Forum: What Does a Genuine Commitment to Diversity Look Like?

Many colleges say they value diversity, but the rhetoric and the results don’t always match. We asked a group of commentators to answer the question: What would a college’s genuine commitment to diversity look like? Here’s what they told us.

True institutional commitment to diversity permeates every aspect of the campus and is widely collaborative. It does not rest mostly on chief diversity officers, administrators in multicultural affairs and ethnic cultural centers, and faculty and staff of color. Instead, trustees, presidents, provosts, deans, department chairs, and others all across the campus play meaningful roles in advancing it, holding themselves and their colleagues accountable for it, and appropriately assessing and resourcing it. Institutions that are serious about diversity integrate it across the curriculum and help faculty members become more highly skilled at teaching students from a multitude of backgrounds. Out-of-class activities on these campuses (including residence-hall programs at residential institutions) are strategically coordinated to make better educational use of students’ diverse backgrounds and viewpoints.

Seriously committed college presidents and other leaders persistently call for evidence of institutional progress on equity imperatives, while simultaneously requesting disaggregated data reports on a range of equity indicators. They are seemingly never satisfied, as evidenced by their constantly insisting that institutional actors do everything possible to make the campus more diverse, inclusive, and equitable. For example, they listen to people of color, who describe painful encounters with stereotypes, racial microaggressions, discrimination, and other forms of racism and trauma on campus. Leaders feel the emotional weight of these people’s experiences, which compels them to act with all deliberate speed to correct campus climate problems. They assume personal responsibility for guaranteeing the institution fulfills diversity promises conveyed in mission statements, on websites, and elsewhere.

Faculty members and student-affairs professionals at these institutions recognize the consequences of sending hundreds, or even worse, thousands of college graduates into the world each year with insufficient understanding and lack of skills required for success in a diverse democracy. They understand that doing too little makes the college complicit in sustaining sexism, racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, and a wide range of inequities in our nation. Hence, they collaboratively craft and enact robust, multidimensional plans to more effectively prepare all students (especially the most privileged and least conscious) for demographically changing communities and workplace environments.

How many of these institutions exist? A shamefully low number.

Colleges and universities are praised for having Pell recipients and students of color represented among their undergraduates. Others are lauded for providing scholarships or no-loans policies for low-income students. Neither action represents a sufficient commitment to diversity.

A genuine commitment to diversity requires institutions to recognize how social class and race/ethnicity structure opportunities to attend and complete college. Once these inequalities are identified, they must be intentionally overcome. Actions must affect prospective, current, and former students. Here are examples of how colleges and universities can commit to diversity:

• Be a good neighbor. Engage the local school district and the surrounding community by addressing disparities in the college-going rate. Open doors to graduates from the community via both admissions and financial aid.
• Recruit intentionally. Traditional approaches to outreach often fail to connect with low-income families and people of color. Building relationships with diverse audiences carefully and over time is critical, and messaging must be honest and consistent.
• Admit with an open mind. Generous financial aid means little if admissions policies exclude low-income students. A commitment to racial equity must include admissions policies that reject the use of standardized tests, as these are poor predictors of college success, especially for students of color. Ask, “Can our institution bring value to this student’s life?” rather than “What will this student give us?” After all, students are already contributing their money and time.
• Hire diverse faculty and staff members and administrators. There must be a critical mass of educators and supporters on campus for students to be successful. Be sure to hire members of the local community, and pay a living wage, since this affects the neighborhood children — prospective students.
• Support students. All parts of students’ lives affect their educational success. Low-income students will not thrive in college if they are simply given grants and loans but lack sufficient resources for food and housing. Provide affordable housing and food, and ensure that there are points of contact and emergency aid available for students in crisis. Equip educators with the skills needed to teach socioeconomically and racially heterogeneous classes effectively.
• Engage families. Instead of fearing the “helicopter parent,” integrate families of first- and second-generation students into the college to help them support their children. These efforts must be sensitive to their limited time and resources and respond to their questions and concerns.
• Celebrate alumni. Students from diverse backgrounds need leadership roles in alumni groups and on campus in order to progressively improve the college experience.

Since its founding in 1968, Lehman College has been a place where individuals — regardless of their background or socioeconomic status — can obtain a quality, affordable education to transform not only their lives, but also their communities.

Lehman’s students — 40 percent of whom are born outside the United States, hailing from countries such as the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Albania, and Bangladesh and speaking more than 60 languages — already possess a multicultural outlook. The majority of Lehman students are Latino and African-American, but multiple ethnicities are represented, and feel at home in and outside the classroom. Our goal is for all our graduates to have a multicultural, global, and ethical awareness of diverse peoples and communities.

Diversity is an integral part of the mission and a core value of Lehman College. It is infused in the range of academic programs that help students gain a global perspective; it is a foundational concept guiding the important work of the institutes, and a key element in our engagement with the broader community.

The college’s connection to its home borough through its educational and cultural programs runs deep: Thousands of children visit the Lehman College Art Gallery each year; the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts features an array of global music programming; and the Bronx Institute’s college-prep and STEM programs serve several thousand Bronx public-school students in Grades 6-12.

We are building a K-16 STEM pipeline to address the lack of diversity of graduates in those fields. New outreach programs that mentor public high-school students, such as the Bronx SciFest, the borough’s first-ever science fair, and Women in Science, will enlarge the pool of underrepresented students in STEM.

The campus is home to research units such as the Jaime Lucero Mexican Studies Institute, the Institute for Irish-American Studies, and the Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies. These institutes reflect both past and present immigrations to the Bronx, as well as honor the legacy of our namesake, Herbert H. Lehman, an early, vigorous proponent of human and civil rights.

What does diversity look like on a college campus? It looks like Lehman College.

The holy trinity of secular sociologists — race, class and gender — all shape the life experiences of students. Yet colleges have never evenly applied these three background characteristics to student diversity efforts. Selective campuses have made admirable efforts to open their doors to students of color and women, but students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds are still exceedingly rare.

In the two decades I’ve been researching and writing about this issue, I’ve seen an uptick in rhetoric about economic inclusion, but precious little action. At the most competitive campuses, students from the richest socioeconomic quarter of the population outnumber those from the poorest quarter by 24 to one. According to the latest numbers — which Jennifer Glynn and I outline in a new report — between 2000 and 2013, the proportion of students eligible for Pell Grants at the most selective colleges increased just one percentage point, from 16 percent to 17 percent. By comparison, at noncompetitive colleges, the increase was nine percentage points, and a majority of students are now Pell eligible.

Why the relative inattention to economic diversity at top colleges? Race and gender are more visible to the naked eye than socioeconomic status is, so colleges feel more accountable about the former. At the same time, race and gender diversity are less expensive than economic diversity to promote. Recruiting advantaged students of color and women to sit alongside advantaged white males doesn’t “divert” resources from expenditures that allow a college to climb the U.S. News rankings; financial aid for low-income students does.

But if we want genuine diversity of experience, assembling fairly wealthy students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds is not enough. True diversity — and, more important, fairness — requires challenging America’s growing class divide as well.

And it requires that colleges take steps to make students feel included once they are on campus. Recent efforts by first-generation college students to organize on Ivy League campuses, and by low-income students to speak out at liberal-arts colleges, are important steps toward restoring balance to how we tackle our nation’s troubling trio of inequalities.

A college’s genuine commitment to diversity reflects the impact of collective action and the spirit of the African proverb: “It takes a village to raise a child.” Leaders who agree to work together across the university with strong intentions can improve student access and success, and support high-quality learning.

Those in top leadership positions make it clear through their actions that they value diversity. Real change happens when an institution’s leaders collectively take responsibility for closing disparity gaps. U.S. Census data show deep inequalities in our nation based on household income and average life expectancy. If we value diversity, we must address such disparities, and education is a key part of the solution.

Higher-education leaders must understand the challenges of recruiting and retaining a diverse student body, faculty, and staff. A unified core message embraced by all leaders, combined with bold action, creates an environment where leaders not only talk about the work that must be done, but also are visibly involved in carrying out that work. These leaders find ways to work across difference, creating genuine and lasting relationships, and can become valuable recruiters for their institutions. Often such leaders gain the attention of “passive recruits” — people who are not thinking about leaving their current positions but may be drawn to colleges that have demonstrated a genuine commitment to diversity.

Unified leaders know how to garner broad support and understand that their commitment to diversity will drive needed change. That commitment becomes part of their identity; it doesn’t just exist in a written document, to be discussed as part of a college’s strategic road map.

Through collective action, committed leaders create environments that attract and celebrate diversity. They use cultural competency as a building block to create stronger relationships and ensure that strong communication across difference is both inclusive and valued. They do not ignore frustrations often expressed by underrepresented groups whose members sometimes feel left out of mainstream university life.

Diversity leaders understand the importance of giving voice to those who feel they have been ignored. Silence engenders fear and mixed emotions. Diversity leaders are often the ones who give voice to those who are silent, and provide answers to those who have found their voice.

Simply acknowledging a group’s marginalization does not make for a more equitable world. A college’s genuine commitment to diversity requires inclusiveness throughout the institution. Beyond recognizing the cultural identities and histories of individual people, it must invest in diversity training programs and student-led efforts to promote social justice. And it should allocate money to black, Muslim, Asian, Latino, Hispanic, first-generation, low-income, undocumented, LGBTQ, disabled, and other student organizations. That helps students feel more at home on campus and can also aid in their retention through graduation.

A college should aim to increase the voices of historically underserved groups by including studies of inequality and oppression throughout the curriculum. It should also ensure that speakers brought to campus by the college are diverse and representative of the student body. It should conduct annual assessments of student experiences with regard to inclusion and diversity on campus, and should have a chief diversity officer, an executive-level diversity strategist who will use and publish the data to identify areas where improvement is needed.

A college truly committed to diversity treats it as more than a buzzword in a strategic plan. Such a college holds itself accountable for increasing student, faculty, and administrative diversity rather than tokenizing a small number of people from underrepresented groups for the sake of appearance. Historically underserved students need mentors. So a diverse college also makes sure that all job postings include diversity statements that encourage women, people of color, and people with disabilities to apply. Only when substantive diversity is achieved at all levels can it become self-sustaining.