Shades of Multiformity

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Abstract

Many scholars have written about the benefits of diversity in education. Graduate schools have responded to these findings by attempting to hire a diverse faculty and seeking a diverse student body. The current article surveyed the doctoral students of a small, accredited graduate university in a large city on the West Coast of the United States. The focus of the doctoral program is on management of organizations and business consulting in for-profit and nonprofit organizations. This school prides itself on the multiformity of its diversity: More than half of the student body in this program identifies as other-than-white and female; additionally, there is diversity of sexual orientation, religion, background, and political leaning. The faculty is diverse vis-à-vis similar categories to the students. Yet, it was unclear if the students saw the faculty’s diversity as positively contributing to their educational experience. The current article surveyed students in the doctoral program to determine their perceptions of the role of diversity in their learning experience and assessed how students valued the diversity among their co-students and faculty and the program’s diversity courses.