Research Symposium session #2

I attended the Research Symposium session number 2 at Livingston Student Center  LSC 201A. The first speaker was Peter Barnas , who did research on " It's Alright, I'm still Young: Addiction and Identity in Emerging Adulthood". He talked about the social patter of thinking these days, and also focused on addiction and drug abuse as a way of compensating for the stress. Moreover, he further talked about Primary and Secondary socialization, Primary being what we learn from our home/family and secondary being what we learn from outside ( a product of social interaction). He talked that nowadays people tend to marry at age of 25 to 27 which is 5 years in advance to what was the trend before because they don't take it serious. He also mentioned that people specially youngsters nowadays take drugs such as Xanax as relaxers. Peter was followed by Kendra Avinger, who did a superb job when talking about " U.S- Mexico Border Region's Community Outreach Program:Prevention of Neglected Infections of Poverty in Southern Texas by Means of Education". Kendra talked about the tropical diseases such as malaria and dengue which are present in U.S but are not well-known and not easily diagnosed by U.S doctors. She mentioned that doctors in U.S should be trained to diagnose and treat tropical diseases . She also proposed another solution, which was to have programs in Middle school to educate children and the school staff about the spread of these tropical diseases such as dengue fever. The last was Eno Totoh, who talked about "HFCS: How Fructose Controls Society". Totoh talked about the high prevalence of fructose corn syrup in our processed foods. She said the high fructose corn syrup is not good for health and can cause certain diseases such as Diabetes and other cardiovascular diseases. So, she mentioned that the consumers should be conscious about buying products containing high fructose sugar, because it also contains mercury which is another harmful substance.

Literature Review # 5

"Racial Diversity and Friendship Groups in College: What the Research Tells Us"


by, Anthony Lising Antonio, Assistant Professor, School of Education, Stanford University

This article is written by Professor Anthony Antonio, he is an PhD and an Associate Professor at Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research. He has done research on the influence and impact of diversity among college student. In this article the author applies the method of survey, in which he surveys a diverse student body, firstly in their freshman year, and secondly in their third year of college.This study is about racial diversity of friendship groups at multicultural colleges. He uses the terms "homogeneity and heterogeneity of friendship groups". Homogeneity means that students socialize within their racial group, and heterogeneity means that students socialize outside their race or class.He conducts this study to test the legitimacy of the term " Balkanization" which refers to racial segregation of students. His study proved that although Balkanization is present at college, but it does not dominate the campus environment. Moreover, he states " . . . at the level of student friendship groups, racial and ethnic balkanization is not a dominant, overall campus characteristic. Among a particular group of students, African Americans, same-race friendships may be much more common". So, this means that balkanization is mostly seen in certain racial groups. Further on he states "Regardless of the racial and ethnic diversity of a student's best friends, students on this multicultural campus still "see" segregation". This means that although 46% of students socialize across their race they still see student segregation at the college campus. He also states that his interviews revealed : "Perceptions of the campus racial climate, therefore, are important to consider to the extent that negative perceptions may discourage socialization across race, the formation of diverse friendships, and the developmental benefits gained from those friendships". This means that we should work to change students perceptions about other races or class so to remove all interaction barriers in a multi-cultural college campus.This study is important for my research paper because it tests the validity of the arguments made by the people who talk about the challenges of diversity. His survey proves that students perceptions about diversity greatly differ from their experience of diversity. He highlights this discrepancy which if solved can remove barriers of inter-racial friendships in a multicultural campus and provide students with an opportunity that already exists in their campus (to socialize across their race).  

Antonio, Anthony. "Racial Diversity and Friendship Groups in College: What the Research Tells Us." Diversity Digest. n. page. Print. 

Counter argument Research Blog #9

Counter Argument: 

The argument in my research paper on topic " The iceberg of racial diversity policies/environment at college campus and the challenges/consequences that come along with it", is that universities and colleges these days are just focusing on increasing the diversity of their colleges instead of finding ways to meet challenges that come along with diversity policies such as, affirmative action. This has discoursed the real goal of diversity and affirmative action from academic point of view to racial-balancing. There are two sides to this topic, one side thinks that racial diverse policies have no consequences and that they are greatly just and beneficial to all; whereas , the other side thinks that although the real goal or motto of diversity at college campuses is not wrong, but it's benefits can be achieved by monitored and regulated environment, which come along with it's consequences/ challenges, for which something should be done.I totally disagree with the view that racial diverse policies/environment have no challenges or consequences, because if it had been true than we wouldn't have had cases like "Fischer Vs. University of Texas". Elizabeth Aries in her book " Race and Class Matters at an Elite College", has talked about several solutions to the challenges met by students studying in a racial/class diverse college. In my interview with Professor Tillery, he said that " who ever talks about the challenges and consequences of racism or thinks Fischer deserved admission at University of Texas, is just looking for their own benefit", so all the sources that I have read so far, do talk about the impact of racial and class diversity at colleges. Another counter argument is that why do we even emphasize on race?, and by these racial diverse policies prove to them that they are different from others deteriorating the feeling of oneness/unity.