Area college campuses striving for diversity

ZANESVILLE -- The number of minority students on local college and university campuses is increasing.

The definition and image of diversity also is expanding, say administrators from Ohio University Zanesville, Zane State College and Muskingum University.

When people think about diversity, people tend to think only of race and ethnicity, Muskingum Vice President of Enrollment Jeff Zellers said.

"We do believe it's important to have racial and ethnic diversity, but sometimes people get hung up on those and forget about others. We have socioeconomic diversity within the student body, geographical diversity and then we have our learning disability program, so we have students who have learning challenges and that's a diversity as well," Zellers said.

More than 40 percent of Muskingum's students are from Appalachia, which makes them diverse, Zellers said.

About 9 percent of students are minorities at Muskingum -- 7 percent are African American, and about 21/2 percent are Asian, Hispanic and/or Native American.

Monica Jones, director of diversity for the regional campuses of Ohio University who works at the Zanesville campus, said Appalachian students aren't looked at as a minority, but should be.

"I think we get caught up in race, ethnicity, and we really want to stretch that definition of diversity. We've got to include all able bodies, students' intellectual abilities. We don't consider the student in the wheelchair. We need to look at diversity through a much broader lens, consider socioeconomic status," Jones said.

OUZ student Tiffany Branson will graduate from the nursing program in March. She's African American and believes minorities are well represented on campus and even more so through the staff.

"We have a lot of diversity in our faculty," Branson said.

Of the OU regional campuses, the Zanesville campus has more international faculty than any other, Jones said.

"This contributes to the students, the community and all those associated with OUZ. They're coming in and talking about their home land, they're sharing culturally about their homes," Jones said. "It's a biology professor or a chemistry professor. We're seeing them as a person highly credentialled in their discipline but they're sharing their culture, they're bringing that into the classroom and that's what diversity is about."

Branson said she briefly attended The Ohio State University and felt OUZ's smaller campus was a better fit for her.

"For the small campus size we have, I think we have diversity," Branson said.

Landel Shakespeare, an African American sophomore at Muskingum, said he'd like to see more organizations and events for minorities on campus. He's been a member of SUMA, or Student Multicultural Affairs, for the past two years.

"I believe if we were to have more things for different people, different groups, it would keep students' attention, and they'd want to stay at Muskingum. If there's not so much to offer then they leave," Shakespeare said.

He'd also like to see fraternities and sororities for minorities.

Three percent of students at Zane State are minorities, and mainly African American, Vice President of Student Services Dotty Welch said.

The college recently created a diversity multicultural coordinator position in the admission's office to increase diversity among the student population.

"We are in an area that doesn't have a lot of diversity, so for our young people who are going out into the work world in a diverse population, they need to understand different cultures, customs, ways of doing things, the proper way to approach people of different cultures and customs and respect people with other religions, backgrounds and cultures," Welch said.

All three schools actively recruit minorities in some way or another, representatives attend college fairs, visit high schools and literature is mailed out to high school students.

At Muskingum, Zellers said they try to connect minority students with a minority staff member to help them have a better experience.

"It's important not only for us, but for those students as well to be able to get these kinds of experiences. It's very important they get a very good educational experience but that they also get an environment that maybe is different than what they're used to," Zellers said. "Our goal is greater integration."

That typically, he said, is not an issue for students.

"We're so small and people know each other so well from being in classes together and living with each other, that the integration just takes place pretty easily," he said.

Jones said OU and OUZ has come a long way in recent years, but there's still a long way to go.

"We really need to look at how we, as an institution, make space for everyone. We need to create a space that's safe, inclusive and welcomes everyone. That really is the goal when it comes to diversity, access and equality," Jones said.