Connecting the Dots of Diversity Data in Student Affairs

"What do you perceive to be the climate for diversity at our institution?" "What themes are apparent across the many assessments that we have conducted on diversity?" "What do we need to do as a result of our diversity data?"

Imagine being asked to write a report on these questions during your first month in a student affairs division. Such has been the case for many student affairs professionals, and these common yet perplexing questions have been especially salient at many institutions over the past few years.

Given that extensive evidence exists to support the need for structural and interactive diversity on college campuses (see article by Gurin et al., 2002), almost all institutions are working to promote diversity and inclusion. However, institutions that effectively synthesize, integrate, and apply diversity data are much less common. This article outlines the efforts of a student affairs division at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) to utilize data from national surveys, division-wide assessments, programmatic evaluations, and learning outcomes assessment. We also convey the processes used to collate such data, as well as specific interventions implemented as a result of the findings. These applications have been essential in "closing the loop" of assessment regarding diversity, and the enhancements that have stemmed from these connections are shared below.

The Diversity Climate at UNCW

To provide some context, UNCW is one of the 16 campuses in the University of North Carolina system.  It is a comprehensive level I institution with a total enrollment of 12,000. Its recent successes as a progressive, medium sized, selective university have resulted in high rankings in the U.S. News & World Report, Kiplinger's, and the Princeton Review. Located in a beautiful and historic port city and only seven miles from the Atlantic Ocean, UNCW offers students the best access to southeastern North Carolina's surroundings. 

As our university has grown in enrollment and stature, it continues to struggle with the challenge of recruiting and retaining a diverse population of students, faculty and staff.  Student demographics for 2007-2008 were as follows: 85.7% White, 4.8% African American, 3.0% Latino/a, 1.9% Asian/Pacific Islander, .8% Native American, and 3.8% of other races and ethnicities. Campus leaders have identified several reasons for UNCW's challenges in improving structural diversity, including insufficient merit scholarships compared to sister institutions and private colleges in the region, modest faculty and staff salaries, and the lack of existing diversity and representation of most minority groups among current student, faculty and staff populations. In consideration of these myriad challenges around improving campus diversity, the current chancellor included diversity as a primary goal within the university's strategic plan (formulated in 2004). In addition to addressing diversity shortcomings by enlisting the leadership and support of the administration toward achieving progress measures identified in the strategic plan, the university created a Diversity Initiative Plan. 

The Diversity Initiative Plan became a bold new attempt to bring about a cultural change associated with campus diversity. The Plan is the end result of a collaborative, cross-functional process involving over 200 persons, including students, faculty, staff, community leaders and experts from across the state. In the process of formulating the Plan, a preliminary initiative was developed to implement a campus climate survey. This survey, in conjunction with the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE), provided all six university divisions with ample information to help UNCW accomplish its goal of improving campus diversity.  The Division of Student Affairs in particular has taken a leadership role and achieved significant success in developing their own strategic approach to improving the campus climate relative to diversity-related issues. Specifically, a Diversity Committee within the division was established to identify staff training and development initiatives, staff recruitment and retention activities, and student education.

The committee's initial work resulted in a conceptual framework and long range plan to improve on various diversity metrics. Within the committee's first semester of work, two key fulltime staff positions were added in our division-a coordinator for multicultural programs and a coordinator for advising multicultural organizations. The committee also articulated a unifying vision statement and identified measurable outcomes for progress, both of which serve as benchmarks for our assessment efforts.

Connecting the Dots of Diversity

In the current culture of assessment and accountability, the expectation is to collect more and more data.  However, in order to enhance an institutional environment of inclusion, an institution's staff, faculty, and institutional researchers might be better served by making sense of data on diversity already available across the campus. Those in student affairs at UNCW found that extensive data already existed that needed mining. What distinguishes UNCW's efforts in diversity assessment can be summarized by three methods: 1) The collection of several different forms of diversity data across many different levels and student sub-groups; 2) The work undertaken to synthesize these disparate data into coherent themes and areas for improvement; 3) The application of these data into targeted program enhancements.  In essence, the three-part focus has been on data, synthesis, and application.

Data

The assessments conducted at UNCW have ranged from the institutional to the departmental levels. In the paragraphs below, brief summaries of salient findings from the following sources are presented: the Campus Diversity Climate Survey, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), the Division of Student Affairs Strategic Assessment of Pluralistic Maturity, and the Educational Benchmarking Inc. (EBI) Survey of UNCW's Union.

As mentioned previously, extensive collaboration occurred to create the campus diversity climate survey.  One question on this survey simply asked, "How can we improve the campus diversity climate?" Among the minority respondents, three of the top answers were:

• Bring more distinguished racial/ethnic minority educators to campus as visiting scholars (81.9% of respondents)
• Have more art exhibits or music festivals featuring different racial/ethnic groups (74.3%)
• Provide more awareness/sensitivity workshops for needs of racial/ethnic minorities (74.0%)

At the institutional level, UNCW also participated in NSSE, a survey that has at least six items directly related to diversity, including the following question: "In your experience at your institution during the current school year, about how often have you had serious conversations with students of a different race or ethnicity than your own?" The percent of each sub-group at UNCW who indicated that they often or very often had such conversations was as follows:

• 76.5% of Hispanic students
• 64% of Black students
• 59.2% of Asian/Pacific Islander students
• 46% of Caucasian/White students
• 42.9% of American Indian/Alaska Native students

At the divisional level, we conducted a strategic assessment on the learning outcome of pluralistic maturity (one of our division's six learning outcomes).  All directors self-reported on how well they were addressing and empirically documenting each of the eight sub-outcomes of pluralistic maturity.   Based on the findings, it was apparent that the student learning outcomes needing the most attention across the division were these three areas:

• To understand that actions and values are shaped by understandings and interpretations of the past, of culture, and of one's position in society.
• To participate in opportunities to learn about different cultures.
• To understand your personal responsibility toward achieving a diverse society.

At the departmental level, in a campus life/union benchmarking study conducted through EBI, several areas regarding the needs of Asian American and Native American respondents caused concern (even though the sample sizes for these sub-groups were very small):

• 63% of Asian American and 43% of Native American respondents were not satisfied with the extent to which the Union publicizes its activities
• Over half of both Asian American and Native American respondents were not satisfied with the extent to which the Union publicizes opportunities to join student organizations
• 100% of Asian American and 71% of Native American respondents were not satisfied regarding the involvement of students in decisions about Union activities

Synthesis

As indicated in the introduction, the request for a coherent "Student Life Assessment Diversity Report" necessitated the synthesis of the data outlined above. Obviously, the information we have highlighted was only a small portion of the large data sets available from each of these assessments. Other assessments on diversity were also available, such as a division-wide student survey on the learning outcome of personal responsibility that covered areas of multicultural competence. The ability to triangulate our findings provided greater confidence that our conclusions would be accurate. In our efforts to "connect the dots" across all findings from several different levels and student populations, two major themes emerged. 

First of all, the assessment findings indicated disparities among racial/ethnic sub-groups regarding their perceptions of UNCW and their collegiate experiences. In particular, the data on Asians/Pacific Islanders and Native Americans revealed that some of these students were unconnected and marginalized. These results were not entirely surprising, given that these groups represent a small proportion of the total UNCW population, and also because they lack a unique home on campus, especially in comparison to the Upperman Center (for Black students) and the Centro Hispano (for Hispanic students). 

The second theme can be summarized as the need to create additional and more effective forums for dialogue and education on diversity. According to the data, students wanted to bring more distinguished racial/ethnic minority educators to campus, to attend awareness and sensitivity workshops, and to learn about different cultures. They also wanted to have more art exhibits or music festivals featuring different racial/ethnic groups. The findings indicated that students needed to gain a better understanding of societal issues and their personal responsibility toward achieving a diverse society.

Application

The synthesis of data from the reports listed above has been used to improve a number of programmatic offerings at UNCW.  We have been working to reactivate both Asian and Native American culture student organizations in order to foster a more inclusive cultural community. Given the importance of student involvement (see Kuh et al., 1991), we are striving to enhance various forms of participation from students in these sub-groups. For example, a Native American reception took place to gauge interest in a Native American Student Organization, and this was followed by an Asian/Pacific Islander breakfast reception. We have also made more efforts to include multicultural students in decision-making that may affect their comfort level at UNCW. We now more actively seek to include those cultures that may not have as large a presence on campus in order to create a more inclusive and welcoming environment for all students.

We recognize that the development of a student organization is not the only means of signifying a healthy community; therefore, we continue to offer opportunities for informal gatherings without the need for student organization structure.  In addition, art work has been installed in a Campus Life complex meeting room depicting art forms representing both Asian and Native American cultures, and movie and concert selections have been influenced by the knowledge we now possess of those students who feel less connected to our campus community.

There have also been several action steps to promote conversations across differences. The student affairs diversity committee, as well as the new staff positions for multicultural organizations and multicultural programming, have been central in facilitating these efforts.

A sub-committee within the Student Affairs Diversity Committee has focused solely on student education in order to integrate assessment findings with our educational programming efforts.

Many forms of diversity workshops have been held throughout the year, one notable example being the training provided by Dr. Maura Cullen to both staff and students regarding how to communicate across differences. Other UNCW examples of programs/events designed to facilitate dialogue on diversity have included the Tunnel of Awareness, a Wall of Hate/Wall of Hope program, a Multicultural Student Leader Luncheon, and a presentation and discussion entitled "What's Race Got to do with It?"  In order to enhance participation, a "Multicultural" category has been added to the campus activities event calendar. The division has collected quantitative and qualitative data on several of these events, allowing us to document our students' development in the learning outcome of pluralistic maturity. In total, the 2007-2008 statistics for diversity programs sponsored by student affairs includes 26 facilitated programming hours for staff, over 270 professional participants, and over 850 student participants. Such efforts would be much less effective without the appropriate analysis and application of empirical data. 

Summary

One major key in diversity assessment is connecting findings from many different surveys into an overall picture, a picture that captures what is currently happening and what needs to happen. Too often, university administrators decide to collect more data on diversity issues without a sufficient review of what is already available. Having a good understanding of what diversity data are available creates a foundation for effective dialogue, as well as opportunities for collaboration with academic affairs.  At UNCW, the diversity data helped us in developing both active and passive programming on campus targeted specifically for Native Americans and Asian/Pacific Islanders, as well as several events and programs that fostered learning about diversity. 

It is our hope that this article provides some helpful examples of how to mine certain types of assessments in order to enhance diversity initiatives. By connecting the dots through the synthesis and application of disparate diversity data, the desires and efforts to create a campus climate of inclusion can be realized.

References

Gurin, P., Dey, E.L., Hurtado, S., & Gurin, G. (2002). Diversity and higher education: Theory and impact on student outcomes. Harvard Educational Review, 72(3), 330-366.