"Doctoring photographs to appear more inclusive may not end well. But colleges historically are more diverse in their admissions materials than they are in real life.
The new billboard for York College of Pennsylvania features a typical headline for admissions marketing: ‘Envision the Possibilities at York College.’ Eight students smile. One is African American, one is Asian American and one woman (with her hair covered) appears to be Muslim.
But in the last week, the billboard turned from a source of pride to one of controversy. The original photograph shot for the billboard (above on left, with the billboard on right) featured two white students who were replaced with two students who reflected diversity. The original photo and the doctored one circulated on social media (with arrows noting the changes), and one of the students in the original photo shoot reached the photographer. She reported to a local news station what he said: ‘He was, like, yeah, they just wanted a more diverse billboard, so we had to get two other students, and we put them in there. When they went to show the person that had to approve the photo, it wasn’t approved, so they had to rush to fix the problem.’" …
I don’t think this is a big deal. The kids are actual students, not just some stock photos they found. If you want to promote being eager to accept all races, I see nothing wrong with this billboard. They want more diversity. Folks need to relax with the manufactured outrage.
This doesn’t bother me so much with a posed photo. How would it have been any better if they had assembled the artificially diverse group at the time of the photo shoot, vs. 'shopping some students in afterward?
IMHO it’s more problematic in shots like the Wisconsin one, taken at a sporting event. The message there is that you’re seeing what you would actually experience when attending such an event. If you have to alter the photo, that seems like misrepresentation to me. It’s fine to be aspirational; it’s not fine to deceive.
But realistic photos can be off-putting when they belie a college’s rhetoric. My daughter was pretty salty when, after laboring over a mandatory diversity prompt in the CU-Boulder application, she received an acceptance packet in an envelope printed from edge to edge with a sporting-event photo depicting an uninterrupted sea of happy white faces. Honest but discouraging.
Then there’s this video https://youtu.be/8CHXk8gZLZk which is incredibly well done, but must feature every student of color in the whole of Dixie State, lol. (Actual demographics, 2% black, 77% white) I love the disability representation, though, and the fantasy quality of the performance makes clear that this is an aspirational view.
Back in the 80’s we used to make fun of the “random candids” schools put on the covers of their viewbooks.
One caucasian male, one caucasian female, one AA of one gender, one Asian or hispanic of the other gender. Occasionally a redhead thrown in for extra diversity points.