Prairie View A&M University has been considered one of the greatest historically black universities of all time, but now doors are being opened for more minority races other than blacks. Oscar Guevara is a junior social work major at Prairie View and is of Latino descent. He loves Prairie View and has enjoyed all of his experiences here.He loves the idea of Prairie View opening its doors to other minorities. Beyond the negativity that has come from some students about diversity at Prairie View, this institutuion will always be an HBCU and opening its doors to other race groups does not harm students, but helps Prairie View not only produce productive people, but more well-rounded people as well.
Prairie View will be carrying out efforts to diversify more over the years to come, and as the number of other minority groups grow on campus, in the future students will only be able to thank PV for the diversity it’s going through.
A sophomore, who wishes to keep his name unidentified, does not agree that PV should diversify “I guess it’s OK. I came here so that I could go to a black university, and I wish it was still all black, but at the same time I will not let it bother me.”
Although it may seem like PV is changing, every student does not agree that PV should stay black. Sophomore Rashad Johnson says, “Prairie View has enough black minorities. I do not see enough Hispanics here. They should do more to enroll Hispanics.” Lakiesha Holman, a senior, is thrilled about having diversification take place at PV: “I feel that having minorities at our school is a great idea. Even though we are at an HBCU it is good to see other racial groups, because the real world is not just made up of one race.”
Hispanics, Caucasians, Asians, and the many other groups on campus have offered and brought so many wonderful things to Prairie View. Beside diversity, culture and more scholarship money has been provided to accomodate the increase in students.
Guevara would like to inform students that “our individual race groups are just a label. Students should strive to help one another because in the end we are all in it together.” He also feels that the more diverse we get, “the more diverse our ideas become.We learn from each other because outside the walls of PV, there are all types of colors, ideas and points of view. Becoming diverse is not a bad thing.