Diversity and the Student Experience

December 3 2013

Luce De Buitleir Andrews

Director Residential and Campus Communities

Residential & Campus Communities

Diversity

Residential & Campus Communities

1. State or quality of being different or varied

2. A point of difference

3. The relation that holds between two

entities only when they are not identical

Residential & Campus Communities

Who are you ?

Really……

• Age

• Cohort – Boomer,X,Y

• Gender

• Gender expression

• Sex

• Sexuality

• Religion

• Level of religious

conviction

• Race

• Ethnicity

• Nationality

• Education

• Discipline

• Workplace

• Political

• Social

• Family of origin

• Parent

• And..and..and..

Gospel According to Nin

“And the day came when

the risk to remain tight in a

bud was more painful than

the risk it took to blossom”

Anais Nin

Residential & Campus Communities

Residential & Campus Communities

Diversity – Unity - University

Top Down Drivers:

•Revenue influencing recruitment

•New source populations – untapped/less known?

•Shift in institutional profile

•Desire to grow/utilise expertise

Bottom Up Drivers:

•Addressing current and emerging needs

•‘Retro fitting’ cultural changes

•Student engagement and enrichment

•Increased broader academic outlook

•World citizenship

Residential & Campus Communities

Diversity – Unity - University “…the tendency for familiarity to breed liking”

Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006

Appreciating Diversity: Benefits

•Increases self confidence

•Improves critical thinking skills

•Improves future employment prospects

•Reduces fear, uncertainty and prejudice

•Transferable learning – self driven challenging

•Promotes awareness of different life states

•Works away from individualistic self interest (for me)

•Works through mutuality (for you and me)

•Works towards interdependent self interest (for us)

Fundamental Attribution Error Jones & Harris 1967

….is the tendency to overestimate the effect of trait or personality and

underestimate the effect of the situation or state in explaining behaviour.

Residential & Campus Communities

Social Categorisation Theory Turner 1985

…how a person perceives a group and the consequences of that perception,

considering that the self is an outcome of cognitive processes rather than the

hub driving the process.

…Out Group homogeneity

Institutions and Created Beliefs

Residential & Campus Communities

• ‘Values and Awareness’ models (Tibbitts 2002)

vs marketing a change

• Define local drivers: culture; gender; economics;

rural/urban etc

• Fearlessly and honestly examine influences and

enculturators

• Utilise the energy and wisdom within the cohort

• Quality assurance approach

• Develop knowledge and skills towards diversity

competence

Residential & Campus Communities

Elements of Pro-diversity Programming

•Positive framework within the Staff Code of Conduct

•Positive framework within the Student Code of Conduct

•Policies that underpin the prevention of discrimination

•Creation of a binding non-discriminatory language policy

and supporting guidelines

•Online training for staff and students – preferable not

a passive clickfest

•Online anonymous reporting facility

•Increase numbers of genderless toilets

•Increase opportunities for minorities to lead representations

•Residential rules/policies to be congruent and clear

•Coursework materials to be purposefully inclusive

Residential & Campus Communities

Challenges

• Making the invisible, now visible – modelling and praxis

• Increased sense of safety within a campus

• Personal disclosure – may be ongoing

• Possible alienation – pushed to an ‘out group’

• Challenging the majority culture power balance

• Challenging your own personal benefits / investments

• Incorporating a wide range of minorities/lives within

lectures, case studies and life examples

• Positive case studies that do not ‘fragilise’ or enhance a

link between minority=problem

• Non Academic staff are critical in cultural change

Residential & Campus Communities

Focus : • Heteronormativity / Heterocentrism

• Religious intolerance - tyranny of the ‘prayer

room’

• Homophobia

• Tokenism

• Misogyny

• Transphobia

• Racism

• Preponderance of stereotyping

• Academonormativity – Smart People’s Disease Residential & Campus Communities

Residential & Campus Communities

Homophobia: the fear, discomfort, or hatred of non-heterosexual

people that is manifested on the individual level / societal reference

Person – People - Community

Residential & Campus Communities

• Begin

• Collaborate with the students to identify primary

issues and solutions

• Ground efforts in functional models that can

support the vision and provide boundaries

• Encourage individual responsibility and

individual gains within community processes

• Utilise technology to enhance perceptions of

community and connections

• Begin

Gospel According to Nin

“We don’t see things as

they are, we see them as

we are.” Anais Nin

Residential & Campus Communities