I know you’ve all been bombarded by NYU faculty and students telling you to take the Being@NYU assessment. But I am here to tell you that you really should, probably, need to take the assessment!
So why do you need to take this assessment? Easy. So you can have your voices heard (as NYU says). But for real, you CAN have your voices heard, and who doesn’t like sharing their opinion?
Also, your voices won’t actually be taken into serious consideration until 30% of us take it. We are only coming up to 8% (as I was told on Wednesday).
Before I talk more about what this survey is. Ask yourself this: What is Diversity? What does it mean for a university to be diverse? Many would answer racial and ethnic diversity, or diversity in gender, in people with disabilities, socioeconomic status. The list goes on.
Take a look at these statistics. You’d be surprised (or not) about just how diverse NYU really is. “International” students make up their own group, and this sparks an issue (well, at least for me it does).
And nowhere does NYU present any statistics about the socioeconomic diversity amongst the student population. This article published by the New York Times shares a little bit about how economic diversity at NYU.
Diversity at NYU has definitely improved and I will not deny that NYU has a diverse population of students. You will see all kinds of faces walking around campus, and that’s what I love most about being here. But the issue of lack of diversity is not a quick fix. It was years and years of fighting for people’s rights, the right to education, to equality.
With that being said, it is important to understand that Being@NYU isn’t about fixing that problem. It’s about how we, NYU, are currently practicing diversity.
As Andy Hamilton says (in one of many of his emails that you should always be reading, but most likely are not), "Relative to the past, universities are more diverse and more socially representative today than they ever have been... But as our campuses have become increasingly diverse, our practices have not kept pace."
If we cannot focus on fixing problems that are right in front of us. How then will we be able to tackle the larger issue that is taking place nationally?
Not everyone may notice but discrimination DOES happen on our campus, and harassment does occur, whether you have seen it or not.
And this is why the assessment is important for everyone to take. There are people who may occasionally feel unsafe in their environment, and it is important for NYU to understand what the underrepresented populations are going through.
I want to end with a piece I think is worth reading called, “A Lonely Path of a Successful Black Man.” The terrible false perception and stereotype that a black man cannot be successful like the White man. That the black man will have “to leave his people behind,” to strive towards his goals of wanting more.
Such a stereotype as this starts at a young age and becomes very pronounced when you get into higher education. Voice’s like his deserve to be heard. Stories like his deserve to be told.
Even if you feel like this will not matter to you, do your part. Devote a little bit of time, and you never know what kind of impact you can make. (Here's the link to the assessment).
If you’re interested, click here to learn more about the goals for this assessment are and what the task force at NYU is doing in order to better the campus climate.
