Crossing boundaries: understanding what factors encourage undergraduate students to interact with people different from themselves

Abstract

This study examines factors that are related to openness to diversity among undergraduate college students. Openness to diversity is increasingly viewed as a desirable student-learning outcome in universities. The factors investigated here in relation to students' openness to diversity are level of academic challenge and community engagement. Four institutional samples from the 2009 National Survey on Student Engagement were analyzed. Results show that both academic challenge and community engagement, as well as some personal characteristics, are related to being more open to diverse people. This study contributes to the understanding of how universities can use curriculum, policy and best practices to develop experiences that will help students to become more open to diverse people.