The “An Inside Look” program for accepted students who identify as African, Latino, Asian, or Native American will no longer include overnight stays in the residence halls with current students. The removal of the overnight portion, which has been held between the Saturday and Sunday of Ithaca Today admissions events,  provides an incomplete picture of campus life at Ithaca College for ALANA students.

Certain aspects of life at the college are not apparent in a single day, like the 69 percent majority of Caucasian students and the presence of microaggressions. Meanwhile, college marketing for the ALANA programs features an abundance of ALANA students, which may deceive prospects about the diversity of identities on campus.

Both the overnight portion and the dining hall meals through “An Inside Look” provided accepted ALANA students a chance to interact with the college community in more intimate settings. The new program eliminates the residential life aspect and dining hall meals, reducing the program to a social event and a dinner in Emerson Suites.

The dinner denies prospective ALANA students the chance to interact in a typical college social environment, which the residential and dining halls provide. Cutting these experiences  prevents accepted students from seeing how the entire campus community handles identity issues, microaggressions and inclusivity outside of the classroom environment.

The college must reinstate the overnight portion of “An Inside Look.” In the long term, it must create a positive but realistic presentation of the campus. This begins with programs like “An Inside Look” that show what the college is really like.