Supporting%20People,%20Programs,%20and%20Structures%20for%20Diversity

1
Supporting People, Programs, and Structures for
Diversity

• EDHE 6730
• Organization and Administration of Student
  Development Services
• By Lisa S. Estrada-Hamby

2
College and University Common Belief

• Diversity in their student bodies, faculties, and
  staff is important for them to fulfill their
  primary mission
• Providing a Quality Education

3
Ethnic Breakdown

• Year 2020
• 40 percent of Americans will be members of the
  following groups
• African American
• Latino
• Pacific Islanders, or
• American Indians
• Year 2012
• Students of color will make up 25 percent of the
  under-eighteen population

4
College Enrollment Data

• Since 1979, women have outnumbered men enrolled
  on college campuses throughout the country. In
  1996 the enrollment of women was nearly 56
  percent
• In 1996
• 26 percent of those attending were students of
  color
• Regionally
• 40 percent and above in New Mexico and California
• 30 percent and above in Texas, Louisiana,
  Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and New York
• Students with special needs have also
  dramatically increased
• 1978 showed three percent but five years later
  showed almost ten percent

5
Supporting Programs

• 1997 report issued by the Kellogg Commission on
  the Future of State and Land Grant Universities
  called upon public universities to rededicate
  themselves to student learning
• The first report, Returning to Our Roots The
  Student Experience, declared that anything short
  of a strong commitment jeopardizes an
  institutions capacity as a learning community

6
Supporting Programs

• Involvement in Learning
• Astin (1996) refers to involvement as the amount
  of time and energy (physical and/or
  psychological) a student invests in learning
• The greater the students degree of involvement,
  the greater the learning and personal development

7
Supporting Programs

• Socioeconomic background, cultural heritage,
  college preparedness, academic preparation, and
  campus environment all influence a students
  ability to engage in an institution and be an
  active participant in the learning process
• Institutional commitment to involve all members
  of the learning community is critical in
  advancing students goals and institutional
  objectives

8
Astins Research (1993)

• Indicates that institutional and faculty
  diversity emphases have a positive impact on
  cultural awareness and commitment to providing
  racial understanding among students
• Identifies students personal commitment to
  promoting racial understanding as well as their
  overall satisfaction with college and student
  life when these opportunities occur

9
Popes Research (1995)

• Indicates the need for new and better strategies
  to involve students in a multicultural campus
  creating a multicultural campus requires more
  than increasing diversity. Instead, new
  strategies that alter goals, expectations,
  perceptions, and practices are needed to
  transform and create multicultural campuses.

10
Multicultural

• A term to define a campus that recognizes the
  broad array of cultural characteristics of racial
  and ethnic minorities, women, or others who may
  feel disempowered by policies or practices of
  college campuses
• All students benefit from structured, positive
  interactions with peers
• A healthy and productive learning community
  requires an opportunity for autonomous
  involvement in cultural, racial, ethnic, or
  special interests within the broader community

11
Institutional Strategies Which Fail

• Assuming that diverse students must change
• Making multicultural student, faculty, staff, and
  administrators responsible for socializing new
  multicultural students
• Encouraging multicultural students to adapt to
  the dominant culture
• Helping only identifiable multicultural
  students
• Failing to provide equitable educational
  opportunities to all students, and
• Failing to educate those of the dominant culture
  about their multicultural colleagues

12
Banning and Bartels (1997)

• How powerfully the physical artifacts of a campus
  communicate non-verbal messages to students about
  the values of a campus.
• Taxonomy through which campus artifacts may be
  assessed they encourage campuses to utilize this
  system as a vehicle for multicultural education.

13
Stage and Manning (1992)

• A model that encourages participation from the
  entire campus community as a means of removing
  barriers to involvement.
• A multicultural campus is an inclusive campus,
  responsive to all persons regardless of race,
  ethnicity, culture, gender and background.
• The models components of learning to think
  constructively, spanning boundaries, ensuring
  optimal performance, and taking action

14
Intentional Strategies for Change

• Acknowledge Individuals
• Acknowledging each student as an individual
  learner can become the students invitation to
  become a contributing member of the learning
  community
• Affirm Groups
• As the multicultural campus evolves in its
  diversity and its richness, so should it flourish
  and multiply in its groups and organizations
• Invest In Others
• Inherent in ideals of shared governance, full
  representation, and a commitment to the public
  good, is the concept of interdependency where
  individual success is made possible through the
  guidance and help of others

15
A Case for Diversity

• Examining professional association membership
  provides insight into the diversity of the
  profession
• The presence of female professionals and
  administrator has become more prevalent
• Mentors appear to make a key difference
• A critical number of diverse staff must be in
  place so that individuals who are in the minority
  are not isolated

16
A Case for Diversity

• Oneness as a concept occurs when the person of
  a specific background, ethnicity, gender, sexual
  orientation, or other distinguishing
  characteristic is the only one in a peer group
• These individuals become a torchbearer
• In an environment that offers little affirmation,
  doubts may linger about ones performance and
  ability

17
A Case for Diversity

• Overperformer
• Take on multiple assignments that extend beyond
  primary duties which include
• Service, committee work, and stewardship within
  the university community
• Externally to participate in community activities
  and represent the university at large
• The better the performance in each roles, the
  greater the burden
• Compromise and destructive cycle may result as
  the additional assignments may jeopardize ones
  success in the primary professional role

18
Minority Group Identification

• Are minority staff perceived as credible within
  their ethnic or gender group?
• How much time, effort, and commitment is required
  by the group demands not made of majority group
  individuals?
• How comfortable are the individuals in
  identifying with the group?

19
Successful vs. Failure

• If an individual succeeds then others of the same
  race, gender or ethnic group they have a much
  better chance of being considered for a future
  appointment
• If an individual fails then the chances of others
  of a similar background will be much more
  difficult
• Minority individuals often feel that they must
  prove that they are worthy of the position from
  day one

20
Strategies for Hiring a Diverse Staff

• Administrators should take the time to consider
  the organization and the skills and competencies
  needed to advance it
• Job qualifications should be reviewed to ensure
  that requirements are relevant to the current
  duties and not unduly restrictive or narrow
• The hiring process should also be examined, with
  great consideration given to recruitment
  strategies for the position

21
Promoting from Within

• Minority administrators are often in entry or
  middle management positions
• Minority administrators are also located
  frequently in specialized functions that target
  other minorities
• Minority administrators are involved with
  programs that are funded by grants or are in
  staff (versus line) capacities
• People should be promoted for their competencies
  and promise, not exclusively on seniority

22
Hiring from Outside

• Strategies
• Broadening the applicant pool
• Personally contacting known individuals who may
  be strong candidates
• Identifying individuals through networks
• Advertising in multiple sources including
  minority-forced newspapers and journals, as well
  as announcing the opening through rapidly
  developing Web sites

23
Retaining and Developing

• Strategies to support minority staff for access
  and advancement within the profession
• Opportunities to direct or coordinate student
  affairs initiatives
• Summer institutes and academics
• Summer management internships for currently
  employed individuals who are underrepresented in
  the field
• Involvement in professional organizations
• Graduate program preparation
• Staff development programs are also critical and
  can be implemented with few resources when
  necessary

24
Graduate Preparation Programs

• Graduate programs should address their commitment
  to diversity and ensure that the information
  disseminated underscores this commitment
• To address the inclusion of the topics into the
  curriculum, faculty must assess both the
  knowledge base of their students as well as the
  mission and goals of the department
• To establish a more comprehensive curriculum that
  integrates a multicultural focus, the faculty
  should review the existing program as a whole and
  then discuss how diversity can be incorporated in
  each of these areas

25
Graduate Students Need

• To be assured that the actual practices of their
  respective faculty match the rhetoric in the
  classroom
• The composition of the faculty needs to reflect
  the diversity they espouse
• To see that the faculty support events
  highlighting diversity and that they sponsor
  students of diverse backgrounds

26
Supporting Organizational Structures

• Structures should be reviewed periodically to
  determine their effectiveness
• Some SA organizations have chosen to combine
  departments while the majority are more
  traditional
• Each approach has the potential to limit or
  promote minority individuals
• The elimination of entire departments may mean
  downsizing staff which affects the loss of
  minorities and women

27
Supporting Organizational Structures

• Decentralized Organization
• Potential for specialization early in ones
  career
• More evident on larger campuses
• Tendency is for supervisors to believe that
  certain skills or competencies are not as easily
  transferable when, in reality, the opposite is
  true

28
Summary and Future Implications

• Diversity has traditionally been focused on
  underrepresented ethnic groups and women
• In the future, the application of diversity
  principles will become broader to include both
  gay/lesbian/bisexual students and students with
  disabilities
• These individuals still have a great amount of
  fear of their acceptance as students or their job
  security as professionals

29
Summary and Future Implications

• Attitudinal barriers and those that result from
  prior and/or continuing policies and procedures
  that inhibit participation are much more
  defeating and demoralizing
• A number of strategies need to be put in place
  that are strategic and institutional to encourage
  more open settings that are supportive of all
  types of diversity

30
Summary and Future Implications

• Definite progress has been made in diversifying
  the college environment
• Programs and services will need to evolve from
  ones of exclusively ethnic focus to ones that
  help students not only identify with their
  particular race or culture, but clearly assist
  them with the multicultural aspects of their
  environment
• People who serve as role models will need to
  reflect the dramatically changing demography of
  the students

31
Reference

• Barr, M. J., Desler, M. K., and Associates.
  (2000). The handbook of student affairs
  administration. Jossey-Bass Publishers.