Behind The Diversity Numbers

Behind the Diversity Numbers uncovers how frequently used approaches to examine and understand race-related issues on college campuses can reinforce racism and inequality, rather than combat them. The book argues that educational leaders must look beyond quantitative metrics in order to develop institutional policies and practices that promote racial equality. Utilizing nearly thirty years of data and research, W. Carson Byrd shows that limiting conversations about racial inequality to numeric representation and outcomes fails to take into account that inequality is also an experience. Quantitative-heavy approaches can turn students into numbers, devaluing their lived experiences of marginalization on campus. Byrd repositions these experiences to better understand how to design effective analytic and policy strategies to promote racial equity and justice in higher education. Behind the Diversity Numbers focuses on how racial stratification and inequality can hide in plain sight behind analyses of diversity, equity, and inclusion. It provides readers with a range of suggestions for institutional change, including how to incorporate racial equity as a central component of higher education, especially when it comes to analyzing and monitoring data that can inform decision-making and policy making. The conclusion offers recommendations for systemic institutional change and for incorporating racial justice and equity as central components of higher education. Behind the Diversity Numbers will enhance how institutions, higher education agencies, and policy makers think about what should be done to reduce racial inequality and to create diverse and equitable campuses.

Behind the Diversity Numbers uncovers how frequently used approaches to examine and understand race-related issues on college campuses can reinforce racism and inequality, rather than combat them. The book argues that educational leaders must look beyond quantitative metrics in order to develop institutional policies and practices that promote racial equality. Utilizing nearly thirty years of data and research, W. Carson Byrd shows that limiting conversations about racial inequality to numeric representation and outcomes fails to take into account that inequality is also an experience. Quantitative-heavy approaches can turn students into numbers, devaluing their lived experiences of marginalization on campus. Byrd repositions these experiences to better understand how to design effective analytic and policy strategies to promote racial equity and justice in higher education. Behind the Diversity Numbers focuses on how racial stratification and inequality can hide in plain sight behind analyses of diversity, equity, and inclusion. It provides readers with a range of suggestions for institutional change, including how to incorporate racial equity as a central component of higher education, especially when it comes to analyzing and monitoring data that can inform decision-making and policy making. The conclusion offers recommendations for systemic institutional change and for incorporating racial justice and equity as central components of higher education. Behind the Diversity Numbers will enhance how institutions, higher education agencies, and policy makers think about what should be done to reduce racial inequality and to create diverse and equitable campuses.

In this edited volume, diversity practitioners in the field of higher education speak about the transformative journeys that led them to become Chief Diversity Officers (CDOs). Not always an easy path, chapter authors lay bare the challenges and successes of doing this important work in a society that is becoming increasingly hostile to their efforts. The narratives in this intriguing volume unpack the various pathways for DEI practitioners to practice their craft, step into the CDO role, and maintain a sense of self and wholeness while doing so. Full of wisdom and practical insights, this volume helps CDOs understand how to focus on educational priorities that champion access and affordability, equity and social mobility, belonging, and the promise of education, while building bridges across differences. Chapters conclude with key insights to reiterate major lessons from each author’s journey, along with guiding questions for reflection. Chief Diversity Officers in Higher Education Today is written for practitioners at all levels of higher education, but especially aspiring diversity, equity, and inclusion leaders. It’s also an important resource for current CDOs in their efforts to support institutions seeking to fulfill their educational mission and strengthen the enrichment of undergraduate, graduate, and professional level scholars.

The world of elite campuses is one of rarified social circles, as well as prestigious educational opportunities. W. Carson Byrd studied twenty-eight of the most selective colleges and universities in the United States to see whether elite students’ social interactions with each other might influence their racial beliefs in a positive way, since many of these graduates will eventually hold leadership positions in society. He found that students at these universities believed in the success of the ‘best and the brightest,’ leading them to situate differences in race and status around issues of merit and individual effort. Poison in the Ivy challenges popular beliefs about the importance of cross-racial interactions as an antidote to racism in the increasingly diverse United States. He shows that it is the context and framing of such interactions on college campuses that plays an important role in shaping students’ beliefs about race and inequality in everyday life for the future political and professional leaders of the nation. Poison in the Ivy is an eye-opening look at race on elite college campuses, and offers lessons for anyone involved in modern American higher education.

Over the past twenty years, elite colleges and universities enacted policies that reshaped the racial and class composition of their campuses, and over the past decade, Latinos’ college attendance notably increased. While discussions on educational mobility often focus on its perceived benefits – that it will ultimately lead to social and economic mobility – less attention is paid to the process of “making it” and the challenges low-income youth experience when navigating these elite spaces. In Meanings of Mobility, sociologist Leah C. Schmalzbauer explores the experiences of low-income Latino youth attending highly selective, elite colleges. To better understand these experiences, Schmalzbauer draws on interviews with 60 low-income Latino youth who graduated or were set to graduate from Amherst College, one of the most selective private colleges in the United States. The vast majority of these students were the first in their immigrant families to go to college in the U.S. She finds that while most of the students believed attending Amherst provided them with previously unimaginable opportunities, adjusting to life on campus came with significant challenges. Many of the students Schmalzbauer spoke with had difficulties adapting to the cultural norms at Amherst as well as with relating to their non-Latino, non-low-income peers. The challenges these students faced were not limited to life on campus. As they attempted to adapt to Amherst, many felt distanced from the family and friends they left behind who could not understand the new challenges they faced. The students credit their elite education for access to extraordinary educational and employment opportunities. However, their experiences while in college and afterward reveal that the relationship between educational and social mobility is much more complicated and less secure than popular conversations about the “American Dream” suggest. Many students found that their educational attainment was not enough to erase the core challenges of growing up in a marginalized immigrant family: many were still poor, faced racism, and those who were undocumented or had undocumented family members still feared deportation. Schmalzbeauer suggests ways elite colleges can better support low-income Latino students and lower the emotional price of educational mobility, including the creation of immigration offices on campus to provide programming and support for undocumented students and their families. She recommends educating staff to better understand the centrality of family for these students and the challenges they face, as well as educating more privileged students about inequality and the life experiences of their marginalized peers. Meanings of Mobility provides compelling insights into the difficulties faced by low-income Latinos pursuing educational and social mobility in America’s elite institutions.

Diversity has been a focus of higher education policy, law, and scholarship for decades, continually expanding to include not only race, ethnicity and gender, but also socioeconomic status, sexual and political orientation, and more. However, existing collections still tend to focus on a narrow definition of diversity in education, or in relation to singular topics like access to higher education, financial aid, and affirmative action. By contrast, Diversity in American Higher Education captures in one volume the wide range of critical issues that comprise the current discourse on diversity on the college campus in its broadest sense. This edited collection explores: legal perspectives on diversity and affirmative action higher education's relationship to the deeper roots of K-12 equity and access policy, politics, and practice's effects on students, faculty, and staff. Bringing together the leading experts on diversity in higher education scholarship, Diversity in American Higher Education redefines the agenda for diversity as we know it today.

Acknowledgments -- Introduction: the power of algorithms -- A society, searching -- Searching for Black girls -- Searching for people and communities -- Searching for protections from search engines -- The future of knowledge in the public -- The future of information culture -- Conclusion: algorithms of oppression -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the author

This book explores the correlations of diversity and power in UK boardrooms and the difficulties inherent in truly merit-based appointments. From a distance, boardroom diversity is seen as a UK success story of recent years. A closer look at boardrooms reveals a more uncomfortable truth: boards can be split into tracks of power and diversity. Where there is a concentration in power, genuine diversity is much less prevalent. Using the FTSE 100, the book examines the appointment and retention of the most powerful positions in some of the world's most powerful corporations. Diversity, merit and power are each defined and measured individually, then considered cumulatively, to provide fresh insights into the meaning of corporate power, who wields it and how it is obtained. This analysis is considered alongside the diversity narratives created by the FTSE 100 to frame their position on diversity. From this, the value of corporate 'diversity speak' is challenged, together with the regulatory requirements that result in its production. Those studying or practising corporate law or management and anyone with an interest in corporate power will find this in-depth assessment thought-provoking and informative. From the book's original vantage point, suggestions are made as to how and why we might seek a more balanced distribution of power in the boardroom.