Recent increases in ethnic diversity on college campuses have led to increases in intergroup tensions and concomitant shifts toward forms of education that positively embrace multiethnic and multicultural perspectives. Although it is assumed that such multicultural education will foster harmonious relations among different ethnic groups at the university and in the broader society at large, this assumption has yet to be empirically tested in any rigorous manner. This project aims to achieve a process-oriented understanding of the ways in which a multicultural educational environment influences the development of intergroup attitudes and behaviors over the college years. Gaining a satisfactory understanding of the process by which the educational experience influences intergroup attitudes and behaviors would help answer the more general question of whether or not a multicultural educational experience actually increases or decreases intergroup tension. Several university experiences will be explored, including: a) the formal contents of course curricula; b) the informal and university sponsored extra-curricular activities; c) membership in various types of student organizations (e.g., fraternities, sororities, minority student organizations, and support groups); d) experience with conflict resolution programs; and e) dormitory living arrangements. Specific questions to be addressed include whether or not "ethnic studies" courses (e.g., African-American history) and membership in "ethnic" student organizations (e.g., African-American, Chinese-American student clubs) actually exacerbate or attenuate ethnic conflict and students' willingness to interact with people from other ethnic and racial groups.
These issues will be addressed by use of a longitudinal study of the freshman class admitted to UCLA in the fall of 1996 (approximately 2,000 students). The students have been interviewed once a year since their time of entry, and interviews will continue once a year until the students graduate (most of the students are expected to graduate in the spring of 2001). Measures were taken of students' baseline intergroup attitudes, behaviors, and expectations of the university environment before their entry into college (Summer 1996), and three additional waves of data concerning these attitudes, behaviors, and university activities have been collected.
Because of its high degree of ethnic diversity, the UCLA campus offers a unique opportunity to study the institutional factors that both facilitate and undermine the degree to which students engage in positive interactions with members of different ethnic groups. The knowledge gained from this unique panel study is hoped to facilitate the development of programs and structures that will enable our highly multiethnic society to continue to function in a constructive and productive manner in the future.
