The Meaning Of Diversity at Warren Wilson
Mallory Wallace-Usry and Solie Lawson | October 7, 2025
Warren Wilson College (WWC) students enjoy time at Dogwood Pasture in Swannanoa, N.C.. (Warren Wilson College)
Warren Wilson College (WWC) is committed to inclusive excellence, but what happens when inclusivity is exclusivity in disguise?
It’s common these days to see a lot of inclusion of sexuality and gender identities, but not as much consideration of people’s cultural and ethnic backgrounds, which are equally as important to individual/collective identity. This phenomenon certainly exists on our campus, and the best way to work through it is to have honest conversations about it, rather than remaining ignorant of the division in our community.
Over 50% of WWC students identify as members of the LGBTQIA+ community, a strong stat for a rural North Carolina campus, but beyond that, diversity dwindles. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 77% of students at WWC are white, with the second-largest group being Hispanic students at just 7% of the college population. The Black student population is even smaller at only 5%. A microcosm of this imbalance was shown in the responses to a survey The Echo sent out to learn more about students’ experience with inclusion on campus, in which 35 out of 40 respondents identified as white. The majority of respondents agreed that there is not adequate support for non-white students, with 60% having experienced or witnessed racial prejudice on campus.
There’s no doubt that WWC students care about our peers, but we can certainly do a better job at expanding the definition of community on campus. In response to the survey question, “What improvements would you make surrounding diversity in the community?” many students mentioned the lack of clubs and organizations for BIPOC students.
“I’d like to see the same amount of support for non-white students as we have for Queer students- clubs, crews, meet-ups, etc,” said one anonymous respondent.
Amity Warren, a freshman and WWC's Inclusion Diversity and Equity (WIDE) crew lead, offered their perspective.
“We push diversity, but we don't talk about the problems that other people have, other than Queer problems,” Warren said. “I know they cut the budget for the affinity groups by 85%. Everyone's kind of frantic about it.”
Amidst these budget cuts, student-run organizations are scrambling to support themselves without much guidance.
“We've talked about pairing up with other crews that have bigger budgets, like student activities, that's kind of something that I've been working with,” Warren said. “I think it's something that we need to talk about because we need this budget to actually help people feel included.”
Pendo Dawe, an athlete and international student originally from Malawi, spoke with me about her experience during her first few weeks at WWC.
“I feel like I was expecting there to be a lot more diversity in the sense of international students, but there's only, I think, 28 international students total,” Dawe said. “I did not expect that to be the case.”
In the past, WWC was known for its focus on internationalism, something the college still advertises today.
When WWC was registered as a Presbyterian college, its exchange student funding came from the church. After disaffiliating from the Presbyterian church, much of that funding was lost, and the international student population fell to around 3% a decade ago. While WWC’s international population has been slowly increasing since then, it is a far cry from the “little United Nations” it once was.
Dawe mentioned that although there are lots of inclusion efforts for LGBTQ+ people on campus, other minority groups, such as the Black Student Union (BSU) and disabled students, don’t get the same amount of attention.
“I think there's so much [here] that is just not highlighted,” Dawe said. “It feels like we're really good at saying, ‘we do have diversity’, but then one person represents [all] the diversity of the school, which is not accurate at all.”
While it’s true that there isn’t one person who represents all of WWC’s diversity, it’s noticeable that a large part of our population comes from middle- to upper-middle-class backgrounds. Much of the diversity of experience and cultural backgrounds on campus comes from students in the athletics programs. Athletics draws a more diverse crowd because of its global recruitment strategies. Much like other colleges, many students feel that there is a divide between the athletes and other students on campus. At WWC, the separation feels more tangible, with multiple aspects like family background, interests and culture compounding the differences between social groups.
“It's like you're like a different person, almost,” Dawe, who plays on the women’s soccer team, said in reference to the separation of athlete and non-athlete students. “I do think that there's a divide. I don't think that it's done intentionally.”
Dawe believes that the solution to student division on campus is self-awareness and awareness of the perspectives of others.
“One of the biggest things that I think is just important in general is that people know their privilege and their worth,” Dawe said. “I think that not a lot of people understand what privilege actually means, or what that can be, especially in application to life here on campus…Privilege doesn't necessarily mean you grew up wealthy. It can be as simple as you know- some people who are not able to go eat out as much [whereas] you [can] go eat out.”
Like any institution, WWC has its downsides, but it can also be an incredibly loving and safe community for all.
Evan Snelling, who has been the director of inclusive excellence at WWC for 10 months, spoke about his perspective on campus diversity. His job entails working with departments on collaborative efforts to ensure students' voices are heard. Snelling feels that the students at WWC help prevent instances of racial discrimination.
“I am really thrilled to be at an institution where a lot of the students would probably call something out like that before it even came to me,” Snelling said. “I've not [experienced or witnessed] any kind of racial discrimination during my tenure.”
This perspective is particularly interesting, especially when juxtaposed against the 60% of survey respondents who said they had experienced or witnessed racial discrimination at WWC.
Snelling also mentioned what inclusivity excellence means to him and why it is important to the community. He believes inclusive excellence promotes a vibrant culture of having not just racial diversity, but also diversity in thought and identity.
“It's just making sure everybody has an equal say at the table,” Snelling said.
Snelling maintains that the main purpose of inclusive excellence is to strive for a more diverse community through acceptance and listening. He feels that WWC is on the path to truly embracing diversity.
Kendra Powell, Director of Admissions and WWC alumna, gave her perspective on the function of diversity at WWC.
“I think it's the fabric of Warren Wilson,” Powell said. “I think it is who we are as an institution. Students come here with experiences and stories and identities that we don't all readily know the first time we meet somebody.”
When speaking about the recruitment of new students, Powell mentioned the importance of the ways WWC approaches community building.
“My goal for our team is to strive to cast a net far and wide,” Powell said. “I think we do a really good job at that, and I think we can always do better. You know- making sure that we are showing up in different spaces, making sure that we're using inclusive language, keep[ing] practices in place that make us more accessible.”
Elliot Hove, who is a junior on the Academic Support Crew, talked about his experience with the problem of race on campus. Hove is one of the presidents of the Asian Culture Club (ACC), where his main role is to plan events on campus. The biggest events planned by the ACC are Diwali and Lunar New Year, which excite Hove because of the way they bring together food and community.
Despite the success of these community events, Hove still feels that there is a need for change in the structure of our community here at WWC.
“I feel like it is a little clique-ish,” Hove said. “You have the groups that are on sports teams, the people on the farm and then on the garden, like humanities, sciences, and that's true every institution. Everyone has a work crew, everyone has a major, it's just lots of little boxes.”
Hove touched on the separation at WWC between those of different backgrounds and the tendency of students to only find company with those of similar interests. He feels that this tendency negatively impacts the community and hinders proper inclusion. He also believes that faculty and the school administration need to be involved in the pursuit of greater diversity.
“I would like to see a bit more of the administration supporting the Office of Inclusive Excellence, or supporting us [in ACC] closely,” Hove said.
With the participation of the administration, Hove thinks that he can get the support he needs in his club. Hove also emphasized how impactful attendance at ACC events are.
In the few weeks we’ve attended Warren Wilson, it’s become clear that people here want to make our campus a more welcoming community. From engaging with different social circles to hosting community events through the OIE, students are facilitating change. Across the board, the students we spoke with agreed that more administrative and financial support is needed to spearhead DEI efforts, but in the meantime, it’s up to us as a community to make change on campus. Speak to people you wouldn’t usually talk to, stop in at Café con Pan, Shabbat, or BSU events and use your voice to highlight the voices of others. This community is worth caring for.
