Anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes on Tufts' campus has heard about the school's global focus and emphasis on diverse points of view. In fact, even the mission statement posted on the website for the School of Arts and Sciences includes "a dedication to globalism and active citizenship [and] a commitment to humanitarianism and diversity in its many forms…are deeply held ideals."
So how do these ideals carry over into the composition of the student body? How does Tufts keep track of "diversity in its many forms"? Where does Tufts' data on diversity come from, and what does the university use it for?
According to Director of Diversity Recruitment and Associate Director in the Tufts Office of Undergraduate Admissions Karen Richardson, prospective students report demographic data — including that specifically regarding race and ethnicity — in their applications to the university.
"Students totally self−identify and some students decide not to, but you have the option to check race and ethnicity," Richardson said.
Once the Office of Undergraduate Admissions collects this data, they enter it into the Student Information System (SIS), where the Office of Institutional Research can access and analyze it. The process of carrying out this analysis is not always simple, however, according to Associate Provost of Institutional Research and Evaluation Dawn Geronimo Terkla.
"It's pretty complicated, as far as counting people," Terkla said. She explained that guidelines for collecting and interpreting data on race come from the National Center for Education Statistics, which outlines specific procedures for asking students about their racial and ethnic background, and makes a distinction between the two.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) page on statistical standards, ethnicity is based on whether the individual identifies as Hispanic, whereas race indicates whether the individual is American− Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, black or African−American, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, or white.
NCES specifies that on a survey, ethnicity must be questioned before race, and that a question of race must ask for a selection from at least one of five racial groups.
According to Terkla, these are also the guidelines that the Office of Institutional Research uses when they report statistics to the federal government and compose the Tufts University Fact Book.
"When we report those numbers to the federal government, if someone has identified themselves as Hispanic, then they are reported as that regardless of race. So if they mark no to Hispanic but they mark other races, then they are reported as two or more races," Terkla said.
Other Tufts organizations, specifically members of the Group of Six ,also use this race and ethnicity data. Rubén Salinas Stern, the director of the Latino Center at Tufts, said that his program receives a list of incoming students from the registrar identifying the students' racial or ethnic background. Based on this list, the center offers services such as Latino peer leaders to incoming students who have identified themselves as Latino or Hispanic.
Additionally, Stern said, students who do not have Latino or Hispanic roots can become involved with the Latino Center.
"Anybody can sign up to get emails about Association of Latin American Students meetings and stuff like that, and many students do that are not Latino," Stern said, adding that racial self−identification can often be a confusing issue for students.
"The whole thing about racial identity development is that it has a lot of components to it, and for a lot of people, college is a time that they are exploring that … When a student just puts [Hispanic], then it's hard to tell what that is because they don't associate with a particular country … and I know that some of them probably don't relate to being Latino," Stern said. "All of it is voluntary, but it can be emotional for people."
In the 2010−2011 school year, of the students who provided data about their race or ethnicity, approximately 30 percent of Tufts students in the Undergraduate School of Arts and Sciences identified themselves in a category other than "white non−Hispanic," according to the 2010−2011 Tufts University Fact Book.
This does not include race and ethnicity data for its international students, however, which Tufts does not collect or provide. International students are grouped in the category of "non−resident aliens" and constitute 5.7 percent of the School of Arts and Sciences.
The School of Engineering fared slightly differently, with approximately 26 percent of students identifying themselves in a category other than "white non−Hispanic."
While Tufts does keep track of socioeconomic data for students, Terkla said it does not keep track of some other metrics of diversity, such as sexual orientation or religion.
"Students are never asked to identify their sexual orientation on any of the student surveys," Terkla said. "We don't ask anyone about religion except on the matriculation survey and even now we're moving that over the chaplaincy."
According to Richardson, Tufts seeks more than just racial and ethnic diversity when considering a pool of undergraduate applicants.
"It's also about socioeconomic diversity and sexual orientation. We try to bring together a class that will be interesting and learn a lot from each other," Richardson explained.
