3 M’s for How Higher Education Can Improve Diversity Programs

Diversity is the hot topic of this age in higher education. Everyone is talking about it from the higher ups to student support offices to the students themselves. The thing is it seems that most people in the higher education industry can’t quite figure out how to pull off the balance between recruiting a diverse student body and providing an enriching environment for them to be successful to graduation and beyond. There is a gap between what people want to happen and what actually gets implemented. The students suffer. The staff is frustrated. The leadership is confused.

I finished my master’s program with a passion for social justice and advocacy as ingrained in me through the program curriculum. I found myself simultaneously committed to career services and college access programs, believing that if students from underserved backgrounds received more career education and services then it would build stronger diverse communities. I struggled with picking a discipline of focus for the job search, but decided to pursue college access. I continued a part-time college access role until I was finally able to secure a full-time role for a program in a different state. Despite, my passion for the field, I became gradually disenchanted with college access and diversity work within the two years I was there. For that and other professional development reasons, I shifted to career services, but I maintained the commitment to partner with colleagues in diversity programs. Nonetheless, working directly or indirectly for these programs led to an understanding that in all three situations, each with very different cultural environments, that something similar was at hand in preventing me and my colleagues from being as effective in our positions as we knew we could be – institutional resistance.

If you ask anybody who has worked or currently works with diverse students, it will not take rocket science for them to offer tangible solutions.  The challenges are quite blaring, and we’ll tell you right off the bat, most of us with skepticism. Primarily, we are rarely invited into this conversation. Alternatively, it appears we are not taken as seriously when we are invited. I observe initiatives are often more theoretical than practical. Suddenly, some executive department will put together a conference featuring an influential figure or public speaker on the topic. Then, everyone is hyper aware of the matter; everyone will be super motivated to make change. Months to a year later, nothing much is different on an institutional level. It’s much easier to bring some renowned speaker that is doing the thinking about what needs to happen, rather than implement what your own employees can tell you what needs to happen.

I think this lack of priority or follow through is often a result of higher education institutions rarely possess the representation among those in leadership to influence such decisions on a large scale. We have a lot of catching up to do as an industry, yet I know in my disappointment that there are those in a position to impact change with a committed desire to identify concrete solutions to improving the cultural environment for staff and students. I believe someone is out there listening.  Here are my suggestions for how higher education institutions can legitimately improve their diversity programs:

Money

Increased funding is a must on every level if we can expect longitudinal change for the high need to improve to college access programs, multicultural services, and diversity departments. Diversity offices and services are typically understaffed, the staff is underpaid, and the departmental budgets as a whole are not sufficient for the type of work that really needs to take place. This limits these offices for how truly effective they can be. It causes high burnout and high retrition rates of staff and lower retention rates of diverse students. I am a strong believer that one puts money where one holds value, and quite frankly, I have seen that higher education institutions do not value diversity programs services and programs enough to allocate the money it truly deserves. If higher education institutions struggle with allotting funds to these types of programs, then it is my suggestion that colleges and universities would either begin to advocate more aggressively for increased higher education funding in state or federal budgets or that they would hire grant writers in these respective programs. Ideally, there would be both.

More Staff in Underrepresented Areas

Ethnic and gender minorities are more often relegated to specific departments in higher education. They are very prevalent in stereotypical areas of both the academic and student services realm, for example college access offices and education departments. You do not see much of ethnic and gender minorities serving in other areas such as student conduct and technology. The lack of minorities in underrepresented areas means students in those environments are not as likely to feel they belong in those areas at best or struggle with feeling understood or have their needs met in those areas at worst. The lack of diversity often perpetuates organizational cultures with a lack of cultural awareness and competence. Not only is increased representation in underserved areas essential, but increased representation among leadership will also be important. My suggestion is that higher education institutions begin to be more proactive about recruiting faculty and staff by reevaluating hiring practices for cultural biases and developing human resource campaigns that promote internal diverse candidates to leadership roles.

Mandatory Training

Building representation across the spectrum of higher education is going to take time. Yet, even if there was a cultural minority (preferably more) in every department, the paradigm will not shift without the support of allies. The lack of cultural sensitivity and competence on an institutional level is in dire need to be addressed. This means that mandatory training of faculty, staff, and students needs to begin to implemented, just like mass trainings are required for ethics and compliance or Title IX. Both of these topics have legal regulations, but the industry cannot afford for legal mandates to keep up to speed. It is my suggestion that more higher education institutions begin to review ways to implement multicultural awareness into the academic curriculum and mandate faculty and staff to participate in ongoing diversity training to maintain employment.

I really empathize with my colleagues in diversity programs at higher education institutions. They are tasked with the “deep work” under the most meager of resources. Despite seemingly insurmountable difficulties, they are some of the most passionate and committed professionals in the industry. I wish their service and sacrifices were rewarded in more deep and meaningful ways.  I wish diversity programs were able to do a lot more than “preaching to the choir” when it comes to participation and impact, because outcomes were supported with institutional accountability.  Here’s to hoping that some will do a bit more listening, and above all be more convicted to act.