From the Daily Iowan
The DI: Why do you think it's important to include and recruit underrepresented and minority students?
President Mason: I think it's the whole way in which they approach life — which may be different from ways in which others approach life. The way they think, the cultural traditions that they perhaps were raised with. When you're out in the workforce after you leave the University, being exposed to different types of people and different ways of thinking and different ways of looking at life and different cultures and traditions, that's extremely important because that's likely what you'll be facing in the workforce. We know that many employers today are looking for people who have a diversity of experiences. In other words, haven't just been raised in one place all their life and never experienced any other part of the country or any other part of the world and that's part of the reason why we also do so much study abroad and why we encourage students to get involved in activities that might take them beyond the boundaries of Iowa and into communities that they perhaps haven't been exposed to.