After protests over racial justice disrupt a college, administrators often respond by announcing new policies and programs that they say will improve the experiences of students of color.
But months and years later, many students don’t feel like the campus has improved. Soon enough, there are more protests and demands for change.
That’s one dynamic that researchers sought to examine in a new report from Naspa: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. Jill Dunlap, senior director of research policy and civic engagement at Naspa and one of the report’s authors, told The Chronicle that in student affairs, they hear from lots of people who are “invested in advancing racial climate on campus,” but students tell them that “campuses aren’t doing enough.”
Through a survey, focus groups, and campus site visits, the researchers aimed to identify similarities and differences in how students and administrators think about campus climate. The survey included responses from 176 administrators — a mix of vice presidents for student affairs and senior diversity officers — as well as 130 undergraduates.
When it comes to racial climate, administrators and students agreed on a lot of things. They said it was important for the entire institution, from students to leadership, to be diverse. Campus spaces should be welcoming. People should be held accountable for comments or actions that treat someone differently based on their identity. Students should be involved in institutional decision-making. And colleges should transparently track the progress of these efforts.
But there were a few areas where administrators and students diverged — both in terms of which factors create a more equitable campus, and which barriers prevent meaningful change.
Here are five key takeaways from the report:
Policing on Campus
Students and administrators often clash over how to approach public safety on campus, with an ongoing debate over police presence. Naspa’s findings upheld this dynamic.
Nearly half of students said increasing transparency around law enforcement’s interactions with students of color was an important factor for advancing racial justice, while one-fourth of administrators endorsed that view. Just 11 percent of students said they felt colleges had made progress on that front.
Campuses aren’t doing enough.
One student-focus-group participant explained to the researchers why colleges’ relationship with law enforcement could be a barrier to change. The student mentioned the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in favor of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, which allows some undocumented young people to study and work legally in the United States.
“I remember when the Supreme Court trial made the decision about DACA, and [the campus] put out this whole statement of support saying, ‘We support DACA and undocumented students,’ but then they also bring border patrol on campus.”
Accountability and Bias Incidents
Most administrators and students said that holding college employees accountable for racism was an important factor in advancing racial justice.
Fifty-four percent of administrators and 46 percent of students cited anonymous bias-incident reporting systems as tools that contributed to a positive campus environment.
But the report also identified shortcomings in how colleges handled bias reports. “Students have little confidence in reporting racist incidents to [public safety or the dean of students],” one administrator said, according to the report. “They fear retaliation and/or lack of transparency when they have the courage to speak up. A formal structure is needed.”
Less than one-third of administrators and just 15 percent of students thought their institutions had made progress on creating bias-response systems that were up to the task.
Education Is Important but Lagging
More than half of both students and administrators agreed that it was important to provide education for faculty and staff, college leadership, and students on cultural awareness.
But just 22 percent of students said that their institutions had made progress on educating staff, faculty, and leadership. Twenty-eight percent felt that way about students’ cultural awareness.
Administrators felt more confident that their colleges had made progress.
What might better education look like? “Having more conversations about what it really means to be culturally competent, knowing when to stop and educate yourself, and really understanding power dynamics with race, I think, would be really important,” one focus-group student told the researchers.
Lack of Diversity as a Barrier
Administrators generally viewed the lack of diversity of faculty, staff, and senior leadership as a barrier to advancing racial-justice efforts. But students were not as concerned.
While 68 percent of surveyed administrators saw lack of diversity among faculty as a barrier, just 32 percent of students said the same. Forty-six percent of administrators viewed lack of racial diversity of staff as a barrier; 26 percent of students felt that way.
Still, one focus-group student strongly expressed a desire for more racial and ethnic diversity among professors: “I think if I could make a magic wand and make any change happen on campus, it would be more faculty of color.”
Names and Statues Are Not Priorities
Despite the nationwide attention on the ties to slavery of imagery and names on campuses, relatively few students or administrators cited either one as an important factor in the racial climate on their campuses.
Among administrators, only 10 percent viewed renaming buildings as a key step, and just 5 percent saw removing statues as important. Fifteen percent of students saw renaming buildings as a means of advancing campus racial climate, and 21 percent said the same for removing statues.
Dunlap said this finding didn’t necessarily mean that students viewed the legacy of statues and buildings as “unimportant.”
But when thinking about belonging on campus, students underscored their “lived experience” and concern for “the way that they’re experiencing belongingness in their peer groups, in their classrooms, with faculty and staff,” Dunlap said.
