureau typology in publicly disclosed docs.

3. A survey of IR people on reasons why they use the classification approach they do. Quant again, nathc.

BTW, have you talked to IR at your own school yet?  That would seem to me to be the place to begin, both to satisfy your own curiosity and as a way to begin on the first paper.

[baydoc1]

How many people truly fit into just one race or ethnicity? 

Diversity should be understood to exist in many contexts besides race and ethnicity.  How well do most people understand that diversity includes the following:  age, education, native language, sensory abilities (such as hearing / vision impaired), raised in a rural or urban environment, gender, sex, religious perspectives, style of dress, prosperity, digital abilities, personality types, hobbies and interests, professions, raising children or not, and the list goes on and on.

Collecting data on one aspect of diversity helps by letting people know that groups exist and can certainly provide useful in a tremendous amount of situations. 

On the other hand, a real danger is that it also tends to help perpetuate stereotypes...

[untenured]

My guess is that our OP friend has done that already.  No doubt his "AA research" has wound up in the circular file in quite a few journals.  Poor fellow, these boards are his only venue.  No peer-review required.

Untenured

[professor_pat]

This ridiculous thread is STILL ALIVE???

[supernumerary]

professor pat, I can't believe you've revived this awful thread.