<p>Having just graduated I’d just like to say that it’s what you make of it where ever you attend college.</p>
<p>The racial make up of Notre Dame is more white than many other universities. No one can deny that, but it doesn’t mean that there aren’t cultural interactions. I had a roommate from Kenya. I’m being hosted in Manila by friends from Notre Dame this summer. I dated a Mexican girl from Texas. I’ve asked for recommendations from a Jewish professor, a Muslim professor and a Catholic priest. I was an assistant ESL teacher at Notre Dame’s neighborhood community center; students were from Lebanon, Iran, Liberia, Rwanda, Russia, Poland, Serbia, Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and more. The valedictorian this year was a Catholic Social Tradition minor, even though she’s a non-Catholic black woman from the hell that is Gary, Indiana. Even the atheists at Notre Dame are welcome; they staged a University-sponsored debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D’Souza in April that sold out in less than an hour. I know one atheist who sings in a chapel choir because he enjoys the music. I’m Catholic but I think the coolest people on campus are Protestants. The (probably Hindu) Indian students who play cricket on South Quad are cool to watch too. We had Bob Barr and Barack Obama on campus in the same year, go figure.</p>
<p>I doubt that any of that is unique to Notre Dame. You might find it any where. Just don’t assume that there is no worth while diversity at Notre Dame. I for one, am glad to know that where ever I go now, whether in the United States from Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington to Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Savannah and New Orleans, to the hills of Appalachia to Phoenix, Vegas, LA, San Francisco, Seattle and Denver I have friends there. And when I go to Manila or Seoul; Kinshasa, Nairobi or Cairo; Dublin, Rome or Vienna; or (perhaps best of all) La Paz or Caracas, I’ll know Domers there too. And when I go to a city where I don’t have friends, I’ll have one of 275, or however many there are now, alumni clubs. </p>
<p>Even if none of that mattered the fact still remains that Notre Dame graduates over 90% of minority, non-Catholic students. I believe that bests most universities’ overall graduation rates and certainly their minority graduation rates. So, if Asians or some other group don’t feel comfortable they aren’t transfering out, they’re graduating and becoming doctors and engineers. However, I believe it’s more likely that they are part of the family, just like everyone else, regardless of skin color or religion or place of birth.</p>