Differences in Levels of School Loyalty Between Black and White College Students

Indianapolis, IN

The objective of this study was to examine levels of reported school loyalty among African-American and European-American college students in the United States. School loyalty provides a major competitive advantage for universities in terms of alumni funding, school retention rates, and more selective admission processes. The study, an 18 question anonymous self-report survey, was sent to three Indiana universities’ student organizations. A positive correlation between students self-reported levels of loyalty toward their university and their ethnic backgrounds was found at the conclusion of the study. Students of the European-American ethnic majority expressed higher levels of school loyalty than their fellow minority African-American students. I provide a conflictual sociological perspective for the origin of the study's findings using Merton's Strain Theory, and provide potential solutions for the discrepancies in loyalty later in the paper that can influence future research into the social support environment of colleges and universities among marginalized groups.