College students across the U.S. are jumping into the national conversations on racial inequalities and immigration.
Taking a page from Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49er and activist, football players at the University of New Mexico kneeled during the national anthem at a September game, much like Kaepernick has done to bring awareness to racial injustice. Students at Howard University recently protested a campus speech by James Comey, the former FBI director who clashed with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump during and after the presidential campaign.
For college applicants curious about what the racial and political climate is like at schools they’re considering, experts say it’s critical that they speak with current students at those institutions. And the students they speak with should have a similar background. For example, a transgender applicant should speak with transgender students.
Applicants should “identify what characteristics of a campus are important to them and then ask questions that align with those characteristics,” says Amber Williams, assistant vice chancellor of enrollment management at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. These conversations will help applicants gauge which schools are the right fit for them, she says.
Higher education experts recommend prospective college students ask current undergrads these three questions to learn about universities’ racial and political climates.
[Learn about campus politics to find the right college.]
1. What are some experiences I’m likely to have? Prospective students should ask this question when researching whether a school welcomes students from a certain political demographic, for example, says Shaun Harper, a professor and executive director of the Race and Equity Center at University of Southern California.
Schools often post information online about student organizations and their leaders, including their contact information, and applicants can contact the organizations’ officers with questions, Harper says.
“If you’re a very conservative student and you have very conservative viewpoints, it could be that the College Republicans will provide you some serious insight into what it’s like to be a conservative student on the campus,” he says. “These are students who are actually in the environment, who have day-to-day lived experiences as a conservative student.”
2. Can I find engagement on campus? How prospective students engage with a school’s community can depend on how they self-identify, says Manuel Alejandro Pérez, interim assistant vice president of equity and community inclusion at San Francisco State University.
“Engagement could mean self-advocacy and self-empowerment,” he says. “It could also be political advocacy and activism.”
San Francisco State has an undocumented student community and recently opened the Dream Resource Center, which supports those students and helps them understand what proposed immigration legislation could mean for their futures.
For example, a student who is part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, a federal program that protects people illegally brought to the U.S. as kids from being deported, might need certain resources and support services to engage with the campus community, Pérez says.
College applicants who ask about pathways for engagement, especially those concerned about immigration — which has been a hot-button issue for Congress — can find out from current students whether a school’s environment addresses their concerns, he says.
[Consider a college with a focus on minority students.]
3. What future initiatives are in development? Universities are becoming more responsive and learning when and how to pivot, based on the national climate, Pérez says. Schools can also change a great deal in a year or two based on students’ needs, he says.
If former San Francisco State college applicants had asked a year or two ago about future initiatives, for example, they might have learned that the university was working on additional resources for African-American students, he says.
“We have our black unity center, which is brand new to the campus, which came to the institution as a result of being both responsive and inclusive of student voices in a work group,” Pérez says.
If those same applicants only asked what was currently available for African-American students, they may not have heard about this campus addition, which affects the campus climate.
[Decide if a historically black college is a good fit.]
It’s important that college applicants ask current students about campus climate, since it pertains to race, politics and other critical aspects of their identity, such as religion or sexual orientation, and because the college experience is often a time to evolve and explore.
“You get to look at the intersections of your multiple identities and see where you find yourself on campus,” says Pérez.
“This is going to be your home for the next four years,” says Williams. “Finding the right fit is important no matter what characteristic you’re interested in in a college.”
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3 Questions to Ask About Campus Racial, Political Climate originally appeared on usnews.com