Linking Diversity with the Educational and Civic Missions of Higher Education

In this address, I will lay out the practical, theoretical, and empirical rationale for linking diversity with the central educational and civic mission of higher education. While these links may be obvious to some, oftentimes diversity and race issues are conspicuously absent from discussions about learning and civic education. In fact, the diversity initiatives and civic initiatives inhabit distinct physical, social, and administrative spaces. Much of the empirical work that links diversity and learning and democratic outcomes emerged from the developing area of research, now termed “the educational benefits of diversity” because of its role in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases. I address the aims of this research and critics who have claimed we have abandoned research on inequality or social justice issues for the sake of legal arguments. Transcending the affirmative action debate,