It didn’t even take a week for cameras to start following first-year University of Iowa student Euan Mugisha.

He said he noticed UI photographers focusing on him at a bingo event during On Iowa! programming.

“There’ll be times when I am more marketable,” Mugisha, who is African American, said. “I have no issue with it.”

Despite having a large campus and many programs that promote diversity, the UI is a predominantly white institution. This has made it more difficult for students of color on campus to find community. This rings true for Mugisha.

Data conducted by the UI Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Department revealed that in fall 2021, almost 75 percent of the student population was white.

When asked why they believe that is, current students of color responded that it was due to a lack of advertisement for programs, miscommunication, and knowing that Iowa’s population is predominantly white.

However, according to a UI Campus Climate survey, some faculty and staff said there might be too much emphasis on DEI-related programming. In two questions on the 2022 UI Campus Climate survey, 27 percent of faculty and staff agreed that attention to DEI distracts from academic goals and achieving the university’s mission. Additionally, 36 percent said there is too much emphasis put on DEI issues.

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Third-year transfer student Dania Green, who is African American, said she feels passionate about diversity and inclusion on campus.

Green said she is used to the lack of diversity at the UI.

“I’ve been going to predominantly white schools my whole life,” Green said. “This is nothing different, but actually being here with thousands of students and the majority being white is overwhelming at times when you go in every room and you’re the only Black girl or minority. It is the same, but on a bigger level now.”

Mugisha said he knew it would be a challenge to find students who looked like him and had similar cultural experiences because of the racial demographics on campus.

“It’s just the lack of people of color at the University of Iowa is very evident, and it’s very prevalent,” Mugisha said.

Other students also described feeling exhausted and lost when being isolated in a crowd of people unlike themselves. However, Mugisha says the lack of diversity was “how it always was” growing up as a Black man, so he was used to it.

Mugisha said he struggled with feeling out of place and alienated.

“It’s a little difficult just not being around people that look like you,” Mugisha said. “It’s not the university’s fault. It’s just the nature of the game.”

For students struggling to find community, Iowa does provide programs for students of color to connect with each other and resources to help them succeed. The Center for Inclusive Academic Excellence at the UI provides programs with the goals of building these communities and celebrating cultures.

UI Center for Inclusive and Academic Excellence Director Tabitha Wiggins said the center aims to eliminate equity gaps as much as it can, so it partners and works with many community and university partners including Iowa Edge, Housing and Dining, Tippie College of Business, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Mugisha joined the Business Edge Program, a program to promote diversity in the business school. Mugisha said he expected to find a community eventually as he joined more clubs and organizations.

Green joined the Iowa Edge program, a program emphasizing minority groups that allows them to connect with each other and resources on campus before school starts.

With programs like Iowa Edge, Green said, it has been easier to connect with other students of color, but that it would definitely be more difficult for people if they were not a part of those programs.

“The upper hand of Edge is meeting people like you before school even started,” Green said.

With the help of the program, she has been able to find people like herself to connect with.

Another Iowa Edge participant, first-year student Daniela Pintor-Mendoza, lives in one of the nine Living Learning Communities throughout UI Housing and Dining at the UI. Her floor, “Unidos,” means “united” in Spanish.

Pintor-Mendoza said the Unidos LLC was a great place to meet people with similar interests and identities. Without the LLC and the Iowa Edge program, she said she often felt intimidated because she was with unfamiliar groups of people.

Green said the university has the capabilities and programs to be a thriving diverse campus.

“The culture is different because people come from all over the world which is different from community college because most people are coming from a common and familiar community. But here you’re able to meet new people and different cultures and backgrounds,” Green said.