TRANSFORMING INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION

Institutions are transformed by increased diversity through positive changes in campus climate. Some researchers have argued that these changes are evident in the increase in the acceptance and value of diversity that they bring. Further, Hurtado and colleagues (1998) suggest that a recognition of historical legacies of inclusion and exclusion and a desire to make the campus more inclusive of all people and groups are ways institutions can increase diversity. This mirrors the argument that as students are exposed to different groups and individuals they become more committed to the concept of diversity. Devon Williams argues that university teachers can improve intergroup relations by employing “jigsaw” groupings in their classrooms (forming groups and then switching members to new groups) in order to force students to cooperate and interact with their peers. Finally, diversity courses often challenge students to think in more complex ways about identity and history and to avoid cultural stereotyping. Diversity in the curriculum has a positive impact on attitudes toward racial issues, on opportunities to interact in deeper ways with those who are different, and on overall satisfaction with the university. These benefits are particularly powerful for white students who have had less opportunity for such engagement (see Humphreys 1998).

Institutional transformation can be evident in more tangible ways as well. For instance, changes in institutional mission are indications of institutional transformation. Roxane Harvey Gudeman, a psychology professor at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota, has found that such adjustments in mission statements reflected the institutional value of diversity. Mission statements are often criticized as having purely symbolic value, but once adjusted to reflect changing attitudes toward diversity, they do contribute to improving the climate for people of color at all levels of the institutions. It can be argued that this kind of transformation accompanies an institution’s examination of its historical legacies of exclusion and inclusion. However, mission statements alone do not reflect historical context or change psychological climate. They are, as with all other steps towards increasing diversity, only factors in a larger approach to a continuing problem.

Institutional transformation can also be assessed in terms of policies that either do or do not advance greater equity. Research that has examined university policies as they relate to diversity and equity generally shows that institutions still have much to do. The shift to distance education and a greater reliance on Internet technology may open doors to students in rural areas, but, as Rachel Moran argues in “Diversity, Distance, and the Delivery of Higher Education” (1998), it actually further stratifies higher education because those without access to the technology are largely people of color and those from low-income backgrounds. When colleges and universities fail to implement ethnic fraud policies, they are “allowing a charade to continue” and thus fail to advance more equitable hiring, admissions, and financial aid practices (Pewewardy 2004). Angelina Castagno and Stacey Lee point out in a 2007 article that universities that continue to embrace Native American mascots contribute to the perpetuation of racism and stereotypes against Indigenous peoples, whereas Delgado Bernal noted in 2002 that admissions criteria largely exclude students of color because of the Eurocentric epistemologies that shape and guide them. In general, the thrust of this work is that universities have a significant responsibility to work toward greater equity in their policies and practices, and that many institutions are currently failing in this regard.

Focusing on institutional transformation in relation to discrimination and the benefits of diversity contributes to the effort to move the emphasis away from the idea that students of color come to college with deficits. A spotlight on the institution, rather than the individual, allows for a recognition of the role institutional strategies and policies play in the culture of exclusion on many higher education campuses.