It is a topic that never fades away at Fairfield. Students complain of a lack of diversity. The Princeton Review ranks Fairfield as number nine on its list of most homogeneous schools from a pool of the 361 best colleges and universities.
It should come as no surprise that Fairfield’s diversity rate is low, at 10.5 percent for the 2004-2005 academic year. Unlike larger Jesuit schools such as Georgetown (21 percent minority representation) and Boston College (27.1 percent), which are located in cities, Fairfield finds itself in a town of moderate size in the richest county in the nation.
It is arguably easier to market a school to a wide range of students when it is closer in proximity to a diverse city than we are to New York.
According to the “About Fairfield” section on the university’s web site, “Fairfield is first and foremost a Catholic and Jesuit University,” and one of the school’s top goals is “dedication to human dignity from a Catholic and Jesuit faith perspective.”
This is simply the nature of the university, as it is for other Jesuit schools, and since it is private institution, there is nothing wrong with this.
However, these facts suggest that greatly increasing diversity is a difficult task. How does one truly diversify a university that lists, as one of its basic premises, a “Catholic and Jesuit faith perspective”? Clearly such a statement will entice mainly students with like-minded ideals to apply to Fairfield.
That a university should have such a strong unifying element is nothing new; there are plenty of schools across the country that draw only certain types of students. Certainly the school encourages and supports all who wish to attend. However, the university’s main goals are not necessarily attractive to an exceptionally varied group of people.
In light of this, it seems to be a bit of a pretense to imagine that greater diversity is something well within our reach. The Fairfield administration recognizes the negative impact of the university’s low diversity rate, but must also remind the community that any changes will not be immediate.
Since Fairfield is “first and foremost a Catholic and Jesuit university,” it seems that unless that changes, diversity rates likely will not. There may be more to it, though.
Fairfield’s 2005 Strategic Plan notes that the university has a “commitment to increased racial and economic diversity among students, faculty and staff.” What would be necessary to accomplish this goal? Several things, but most importantly, money. The Strategic Plan addresses this need, as it cites the intention to “increase… need-based student financial aid.”
Since increasing diversity takes money, however, it also inevitably takes time. While minorities comprise an additional 0.1 percent of the class of ’09, compared to the class of ’08, no one should be getting pats on the back for it.
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