In September 2000, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Idaho were embarrassed when they were forced to admit they had doctored promotional photographs to make their campuses look diverse, writes Scott Jaschik in Inside Higher Ed. In both cases, non-white faces were added to real student photographs of all-white groups. Now a study of the viewbooks of hundreds of colleges and universities has found that more than 75% appear to over-represent black students.

At the universities of Wisconsin and Idaho, officials insisted that they meant well, but just about everyone agreed that Photoshop diversity isn't the real thing. But what if photos, even real photos of real live students, convey a false impression?

A sociologist at Augsburg College, together with an undergraduate, recently studied the viewbooks of hundreds of four-year colleges and universities, selected at random. The research team counted the racially identifiable student photographs and also gathered data on the actual make-up of the student bodies.

The findings: Black students made up an average of 7.9% of students at the colleges studied, but 12.4% of those in viewbooks. Asian students are also more likely to be found in viewbooks than on campus, making up 3.3% of real students on average and 5.1% of portrayed students.
Full report on the Inside Higher Ed site


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