Freshman year of college is important.
It is the first year that we aren’t living at home with our parents. We gain our independence during this year. This is a time to experience things you have never experienced before. It’s a time to meet new people who are different than you. But how can we experience this if we are all the same?
The lack of diversity on the Fairfield University campus goes beyond the basic ethnic diversity that every thinks of. While our campus is mostly white, there is another type of diversity that we are lacking; and that is a social diversity.
This campus is full of students from the wealthy suburbs of New England. The campus has a small amount of students from southern or western states and a small percentage of students from the inner-cities. Most students hail from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York or New Jersey. That is four out of the fifty states here in the United States.
Not only are most students from similar regions, but many students dress alike. We are a group of students dressed in Ralph Lauren, Abercrombie and Fitch and Lacoste. During the winter, you won’t see many girls who aren’t wearing Ugg boots a North Face fleece.
There is a small group of students at Fairfield who dress differently. But there is a key word in that last sentence: small.
The parking lots are full of new BMWs, Volvos and SAABs. One can overhear students talking about their vacation plans to visit an island over the winter break. And while Fairfield University resides in a “blue state,” it is a “red” university with the College Republicans greatly outnumbering the College Democrats. Everyone here just seems to be the same.
While some people may say that this is just the type of people that are attracted to Fairfield University, I think that the University could do something to improve diversity. The University needs to branch out and start appealing to a wider demographic. Representatives from the school should go and visit schools in the inner-cities.
The university has to either lower tuition or increase the amount of scholarships and financial aid that are granted to make it more attractive to a variety of students. As of right now, only the wealthy can afford to send their kids here at $40, 000 a year.
Everyone deserves a chance to come to a school like Fairfield, no matter what their financial situation may be. These four years are said to be the best four years of every student’s life. We get these four years to break away from our pasts and our parents and experience a whole different world that is out there for us. In order to do this, we must interact with a more diverse group of students.
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