As we now know, diversity is more important than academics.

Inside Higher Ed reports.

The Diversity Students Seek

The 2015-16 academic year was one of numerous student protests demanding increases in the admission of minority students and the hiring of minority faculty members — not to mention numerous other measures to promote inclusivity on campus.

But what exactly do students want? While some would say that the various lists of demands of campus protests provide much of the information, two Dartmouth College professors disagree. On Tuesday they proposed on the political science blog The Monkey Cage a new way of measuring student interest in different forms of diversity. And they tested their system on students at Dartmouth, an admittedly nontypical student body given that the college is highly competitive in admissions.

The results at Dartmouth (which they hope to compare to results at other institutions) suggest that students are indeed committed to diversity in admissions and faculty hiring. But students (and the results are generally true across student racial and ethnic groups) are more concerned about enrolling students and hiring faculty members from some groups than others. For both admissions and faculty hiring, Asians are not as valued as other minority groups, the survey found. And when it comes to the diversity of faculty hires, black students and female students are more concerned about the issue than are other students.

The two professors who did the research are John M. Carey, the Wentworth Professor in the Social Sciences and professor of government, and Yusaku Horiuchi, the Mitsui Professor of Japanese Studies and professor of government.

They argue that simply asking students if they are pro-diversity or favor certain measures to promote diversity may not yield accurate results. “Conventional surveys on sensitive issues are susceptible to various biases,” they write. “If those who choose not to answer the survey have different opinions from those who do, the results won’t accurately reflect group opinion. Even those who do participate may adjust their responses to harmonize with what they think the researchers want to hear — a phenomenon known as ‘social desirability bias.'”