Educational Benefits of Diversity

When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the University of Michigan in the 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger decision, contributors to campus diversity efforts viewed this as an affirmation of their ongoing work. A majority of the Court upheld the constitutionality of race-sensitive admissions practices, concluding in part that student body [Page 746]diversity promotes favorable learning outcomes and better prepares students for life after college. Although the evidence supporting the benefits of being educated among a more racially diverse undergraduate student body is mounting, it is a relatively new area of educational research. This entry overviews the educational benefits hypothesis and the research that either supports or refutes this hypothesis.