Complexities of complexion

As the academic dean for the junior class, my conversations with students can be wide-ranging. Distress, however, is a common theme. Students experience family crises, ill-selected majors, overwhelming course loads, inadequate planning, illnesses, roommate mayhem, hangovers, crashing computers, bureaucratic confusion, unwieldy exam schedules, absent professors, demanding parents and the list goes on. The most challenging and disturbing situations, however, are those I often encounter from black, Hispanic and Native American students.

These students experience all of the above concerns but with the weighty overlay of ethnicity. Subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, indications of prejudice or misconception affect these students daily. They may be in the classroom, on Nassau Street, entering a residence hall or confronting a roommate's parents. From my own experience I recognize the scenarios. How often have I, a dean at Princeton, been mistaken for a maid in the lobby of my apartment building? Or how often has my son been followed by security when visiting the department store where his father was a senior vice president?

When a white student requests a tutor and asks that it not be someone from her eating club, one understands the sense of stigma. For a student of color, such a request is given a heightened anxiety. If the student believes, as a result of misconceptions regarding admissions policies, that he or she was somehow let in to meet a quota, then that student can become paralyzed by what Claude Steele calls "performance anxiety." We are expected to represent the best of our race by virtue of just being here. And so failing, or even appearing to fail, is not an option we feel that we have.

How often have students, regardless of ethnicity, expressed the concern that the admission office made a mistake? "Everyone else is so much smarter, more focused, more beautiful, more accomplished, better organized than I am." That is a terrible way to feel about yourself, but imagine if you felt that others felt that way about you. That is the burden carried by a great many of our students of color.

The reality is that no one is here by accident or because some quota needed to be met. The success of a university lies in the success of its students. All our students, indeed, succeed on all measures — such as high school GPA, SATs and retention — that mark us as a superior institution. Everyone is here because we believe he or she can do well here and that each person has something of value to contribute to us all. Therefore, we need to allow our students of color to be detached from the pressure and stigma that becomes such a destructive burden. That many students feel they cannot access the resources available because they feel they will therefore reaffirm some negative stereotype creates a self-fulfilling prophecy and an unacceptable level of pressure.

Princeton's tradition and its responsibility is to produce leaders, and leaders are able to appreciate and access the unique talents of the individuals around them. As a community, we must engage in more leader-like behavior and reduce the burden of stress that so unreasonably lies on the shoulders of our black, Hispanic and Native American students. This year, the Office of the Dean of the College, the Office of Student Life and many undergraduates will be engaged in a collaborative effort to affirm the value and excellence of these students. We hope that the larger community of students and faculty will seek ways to join us in that effort. Marcia Y. Cantarella is the Assistant Dean of the College. She can be reached at marciayc@princeton.edu.