The last several months have been marked by loud protests over diversity and the racial climate on college campuses nationwide. Last year demonstrations at the University of Missouri’s flagship campus, in Columbia, contributed to the resignations of the chancellor and the system’s president, and similar protests rippled quickly to other colleges.
In a climate where freshmen say they are more likely than ever to protest, campus leaders are facing extensive demands from activists who want their colleges to be more inclusive. And many college presidents say they’re meeting with organizers and responding to their concerns, according to new survey results released on Thursday.
Researchers with the American Council on Education’s Center for Policy Research and Strategy set out to gauge presidents’ perceptions and actions on issues of racial diversity. The researchers analyzed more than 550 anonymous responses from presidents of two- and four-year colleges, most of whom have led their institutions for four or more years.
Lorelle L. Espinosa, assistant vice president of the center, said that for the most part, presidents are more engaged with not only discussion but also action related to diversity on their campus, and they know they need to do more.
“I think the claim that campus leaders are out of touch is oversimplified, which is a lot of what the story has become in the media,” she said. “I don’t think some of that criticism is unwarranted. But this survey is showing us a level of engagement that we haven’t been shown yet.”
Below are a few takeaways from the survey results about how college and university presidents are responding to campus racial issues.
Most presidents have met with student organizers more than once.
Protests have become common on many campuses: Forty-seven percent of presidents of four-year institutions said students had organized on campus around concerns of racial diversity, while 13 percent of presidents of two-year institutions acknowledged similar protests. On campuses where students have organized, 86 percent of presidents at the four-year institutions and 71 percent of presidents at the two-year institutions said they had met with organizers on more than one occasion.
Almost 100 of the respondents also answered open-ended questions, in which many presidents said they felt they could do more to improve diversity and inclusion on their campus. One president wrote: “Our typical student is an urban young man of color. Faculty and other staff are mostly white and middle class. I’d like greater consciousness among staff and more dialogue in the community about race.”
Yet almost all of the respondents “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that staff, faculty, and the governing board on their campus had an awareness or sensitivity to the need for racial diversity and inclusion.
Racial diversity has become more of a priority in the last three years.
Fifty-five percent of four-year and 44 percent of two-year college presidents said racial diversity had been more of a priority on their campus in the last three years. The survey asked presidents which actions their campuses had taken over the last five years, and 76 percent of respondents said they had taken steps to increase diversity among students, faculty, and staff, the response that ranked highest. Other common actions included adding support resources for minority students, resources for racial-diversity initiatives, and developing diversity-competency training.
The least-common action presidents said they had taken was to develop new curricula, at 33 percent. However, looking ahead, the respondents signaled that doing so was a priority: Nineteen percent of respondents said curricular revisions were forthcoming based on student concerns over diversity. Diversity and cultural training was another commonly cited change presidents said they would make.
Ms. Espinosa said changing the curriculum is a much different step for a college president to take than adding more minority students to the campus. She described the shift as moving away from a focus on “just numbers” and toward “an environment that values diversity and has diverse perspectives embedded in the curriculum.”
Presidents rely heavily on student-affairs officials to assist on issues of racial diversity.
About half of presidents at four-year institutions said they had a full-time administrator dedicated to student diversity. Yet even at institutions with such an official, presidents said they were more likely to rely on student-affairs officers to help handle issues of racial diversity.
Considering that those officials work most closely with the undergraduate college experience, Ms. Espinosa said, it is not surprising for student-affairs officials such as advisers, mental-health counselors, and administrators to be called upon during student protests. Diversity officers, on the other hand, may oversee a larger breadth of diversity issues in all areas, including in the administration and at the graduate level.
