On the need for diversity in research groups
admin March 28th, 2008
Way back in the days of my youth when I spent many hours browsing through university advertising pamphlets, I was struck with how consistently they stressed diversity. I knew that diversity was something the campuses liked to strive for, but I really couldn’t understand why they would want to stress this aspect of the campus to the potential student. Certainly most any campus would be more diverse than the student’s high school. Weren’t academics, dorms, food, the gym, the location, and the student hotness factor more important? I will admit I didn’t take a second look at those diversity statistics. I will admit that I didn’t really care.
Then I came to college, and I met some incredibly interesting people. I still look back fondly to that freshmen year, when everyone is a potential friend, when no experience isn’t a new experience, when almost every single person around you is outside their comfort level and so is open to anything new. I still can’t believe that I wasn’t kidnapped. When everyone is a stranger, no one is a stranger. This might be part of the reason why I had so many experiences with stalkers.
At any rate, I met that first year very unusual and diverse people, and I loved it. After that year, however, my group of friends became more and more homogenous. When you have nothing but class or your dorm to keep you together, friendships often last about as long as the semester. As I began hanging out with people I met in student groups (who shared my interests) or in my major (who shared my interests) I stopped meeting more unusual people, and settled in with a nice but fairly homogenous crowd. I still appreciated those interactions I had my first year, but I didn’t think much about it. I was too busy studying for the next test or looking forward to my next date with my now husband.
After graduation I moved into my graduate school fairly easily. I had classes with many American students, and the group was fairly evenly loaded. Everyone spoke English. In fact, the students weren’t allowed to speak in anything other than English during working hours. Reading foreign magazines was even prohibited.
And then I began noticing a shift. The American students began graduating and their places were filled with foreign replacements. These replacements were not diverse. All the foreign students in our group speak the same foreign language. Gone were the signs prohibiting foreign speech or reading. The advisor began speaking in the native language unless English speakers were also being addressed. Only foreign students’ accomplishments were lauded. And I began for the first time to really evaluate the role of diversity.
Pretty soon, I was not only the sole woman (already very alienating), but one of the few Americans. I would go to speak to a colleague, and the climate would change. If others were around, he would stop a conversation, address me in English, and when I left, go back to previous topics. Sometimes the conversation would die completely. My presence became a buzzkill. I started avoiding these awkward interactions, and they certainly didn’t come to me. No longer could I pop in and add to conversation or provide a bit of advice. No longer could I make small talk with my colleagues. Because, you see, since they never got much practice, their English was rusty and it was straining for them to talk to me. And since I never talked to them, I didn’t know what to ask about. I have on several occasions found out that a group member had gotten married months ago, without me ever having heard anything about it. Though the foreign students always seem to make fast friends, I would never be included. My colleagues became strangers I saw every day. I will have only one lasting friend out of my 5 years here. Even the visiting scientists will have several.
I also have no idea what is going on the group. Research has become inclusive to those who can pick up on conversations. Much work is done in secret (truly) or late at night after I am gone. If we are engaged in some really interesting work, we are instructed not to talk about it to anyone, even those within the group. Since it is the foreign students doing the work the advisor is most interested in, I never really know what they are doing. At group meeting, due to this and the language barrier, I struggle to understand when members describe their research. Whythen, I often ask myself, I am required to attend group meeting?
You can think you understand diversity. You can think that you are an open minded person who values minority in all its forms. I certainly thought that. I didn’t worry about diversity because I figured unless I was some bigot, it wouldn’t really affect me. I was wrong. I learned that you can’t ever understand the minority viewpoint until you have been there. I am not pretending to even scrape the surface of the many minority issues in this country, or to understand at all what many ethnic, cultural, or lifestyle minorities must feel. I just have now a deeper understanding for how truly ignorant I am.
And it is not just detrimental to me. It is not just detrimental to “the minority.” A lack of diversity is detrimental to each individual and the group as a whole.
I understand my advisor’s desire to hire these foreign students over Americans. A quick calculation will tell you that they are a much better deal. They do what he says as if he were a god. They work for longer hours. They don’t take lunch out. They work weekends. They don’t leave a little early to meet friends Friday nights, or pursue any interests besides their research.
They do this because in the office there is high speed internet (absent in their apartments) and all their friends. They do this also because their families are hoping they will hurry up and finish soon so that they can return for a while. They do this because they have been hand-picked from the thousands of hopefuls hoping to work here, and they know that their visas will last only a short time. And perhaps they also do this because their ethic is still one of life accomplishment, rather than life fulfillment. Many of them work like machines. Students are not cheap and our output is publications. And they do make publications. And that is great for the group.
I know that the American students currently in the group (me included) will never have as many publications as the “others.” It is a given. The younger ones just don’t know it yet. This is due partly, yes, to that automaton-like work ethic. But this is not the only factor. Remember we are the best, brightest, highest achieving students from our own top universities. We are no stranger to tough subjects and hard work. I believe that the lower publication inevitability is due mostly to the separation. While “they” work on teams and have frequent interactions, we toil alone. While “they” share equipment with their work friends, we have to search and find time on our own. While the advisor places the “hard working” members on the best projects, we are given what is left. Those with the most exciting projects also have the most interaction with the advisor, thus promoting the mentorship that most students really need to flourish. And we sit at our desks, listening to these conversations through the wall, completely without understanding.
But Americans are good for the group too.
The Americans in the group liaison with other groups and researchers in other departments. We are much better and more willing to adopt interdisciplinary collaborations. We represent the group as recruiters, poster presenters, and good TAs. Our writing takes many fewer edits, and the end result is usually better. We really think about our research topics, rather than just accepting the ideas of our advisors, which often to lead to new and exciting developments. We know and follow safety guidelines that the other students choose to ignore. We fix the equipment, and do ordering. We edit papers and write grant proposals. We serve as leaders.
And we are good for the foreign students too. Part of the reason they are here is to learn English language and American customs. Lately students in my group are getting very little of this. English proficiency is not improving. Presentation skills are horrible. Writing is intelligible. They know nothing of American food, idioms, customs, or current events. It used to not be like this. Back when the group was evenly divided it was astounding how members’ English proficiency improved. Presentations became understandable and enjoyable. Lab mates became friends. And the Americans enjoyed the diverse culture as well, being invited to foreign made dinners, discussing policy differences, learning how we looked to those from the outside.
I also wish that the foreigners in our group weren’t all the same. I’d love to have some people from other cultures to learn from. Maybe that would lessen the us vs. them mentality of the two factions. It wouldn’t be just those “whiny, lazy Americans” asking for adoption of English, or insisting that highly hazardous chemicals be treated with due respect.
While our publication numbers have skyrocketed, I think that the group has seriously suffered. Students in other departments ask me why the group demographic has changed the way it has. “Is your advisor discriminatory?” they ask. I am finding it harder and harder to say no.
I didn’t mean this post to become as depressing as it has turned out. I just wanted to state my thoughts on the need to invite diversity into every group. Back in college I couldn’t care less about the demographic around me. Now, it feels integral to my research and career experience.
If you are a professor or potential professor reading this, please don’t just look at grades or research experience or awards or test scores. Make sure your lab is well populated with many different types of people. It will make your lab and your work stronger, and aid in the development of your students as well.