The Benefits of Inclusive Environments Greater Expectations Institute Association of American Colleg

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The Benefits of Inclusive EnvironmentsGreater
Expectations InstituteAssociation of American
Colleges and UniversitiesSnowbird, UtahJune 24,
2004

• Jeffrey F. Milem Jesús Treviño
• University of Maryland University of Denver

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• Effective participation by members of all racial
  and ethnic groups in the civic life of our Nation
  is essential if the dream of one Nation,
  indivisible, is to be realized
• -- Justice OConnor in Grutter v. Bollinger

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Myths about Racial Diversity in Higher Education

• Past inequalities in access and opportunities
  that racial and ethnic minority groups have
  suffered have been sufficiently addressed and no
  longer require attention
• Merit can be defined exclusively by test scores
• Fairness is best achieved through race-neutral
  policy
  
• Diversity programs benefit only students of color

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Types of Diversity

• Structural Diversity
• the numerical and proportional representation of
  students from different racial/ethnic groups in
  the student body (Hurtado, Milem,
  Clayton-Pedersen, Allen, 1998, 1999)
• Diversity of Interactions
• Interactions with diverse information and ideas
  and interactions with diverse people
  
• Institutional Diversity-Related Initiatives
• include core diversity courses, ethnic/area
  studies courses, intergroup dialogue programs,
  cultural awareness workshops, etc. that occur on
  college and university campuses

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Theory Linking Diversity and Learning

• Encountering the new and unfamiliar causes us to
  abandon routines and actively think
  
• Disequilibrium occurs when one encounters
  perspectives that depart from ones own embedded
  worldview and past experiences
  
• Learning and social development occurs when
  interacting with others who hold different
  perspectives
  
• Campus diversity creates conditions--unfamiliarity
  , disequilibrium, differing perspectives, and
  contradictory expectations--that promote learning
  and deeper complex thinking

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Conditions that Make Diversity Work

• Presence of diverse peers
• Discontinuity from previous experiences
• Equality among peers
• Discussion under rules of civil discourse
• Opportunities for the normalization and
  negotiation of conflict
  

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Types of Benefits

• Individual Benefits
• ways in which the educational experiences and
  outcomes of individual students are enhanced by
  the presence of diversity on campus
  
• Institutional Benefits
• ways in which diversity enhances the ability of
  colleges and universities to achieve their
  missionsparticularly related to the missions of
  teaching, research, and service

• Economic and Private Sector Benefits
• ways in which diversity enhances the economy and
  the functioning of organizations and businesses
  in the private sector
  
• Societal Benefits
• ways in which diversity in colleges and
  universities impact quality of life issues in the
  larger society

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Types of Individual Outcomes

• Gurin (1999) identified two major types of
  individual outcomes
  
• Learning outcomes
• Democracy outcomes
• citizenship engagement
• racial/cultural engagement
• compatibility of differences
• Synthesis of research (Milem Hakuta, 2000
  Milem, in press) suggests that there are also two
  other types of outcomes
  
• Process outcomes
• Material outcomes

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Gurins Study of the Outcomes of Diversity

• Democracy Outcomes
• increases in racial understanding
• higher levels of cultural awareness and
  appreciation
  
• engagement with social and political issues
• openness to diversity and challenge
• decreases in racial stereotyping and levels of
  ethnocentrism
  
• breaks cycle of perpetuation of segregation

• Learning Outcomes
• growth in active thinking processes
• increases in measures of complex thinking and
  social/ historical thinking
  
• higher levels of intellectual engagement and
  motivation
  
• higher post-graduate degree aspirations

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Material Outcomes

• Bowen and Bok (1998)
• African American males average annual income of
  82,000 (twice that of other African American
  graduates)
  
• African American females annual income of 58,500
  (80 more than other African American graduates)
  
• Daniel, Black, and Smith (2001)
• Found that attending a more diverse quality
  college predicted increased earnings for Black
  and White men
  

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Process Outcomes

• Study of Harvard and Michigan Law Students
  (Orfield and Whitla, 2001)
  
• 90 percent of students indicated that exposure to
  racial and ethnic diversity had positive impact
  on their law school experience
  
• 65 percent indicated that diversity improved
  in-class discussions
  
• 62 percent indicated that diversity improved
  their ability to work and get along with others
  
• 80 percent reported that discussions with
  students from different races significantly
  affected their views of the criminal justice
  system

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Why Its Difficult to Institutionalize Diversity

• Institutional Isomorphism
• Emphasis on Resources and Reputation
• Organizational Inertia
• Organizational Externalities

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Transformational Natureof Diversity

• Actualizing the value-added educational benefits
  associated with diversity requires active
  engagement in institutional transformation and
  raises critically important questions that must
  be answered (Chang, 2002)
• Who deserves an opportunity to learn?
• How is the potential for learning evaluated?
• What is learned?
• Who oversees learning?
• What conditions advance learning for all
  students?
  
• Who decides what is important to learn?

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Enhancing the Campus Racial ClimateKey
Considerations/Assumptions Based on the work of
Hurtado, Milem, Clayton-Pedersen and Allen

• Students are educated in distinct racial contexts
  
  
• These contexts are shaped by external and
  internal (institutional) forces
  
• Most institutions focus on only one element of
  the climate--increasing the numbers of
  racial/ethnic students on campus
  
• There are other elements of the climate that
  require attention and constitute key areas for
  focusing diversity efforts
  

Hurtado, et. al., (1999). Enacting diverse
learning environments Improving the campus
climate for racial/ethnic diversity. ASHE/ERIC
Higher Education Reports Series, San Francisco
Jossey Bass.
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External Forces Shaping Climate

• represent the impact of governmental policy,
  programs, and initiatives
  
• financial aid policies and programs
• state and federal policy regarding affirmative
  action
  
• court decisions related to desegregation of
  higher education and/or affirmative action
  
• the manner in which states provide for
  institutional differentiation within their state
  system of higher education
  
• represent the impact of sociohistorical forces
• events or issues in the larger society that are
  connected to the ways in which people view racial
  diversity in society

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Institutional Forces Shaping Climate

• The institutional context contains multiple
  dimensions that are a function of educational
  programs and practices. These include
  
• an institutions historical legacy of inclusion
  or exclusion of various racial/ethnic groups
  
• its structural/compositional diversity in terms
  of numerical representation of various
  racial/ethnic groups
  
• the psychological climate that include
  perceptions and attitudes between and among
  groups
  
• a behavioral climate that is characterized by
  intergroup relations on campus
  
• A organizational/structural dimension that
  represents campus policies, procedures, and
  decision-making practices

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The Campus Racial Climate
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Historical Legacy of Inclusion or Exclusion

• The historical vestiges of segregated schools and
  colleges continue to affect the climate for
  racial/ethnic diversity on college campuses. This
  is demonstrated by
• resistance to desegregation in communities and
  specific campus settings
  
• maintenance of old campus policies at PWIs that
  best serve a homogeneous population
  
• attitudes and behaviors that prevent interaction
  across race and ethnicity

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Historical Legacy of Inclusion or Exclusion

• Because they are embedded in a culture of a
  historically segregated environment, many
  campuses sustain long standing benefits for
  particular student groups which often goes
  unrecognized (Duster, 1993)
• In assessing the influence of history on campus,
  it is important to reflect upon the extent to
  which embedded benefits may exist on a campus

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Structural (Compositional) Dimension

• Research indicates that increasing the structural
  diversity of an institution is an important
  initial step toward improving the climate
  
• Maximizing cross-racial interaction and
  encouraging ongoing discussions about race are
  educational practices that benefit all students
  
• However, when the effects of increased structural
  diversity are considered without involvement in
  these activities, this can adversely affect the
  college experience of students (Chang, 1999)

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Challenges of Increased Structural Diversity

• The racial/ethnic restructuring of student
  enrollments can bring about some conflict and
  resistance among groups
  
• It can also create a need for substantial
  institutional change. The pressure for change
  affects both the academic and social life of the
  institution which has led to
• development of ethnic studies programs
• diverse student organizations
• specific academic support programs
• multicultural programming (Treviño, 1992 Muñoz,
  1989 Peterson, et al., 1978)

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Psychological Dimension

• Individuals' views of group relations,
  institutional responses to diversity, perceptions
  of discrimination or racial conflict, and
  attitudes held towards others from different
  racial/ethnic backgrounds
• Racially and ethnically diverse administrators,
  students, and faculty view the campus climate
  differently
  
• Who you are and where you are positioned in an
  institution affects the way in which you
  experience and view the institution
  
• These differences are significant because
  perception is both a product of the environment
  and a potential determinant of future
  interactions and outcomes (Astin, 1968 Berger
  Milem, 1999 Milem Berger, 1997 Tierney, 1987)

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Behavioral Dimension

• The behavioral dimension of the institutional
  climate consists of
  
• actual reports of general social interaction
• interaction between and among individuals from
  different racial/ethnic backgrounds
  
• the nature of intergroup relations on campus
• Prevalent view is that
• campus race relations are poor
• social interaction is low
• there is a resurgence of segregation or racial
  balkanization on college campuses among minority
  groups (Altbach and Lomotey, 1991 Blitzer, 2000
  Bunzel, 1992)

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Organizational/Structural Dimension

• Organizational and structural aspects of colleges
  and ways in which benefits for some groups become
  embedded into organizational structures and
  processes
• Admissions practices
• Curricular content
• Budget allocations
• Reward structures
• Tenure Processes

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• What happens, to borrow the words of Adrienne
  Rich, when someone with the authority of a
  teacher describes our society, and you are not
  in it? Such an experience can be disorientinga
  moment of psychic disequilibrium, as if you
  looked into a mirror and saw nothing (Takaki,
  1993, p. 16).

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Campus Climate for Diversity Model
(Hurtado, et. al., 1999)
Structural Diversity
Multicultural Student Centers Ethnic Houses Mino
rity Student Houses GLBT Houses/Centers Womens
Centers

Campus Climate
Campus Intergroup Relations
Intergroup Relations Centers Intercultural Center
s
Source Hurtado, et. al., (1999). Enacting
diverse learning environments Improving the
campus climate for racial/ethnic diversity. ASH
E/ERIC Higher Education Reports Series 26.
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Campus Climate for Diversity Model
(Hurtado, et. al., 1999)
Structural Diversity
Multicultural Student Center
Center for Multicultural Excellence
(Hybrid Model)
Campus Climate
Campus Intergroup Relations
Intergroup Relations Center
Source Hurtado, et. al., (1999). Enacting
diverse learning environments Improving the
campus climate for racial/ethnic diversity. ASH
E/ERIC Higher Education Reports Series 26.
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• Center for Multicultural ExcellenceUniversity of
  Denver
  
• www.du.edu/cme
• Contact person Dr. Jesús Treviño
• 303-871-2591
• Intergroup Relations CenterArizona State
  University
  
• www.asu.edu/provost/intergroup
• Contact person Dr. Kris Ewing
• 480-965-1547