Doing diversity work in higher education: Systemic inequality, institutional change, and campus attitudes

Abstract

Diversity work remains one of the most critical, yet complicated and contentious efforts in higher education. To promote transformative institutional change, a university in California, United States developed an innovative, federally funded community-building model designed to institutionalize diversity efforts. As part of this model, a cross-sectional climate survey was administered in 2010, 2014, and 2018 to learn more about perceptions of campus diversity-oriented work. We present a qualitative, Critical Race Theory analysis of faculty and graduate student responses to the open-ended question, “What do you think we should know about diversity at [this university]?” These data offer a window into a unique period of American history when politics were, and continue to be, especially contentious and social inequality was, and is, at the forefront of American consciousness. We conclude with respondent-inspired suggestions for moving higher education toward social justice.