Attitudes of Michigan State University students in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and those not in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources regarding diversity

The researcher's purpose in this study was to determine the attitudes regarding diversity held by College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (CANR) and non-College of Agriculture and Natural Resources (non-CANR) students at Michigan State University. Subjects for the study were selected MSU undergraduates in the CANR, the Eli Broad College of Business, the College of Education, and the College of Engineering. The study population included 220 students enrolled in selected undergraduate classes during the 1997--98 academic year. Data were collected through the use of a survey instrument, which was administered in specific classes with permission from the professors. This four-part Likert scale survey contained 98 items to measure students' attitudes regarding diversity issues, inclinations, how they perceived and defined diversity, and demographic information.; Using SPSS/PC+ (IBM Version 8.0), the researcher used descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, and means) to summarize the data pertaining to demographic characteristics of the respondents. Combined descriptive analyses were run on items grouped according to issues or common themes, establishing mean scores for each topic/theme. A t-test and one-way analyses of variances (ANOVA) were used to determine whether any significant differences existed between CANR and non-CANR students in terms of their attitudes regarding diversity. The Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient was .89 for the survey instrument.; Major findings were that (a) CANR and non-CANR students indicated that they were least comfortable interacting with mentally disabled people, (b) females and non-CANR respondents tended to be more positive toward the seven specific aspects of diversity (sexual equality, multilingualism versus English only, interaction with minorities prior to college, rural versus other communities, cultural pluralism versus assimilation, comfort with differences, and need for diversity) than were males and CANR students, and (c) the majority of CANR and non-CANR respondents said they would like to work in mixed communities.