Readings and Resources

Southeast Asian American Statistical Profile (pdf)
- Report on the statistics and educational attainment of Southeast Asians.
Interrupting the Usual: Successful Strategies for Hiring Diverse Faculty
- Across the country, hundreds of campuses are engaged in efforts to diversify their faculties ethnically/racially, in response to both internal and external pressures. While fueled by numerous arguments related to the increasing diversity of their student body and the need to prepare all students for a diverse society, the reality is that perhaps the least successful of all the many diversity initiatives on campuses are those in the area of faculty diversity.
Sexual Victimization of College Women (pdf)
- Sexual Victimization of College Women is a joint report from BJS and the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) that explores the prevalence and nature of sexual assault occurring at colleges nationwide. The study found that about 3 percent of college women experienced a completed and/or attempted rape during the current school year. After reaching this site, click the search icon and type the name of the article.
Association of American Colleges and Universities
- The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has provided national leadership on the issue of diversity in higher education since 1971. AAC&U’s current work in this area focuses primarily on deploying diversity as an educational asset for all students, and preparing future graduates for socially responsible engagement in a diverse democracy and interdependent world. Both are key elements of a quality liberal education. AAC&U has created a community of institutions committed to making diversity an integral part of educational excellence and civic engagement. (For additional information on current and past projects, please see Global Learning and Civic Engagement, and Women)
Making Diversity Work on Campus: A Research-Based Perspective (pdf)
By Jeffrey F. Milem, Mitchell J. Chang, and Anthony Lising Antonio
- The authors discuss recent empirical evidence, gathered on behalf of the University of Michigan Supreme Court defense, demonstrating the educational benefits of diverse learning environments. These are environments that must be intentionally planned and nurtured, where diversity is conceived of as a process toward better learning and not merely an outcome that one can check off a list. Included are numerous suggestions for how to engage diversity in the service of learning, ranging from recruiting a compositionally diverse student body, faculty, and staff to transforming curriculum, co-curriculum, and pedagogy to reflect and support goals for inclusion and excellence.
Achieving Equitable Educational Outcomes with All Students: The Institution's Roles and Responsibilities (pdf)
- By Georgia L. Bauman, Leticia Tomas Bustillos, Estela Mara Bensimon, M. Christopher Brown III, and RoSusan D. Bartee
  The authors discuss the responsibility institutions have to examine the impact that traditional higher education practices have on those students historically underserved by higher education, including African American, Latino/a, and American Indian students. Given the persistent achievement gap facing many students, institutions must systematically gather evidence of what does and does not work for historically underserved students and build institutional reform around such evidence. Included is one campus's process for systematically monitoring students' achievement and for addressing the inequities it discovered.
Toward a Model of Inclusive Excellence and Change in Postsecondary Institutions (pdf)
- By Damon A. Williams, Joseph B. Berger, and Shederick A. McClendon
  The authors offer a framework for comprehensive organizational change to help campuses achieve inclusive excellence. Campuses must consider multiple dimensions of organizational culture in mapping out a change strategy and monitor the results that come from introducing new systems and new practices. Included is a model that helps campus leaders focus simultaneously on the "big picture"—an academy that systematically leverages diversity for student learning and institutional excellence—and the myriad individual pieces that contribute to that picture.
National Survey on Diversity in the Undergraduate Curriculum
- With support from the James Irvine Foundation, AAC&U conducted a national survey of diversity requirements in higher education in order to construct a national overview of efforts to diversify the undergraduate curriculum. Results of the survey were made available in fall 2000 and have been published in Diversity Digest and on DiversityWeb. Included in the project report are ten case studies published in Diversity Digest (Fall/Winter, 2002 and Spring 2002) describing general education programs that have taken particularly interesting and successful approaches to teaching students about diversity. This report updated findings from AAC&U's earlier report, "General Education and American Commitments: A National Report on Diversity Requirements and Courses."
New Data Predict Major Shifts in Student Population, Requiring Colleges to Change Strategies
- By Elyse Ashburn
  Colleges and universities know that the composition of the nation's student body is headed for a major change. They've been seeing the evidence for years. And an analysis of population data released on Wednesday confirms that major shifts are under way. "The reality is that the change has hit," said Nancy Davis Griffin, dean of admissions at Saint Anselm College, in Manchester, N.H.
Campus climate for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people: A national perspective (pdf)
- Publication Type: Report
  Date: May 01, 2003
  College campuses are often stereotyped as liberal meccas of progressive ideals. But lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students, staff and faculty are not immune to harassment and discrimination.Among those on campus, 20 percent fear for their physical safety due to their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity. In order to create an inclusive, safe environment, colleges and universities must: Recruit and retain LGBT individuals; Demonstrate institutional commitment to LGBT issues/concerns; Integrate LGBT issues/concerns into curriculum and pedagogy; Provide educational programming on LGBT issues/concerns; Create safe spaces for dialogue and interaction.
LGBT campus organizing: A comprehensive manual (pdf)
- Publication Type: Report
  Date: January 01, 1996
  This campus organizing manual remains as relevant today as when it was first published. Learn how to: Define your own lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender campus group; Build your group; Manage your group; Make change, and Educate your campus! The manual also includes a thorough list of resources for campus organizers across the country.
Transgender equality: A handbook for activists and policymakers (pdf)
- Publication Type: Report
  Date: June 19 2000
  This guide explores how to work toward a greater understanding of transgender issues in order to create a safer and more accepting society. Transgender people are: Individuals of any age or sex whose appearance, personal characteristics or behaviors differ from stereotypes about how men and women are “supposed” to be. Sixty percent of all transgender people have been targets of hate violence. Only six of the 31 new sexual orientation nondiscrimination statutes passed in the last 10 years include transgender people.No one should be denied the opportunity to live and work in safety.
Responding to Bigotry and Intergroup Strife on Campus: Guide for College and University Administrators
10 Ways to Fight Hate on Campus
- EVERY YEAR more than half a million college students are targets of bias-driven slurs or physical assaults. EVERY DAY at least one hate crime occurs on a college campus. EVERY MINUTE a college student somewhere sees or hears racist, sexist, homophobic or otherwise biased words or images. No campus advertises its hate crimes or bias incidents; some even hide records and facts from the public eye to avoid having tarnished reputations. But hate happens, and its scars remain for months, sometimes years, to come. It is, in the words of one expert, "the background noise" of students' lives. After examining hundreds of cases involving thousands of students, we found this: Although administrators, faculty and staff are vital players in any response, it is the student activist who makes the most difference. Because things improve only when people like you take action. Because each student activist has the power to make a difference. And because apathy, in some ways, is as dangerous as hate.
Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack II, Sexual Orientation: Daily effects of straight privilege
- This article is based on Peggy McIntosh’s article on white privilege and was written by a number of straight-identified students at Earlham College who got together to look at some examples of straight privilege.
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack Peggy McIntosh (pdf)
- "I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group" Through work to bring materials from women's studies into the rest of the curriculum, I have often noticed men's unwillingness to grant that they are overprivileged, even though they may grant that women are disadvantaged.
Doomed to Disappoint Justice O’Connor
- By Scott Jaschik
  Five years ago, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor saved affirmative action in public college admissions when she crafted the majority decision affirming the consideration of race in admissions by the University of Michigan’s law school.
Now Is the Time for Change: Reframing Diversity Planning at Land-Grant Universities
- By Susan V. Iverson
  Using policy discourse analysis, the author analyzed 21 diversity action plans issued at 20 U.S. land-grant universities over a 5-year period to identify images of diversity and the problems and solutions represented in these documents. Dominant discourses of access, disadvantage, the marketplace, and democracy were most prominent in conveying images of diverse individuals. These discourses shape individuals' ways of thinking and acting, meaning these discursive practices produce (at times competing) possibilities and constrain, even conceal, alternatives. These findings are discussed and recommendations are delineated for how Extension personnel might reframe diversity efforts.
Can Cross-Cultural Engagement Improve the Land-Grant University?,
- By Craig A. Hassel
  Cultural diversity goes beyond political correctness, cutting to the core academic mission of constructing knowledge. Cooperative Extension faculty who develop intercultural competence can be leaders in bringing diverse forms of knowledge to land-grant universities. Engaging people with knowledge that does not correspond to scientific models or worldviews challenges scientific professionals to identify what they take for granted. Examples show how cross-cultural engagement can improve classroom teaching and research.

Readings and Resources

MU Campus Climate