This framework, developed by Dr. Sylvia Hurtado, Alma Clayton-Pedersen, Walter Allen, and Jeffrey Milem, measures campus racial climate for higher education institutions based on four dimensions. In this framework, a student’s race/ethnicity is defined as a student’s race, color, national origin, ethnicity, or ancestry, actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics, including membership in a religion that may be perceived to exhibit such characteristics (as defined by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights). We use this definition to acknowledge that race and ethnicity are complex, and students themselves have intersecting identities including that of race and ethnicity. Students also experience their college campus based on the way their peers, professors, and others perceive the student’s identity, including race/ethnicity. For example, there may be a male student who self identifies as Afro-Latino, is a practicing Muslim, and is also a student parent. Professors and peers who are not familiar with this student may only perceive this student as being a Black male and are unaware of his religion or that he has a child.
The researchers identify four dimensions of campus racial climate. We’ve created a chart to illustrate how the dimensions work together. These include an institution’s:
- Historical Legacy of Inclusion/Exclusion: How has a college or university historically included or excluded students of color in admission and campus policies?
- Structural Diversity: How many students of color are enrolled on campus and how many faculty of color are there at the college or university?
- Psychological Climate: What are the experiences of students of color on campus and how do they affect their mental health? Do students of color on campus perceive themselves as likely to experience discrimination or racial conflict by their peers or faculty? And how do they perceive conflict or discrimination will be addressed by their college?
- Social Behavior: How do students on campus interact with each other and faculty, especially among peers and faculty from different racial/ethnic backgrounds?
The framework also acknowledges that the campus racial climate of higher education institutions are influenced by a) governmental policy, programs, and initiatives, such as state and federal policy on affirmative action; and b) sociohistorical contexts, events, or issues in the larger society that influence how people view racial diversity in society.
DIMENSION 1: Historical Legacy of Inclusion/Exclusion
Unfortunately, most higher education institutions have a history of limited access and exclusion toward students of color. A college’s historical legacy of exclusion can determine the prevailing campus racial climate and influence current practices on campus toward students of color. Higher education institutions should acknowledge their past history of exclusion and the detrimental impact that this history has had on the campus and students of color. By doing so, colleges can garner broader student and faculty support for their efforts to improve the campus climate for diversity. Moreover, acknowledging a past history of exclusion implies an institutional willingness to actively shed its exclusionary past. Such efforts may be even more effective if they are coupled with a clearly articulated vision for a more inclusive future.
What higher education institutions can do
Higher education leaders must consider whether “embedded benefits” may still exist on their campus for some students over others, namely White students over students of color. Colleges with a history of exclusion toward students of color are likely to have evolved in ways that disproportionately benefit some groups. For example, at many colleges, White fraternities and sororities have been a part of campus life much longer than people of color have been attending universities. Similarly, legacy admissions at various higher education institutions has and continues to disproportionately benefit White students, who are more likely to be the children of alumni of selective colleges. Higher education institutions must examine how their current policies and practices may disproportionately harm college access and success for students of color, acknowledge the impact of these practices on students, and remedy them.
DIMENSION 2: Structural Diversity
Structural diversity refers to the structure of student enrollments and faculty on campus, and specifically, racial/ethnic representation within student enrollments and faculty. Research supports the concept that increasing the college’s structural diversity is an important step toward improving the campus racial climate. Here are three scenarios:
Environments with highly skewed distributions of students shape the dynamics of social interaction:
- In environments that lack diverse populations, underrepresented groups are viewed as tokens.
- A college’s stance on increasing the representation of diverse racial/ethnic groups communicates whether maintaining a multicultural environment is a high institutional priority.
However, the racial/ethnic restructuring of student enrollments can also trigger conflict and resistance among groups. When there is an increase in the numbers of students of color on campus, a college must also encourage maximizing cross-racial interaction and encouraging ongoing discussions about race. Research has shown that at colleges and universities where there has been an increase in the numbers of students of color on campus without implementing cross-racial interaction and ongoing discussions about race, students of color reported less overall satisfaction with their college experience.
What higher education institutions can do
- One way to improve the college campus racial climate is to increase the representation of people of color (students and faculty) on campus. College admissions practices and financial aid policies are two areas in which changes can be made that will increase the representation of students of color on campus. Colleges can also adopt specific targets for increasing faculty of color on their campus and create faculty diversity initiatives.
- Any institutional, state, or federal financial aid policies to increase the representation of people of color on campus should involve substantial increases in student need-based funding, rather than an increased emphasis on loans. Moreover, additional investment in financial aid programs makes good fiscal sense. Funding federal and state financial aid programs provides a substantial return on investment of public funds.
- As colleges and universities work to increase the representation of people of color on campus, they must also take charge of facilitating cross-racial interactions among students and faculty. One way to do this is by making peer groups a deliberate and positive part of the educational process and providing formal mentoring programs where students are matched with faculty who will support them and their work as emerging scholars.
DIMENSION 3: Psychological Climate
The psychological dimension of the campus racial climate involves individuals’ views of group relations, institutional responses to diversity, perceptions of discrimination or racial conflict, and attitudes toward racial/ethnic backgrounds different than one’s own. It’s important to note that more recent studies show that racially and ethnically diverse administrators, students, and faculty tend to view the campus climate differently than their White peers.
Introducing ways for students to report and seek redress for negative experiences is important, but campuses must also be aware that many psychological aspects of the college climate go unreported. A study of California State institutions revealed that Asian Pacific Americans often do not use formal grievance procedures when they experience discrimination or harassment.
What higher education institutions can do
- Colleges and universities must address negative perceptions peers and faculty have toward students of color through ongoing measurement of student perceptions via campus racial climate assessments, implementation of educational programs to combat negative racial/ethnic bias, and implementation of clear and anonymous reporting systems for students of color to report incidents of racial discrimination.
- Colleges should design and implement systematic and comprehensive educational programs to help all members of the campus community (students, faculty, and staff) identify and confront the stereotypes and myths that people have about those who are different from them.
- Colleges should also create clearly stated policies and procedures to help the campus community confront and resolve incidents of racial/ethnic harassment and discrimination. These policies and procedures should include formal processes for resolving conflicts or disputes that involve representatives from all members of the campus community (students, faculty, staff).
- Colleges must also implement regular and ongoing assessments of the campus climate that include students, faculty, and staff.
DIMENSION 4: Faculty/Student Social Behavior
The behavioral dimension of the campus racial climate consists of (a) actual reports of general social interaction between and among students and faculty of different racial/ethnic backgrounds and (b) the nature of intergroup relations on campus.
The absence of interracial contact clearly influences students’ views toward others, support for campus initiatives, and educational outcomes. Research has shown that White students who have had little social interaction with individuals of different racial backgrounds on campus are less likely to hold positive attitudes toward multiculturalism on campus. Conversely, White students who have socialized with someone of another race, have discussed racial and ethnic issues with other students, or have attended racial/cultural awareness workshops are more likely to value the goal of promoting racial understanding.
What higher education institutions can do
- Colleges and universities should clearly convey to all members of the community the expectation that interracial dialogue and interaction are highly valued on campus. They should work to provide students with opportunities for cross-racial interaction whenever possible — both in and out of the classroom.
- Contact and communication should also be regular, ongoing, and viewed as equal in status by all participants.
- Contact should occur in an environment characterized by cooperation and not competition. Given the important role of faculty-student relationships, colleges should also provide abundant opportunities for faculty-student contact in and out of the classroom. Cross-race interactions can be also enhanced by the programs and activities of multicultural centers.
