Business Poll Stresses Need for Diversity Education

Thursday, September 17, 1998 - Seattle Times

by Marsha King
Seattle Times staff reporter

A majority of Washington's business leaders in a recent poll believe American society is growing apart, but also that college courses about diversity can help pull it together. Most expect their work forces will be more diverse in 20 years and that the ability to work in diverse teams will be critical.

They support course work that compels students to learn about racial, ethnic and gender issues no matter what their major. In fact, they believe, studying different cultures should be a graduation requirement.

These conclusions come from a poll commissioned by the Ford Foundation as part of its Campus Diversity Initiative, which addresses all kinds of diversity, not just race.

The poll, of business members of the Seattle and Spokane Chambers of Commerce, was conducted by Seattle-based Elway Research. Because of the way it was conducted, its results reflect only the opinions of those polled, not of the business community at large.

Questionnaires for the Washington poll were mailed to 800 employers who were asked to respond by telephone with their answers. About 17 percent - 139 employers - responded. Nearly 60 percent described their personal politics as "very conservative" or "more conservative than liberal."

They were not asked about Initiative 200, the November ballot measure that would ban preferences based on race, ethnicity and gender in state and local public employment, contracting and education, ending affirmative action as it is now practiced.

The Ford Foundation poll is part of a long-term project that predates I-200 and is not an attempt to influence voters, said Edgar Beckham, coordinator of the Diversity Initiative.

Seattle is one of two pilot cities in which the Ford Foundation is working with colleges to determine the impact of diversity in higher education and how people feel about it. The poll's questions were similar to those in a Ford Foundation public-opinion survey conducted across the state last year.

The newest poll results were announced yesterday in a briefing at the Westin Hotel.

Over the years, schools participating in the project have received grants from the foundation for various efforts that range from incorporating issues of diversity into curriculum to special educational programs for students to recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty and student body. The local schools include the University of Washington, Antioch University and community colleges in Shoreline and the Seattle area.

The Ford Foundation also is working on a new project with the Association of American Colleges and Universities called "Racial Legacies and Learning: An American Dialogue." That project encourages conversations about race in cities around the country in hopes of finding ways to prepare college graduates to deal with the country's history of racism, and with chances for racial reconciliation.

In Seattle, the effort will collaborate with the continuing "It's Time to Talk" project organized by the Urban Enterprise Center, part of the Seattle Chamber. That project promotes the same kind of dinner conversations throughout the area.

During the week of Oct. 5, business leaders and the presidents of local colleges and universities will have dinners in their homes to discuss race. Anyone who would like to attend or host additional dinners, to be sponsored by the schools using private grant money, should call Betty Schmitz, 206-546-4691.

Return to the I-200 page.
Return to the Affirmative Action and Diversity Page

Carl Gutiérrez-Jones
Department of English
University of California, Santa Barbara
e-mail: carlgj@humanitas.ucsb.edu