Diversity's Promise in Higher Education: Making It Work (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Diversity's Promise in Higher Education: Making It Work Christine A. Stanley Daryl G. Smith, Diversity's Promise in Higher Education: Making It Work. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009. 333 pp. Hardback: $50.00. ISBN: 978-0-8018-9316-2. One of the most compelling and vexing issues that has troubled academic institutions for years and may well be with us for years to come is how to deliver on the promise of making diversity work in higher education. While there is a substantial body of research on diversity in higher education, this book draws on some of the existing research, which spans more than 40 years, to address the issue from a variety of critical perspectives. The book is divided into four parts. Part 1 focuses on "The National Imperative," Part 2 on "Reframing Diversity," Part 3 on "Building Capacity by Interrupting the Usual," and Part 4 on "What Will It Take?" [End Page 521] Daryl G. Smith, a senior scholar and much sought-after authority on diversity in higher education, begins the Preface with a simple, yet profound statement that undergirds the very essence of issues raised in the book, as well as for humankind, "I see the significance of diversity everywhere" (p. vii). In Part 1, she examines the national and global context for diversity in higher education. Too often, we engage in vigorous discussions of diversity and social justice without contexualizing these issues. A serious problem that results is a lack of attention to research on changing demographics, the health of our democracy and community, the contributions of indigenous peoples, the history and legacies of injustice directed toward marginalized groups in our society, and how institutions are, by nature, characterized as workplaces. Furthermore, the national and global contexts demand attention to the role that identity plays in human diversity. The human dimensions of diversity—age, cultural identity, gender identity or expression, nationality, physical and mental ability, political and ideological perspectives, racial and ethnic identity, religious and spiritual identity, sexual orientation, and social and economic status, for example—are complex, multiple, and intersecting. These relationships are further complicated, as Smith asserts, when we add workplace layers such as institutional identity and culture, power and privilege, micro-aggressions, tokenism, and firm beliefs and arguments on what constitutes critical mass. This is the essence of Part 1. Readers who are not convinced by the arguments made in Part I should read Parts 2, 3, and 4 for additional information. Part 2 offers an inclusive and differentiated framework for diversity in higher education. Smith begins the discussion of her framework by drawing a thought-provoking parallel between diversity and technology, where she posits that we must move the diversity discourse from one that is perceived as "narrow and static" to one that is an "institutional imperative" (p. 47). In this section, she conceptualizes her framework with a view of the institution's mission at the center with other issues connected to it—such as campus climate, inter-group relations, access and success, education and scholarship, and "institutional viability and vitality" (p. 64). She also summarizes and reviews diversity in higher education for the past 40 years, taking a look at the growth in higher education institutions by sector, student enrollment data, graduate and professional school data, the gender gap, faculty demographics, demographic changes by race and gender, administrative demographics, emerging issues with counting, disaggregation, unknown students, the achievement gap, and the age-old question that plagues and challenges traditional admissions indicators, "What counts as merit?" Part 3 begins with identifying talent in the academy, where she argues convincingly from the research for faculty diversity, enumerates troubles with the hiring process, examines the conditions for faculty hiring and retention, and discusses what counts as excellence. In addition, phenomena such as the problem with incremental (single-hire) search processes, the decentralization and siloing of faculty hiring, cluster hiring, over-scrutiny and bias in the search process, special hires, and legal issues are presented thoughtfully and discussed with careful attention to how we identify and sometimes unintentionally thwart faculty talent, hiring, and advancement in higher education. Part 3 also pays attention and adds to the growing body of...