In my remarks today, I want to focus on the educational, economic, and civic benefits that result from the new diversity in higher education and on the work before us as college educators. As a society, Americans tend to emphasize the economic benefits of college, and of course those benefits are real, as the ETS report reminds us in great detail. Whether minority or majority, the new college-going population will have far more economic resources than those who don't go, and they will contribute at an extraordinary rate to the health of our economy. But we miss a great deal of the diversity story if we see college-level learning as simply a matter of enhanced earning potential. Diversity isn't just about private benefit.
Diversity also adds economic and civic value to our society.
As economists tell us, earnings no longer reflect the skill and productivity of a single individual. Rather, wages in the new economy reflect team skills and team productivities. The value of any single person's knowledge therefore depends on the effectiveness with which that person has learned to work in a collaborative setting. Today, of course the workplace is not only collaborative but increasingly diverse. To prepare for this new economy reality, students therefore need the experience of learning and working in a diverse educational environment.