To Be (or Not To Be) Inclusive: The Paradox of Black students within institutions of higher education.
Many colleges and universities have adopted formal statements on diversity and inclusion that extol and affirm their commitment to creating environments for all students to thrive. Furthermore, these institutions of higher education use such statements to not only promote such values to the current student body, but to paint their campus with an inclusive brush that engages prospective students and families. For current and prospective Black students, colleges and universities have come to realize that it takes more than a well-written statement to have these students commit to matriculating into the institution and certainly, to persist to graduation. Efforts to intentionally reach and support Black students span the last 30-40 years, as the number of campuses with multicultural and diversity offices have increased. In contemporary times, institutions are starting to recognize the need for designated spaces within minority groups aside from the catch-all approach that some of the aforementioned offices must take, particularly for Black students. This has led to the establishment of identity/affinity spaces, in addition to staff positions that serve this population specifically. Additionally, drawing upon retention theory, many of these offices have introduced orientation and on-going support groups and programming to create communities of belonging within the greater campus environment, to acclimate and continuously meet the needs of Black students.
However, there are still lingering issues that must be addressed in the fabric of many institutions that see them making efforts to bring Black students into environments that cannot sustain them. In considering the question, “In what ways are schools maintaining the status quo,” two key issues arose for me: the lack of black faculty in the academy and the dismissal of the Black student experience with regard to the impact of prior history and bias incidents encountered on campus. As recently as two years ago, Black academics accounted for less than 10% of the professoriate (Wingfield, 2015). This abysmal number is underscored by the impact of the lack of Black faculty on Black students and their success on applicable campuses. During the recent wave of Black student protests related to institutional responses, or lack thereof, to bias incidents on and off-campus, in addition to policy recommendations, a constant demand made by Black students was the hiring of Black faculty and staff (http://www.thedemands.org/, 2015). Besides providing access to visible representation, potential mentors, and instructors who share salient and culturally relevant identities, the literature points out that the need for Black faculty actually has even larger implications for the academy. In the 2015 article, “The Plight of the Black Academic,” Wingfield states:
In fact, predominantly white colleges and universities may even be more reluctant to recruit and hire faculty of color than students of color. While students matriculate at an institution for a short period of time and then leave, the tenure system means that faculty of color may remain at a university for decades, even a lifetime. With this longer time frame, these professors develop more of a stake in the school, and may be more empowered to push for the reforms many colleges resist. For universities that see no real reason to change their existing practices, traditions, and organizational cultures, bringing in a critical mass of faculty of color is often a stated goal that never materializes.
This corresponds to another issue on many campuses: the narrative that Black students only have to build “grit” and “resilience” to ensure success. Notions such as this, dismiss the very real need for faculty who also identify as Black, while also minimizing the student’s pre-college narrative and the negative encounters experienced on-campus. Citing research into the experiences of Black students on predominately white campuses, Millner connects the perceived threats to safety to actual biological manifestations on students of color in these spaces (2017). Additionally, researchers McGee and Stovall call out the additional burden of tackling racism that Black students experience and how the calls for "grit” erroneously minimizes the impact to Black student wellness and success.
Ultimately, the halls of academia have historically been closed to Black people Similarly, the “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” and “keep on trucking” narrative continuously are applied to individuals representing society’s most disenfranchised populations. Ergo, as the academy engages in recruitment and retention programming for Black students, they must also decide how much of the past are the willing to let go. In order for the academy to truly move forward in a way that can sustain both Black students and Black faculty, institutions of higher education have to shirk the status quo and truly be intentional about the framing of narratives, availability of resources, and environment that they provide. That is of course, assuming that these institutions are serious about the issue(s) at hand.