As students search for internships this summer at financial services firms, their resumes and networking skills aren't the only attributes companies are considering.
Firms hiring for summer internships often aim for a diverse workforce and often look favorably on students with diverse backgrounds.
But junior Mark Uh said he feels personally harmed by recruiting practices aimed at students who are diverse.
"The way it's set up right now is totally unfair. The idea that you're going to prefer certain race categories just doesn't seem correct," Uh said. "Companies are forced to put too much effort into recruiting underrepresented minorities, and I see a lot of people that get jobs because of the benefit of diversity recruitment."
Today's recruitment efforts focus on drawing in interested black and Hispanic students, said Emma Rasiel, director of undergraduate studies and associate professor of the practice in economics.
Because Asian and Southeast Asian students are well represented on Wall Street, they do not qualify as diversity candidates, Rasiel added.
"Until [a firm] has a diverse in-house, [it] can't address the diverse issues and problems [it] encounters," Rasiel said.
Senior Simone Randolph, president of the Black Student Alliance, said despite other students' concerns of a reverse discrimination, diversity recruitment is necessary.
"It's not a zero-sum game with diversity recruitment," Randolph said. "I don't think because a black person gets hired, a white person misses out."
Malcom Riley, assistant director for the Career Center, said diversity recruitment is not about hurting non-diversity students, but rather is meant to extend equal opportunities to all students once they become a part of the Duke community.
"We need to remember that Duke is a predominantly white campus," said Riley, who is also the Career Center's adviser for business, finance, consulting and entrepreneurship. "When [minorities do] not have the same understanding of the resources that are available, [they] may not have had the same access and in a lot of cases [they] feel like [they] are always the minority."
Recruiters also emphasized that recruitment is not an attempt to fill quotas. Instead, companies are looking to give minorities a chance to learn more about the career opportunities offered in the finance industry.
Senior Priscilla Hwang, a representative of the Career Center's Diversity Liaison Team, said, however, that the problem is not a lack of available resources, but ignorance of such resources.
"Minorities have an advantage, they are just not taking it," Hwang said. "There are spots that don't get filled and many don't utilize the career fair, come to events or go to the Career Center."
Whether it is the lack of resources or a lack of knowledge about the available resources, the financial industry still suffers from a lack of more diversity candidates.
"I wouldn't say there's discrimination in the industry-it's too strong of a word-but something's not equal. By sheer numbers, I don't see that many women-African-American women-as managing directors," said Erin James, a Bank of America recruiter who graduated from Duke last year. "It's hard to ignore the fact that there aren't people that look like me."
She added that diversity is a huge resource in the age of globalization, because diverse groups of people provide different perspectives and generate unique ideas.
Wachovia recruiter John Witherington, Trinity '03, added that diverse backgrounds alone do not affect the hiring process.
"We hire the best employees, fierce competitors of the highest caliber," he said.
And though many students think career events that are marketed to students from diverse backgrounds are exclusive to racial minorities, events such as the Diversity Networking Dinner, held Jan. 14 and organized by the Diversity Liaison Team, are open to everyone, said Tadina Ross, a senior and the Mi Gente representative on the DLT.
Additionally, Riley said holding events exclusively for racial minorities is illegal.
"The diversity dinner gives employers an opportunity to really see students in a much more personal setting, get to know them in a much more intimate way. There's not as much pressure," Riley said. "In comparison, the Career Fair is much more about selling yourself to a company,"
James said the dinner was an opportunity for people who represent diversity to promote their diverse backgrounds.
"It's hard for a company to show a diverse face, it's something you have to wear on your sleeve," she said.
Other students, like sophomore Annie Schetinnikova, said they do not believe diversity recruitment is an unfair practice.
"A lot of people get their internships through networking and connections because of their parents or their parents' friends," Schetinnikova said. "If you look at a lot of minority students-some of whom happen to be immigrants-their families do not have the connections to place them in internship positions."
As to the potential disadvantage she may face as an immigrant non-minority student, Schetinnikova said she is prepared to compete.
"It's not like I cry about it every night," she said. "It just means I have to try harder."
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