Student Attitudes Toward Campus Diversity at the U.S. Naval Academy Evidence From Conjoint Survey Experiments

Although the value of diversity—in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status—to the U.S. military has been subject to debate, preferences for diversity at educational institutions for the military officers are rarely examined systematically. To address this, we investigate whether m...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inArmed forces and society Vol. 47; no. 2; pp. 386 - 409
Main Authors Polga-Hecimovich, John, Carey, John M., Horiuchi, Yusaku
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA Sage Publications, Ltd 01.04.2021
SAGE Publications
Transaction Inc
Subjects
Admissions policies
Applicants
Armed forces
Attitudes
Candidates
College faculty
Conjoint analysis
Debates
Disadvantaged
Ethnic groups
Ethnicity
Experiments
Gender
Military officers
Multiculturalism & pluralism
Non-binary gender
Political campaigns
Prioritizing
Race
Recruitment
Socioeconomic factors
Socioeconomic status
Student attitudes
United States > US
inclusion
faculty recruitment
diversity
Naval Academy
gender
service academies
campus climate
student admissions
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Although the value of diversity—in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status—to the U.S. military has been subject to debate, preferences for diversity at educational institutions for the military officers are rarely examined systematically. To address this, we investigate whether midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy favor prioritizing diversity in student admissions and faculty recruitment using conjoint analysis, a method suited for estimating attitudes on sensitive and politicized issues. The results show strong preferences in favor of applicants from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds and moderate but still positive preferences for members of traditionally underrepresented racial/ethnic groups in both admissions and faculty recruitment. Midshipmen’s preferences with respect to gender are, however, less straightforward. In particular, we find a strong negative preference against gender nonbinary applicants and candidates. Our findings suggest that midshipmen’s attitudes reflect both resolved and unresolved debates that resonate throughout the armed forces.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 14
ISSN:0095-327X
1556-0848
DOI:10.1177/0095327X18824665