In a follow-up to the issue of diversity at Rowan, my fellow Resident Assistant staff members were questioned in hopes of figuring out what their perspectives were on Rowan’s student body demographics.
Student Alex Grover thinks that Rowan is a predominantly white school because southern New Jersey is
predominately white (according to statistics he has recently browsed), and because a number of students at Rowan are commuters from the local South Jersey area. Grover is white himself, and is a South Jersey native.
Lauren Sawall thinks that Rowan’s campus is predominantly white because of its location, but she also believes that Rowan is more diverse than other universities in our area. She speculates that most private schools, due to tuition rates, offer less of a diverse population than that of Rowan.
Cameron Smith, an African American student, says it is pretty evident that the majority of minority students at Rowan come from the EOF program, which admits roughly 150 students per year. That number, added to the number of freshmen minority students who are regular admits, still does not yield a very high number.
However Leah Kiser, a white student, expressed the opinion that Rowan is not a predominantly white
institution. When she walks around campus, she sees a diverse population of students and tends to interact
with people of different ethnic backgrounds. If this school were mostly white students, she feels as though
most of the students she has class with would also be white, and she would have less friends from different ethnic backgrounds.
Vincent Li, a Chinese student, explained how he believes that Rowan is a predominantly white school
because the numbers prove it. If Rowan were not predominantly white, then the vibe of the school would
be different. For example, in his opinion the food in the Marketplace does not represent the diversity that exists
on this campus. Li believes that at an executive level, the predominant number of whites affects the way the
school looks and feel.
While it seems that many believe the campus is lacking diversity, the numbers are slowly increasing in a positive way. In the end though, regardless of color or ethnic background, it all comes down to the steps you take to make your college experience the most insightful and mind-opening experience possible.