In recent administrative policies, such as the strategic plane of 2004, Muhlenberg College has been emphasizing the importance of diversifying the student body. This research will focus on how multicultural programs have and can ultimately help add diversity to the campus. Part of what the college needs in order to make the population more diverse is to confront the importance of diversity through multiculturalism in school programming. The first step is to find an overall consensus of how the college currently defines diversity and then assess what needs to be changed or implemented in current programming to promote diversity on campus. I will conduct a comprehensive review of recent anthropological and sociological literature relating to multicultural program implementation in higher education and draw on the field methods of applied anthropology and traditional ethnography to assess the needs and necessary changes in the programming and diversity initiatives at higher education institutions. I will compare multicultural programs and diversity demographics at Muhlenberg to other similar (in size, selectivity, demographics and activities) Lehigh Valley Alliance of Independent Colleges liberal arts institutions to analyze an sufficient differences in programming and its relation to diversity on campus and to the student’s perceptions of diversity.
The findings of this project will contribute to sorely needed data on the efficacy of implementing multicultural programs as part of Muhlenberg’s ongoing effort to increase diversity on campus. An important outcome will be a better sense of how the Muhlenberg community views diversity, if multiculturalism and how diversity programming at Muhlenberg compares with that of other similar schools.