Diversity
Diversity refers to the inclusion of individuals from various backgrounds, encompassing differences in race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, and other characteristics. It has gained prominence in educational institutions and workplaces as an essential goal for fostering a rich and inclusive environment. The concept gained legal recognition through significant Supreme Court rulings, notably in *Regents of the University of California v. Bakke* (1978), which acknowledged the value of a diverse student body, and more recently in *Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College* (2023), which deemed certain affirmative action policies unconstitutional.
While diversity often conveys positive associations with tolerance and cultural pluralism, its precise definition remains fluid and can differ across contexts. In the workplace, diversity initiatives have evolved to focus not only on representation but also on inclusion, ensuring that individuals feel valued and that their unique contributions are recognized. The broader framework of diversity has also included equity, emphasizing fair treatment and opportunities for all individuals, accounting for systemic disparities. As organizations increasingly prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), recent legal decisions have prompted a reassessment of how these initiatives are implemented, particularly in higher education. Overall, diversity is seen as crucial for innovation, decision-making, and reflecting the varied perspectives that enrich communities and institutions.
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Diversity
When Allan Bakke applied to the School of Medicine of the University of California, Davis, his application was placed into a pool with other individuals of his race (White), and the screening criteria for his pool were different from those for other racially identifiable applicant pools. Accordingly, a majority of the Supreme Court of the United States ruled five to four in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) that he was discriminated against because the admission process was segregated by race. The justices also ruled five to four that a diverse student body is a “constitutionally permissible goal for an institution of higher education,” and one of the judges in the majority, Lewis F. Powell Jr., declared that “the nation’s future depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure to the ideas and mores of students as diverse as this Nation of many peoples.” The Supreme Court reversed its earlier rulings, however, in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College (2023) with its decision that affirmative action policies at colleges and universities, except for military academies, were unconstitutional.
Thereafter, the term diversity was used in personnel decisions of many businesses, government agencies, and schools to justify selecting members of underrepresented groups. The term has never acquired a precise meaning, however, and could be applied to people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, or any group not represented or underrepresented among existing employees at a job site or among students at an educational institution. In general, the term has assumed positive connotations, suggesting everything from tolerance to cultural pluralism. Working to accommodate the needs of a diverse workforce and a diverse customer base has become an important aspect of organizational development in the twenty-first century. Many organizations have implemented diversity training programs to help manage these realities.
A related concept to diversity is multiculturalism, which describes approaches to the diversity of cultures in a society.
In the 2000s, workplace diversity initiatives began to focus on inclusion. In 2017, Laura Sherbin and Ripa Rashid published an article, “Diversity Doesn’t Stick without Inclusion,” in Harvard Business Review. Sherbin and Rashid wrote that although diversity and inclusion were often used interchangeably in workplace environments, the terms had different meanings. Diversity refers to representation, they argued, while inclusion was about whether employees felt that they were welcomed, valued, and belonged. In the mid-2010s, diversity and inclusion initiatives widened to include equity, the just, fair, and impartial treatment of individuals by institutions and systems, with an understanding of the causes of societal disparity. With this understanding, equity, focuses on just and fair treatment of individuals and equitable outcomes. It accounts for differences in background and provides opportunities and resources that enable each individual to achieve their potential. It is distinct from equality, same treatment, opportunities, and resources, regardless of individual backgrounds and outcomes. By the 2020s, more companies and organizations embraced and engaged in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
With the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court ruling in June 2023 that college applicants could not be admitted based on their race, institutions of higher learning changed their admissions programs and policies and re-evaluated their other DEI initiatives. Critics predicted that colleges and universities would become less racially and ethnically diverse in terms of their student populations. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reported that while it had admitted its most diverse incoming class of students in 2023, it had admitted far fewer Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Pacific Islander students the following year after omitting any collection of racial and ethnic data in its admissions process. Some commentators felt that the Supreme Court ruling did not bar the collection of racial and ethnic data but pointed to Chief Justice John Roberts's explanation that programs can consider how an applicant's race and/or ethnicity influenced their character but must treat the prospective student based on their individual experiences rather than their race or ethnicity.
Bibliography
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Mor-Barak, Michàlle E. Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace. 4th ed. Sage, 2016.
Ostrom, Elinor. Understanding Institutional Diversity. Princeton UP, 2005.
Park, Julie J. "OPINION: A Year after the Supreme Court's Historic Affirmative Action Ruling, MIT's Drop in Student Diversity Provides a Cautionary Tale." The Hechinger Report, 24 Sept. 2024, hechingerreport.org/opinion-a-year-after-the-supreme-courts-historic-affirmative-action-ruling-mits-drop-in-student-diversity-provides-a-cautionary-tale/. Accessed 26 Sept. 2024.
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Sherbin, Laura, and Ripa Rashid. “Diversity Doesn’t Stick without Inclusion.” Harvard Business Review, 1 Feb. 2017, hbr.org/2017/02/diversity-doesnt-stick-without-inclusion. Accessed 6 Oct. 2021.
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