A recent study in the Chronicle of Higher Education found that the nation’s most selective colleges have become much more diverse during the past 20 years. Students, faculty and admissions reflected on the role of racial diversity at Fordham.

According to Patricia Peek, director of undergraduate admission, Fordham does not use quotas to admit students of different ethnicities or races. “It’s a holistic application. Everything about a student’s application is reviewed,” she said.

As of fall 2013, according to Peek, the racial composition of Fordham is as follows: 13.8 percent Hispanic, 4.1 percent black (one-third of the national percentage), 8.9 percent Asian (almost double the national percentage), 3.3 percent mixed race, and 61.4 percent white.

Students and faculty agree that having a diverse community at Fordham requires both racial diversity and class diversity.

Nadia Pinder, Fordham College at Lincoln Center (FCLC) ’14, wishes Fordham would target both racial and economic diversity. “America is based on racist capitalism,” Pinder, said. “You can add class to it, but you can’t ignore race. You can’t say class will fix it because it won’t.”

After more than 40 years at Fordham, Mark Naison, professor of African American studies, has seen less class diversity than race diversity. “Fordham has become an upper-middle class haven,” he said.

Naison worries that Fordham does not do enough to promote class diversity. “Fordham is the Bronx college of gentrification,” he said. “This school leaves a lot of people behind, and you can see those people outside the gates at Rose Hill, and it seems that those gates are getting higher and higher.”

Amir H. Idris, chair and professor of African American studies, thinks that Fordham needs a clear policy geared toward diversifying the campus. “We cannot separate [race and class]. We need to look at them as two important ingredients in our effort to improve diversity on campus,” he said.

Baraa Elhariry, FCLC ’14, a Middle East studies major, echoed Idris. “If you target race, and you don’t target class, and you don’t talk about class, you’re missing the forest for the trees…Targeting class diversity would help facilitate racial diversity,” he said.

Responding to the race-class connection, Peek said, “We are currently, for the most part, need-blind in the admission process,” meaning that Fordham accepts students without considering what financial need they have.

Peek said, “We never look at a student in a vacuum. We look at a student in the context of what opportunities were afforded that student.”

Some professors worry that as a result of the new dorm building at Lincoln Center, the percentage of commuter students will decline which might affect the racial and class diversity of the school as well.

Irma Watkins-Owens, professor of African American studies, said of the new dorm, “As we become more residential, obviously it’s more expensive, which goes back to the problem of economic diversity.”

Owens is unsure by how much, but she knows that “one of the initial impacts of [the creation of McMahon Hall] was a decline in diversity.” She hopes that this trend does not repeat itself with the new dorm.

Idris agreed: “That is a very serious problem. I would not be happy to see the number of commuting students reduced as a result of the new building.”

However, Peek sees the new dorm as an opportunity for everyone. “We see the residence hall as an opportunity for more students, diverse students, all students to have more opportunities for residential housing. But we still want the commuting student population to remain representative,” Peek said.

Despite their criticisms, students and faculty have seen improvements in diversity on campus. Clara E. Rodriguez, professor of sociology, said, “I do see that my classes are more racially diverse than they were when I first started teaching.”

“In my view, Fordham is doing excellent work so far. We may see the outcome of this kind of concerted effort in a few years,” Idris said of diversity on campus.

Pinder said, “For me the most important part was that college is the place where you see racial diversity in a big way.”

For Elhariry, the diversity at Fordham has opened his eyes to a lot more than he used to know. “When I first came here, I didn’t know there was going to be a Middle Eastern Students Association; so when I heard about it, I got really excited,” he said. Elhariry is glad that he has made friends with minorities in ethnicity, gender identity and sexual orientation.