Teaching & Learning Resources: Diversity

Diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion are values espoused by most colleges and universities; yet many educators, including those in student affairs, expect students to "magically" interact with peers from different cultural backgrounds on their own. With recent calls for accountability in higher education, it is more important than ever for educators to reconsider ways in which they prepare students for participation in a diverse democracy. Creating Inclusive Campus Environments for Cross-Cultural Learning and Student Engagement shows how to capitalize in educationally meaningful ways on the diversity that exists on campuses across the nation.

As the diversity of the students on campus increases, the importance for everyone in authority to understand students’ distinct cultures and how they perceive our institutions, and equally, to understand our own privilege, and often unconscious cultural assumptions, has never been greater. This book presents a comprehensive set of resources to guide students of education, faculty, higher education administrators, and student affairs leaders in creating an inclusive environment for under-represented groups on campus.

"In these 30 case studies, contributors consider a wide range of topics, including academic affairs administration, faculty tenure and promotion, student affairs administration, student athletes in revenue-producing sports, enrollment management, and business. They cover the traditionally Black college, controversial campus artifacts, American Indian mascots, Black Greek letter campus associations, cultural centers that become multicultural centers, doing the right thing when caught in the crossfire, [etc.]."

This book focuses on guiding individuals and groups through learning how to have difficult conversations that lead us to act to create more just campuses, and provides illustrations of multiple ways to respond to difficult situations. It advocates for engaging in fruitful dialogues regarding differing social identities including race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and sexual orientation, to lead readers through a process that advocates for justice, and for taking personal responsibility for contributing to the solution.

"Walk into any racially mixed high school and you will see black youth seated together in the cafeteria. Of course, it's not just the black kids sitting together-the white, Latino, Asian Pacific, and, in some regions, American Indian youth are clustered in their own groups, too. The same phenomenon can be observed in college dining halls, faculty lounges, and corporate cafeterias. What is going on here? Is this self-segregation a problem we should try to fix, or a coping strategy we should support? How can we get past our reluctance to talk about racial issues to even discuss it? And what about all the other questions we and our children have about race? Beverly Daniel Tatum, a renowned authority on the psychology of racism, asserts that we do not know how to talk about our racial differences: Whites are afraid of using the wrong words and being perceived as "racist" while parents of color are afraid of exposing their children to painful racial realities too soon. Using real-life examples and the latest research, Tatum presents strong evidence that straight talk about our racial identities-whatever they may be-is essential if we are serious about facilitating communication across racial and ethnic divides. We have waited far too long to begin our conversations about race. This remarkable book, infused with great wisdom and humanity, has already helped hundreds of thousands of readers figure out where to start." NOTE: While this book focuses on the high school level, there are applications to higher education & it was a faculty days book several years ago.