Campus Climate and
Culture
Race-Conscious Student Engagement Practices and the Equitable Distribution of Enriching Educational Experiences, by Shaun R. Harper, Liberal Education, Fall 2009
This article discusses the use of race-conscious engagement practices as a means for colleges and universities to engage diverse student populations in educationally powerful practices. The article highlights current racial gaps in student engagement, defines a race-conscious vision of student engagement, and describes the benefits it accrues for faculty members and institutions as well as for students of color. Importantly, a race-conscious approach to student engagement acknowledges “the environmental factors that either stifle or enable engagement among racially diverse groups of students” and places the responsibility on faculty, staff, and administrators to “explore the institution’s shortcomings” and “alter their practices to distribute the benefits of engagement more equitably."
National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID), University of Michigan
NCID represents a strategic commitment by the University of Michigan to address complex diversity issues within higher education and other major social institutions. The Center is inspired by the vision of higher education's critical role in promoting knowledge, justice, and opportunity in a diverse democracy and global economy. NCID aims to prepare people for active engagement in a diverse society and works toward building productive as well as inclusive communities at U-M and beyond. The Center promotes national exemplars of diversity scholarship, multilevel engagement, and innovation by operating as a catalyst, venture fund, incubator, clearinghouse, publisher, and think tank. Strategic NCID partnerships bridge scholarship with social change through engagement at the campus/institutional, local/state, and national/international levels. Core priorities and activities focus on the challenges and opportunities of diversity in the broadest, richest sense—including diversity of viewpoints.
The LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index is a measurement tool designed to help campuses improve policies, programs and practices to be more inclusive, welcoming, and respectful of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) and ally people. The index consists of self-assessment questions that correspond to eight “LGBT-Friendly factors”: LGBT Policy Inclusion; LGBT Support & Institutional Commitment; LGBT Student Life; LGBT Academic Life; LGBT Housing; LGBT Campus Safety; LGBT Counseling & Health; and LGBT Recruitment and Retention Efforts. Campuses interested in using the Index should follow the guidelines for creating an account available on the tool’s Web site under “For Campus Officials Only.” Once the Index is completed, the designated campus official receives a confidential report of the Index responses, recommendations for improvement, and an LGBT-Friendly rating based on a five-star scoring system.
GENIUS Index
The
Gender Equality National Index for Universities and Schools (GENIUS) is a nationwide report card tracking and evaluating colleges, universities, and local school boards whose non-discrimination policies and practices have made them diversity leaders on gender rights. Schools are also evaluated on additional criteria - including sexual orientation protections, gender-neutral restrooms and gender-blind housing - that ensure campuses are safe and welcoming for all students and staff.
Office
of Multicultural Affairs, Virginia Tech
The mission of the OMA is to provide leadership and
direction for the continuous assessment and improvement
of university-wide efforts to create and sustain a more
diverse and inclusive community of learners; to work
collaboratively with other university units to build
a capacity to recognize and value difference, encourage
and support positive interactions between and among
diverse populations, and maximize the benefits of a
multicultural perspective; and to advise the President
and university leadership on the policies, programs,
practices and resources needed to achieve excellence,
equity and effectiveness in the research, teaching and
learning, and outreach activities of the university.
Campus
Climate, University of Wisconsin-Madison
This Web Site features resources for institutions trying
to improve their campus climate. In addition to practical
strategies for improving climate, the site offers assessment
instruments and an annotated bibliography.
Office for Institutional Diversity, Central Michigan University
The Office for Institutional Diversity's six units: Minority Student Services, Multicultural Education Center, Native American Programs, Office of Gay, Lesbian, Bi- and Transgender Programs, Student Disability Services, and Women's Studies offer a variety of educational, cultural, and professional development programs that help to infuse diversity into the curriculum, to promote student learning, and to foster an appreciation of our differences and similarities.
National Consortium of Directors Resources LGBT Resources for Higher Education
The mission of the Consortium is to achieve higher education environments in which lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students, faculty, staff, administrators, and alumni have equity in every respect. They strive to support colleagues and develop curriculum to professionally enhance this work, to seek climate improvement on campuses, and to advocate for policy change, program development, and establishment of LGBT Offices and Centers.
Bridging
the Student/Academic Affairs Divide
Research reveals that to provide the best educational
environment, campus leaders should bridge the student/academic
affairs divide. This Diversity Digest article
describes several institutional efforts to bring together
these two areas of college life in an effort to better
prepare students for the challenges of societal diversity.
Chilly Climate: How Men and Women Are
Treated Differently in the Classroom
and at Work
Dr. Bernice Resnick Sandler creates
strategies for organizations and individuals
to improve equity for women in education
and the workplace. This Web site includes
strategies to deal with sexual harassment,
differential classroom treatment of
females and males, mentoring, and other
issues involving women and girls in
the workplace and classroom.
This 1999 briefing paper
summarizes research
on student self-segregation and campus
diversity showing that widespread racial/ethnic
clustering of students isn't a dominant
feature of college life today; some
degree of racial-ethnic clustering in
support programs, dorms, and study groups
is positively associated with student
learning outcomes and retention, and
these activities do not impede intergroup
contact. Research also shows that a
diverse campus environment positively
impacts all students by contributing
to their intellectual and social development.
A list of experts on campus diversity
and student intergroup relations is
also provided.
Report
on the Status of Women, Georgia Institute
of Technology
This report is an extensive institutional
self-evaluation of the status of female
students and faculty on campus. It
documents the results of a five-year
(1993-1998) examination of student
and faculty demographics, the educational
and professional experiences of female
students and faculty, and the campus
climate at Georgia Tech. The broad
objective of this investigation was
to identify the fundamental issues
that differentially affect the education
and employment of female students
and faculty at Georgia Tech. |
