THE IMPLEMENTATION OF DIVERSITY IN PREDOMINATELY WHITE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIESMcKinley, B., & Bray boy, J. (2003). Journal of Black Studies. (34)1, 72-86.

About the study

Untenured faculty/scholars at a research I institution in the western part of the United States.

Case studies of four women and three males.

Participants departments: social sciences, humanities, sciences and professional schools.

Research Questions

How, and in what ways, do institutional assumptions regarding the values of diversity influence the hidden service requirements for faculty/scholars of color?

 How, and in what ways, do the demands of the institution reify and maintain the status quo?

How does institutional apathy contribute to the implicit and hidden demands on faculty of color?

Findings

Universities hire faculty of color as a means to an end to implementing diversity.

Hidden agendas (mentoring students of color, diversity courses & committees) may hinder faculty scholarship, promotion and retention.

Organizational structure fails to support diversity and every day practices of the masses stays the same.

There is an assumption that faculty of color can intuitively create diversity courses

More findings

Diversity courses or courses that infuse diversity are seen as unnecessary or minimized as a part of a faculty’s workload.

Conclusion & Recommendations

Boice (1992) pointed to the dilemmas of faculty/scholars of color who may want to teach or conduct research about or with communities of color but fear their work will be minimized because it is seen as self-serving.

There are White faculty who can teach courses like “Diversity in America” or “ADiverse American Society.” By sharing in the work of instituting diversity, these White faculty illustrate the importance and salience of the course for the department and its students.

There must be assistance in teaching these courses. The assistance comes in the form of a research and/or teaching assistant.

Recommendations

Bodies of brown faculty do not constitute the implementation of diversity; rather, their presence without a firm commitment by the institution to change the day-to-day activities and underlying structures may, in fact, reinforce the marginal status of junior scholars of color.

Philosophies and day-to-day activities must change.