2008 Woodie Awards
Student discontent: Campus survey reveals some feel left out
Chris Heinrich
Issue date: 9/19/08 Section: News
Students of both the upper- and lower-middle classes, Catholics and non-Catholics alike reported feelings of marginalization at Gonzaga according
to a recent survey.
The Campus Climate Committee
released the results of its spring survey last month. The survey measured
the attitudes of students toward diversity and gauged how safe and valued they felt within the university community.
Molly Pepper, co-chair of the committee, is generally optimistic about the results.
"I want to emphasize that the findings are positive," she said, "but there is still work to be done."
Pepper is an assistant professor of management and joined the committee
after she and co-chair Linda Tredennick attended the 2007 National
Conference on Race & Ethnicity.
Responses were compared between
males and females, whites and racial minorities, heterosexuals and homosexuals, and students who lived on and off-campus.
When asked how often they had negative experiences based on their gender, race and sexual orientation, female, non-white and homosexual students reported more incidents.
Homosexuals on average recounted
nearly three more negative experiences than heterosexuals. Racial
minorities revealed an average of about one and a half more negative
experiences than whites. Females
reported about one more negative
experience based on gender than males.
Other students on campus caused the majority of these incidents.
Insults and offensive language and humor were the most common types of negative experiences.
Raymond Reyes, associate mission
vice president for intercultural relations, was not surprised by these results.
"The presupposed master narrative
of Gonzaga students is white, Christian, heterosexual, upper-middle class," he said. "We need to know whether the Gonzaga University experience is the same for deviations from this narrative. If they're different, how are they different?"
Answers provided to open-ended questions also reveal strong feelings of marginalization based on socioeconomic
to a recent survey.
The Campus Climate Committee
released the results of its spring survey last month. The survey measured
the attitudes of students toward diversity and gauged how safe and valued they felt within the university community.
Molly Pepper, co-chair of the committee, is generally optimistic about the results.
"I want to emphasize that the findings are positive," she said, "but there is still work to be done."
Pepper is an assistant professor of management and joined the committee
after she and co-chair Linda Tredennick attended the 2007 National
Conference on Race & Ethnicity.
Responses were compared between
males and females, whites and racial minorities, heterosexuals and homosexuals, and students who lived on and off-campus.
When asked how often they had negative experiences based on their gender, race and sexual orientation, female, non-white and homosexual students reported more incidents.
Homosexuals on average recounted
nearly three more negative experiences than heterosexuals. Racial
minorities revealed an average of about one and a half more negative
experiences than whites. Females
reported about one more negative
experience based on gender than males.
Other students on campus caused the majority of these incidents.
Insults and offensive language and humor were the most common types of negative experiences.
Raymond Reyes, associate mission
vice president for intercultural relations, was not surprised by these results.
"The presupposed master narrative
of Gonzaga students is white, Christian, heterosexual, upper-middle class," he said. "We need to know whether the Gonzaga University experience is the same for deviations from this narrative. If they're different, how are they different?"
Answers provided to open-ended questions also reveal strong feelings of marginalization based on socioeconomic
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