'Who am I?' Biracial students seek their identity.

Caucasian. Hispanic. African-American. Asian. Data collectors love these clear ethnic categories. But what if your racial heritage doesn't fit into any of them?

Thanks to the dramatic rise in interracial marriages during the last half of the 20th century, an entire generation of biracial people is coming of age. Some will show up on your campus. How will you as an administrator or faculty make these students feel welcome?

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Natasha Chapman spoke about her research on biracial college students at the Women in Educational Leadership Conference held in Lincoln NE in October. She is a doctoral student in the department of educational leadership and a grad assistant in academic support and intercultural services at the University of Nebraska there.

The daughter of a Japanese mother and an African-American father, Chapman grew up in a military family, where about 25% of base families were minorities, of whom 70% were biracial. A lot looked like her. But when Chapman got to college, her peers forced her to confront her identity head on.

We've come a long way since 1968, when a couple was indicted in Virginia for an interracial marriage. In Loving vs. Virginia, the couple was given a one-year jail sentence that was set aside if they agreed to leave the state for 25 years. They sued, won and stayed in Virginia.

There are currently 1.6 million interracial married couples in the United States. That's 10 times the number reported during the 1960s, when social pressures against interracial marriage began to decrease. Since the U.S. Census has added a multiracial option to its forms, some 2.4% of Americans have checked the box.