| Twenty-first century universities must produce cross-culturally competent citizens to lead and compete in a diverse global society and marketplace. Business leaders are finding that college graduates lack such skills. For this reason, corporations supported affirmative action programs before the U.S. Supreme Court. They argued that exposure to diversity in college prepares students to understand multiple perspectives, to negotiate conflict, and to relate to different worldviews.; Research demonstrates that college racial diversity fosters student development. However, the lasting effects of diversity remain empirically underexamined. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), I examine the impact of diversity over 10 years on Whites' cross-cultural workforce competencies: pluralistic orientation and leadership skills. I use longitudinal data gathered by the UCLA Cooperative Institutional Research Program from 7,689 Whites to test Gurin et al.'s theory of diversity's impact.; Findings indicate that achieving diversity in high school and college serves a compelling educational interest. Results affirm the long-term benefits of structural diversity and confirm that with positive racial climate, structural diversity increases cross-racial interaction. Cross-racial interaction in college has lasting benefits for cross-cultural workforce competencies. Although diversity in secondary and postsecondary schooling has educational benefits, exposure to diversity in college has unique developmental benefits for pluralistic orientation. For promoting racially integrated postcollege lifestyles, high school diversity is important for all Whites. Diversity in college is only critical in promoting integration for Whites from segregated precollege neighborhoods.; This study expands our knowledge of the positive educational effects of diversity and desegregated schooling. As Gurin et. al.'s theory predicts, educational diversity enhances student learning and development. |
