Commentary: Closing Racial Divide Creates New Opportunities for Colleges

Commentary: Closing Racial Divide Creates New Opportunities for Colleges: Findings from our most recent research show clear signs that race relations on U.S. campuses are better than they have been for years. As we detail in our new book, Generation on a Tightrope: A Portrait of Today’s College Students, over the last four decades, students of color have grown more confident that their college is not viewing them through a color-tinted lens. White students are embracing diversity in large numbers, having grown up as members of the most diverse generation in U.S. history. And a majority of undergraduates —Black and White, Asians and Hispanics —have close friends of other races and support intergroup relationships.

But that doesn’t mean our work — as a nation or as higher-education leaders — is done. It means we can now explore in a more nuanced fashion what diversity should mean for higher education and for each of the nation’s campuses.