When Anthony Grant, associate director of admissions at Earlham College in Indiana, attended a college fair in New Mexico this past summer, a student asked him to tell her more about the discrimination she heard had taken place on campus recently.
“I would say that was the most direct question that I ever had from a student,” says Grant, an eight-year veteran admission counselor.
Grant told the inquiring student about the protest that shut down classes at Earlham back in February 2016. He also spoke of how the protest was sparked in part by students feeling like some faculty members harbored biases and had discriminated against them.
Grant also mentioned the list of demands that students had presented, including one that called for more faculty of color and faculty from outside the U.S. He even related how as an administrative faculty member and a person of color there were “many things” about the institution that he would like to see changed himself.
“And I told her, I know you’re looking at a wide range of schools and you have to think about what’s the best fit for you,” Grant recounts. He told her he didn’t want to “scare her off” but rather wanted to present an accurate picture of what Earlham students are “talking about now.”
“But I also said to her that I really hoped that she takes a closer look at us because as she’s thinking about discrimination based on social constructs, I do hope that students like her could come to Earlham and be a part of many of the changes that I hope and that our students hope to see,” Grant says.
While the conversation that Grant had at the college fair was in many ways initiated by the inquiring young student, Grant and leading experts say college admission counselors need not wait for students to bring up specific incidents on campus to have a candid conversation about what students are likely to encounter once they enroll.
