Unwelcome Guests: A History of Access to American Higher Education

Summary

In Unwelcome Guests, Harold S. Wechsler and Steven J. Diner argue that discrimination in college admissions has a long and troubling history in the US. Institutions of higher learning have vigorously sought to shape their mission and the experiences of their undergraduate students by paying careful attention to race and religion in admissions decisions. Wechsler and Diner explore how American colleges and universities sought to restrict enrollment of students they considered undesirable. How, they ask, did these practices change over time? And how did underrepresented students cope with this discrimination—and with the indifference, bare tolerance, or outright hostility of some of their professors and peers?

Tracing the efforts of people from underrepresented racial, ethnic, and religious groups to attend mainstream colleges, Wechsler and Diner also look at how these students fared after graduation, paying particular attention to Black women and men. Unwelcome Guests illuminates a critically important aspect of the history of American colleges and universities but also addresses policy debates about affirmative action and racial/ethnic diversity in colleges today. This profound history of the limits on college access over decades of discrimination helps listeners recognize and understand the role of race in the history of American higher education.