Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    An AI-Driven Work Force
    AI and Microcredentials
Sign In
A diverse group of raised hands above a university building

Race on Campus

Engage in higher ed’s conversations about racial equity and inclusion. Delivered on Tuesdays. To read this newsletter as soon as it sends, sign up to receive it in your email inbox.

January 24, 2023
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email

From: Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez

Subject: Race on Campus: Want Marginalized Students to Feel as if They Belong? Read This.

Welcome to Race on Campus. Students’ sense of belonging is an important part of their college experience, and it can affect their likelihood of attaining a degree. A new study sheds light on how to bolster that belonging among students of color. If you have ideas, comments, or questions about this newsletter, write to me: fernanda@chronicle.com.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

Welcome to Race on Campus. Students’ sense of belonging is an important part of their college experience, and it can affect their likelihood of attaining a degree. A new study sheds light on how to bolster that belonging among students of color. If you have ideas, comments, or questions about this newsletter, write to me: fernanda@chronicle.com.

Improving Student Belonging

When students enroll at a broad-access institution, a college or university that accepts more than 75 percent of its applicants, how can the students feel as if they belong? That question and others related to feelings of belonging can affect students’ outcome, like persistence and degree attainment, according to recent research.

A new study found that interventions that aimed to improve first-year students’ sense of belonging at a broad-access university increased the likelihood of students of color and first-generation students’ continuous enrollment in the next two years, as compared to their peers who did not receive these interventions. Students who received these interventions also reported that their feelings of social and academic preparedness increased.

For the last decade, research on belonging interventions have become more popular, but usually studies are focused on elite, selective institutions, said Mary C. Murphy, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Indiana University at Bloomington and founder of the Equity Accelerator, an interdisciplinary group of staff and scholars who test, develop, and implement strategies to create more equitable learning and corporate environments.

Murphy is the lead author of a study on belonging interventions at a broad-access college that was recently republished by the think tank Third Way.

In the study, researchers worked with college administrators and upperclassmen to create reading materials for the test group. The materials outlined ways for younger students to strengthen their sense of belonging. The stories from upperclassmen described some of the academic and social challenges they faced, and provided solutions or strategies to help their peers to cope. For example, in the reading materials provided to The Chronicle, some students wrote that they worried about their belonging status because they commuted to campus. An upperclassman advised peers in the reading materials to use the commute productively and work on the long train ride. The student also suggested that students get to know fellow commuters and form a “little commuter family.”

These stories also aimed to help students understand that belonging is something a student can work on and build over time, not a sensation achieved overnight, Murphy said.

Eighty-six percent of Black, Latina/o, Native American, and first-generation students who received this intervention maintained continuous enrollment over a year. Their peers who did not receive this intervention saw continuous enrollment at a 76-percent rate.

Similar results were seen for college persistence over two years. Students who received the intervention maintained persistence over two years at a 73-percent rate. Students from the control group who did not read the belonging stories maintained college persistence at a 64-percent rate.

When many colleges and universities were first established in the U.S., Black, Latina/o, Native American, and first-generation students were excluded from them. This historical context is one more challenge that students from marginalized backgrounds face to experience a sense of belonging, Murphy said.

Murphy and her colleagues found that a lack of belonging correlated with lower persistence rates for racial-minority and first-generation students compared to racial-majority and continuing-generation students, even at institutions where these students were more represented.

This study was needed, in part, because so much existing research focuses on elite, selective institutions, and students at broad-access institutions have different barriers to feeling a sense of belonging, she said. Unlike some students at elite institutions, students at broad-access colleges may have to commute from neighboring cities or states, have multiple jobs, or families obligations, she said.

At an elite institution a belonging strategy may be for a student to join a club, Murphy said. While broad-access colleges have clubs and student organizations, many students, especially those with barriers to belonging, may not have the time or resources to attend evening meetings.

“We don’t want to send these messages about belonging and potential for belonging to students if it’s not true,” Murphy said.

Understand Your Campus

Though this study produced successful results, Murphy cautioned against colleges applying these exact materials at their campuses. Instead, colleges should investigate and study students’ specific barriers to belonging, she said. After understanding the student context and local opportunities and resources, then administrators and researchers can begin to offer students solutions and inventions. In an email Murphy encouraged using the customization method described in the paper.

Kyle Lane-McKinley, a program manager at the Belonging Project in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, said that colleges should first assess what they can do to improve student belonging and not put the burden solely on students to achieve this feeling.

Though there’s evidence that community centers or ethnic research centers can foster belonging, some colleges may not have the funding or capacity to take on those projects, he said.

At the Belonging Project, scholars use a framework, called the social-ecological model that starts small and then zooms out to help improve belonging, Lane-McKinley said. In an email, Lane-McKinley wrote that the Belonging Project works to “identify changes that individuals can make, or that small groups can undertake through culture change, as well as those changes which require institutional or even societal policy shifts.”

Many scholars and researchers may underestimate how important and top of mind belonging is for students, Murphy said. Students can clearly articulate their challenges and the strategies that they found helpful to navigate challenges.

Colleges should also know that they can foster belonging at different moments, Murphy said. For example, how colleges respond after an identity-threatening event, like when a racist slur or symbol is posted outside a building or in a residence hall, can cultivate or detract from the institution’s culture of belonging.

Many institutions are defensive after these events. Instead, administrators can use these moments to listen to students’ needs and build stronger relationships with the student body.

Read Up

  • The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is providing $5.5 million in grants for Hispanic-serving colleges and universities to research housing and community development. (Axios)
  • Three historically Black colleges that experienced bomb threats in 2022 will receive federal grants for safety and mental-health concerns. (ABC News)
  • If your state legislature is proposing bills that aim to gutter administrative structures that support diversity, equity, and inclusion at your institution, the model legislation may come from these think tanks. (The Chronicle)

—Fernanda

Tags
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Race
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Photo illustration showing Santa Ono seated, places small in the corner of a dark space
'Unrelentingly Sad'
Santa Ono Wanted a Presidency. He Became a Pariah.
Illustration of a rushing crowd carrying HSI letters
Seeking precedent
Funding for Hispanic-Serving Institutions Is Discriminatory and Unconstitutional, Lawsuit Argues
Photo-based illustration of scissors cutting through paper that is a photo of an idyllic liberal arts college campus on one side and money on the other
Finance
Small Colleges Are Banding Together Against a Higher Endowment Tax. This Is Why.
Pano Kanelos, founding president of the U. of Austin.
Q&A
One Year In, What Has ‘the Anti-Harvard’ University Accomplished?

From The Review

Photo- and type-based illustration depicting the acronym AAUP with the second A as the arrow of a compass and facing not north but southeast.
The Review | Essay
The Unraveling of the AAUP
By Matthew W. Finkin
Photo-based illustration of the Capitol building dome propped on a stick attached to a string, like a trap.
The Review | Opinion
Colleges Can’t Trust the Federal Government. What Now?
By Brian Rosenberg
Illustration of an unequal sign in black on a white background
The Review | Essay
What Is Replacing DEI? Racism.
By Richard Amesbury

Upcoming Events

Plain_Acuity_DurableSkills_VF.png
Why Employers Value ‘Durable’ Skills
Warwick_Leadership_Javi.png
University Transformation: a Global Leadership Perspective
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin