A Taxonomy: Campus Physical Artifacts as Communicators of Campus Multiculturalism

Abstract

The authors present a conceptual framework or taxonomy to assist campus personnel who are concerned about how physical artifacts on campus communicate institutional values associated with multiculturalism. The four dimenions of the taxonomy - typeof physical artifact responsible for the message, multicultural parameters relevant to specific groups on campus, content of the message, and evaluative impact of the message - are described and their usefulness in evaluating campus environments in terms of messages that promote, neutralize, or discourage the spirit of multiculturalism is discussed.