Chini Research Paper

Running head: DIVERSITY ASSESSMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Diversity Assessment in Higher Education

Ariana Chini
Seattle University
SDAD 5990: Student Development Graduate Project
Dr. Erica Yamamura
June 9, 2016
Table of Contents
Abstract...........................................................................................................................................3
Statement of Need and Purpose....................................................................................................4
Literature Review..........................................................................................................................5
Methodology...................................................................................................................................9
Findings.........................................................................................................................................12
Implications for Research, Policy, and Practice.......................................................................19
Proposed Action Plan and Timeline...........................................................................................21
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................23
References.....................................................................................................................................26
Appendix A...................................................................................................................................30
Appendix B...................................................................................................................................32
Appendix C...................................................................................................................................33
Appendix D...................................................................................................................................34
Appendix E...................................................................................................................................42
Appendix F...................................................................................................................................52
Appendix G...................................................................................................................................63
DIVERSITY ASSESSMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 1
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to understand what Seattle University is doing in terms of
diversity assessment in order to form the early foundations in creating a course on diversity
assessment through the College of Education, which can be offered both to graduate and
undergraduate students. The research questions are as follows: What is Seattle University doing
in terms of diversity assessment? What is being done well, and what can be improved? How
should a course on diversity assessment be taught? In order to learn what a course on diversity
assessment should teach, the researcher interviewed four upper level administrators at Seattle
University to gain their take on best practices and recommendations for the course. The
interviews were transcribed and analyzed. This data led to the following four themes: the
meaning of diversity, effective forms of diversity assessment, power and privilege, and utilizing
assessment results. These themes will be useful in informing what a course on diversity
assessment in higher education should address.

Statement of Need and Purpose

Currently, in the 2015-2016 academic school year, Seattle Universitys College of
Education (COE) does not have a course on assessment through the Student Development
Administration program. Assessment in higher education is defined as the systematic collection,
review, and use of information about educational programs undertaken for the purpose of
improving student learning and development (Palomba & Banta, 1999). It can also be defined
as the process of providing credible evidence of resources, implementation actions, and
outcomes undertaken for the purpose of improving the effectiveness of instruction, programs,
and services in higher education (Palomba & Banta, 2014). This is a very large area of need,
because in order for student affairs practitioners to gain validation and further funding for
programming, workshops, student spaces, and other various student support services, they need
data collected from students in order to back their efforts (Palomba & Banta, 2014).
Dr. Erica Yamamura, a faculty member in Seattle Universitys College of Education, is in
the early planning stages for developing a course on diversity assessment in higher education for
the Student Development Administration program. However, in order to inform this course in the
context of Seattle University, a foundation is needed to know what, exactly, Seattle University is
doing in terms of diversity assessment.

Diversity assessment is on the forefront of the minds of Seattle Universitys staff, faculty,
and administrators due to the recently released results of the campus climate assessment. Seattle
University conducted its first Campus Climate Study, with the assistance of Rankin &
Associates, during the 2014-2015 academic year (2015). Rankin defines campus climate as "the
current attitudes, behaviors, and standards of faculty, staff, administrators, and students
concerning the level of respect for individual needs, abilities and potential" (University of
California, 2014). The results were made public the Fall 2015 quarter, with two town hall
meetings held where the primary researcher of the assessment, Sue Rankin, discussed the data
and its implications for the Seattle University (SU) campus community. Beyond the town halls,
countless discussions took placeand are still taking placeacross campus among students,
staff, and faculty during the current 2015-2016 academic year: some in cross-collaboration
spaces, others in closed groups. A primary focus of these conversations is how to ultimately help
students of color, as well as those who hold other minoritized identities, experience less
microaggressions and feel more comfortable at Seattle University.

Some other possible forms of diversity assessment are intergroup dialogues, which are
organized, monitored conversations between campus groups and identities, with intentionality
and a fostered commitment to social change and action within the campus community (Gurin-
Sands, Gurin, Nagda, & Osuna, 2012). There are also professional data collection instruments,
such as Bensimons (2007) Equity Scorecard and Popes (2004) Multicultural Change
Intervention Matrix, which can develop evidence-based awareness of race-based inequities
among practitioners and [] instill a sense of responsibility for addressing these gaps
(Bensimon & Harris, 2007).

Considering the early development stages of the diversity assessment course through the
College of Education within the context of a potentially shifting Seattle University post-campus
climate assessment results, the purpose of this research is to further knowledge on what exactly
Seattle University is doing in terms of diversity assessment, how upper level administrators are
engaging with the campus climate survey results in their work, and to then use that knowledge to
help form a foundation for Dr. Yamamuras course on diversity assessment in higher education.
Beyond the formation of the course, it is important to understand what Seattle University is
doing in terms of diversity assessment to shape that understanding for SU staff and
administrators, in order for them to continue and/or extend best practices in diversity assessment.
Literature Review
As the initial stages of this study began, the researcher found existing literature and
research based around three types, or rather, three themes of diversity assessment: assessment on
a national level, institutional level, and individual level.

Diversity
Before continuing to the review of literature, it is worth noting how diversity is being
used in this context. In the simplest terms, diversity can refer to ethnic and racial identities. One
might argue that diversity embodies much more than that, which is completely true. Diversity
embodies gender variance, sexual orientation, religious and spiritual identity, differently abled
bodies, mental health, nationality, and much more (Cuyjet, Howard-Hamilton, & Cooper, 2011).
Diversity can be seen as identities that are different from the prescribed norm. For instance, in an
institution that is predominantly white, ethnic and racial differences constitute diversity. If a
space is predominantly heteronormative and cisnormative, meaning heterosexuality and being
cisgender (indicating that someone identifies with the gender that they were assigned at birth) is
the perceived norm, people who have different sexual orientations and/or are transgender
constitute diversity. If traditional-aged college students are the norm (18-22 years old) on a
college campus, non-traditional aged students constitute diversity. Some might include that
diversity also embodies peoples experiences, not just identities that people cannot choose
(Howard-Hamilton, Richardson, & Shuford, 1998). These arguments are completely valid and
ring true on many college campuses.

Attempting to define diversity is almost a fools errand, as diversity can have a plethora
of various meanings and interpretations depending on the institutional culture, location,
demographic makeup, climate, and so forth. To complicate interpretations even further, every
staff member, faculty, and student affairs administrators and practitioners have their own
definitions and preconceived notions of diversity, which are shaped by their cultural narrative.
One more diversity point to note: in alignment with Harpers (2008) work, this study will
use the term minoritized identities rather than minority identities. This is to acknowledge
that the U.S. society will perceive some identities to be minorities, such as people of color or
women. However, those identities form half or more of the population. Therefore, society
minoritizes those identities; they are not innately minorities (Harper, 2008).
Assessment on the National Level
Assessment methods on the national level are typically surveys that are sent to students at
colleges and universities across the U.S., at random, and annually. They usually target first
year/freshmen students, or graduating/senior-level undergraduate students. Two prominent
national assessments are the National Survey for Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Higher
Education Research Institutes (HERI) Cooperative Institutional Research Program.

Ever since Astin (1999) proposed a developmental model of college student learning
that emphasized the concept of involvement, educators have been more focused on student
engagement and what it implies (Tendhar, Culver, & Burge, 2013). As the name indicates, NSSE
assesses student engagement. Student engagement includes two essential attributes of collegiate
quality: the first is the amount of time and effort students put into their studies and other
educationally purposeful activities, and the second is how the institution deploys its resources
and organizes the curriculum and other learning opportunities to get students to participate in
activities that decades of research studies show are linked to student learning (About NSSE,
2016). Through its collection instrument called The College Student Report, NSSE annually
collects information from hundreds of four-year institutions regarding students participation in
institutional programs and activities provided for their learning and personal development
(About NSSE, 2016). The results are used to improve aspects of the student experience by
changing existing and implementing new policies and practices (About NSSE, 2016).
Very similarly to NSSE, HERI assesses how students interact with their institutions of
higher education. They do have slight variations, however. While NSSE surveys students
currently enrolled in college, HERI has a survey option for incoming first year students who
have not yet started college, called the CIRP Freshman Survey. The CIRP Freshman Survey
assesses incoming students high school behaviors, academic preparedness, expectations of
college, demographics, financial concerns, values and goals, and more (About the CIRP
Freshman Survey, 2016). Another variation between the two is that HERI has a diversity
assessment survey, titled the Diverse Learning Environments Survey (DLE). The DLE captures
student perceptions regarding the institutional climate, multicultural competencies of faculty,
staff, and peers, and student learning outcomes (About the DLE Survey, 2016). The survey
results can help institutions assess campus climate, the pervasiveness of sexual assault, track
diversity efforts, and initiate dialogues around multiculturalism (Astin, 2003).

Assessment on the Institutional Level
Diversity assessments on an institutional level are initiatives colleges and universities
take to assess their own student bodies. Some examples of this present in existing literature are
campus climate surveys, the Bensimon (2007) Equity Scorecard, Popes (2004) Multicultural
Change Intervention Matrix (MCIM), and intergroup dialogues.

Pennsylvania State University professor and leading campus climate researcher Susan
Rankin defines campus climate as "the current attitudes, behaviors, and standards of faculty,
staff, administrators, and students concerning the level of respect for individual needs, abilities
and potential" (University of California, 2014). Colleges and universities can hire Rankin &
Associates to conduct a broad assessment of their campus climate. However, there are also
climate studies that focus on individual identities, such as nonreligious students (Rockenbach,
Mayhew, & Bowman, 2015), sexual minorities (Woodford & Kulick, 2015), and women, in
relation to their experience with violence and health issues (Adler & Johnson, 2015). Results of
campus climate assessments can then be utilized to enhance student success through new
policies, policy changes, and faculty and staff awareness (Vogel, Holt, Sligar, & Leak, 2008).
Another form of institutional diversity assessment is the Equity Scorecard. Bensimon and
associates (2007) developed the Equity Scorecard when it became evident that equity, although
valued, is not measured in relation to educational outcomes for traditionally minoritized students
in higher education (Harris & Bensimon, 2007). The scorecard establishes a process to develop
evidence-based awareness of race-based inequities among practitioners and to instill a sense of
responsibility for addressing these gaps (Harris & Bensimon, 2007). The outcomes sought out
by the Equity Scorecard is for campus administrators, staff, and faculty to become local experts
on the educational outcomes of minoritized students on their campus and to come to view
these outcomes as a matter of institutional responsibility (Harris & Bensimon, 2007).

Popes (2004) Multicultural Change Intervention Matrix (MCIM) is a tool for
conceptualizing and planning multicultural interventions in student affairs. The assessments
can help practitioners at colleges and universities to set goals and identify the type and level of
intervention required to ensure that a comprehensive incorporation of diverse cultures, values,
norms, and ideas are developed (Pope, 2004).

Intergroup dialogues are organized, monitored conversations between campus groups and
identities, with intentionality and a fostered commitment to social change and action within the
campus community (Gurin-Sands, Gurin, Nagda, & Osuna, 2012). For instance, one particular
study used intergroup dialogues to assess the comfort level of white students, as it has to do with
interracial relations (Alimo, 2012). Race/ethnicity intergroup dialogues may specifically
encourage students to develop confidence and skills to begin to personally consider and
confront their relationship with individualized forms of racism, racism, and racist behaviors
they may experience with others, and to collaborate with others in advocacy groups that work
towards social change (Reason, Roosa Millar, & Scales, 2005).

Assessment on the Individual Level

Assessment on an individual level can be seen through closed, monitored dialogues,
focus groups, and surveys on individual identities (Chang, 2002). Calling a dialogue or focus
group closed indicates that the participants and the facilitator must hold the specific identity
that the group is discussing, such as being Muslim, or transgender, or a queer person of color
(Harper, 2008). Having closed dialogues and/or focus groups including the facilitators
identities can ensure that the most open, honest conversations can happen and so the
participants have trust in the facilitator, which is key for successful assessment (Chang, Astin, &
Kim, 2004).
Methodology
The purpose of this study is to understand what Seattle University is doing in terms of
diversity assessment in order to form the early foundations in creating a course on diversity
assessment through the College of Education, which can be offered both to graduate and
undergraduate students. The research questions are as follows: What is Seattle University doing
in terms of diversity assessment? What is being done well, and what can be improved? How
should a course on diversity assessment be taught?

Site Description
The site for this study is Seattle University. Seattle University is a private, four-year,
Jesuit Catholic, liberal arts institution. In Fall 2015, total enrollment was 7,405 students, which
includes 4,712 undergraduate students, 1,981 graduate students, and 712 law students (Seattle
University Facts, 2015). About 43% of students come from Washington State and 57% from out
of state, which includes about 10% international students (Seattle University Facts, 2015).
Almost half (46%) the undergraduate population lives on campus (Undergraduate Origins
Profile, 2015). Undergraduate ethnicities represented include: 54.5% White, 21.6% Asian, 10.9%
International, 9.1% Hispanic, 4.2% Black, 2.2% Pacific Islander, 1.7% Native American, and
5.1% other (Undergraduate Origins Profile, 2015). Although predominantly white, Seattle
University ranked number one among private universities nationwide for increasing graduation
rates and closing gaps between Latino and white students (Rankings and Recognition, 2015).
When considering the campus climate assessment, 76% of all SU respondents reported
that they were comfortable or very comfortable with the climate at Seattle University (SU
Executive Summary, 2015). However, a slightly higher percentage (28%) than peer institutions
(20-25%) reported personally experiencing exclusionary, intimidating, offensive, and/or hostile
conduct (SU Executive Summary, 2015). Members of certain groups (i.e. transgender/gender
non-conforming/non-binary students, student veterans, students of color, low-income and/or
first-generation students) reported differential treatment and less overall comfort with campus,
including the classroom and climate (SU Executive Summary, 2015).

In order to understand what Seattle University is doing in terms of diversity assessment,
the researcher interviewed four of the universitys upper-level administrators. Three out of the
four administrators were people of color, two were male, two female, and one of them was
queer-identified. Two of them have been working at Seattle University for over ten years; the
other two are relatively newer to the institution

Data Collection
The researcher used a qualitative research approach to explore and understand what
Seattle University is doing in terms of diversity assessment. Four individual interviews were
conducted with upper-level and senior administrators of Seattle University. The four
administrators interviewed were the most appropriate sources of data for the following reasons:
they support Seattle Universitys diverse students, they have knowledge and experience with
assessment, and they are responsible for moving forward with the data collected from the
campus climate assessment.

The researcher posed five open-ended questions to the administrators designed to
understand the interviewees experiences both past and present with diversity assessment,
which touched upon the following areas. The first question asks the interviewees to share how
they arrived at their current position, their experiences working with diverse students, and how
they define diversity in their professional roles. The next two questions asks the interviewees
about their experiences conducting diversity assessment at Seattle University and how they
engage the campus climate assessment results in the work that they do, respectively. The
questions also ask the interviewees about their experiences with diversity assessment and campus
climate survey at their previous institutions, and what they think Seattle University should be
doing in order to successfully conduct diversity assessment and engage the campus climate
results. The fourth question asks the interviewees what they believe would make for a successful
course on diversity assessment developed through the College of Education, and to consider
possible differences between graduate and undergraduate levels for the course. The final question
asks the interviewees to share anything else from their work and experiences that would be
beneficial for the research.

Data Analysis
Once the interview transcriptions were complete, open and thematic coding commenced.
All transcriptions were read initially without the intention of coding in order to gain familiarity
and perspectives of the research participants. Next, once all transcripts were read again for a
second time, overarching themes were found, and quotes from the transcripts were separated and
categorized by theme. The literature review and research questions were reexamined to ensure
the objective of the study was being addressed and themes were confirmed.
Findings
Findings will include significant excerpts from the campus stakeholders interviews to
enhance clarity and understanding of themes. Four prevalent findings emerged as to what should
be included to make the course successful.

The Meaning of Diversity
The first main finding regarding what would make a successful course on diversity
assessment is that the students need to know what exactly constitutes diversity. The campus
stakeholders interviewed had their own ideas of what diversity means in the work that they do.
For instance, Richmond shares that, diversity is that which is different than the prescribed
norm. Kyle mentions specific identities, saying that we need to address the question of race
and ethnicityand socioeconomic identity. Marinas thoughts align with the literature review in
her use of the term minoritized (Harper, 2008), as she offers, I like the language of minoritized.
Theres an action to that. So people whove had a minoritized experience, it means theres an
agent or actor in that who needs to be responsible for helping to address that. Tiana takes a
deeper approach to her definition of diversity, moving beyond identities to interactions:

The understanding that I have of diversity as a terms is the reflection of the varying levels
to which people can be present in a space or engage others in terms of how they see
themselves and who sees themAlso, being a part of developing a community where
identities, experiences, and lived realities are celebrated, explored, and challenged
Being conscious of systems of oppression.

Furthermore, the interview participants heavily discussed the importance of language,
which should be a main point of discussion in the course. Marina notes that she want[s] people
to be more precise with their language. Furthering that point, Tiana shares an instance where
students were making these statements that were not diverse, but then couldnt really articulate
what that meant for them. So [she] said, if youre going to say that, lets at least be informed
around what we do know about what that means.

Lastly, a final point on the importance of noting what diversity means in the context of
the course is acknowledging how prevalent Popes (2004) multicultural competency framework
is throughout the interrogation of what diversity means: strong multicultural awareness,
knowledge, and skills are needed.

Effective Forms of Diversity Assessment
The next main finding for the course is that it needs to delve into the different, effective
forms diversity assessment can take. For instance, as Tiana notes, some forms of diversity
assessment can take quantitative and qualitative approaches that are situated around identity
development and cultural learningstudent experiences in relationship to multiculturalism. So,
looking at the ways students would look for an understanding of themselves in terms of their
[intersecting identities]. Tiana continues with further examples, such as unpacking student
satisfaction in and out of the classroom in exposure to multiculturalism, interacting with people
who are different than them on campus. Also through focus groups, talking about the ways in
which theyre experiencing community in relationship to their identities. Richmond shares more
on institutional- and individual-level research, which the course can highlight: Wed hear all
these anecdotal stories from students of color about their experience. So, I put together a pencil
paper survey and distributed that out to all the students of color in the residence hall. I got a
sense of what students thought.

Going beyond the institutional level research of surveys, interviews, and focus groups,
Rowley mentions diversity assessment on a national level, which the course should also address:
We participate in these national studies like the National Study on Student Engagement (NSSE),
Educational Benchmarking Institute for housing, which all goes to Institutional Research. Its
hard to access; theyre involved in all sorts of things around modeling budgets and things like
that.
Another theme that emerged, which evidence suggests the course should discuss, is the
difference between creating a self-made campus climate assessment and hiring an external
researcher to do so. Tiana, Marina, and Richmond all mentioned making in house climate
assessments, which were not very successful. Marina explains:

We did a quantitative assessment which was terrible. We created it in house, I was part of
a team, I was like, I dont do this for a living. We pulled questions from lots of different
surveys, it was 150 questions long, the demographics questions were at the end and most
people tired out before they got to the demographics questions. So, I want to say we got a
10% response rate, and only a third of those people answered the demographics questions
because they didnt get to the end of the survey.

Richmond and Tianas in-house climate assessment tool experiences were also not successful for
various reasons. The course should juxtapose those experiences of making an in-house
assessment tool with the ability to hire an external consultant and researcher, such as Sue Rankin,
which has yielded more successful results.

What might arguably be the most key finding as far as what diversity assessment looks
like is the act of weaving in demographics questions in any assessment tool. Richmond explains
further that by weaving in demographics questions:

then you dont have to wait around on a research question on diversity. You can weave
a diverse understanding of everything in the fabric of what you are doing. Demand
intersectionality, too. Your respondents are all of their identities at the same time when
theyre filling out your survey tool. Theyre all those things when theyre in the focus
group or the interview. So youve got to allow for that to surface and youve got to be
better at asking those questions, providing that platform for people to run with that and
tell us about their experience as an integrated whole person.

Kyle also shares that in an assessment of student retention, he incorporates demographics
questions to see if a students reason for departing is connected to their demographics. By using
this strategy, any sort of assessment will be incorporating diversity assessment.

Power and Privilege
Through the interviews, another key finding that emerged is that the course needs to
discuss how researchers should navigate their power and privilege when assessing identities they
do not share and communities they are not a part of. As Tiana explains, the course needs to help
those who hold privileged identities understand what that is, what that looks like, and how to
not further perpetuate behaviors, mindsets, and actions that further perpetuate dominant systems
against those who are experiencing oppression. Furthermore, it is not simply about checking
ones privilege. Arguably, it is nearly impossible to fully check ones privilege and not act upon
it. Rather, as Kyle explains:

No matter what I believe, no matter what I try to do, I have biases, and my biases shape
my work, my result, and my write up. So instead of trying to prevent or check it, its
about identifying it. Being in tune with it and understanding as best as I can how it
impacts these things, and accounting for it. [] Its about identifying and articulating
privilege.
Another facet of power and privilege that findings suggest the class should teach is
dynamics around how research results are listened to. This echoes back to the differences
between an in-house assessment and using an external researcher. Marina, a woman of color,
shares an example regarding Seattle University hiring Sue Rankin, a white woman, to do a
campus climate assessment, even though Marina herself has been doing similar research on her
own:
It was frustrating to me that [my research] wasnt compelling enough to move the
institution. I was resistant to having a climate study because we have this information.
Why wasnt it actionable? Why arent the voices of our students actionable? [] One of
our strategies was this: Sue Rankin is a white woman and a researcher. Quantitative
research is what she does. Sue said, What do you need me to tell people? What do you
need me to back up? What do I know that youve been saying? She knows her privilege,
she knows her power, and she uses it for good.

Lastly, findings suggest the course can teach how power and privilege influence how, or
if, demographics questions are being used. There is a sense of power and privilege, in a way,
when demographics questions are not being asked. Richmond concedes,

Sometimes, well just throw a blanket over students and for whatever reason well feel
uneasy about asking someone about their racial identity or their gender identity or their
sexual orientation. So if we dont get that information somehow when we get the results
back, well just know about students. And its not all students, its students that bothered
to be respondents to the assessment tool.

There is an underlying tension that those with privileged identities think everyone is the
prescribed norm if demographics are not included, which is something the course should grapple
with. However, the other side is that if demographics questions are asked, they need to be
addressed in the results: particularly underrepresented identities. Marina touches on this, saying
that there are ethical issues around when we ask, and then we dont report someones
experience. Why would I bother taking a survey when I already know youre not going to report
my experience?
Utilizing Assessment Results
All interviews touched upon how assessment results can be used, suggesting that it is
something the course should discuss. Diversity assessment results can be used to inform
programming, practice, and policy. For instance, as Marina explains, when she was discussing
potential support services for students of color, colleagues suggested that there should be a
mentoring program. When Marina interrogated why, they simply responded, Because its
good! Marina then insisted, maybe they should look at the Gallup-Purdue survey, where the
single most impactful practice is mentoring. Kyle echoes this point, saying, You have to have
the data to form the conversation and the conversation to inform the data. It cant be separated.
Results can also be used to inform departmental and institutional decisions that support
minoritized students, staff, and faculty. An example of this can be seen through Seattle
University. Tiana shares that the common text for the next academic school year is Kindred by
Octavia E. Butler, where the main narrative is that of a black woman. Tiana explains further that
she does not think that novel would have been chosen had we not just had a study that said we
dont talk about race enough. Training opportunities for new staff and faculty are also being
adapted through diversity assessment and campus climate results, where there will be more of a
focus on expectations we have in practice and in support of an inclusive community, and what
we are doing to support skill development of our colleagues in that vein (interview, Tiana).
Another point students in the class should learn is that results of the assessment should be
transparent and available to all once compiled. As Tiana explains, it is more than just making the
results available online. It is about figuring out a way of making a relationship come from the
assessment, to inform the division, to support the greater goal which is to ensure students feel
connected on campus and that their identities are affirmed and supported. A final point students
of the course should learn once the results of the assessment are available is to follow up with
participants of the assessment. Richmond makes a strong argument to this point:

I think there needs to be a responsibility to your respondents. Say we got the information,
this is what you said, this is what were doing with it. Because if you dont do that,
theyll stop giving you information. Thats part of the survey fatigue. Its not just how
many there areyou didnt follow up with me. So why should I give you an ounce more
information. Why would I give you more information if you dont have the respect of my
time. [] Participants will just withhold, or they will vote with their feet, which means
theyll leave and we dont know why. Theyll just be gone. And thats part of customer
care. We value your time and your energy enough to tell you this is a summary of what
we got, and this is what were going to do with it.

Marina insists this is the case with Seattle Universitys campus climate assessment results,
saying, If you participated in the climate study, then your voice is part of the taskforce
recommendations. Your time wasnt wasted.

Implications for Research, Policy, and Practice
The findings of the study have a variety of implications for the course on diversity
assessment in higher education; the findings also strongly support existing research explored
through the literature review.

Meanings of Diversity
The stakeholders interpretations of what diversity means in their line of work, for the
most part, slightly misaligns with how existing literature defines diversity: the main difference
being most of the stakeholders did not mention specific identities as far as what constitutes
diversity. The stakeholders of color defined diversity as how people engage in spaces, identities
that are different than the prescribed norm, or insisting on not having a prescribed definition.
Cuyjet, Howard-Hamilton, & Cooper (2011) mention specific identities, which aligns with
Kyles definition. Furthermore, Marina speaks about the use of the term minoritized, aligning
with Harpers (2008) work in how there is an action being done.

In terms of the course, a recommendation is that students need to learn not to have a
preconceived notion of what diversity mean, or rather, to not have a prescribed definition at all.
As Marina stated, we need to not limit who counts.

Types of Diversity Assessment
The stakeholders interviewed collectively spoke about the three themes of diversity
assessment explored in the literature review: diversity assessment on a national level,
institutional level, and individual level. A recommendation for what the class can give more
attention to, and perhaps re-conceptualize, is national assessment. National assessment was
spoken about the least, and appears to be the most nebulous. The National Survey for Student
Engagement (NSSE) and the Higher Education Research Institutes (HERI) were both mentioned
in the interviews from Marina and Tiana, and are present in the literature review; however, the
outcomes of the assessments remain unclear. It might be beneficial if the course directly
addresses what happens to national assessment results; however, the instructor might not want to
spent too much time speaking about it because the assessment the students are more likely to
conduct in the short term are on an institutional and individual level.

Addressing Power and Privilege
Addressing power and privilege seems to be a gap in the literature on diversity
assessment. This is an area for more growth and more research considering how common it is for
researchers in the higher education context to conduct assessment on populations they are not a
part of and identities they do not share. As Richmond shared, the students must learn how to
thoughtfully and respectfully enter spaces they are not innately a part of, which is a skill the
course should address. The student researchers must understand that they are not entering
populations and conducting research to bestow knowledge on the communities like saviors;
rather, as Richmond stated, the researchers work for and with the communities.
Proposed Action Plan and Timeline
This action plan and timeline will suggest a flow of the course over a ten-week academic
quarter.
Weeks 1-3: Diversity and Forms of Diversity Assessment
The first few weeks should focus on what diversity can mean, the different forms of
assessment, and what diversity assessment can look like. The student researchers should
understand that diversity does not have one simple meaning. In the simplest sense, diversity can
refer to marginalized and minoritized identities. However, for those whose perceptions have
moved beyond that, diversity can be that which is different than the prescribed norm, like
Richmond explains. It can be the ways people present themselves in a space and how they
engage others, like Tiana offers. The students should have the space to interrogate what diversity
means for them, as well as what it means collectively for different people and in various spaces.
Next, students should learn about the different forms of assessment that are present in
higher education, which draws heavily on what the literature explored: assessment on a national,
institutional, and individual level. Students can learn about the NSSE and HERI national
assessments, where those results land, and what they inform. On the institutional level, they
should learn about the Bensimon (2007) Equity Score Card, Popes (2004) Multicultural Change
Intervention Matrix (MCIM), and institution-initiated assessment forms like intergroup
dialogues. And on the individual level, students will learn about closed, monitored dialogues,
focus groups, and surveys on individual identities (Chang, 2002).

Students should also learn that, as Kyle and Richmond explained, any sort of assessment
can be classified as diversity assessment if demographics information are being weaved through
the data collection instrument.

Weeks 4-7: Methodology
As gained from the interviews, methodology can be seen as one of the most important
aspects, if not the most important aspect, of conducting diversity assessment. Student researchers
must learn the basics, such as how to effectively word questions in an open-ended manner,
thoughtfully utilize demographics questions, and determine how to approach populations they
want to conduct research on. These weeks provide the opportunity for students to learn about
community-based research, which Richmond discusses. The course should teach how researchers
should enter communities they are not a part of, gain the trust of the community, and think about
the communities needs first and foremost rather than their own. There should also be discussion
on how researchers return to the space after the research and write up is finished to discuss the
findings with the community, and how to move forward in the best interest of the community.
Furthermore, the course should also provide plenty of time and space for students to
interrogate their own power and privilege. As Kyle explains, it is not about checking privilege,
which has become a common phrase in higher education/student affairs and social justice work.
It is about identifying privilege, being in tune with it, and understanding how it impacts research
and researcher bias. White students must learn what their whiteness means for themselves and
for others. They must understand white supremacy and white fragility. A similar statement can be
said for male students, able-bodied students, cisgender students, and other privileged identities.
Weeks 8-10: Results
The last few weeks should focus on what can come of the results. Interviews and data
collection suggests that Seattle University has a tendency of collecting a lot of data, and nothing
usually comes of it. There are many implications of this poor habit, such as stirring distrust in the
communities that were assessed and survey fatigue. At a minimum, the student researchers
should learn that they need to return to the communities they assessed and present their findings,
or the outcomes of their findings, to them. This is an indication that the researchers value the
participants time and energy enough to give them a summary and a proposed action plan of what
to do with the results. Furthermore, the diversity assessment results can be used for program
development and restructuring, further funding, policy changes, a rethinking of campus culture,
new resources.
Over the period of the course, the students main project, individually or in groups, can be
conducting a hypothetical diversity assessment, either in the Seattle University context or at
other institutions the students may be employed at. Papers and presentations will be due in the
final week, where the students must address the points mentioned above: what diversity means
for them and in the context of their assessment, their methodology, how they address power and
privilege, what the desired outcome of their findings will be, and how they will reengage their
participants.
Conclusion
The purpose of this research paper was to form recommendations for a new course on
diversity assessment in the Student Development Administration program through the College of
Education at Seattle University. Based on what was discerned through the literature review,
interviews, and findings, the hope is for the course to form a foundational knowledge on
assessment in higher education, interrogate the complexities of diversity as a term and basis for
assessment, and address power and privilege in the student researchers.

Reflection
The most prominent area of growth for me throughout this graduate project was getting a
stronger grasp of what assessment entails. Assessment started coming at me from all angles
around midway through the last quarter (Winter 2015). In my graduate assistantship at Seattle
Universitys Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA), our director asked us to start formulating an
assessment on the lounges we have available to students. The other graduate assistants and I
started putting together a draft of the assessment tool, but because we knew through personal
narratives of our OMA students that they were unsatisfied with the lounge spaces, our researcher
bias was showing so strongly through the ways we were wording the questions. Instead of posing
neutral, open-ended questions, we were anticipating students to share how unsatisfied they are.
When we received feedback from our director about our researcher bias, we felt very attacked.
We know our students stories; why cant we give them a platform to share it?
A few weeks passed, spring quarter started and I started working on this research project.
I started working on formulating my own questions for my research, which went through many
different drafts because I was still learning how to effectively write a research question. I kept
thinking back to the OMA lounge assessment questions we wrote, chuckling at myself and the
other graduate assistants at how biased our questions were, which we were not aware of, or did
not want to admit. We are going to pick up the lounge assessment the next academic year. With
my experience doing the MA research project, as well as Tim Wilsons Assessment Certification
Program over the course of spring quarter, I am much more prepared and knowledgeable to
conduct, hopefully, a successful assessment on our OMA lounge spaces.

I was having a difficult time directly addressing how my project addresses diversity,
social justice, and ethical leadership. I never explicitly wrote about it, because I believe the
nature of my research and research topic innately addresses it through the questions I asked, the
stakeholders I interviewed, the overall importance of diversity assessment, and the discussion of
power and privilege. If more was expected on me addressing diversity, social justice, and ethical
leadership, that would be an area of further exploration for me.

Identity as a Researcher
Another area of growth for me through this project is my identity as a researcher. I
decided to undergo this academic challenge because I do see myself pursuing a doctorate degree
one day, which is not something I felt I should do without research experience. I feel like I was
stumbling through much of it. For instance, the literature review which was the second
literature review I have ever written took me quite a while to complete because I initially did
not have the language to search for what I needed. I knew I was searching for literature around
the themes of national, institutional, and individual assessment, but I did not know until further
guidance that I should look for NSSE as a national assessment, or intergroup dialogues as a form
of institutional level assessment.

Writing in the style of a research paper was also a challenge for me. With my English
major background, my typical writing voice is somewhat literary and stylistic. I think that voice
breaks through here and there throughout the paper; I couldnt completely stifle it out. Even
though shifting my voice was a challenge, my strong writing skills were still very helpful.
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Appendix A
PRE-INTERVIEW QUESTIONAIRE
1. Race/Ethnicity (Circle all that apply):
a. Asian
b. Black/African/African American
c. Hispanic/Latino/Chicano
d. Native American/First Nations
e. Pacific Islander
f. Middle Eastern
g. White
h. If none of these, please specify: ________________________
i. prefer not to answer
2. Gender:
a. Female
b. Male
c. Transgender
d. Genderqueer
e. Non-binary
f. If none of these, please specify: _________________________
g. prefer not to answer
3. Sexual Orientation:
a. Gay
b. Lesbian
c. Bisexual
d. Pansexual
e. Queer
f. Straight
g. If none of these, please specify: _________________________
h. prefer not to answer
4. Pronouns used:
a. She/Her/Hers
b. He/Him/His
c. They/Them/Theirs
d. Other (please specify): ___________________________
5. Age: ____________
6. Professional Experience
Current Professional Position _______ years

Previous Professional Position _______ years
7. Educational Experience
Field of Study (Major(s), Location

Degree Institution(s)
minor(s), programs, etc.) (City, State)
Associates Degree
Bachelors Degree
Masters Degree
Doctoral Degree
Other Certifications
8. Please list your experiences of conducting assessment. (extra space on back if needed)
9. What areas of assessment are you currently responsible for?
10. In your opinion, if there was a priority area to assess at Seattle University, which student
population(s) should be focused on?
Appendix B
PARTICIPANT DEMOGRAPHICS
NAME RACE/ GENDER SEXUAL PRONOUNS AGE YEARS IN HIGHEST PRIORITY

ETHNICITY ORIENTATION CURRENT / LEVEL OF AREAS TO
PREVIOUS EDUCATION ASSESS
POSITIONS
Richmond Black/African/ Male Straight He/Him/His 46 3 years / 9 years Doctorate Students who are
African American parents;
marginalized
students (e.g.
students of color,
veterans,
LGBTQ)
Tiana Black/ African/ Female Straight She/Her/Hers 35 8 months / 5 years Masters Student
African American experience in
Hispanic/ Latino/ classrooms
Chicano (stereotype threat
through
microaggressions)
; perceptions of
socioeconomic
status on campus
Kyle White Male Straight He/Him/His Prefer 3.5 years / 15 years Doctorate Students of color;
Native American/ not to low income
First Nations disclose students
Marina Asian Female Bisexual She/Her/Hers 42 3 years / 8 years Doctorate First generation
White and low income
students; veterans;
sexual orientation
and gender
identity; any
population that is
not white,
heterosexual,
traditional aged,
and upper class
Appendix C
DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENT
1. Can you tell me about how you got into your current position, and experiences youve had
working with diverse students?
Follow-up: Im curious how you define diversity in the work that you do.
2. Can you tell me more about your experiences with assessment of diverse students at Seattle
University? What have been some effective methods, and what has been not so effective?
Follow-up: What has your experience with diversity assessment been at previous
institutions during your professional practice?
Follow-up: What do you think Seattle University should do when it comes to conducting
successful diversity assessment?
3. Can you tell me about how you engage the campus climate assessment results in your work at
SU?
Follow-up: What has been your experience with engaging the campus climate survey at
previous institutions during your professional practice?
Follow-up: What do you think Seattle University should do in order to successfully

engage with the campus climate assessment?
4. If a course was to be developed through the College of Educationboth for graduate students
and undergraduate studentson how to conduct assessment on diverse student populations, can
you tell me about what you think would make it a successful course?
5. What other information about your work and experiences with diversity assessment do you
think would be beneficial for me to note with this research that I did not ask?
Appendix D
Interview with Richmond
Ariana: Alright, so, can you please tell me about how you got into your current position and
experiences youve had working with diverse students?
Richmond: Sure, prior to being assistant vice president, I was assistant to the VP, where I
focused on assessment and budget, and that was a deliberate pairing because we were wanting to
bring assessment information in to inform our budget decisions. So someone came in with a new
funding request, and wed want to know well what, why do we need this? What data do you
have? That says we need this sort of thing, this sort of initiative. And I think were one of the first
in this institution to start to do that. So it makes sense to have those two entities meet, date, fall
in love, and do what have you, to do that. And now its pretty, its pretty standard here now.
Theyre starting to put in new funding requests, and we want to know what the data is, the data
set that justifies the advice. Prior to that, I was director of student activities, and it just sort of
made sense to assess programs. But early on I got in my head that if we were really gonna move
student activities beyond the perception of it just being this big clown car, this big funhouse that,
you know, has no learning value, we had to really emphasize learning, and measuring learning,
what skills were students picking up. I figured out probably an imperfect way to measure that. It
was a pre- and post-test. But it was something that evolved. How do we measure a students
ability to communicate? How do we measure a students ability to problem solve and program
manage and things of that nature. It was done mostly through self-reports and stuff like that,
which wasnt the best way to do it, but it was A way, something we havent been doing before.
And then from there, I started to think, well, whats the impact of our programming? There was
one time, at one point in time we did this program called Bistro Saturdays, where we had live
musical acts in the Bistro. And my thinking on that was, weekend programming? It may not
prevent drinking, but if we had a really good band, it may cut down on the amount of time that a
student is drinking. So then, I started to think, students are saying these are really good programs,
but whats the broader impact? I thought, whats the impact of us having a program in the Bistro
on a Saturday night? So I talked to the general manager of Bon Appetit at the time, I said hey,
can you do me a favor? Can you pull your sales records for the week that we did a program, and
compare it to the week that theres no program in there, usually the week afterwards. And they
said there was 20% more registered activity on the week we had the program then when they
didnt. Now, that doesnt mean they had 20% more profit, that sales were up 20%. They had
already been really good partners for us, but when they saw that information they were even
better partners which I could not imagine. So its just thinking of different ways to assess impact.
One thing we did to assess how well our student staff was doing was I instituted Secret Shopper.
We got 4, 5 people from around campus, a couple students, to say hey, hey Ariana, can you go
through and have three contacts with the desk, by phone, in person, and maybe on our website or
something like that. And, have a list of questions that have right answers, like what are your
hours, how long does a roll down banner need to be, like how many days in advance do I need to
come and and order letters. Did the phone ring 6 or 7 times? If you came in, was the desk
assistant know what they were doing? Just basic things, and I could look at that, and go to the
supervisor and be like, this is how you did. This is what we need to improve upon. And
sometimes Id do this, sometimes I wouldnt, but Id do it again another quarter and see what the
improvement was. So again, just looking and different ways to measure the impact and success.
Prior to doing that here, when I was at the University of Missouri, I was in Multicultural Affairs,
and wed hear all these anecdotal stories from students of color about their experience. And this
is in a time where I was much better then than it has been over the past year or so out there. So I
would put together a pencil paper survey that asked them, whats your experience in a classroom,
at a classroom, etc. and distributed that out to all SOC in the hall. We could do that because we
could get mailing labels by demographics. I could email the registrar and say, I need mailing
labels for all on-campus SOC and they would give me the mailing labels and Id print out the
surveys and theyd get them back to me. I got a sense of what students thought. Things of that
nature. So its been something that Ive done naturally as a curiosity for a long time. But I didnt
necessarily call it assessment, it was called doing a survey because thats what was going on.
Ariana: Right.
Richmond: Yeah, haha.
Ariana: Well, Im curious how you define diversity in the work that you do.
Richmond: Hmm, theres a great question. I think on the one hand you could say, diversity is
that which is different than the prescribed norm. You know, if the norm is traditional aged
students, well we know we have students that are not traditionally aged. So, that can be the
diversity there in terms of age. If the norm is white people, well we know we dont just have
white people here. What about the people of color here? So, thats one way to do it. Umm, I
dont know, Ive never been asked that question. But I think I go back to that core of what is
different from the defined norm. What is different from the defined norm.
Ariana: Thats great, thank you. Well, can you tell me a little about your experiences with
assessment of diverse students here at SU? And focusing on maybe, like, effective methods and
what has been not-so-effective?
Richmond: You know, being in student activities it is easy to assume there are not a lot of
students of color who will engage with student activities. That has never been the case since Ive
been here. Ive always been really pleasantly surprised at how well student activities has
mirrored the diversity on campusfor whatever reason. Its just happened that way. What has
been challenging at times, and I dont think this is just student activities, I think its across the
board: sometimes well just throw a blanket over students and for whatever reason well feel
uneasy about asking someone about their racial identity or their gender identity or their sexual
orientation. So if we dont get that information somehow when we get the results back, well just
know about students. And its not all students, its students that bothered to be respondents to
your assessment tool. We are extrapolating, we are assuming that folks that respond represent all
the folks that could potentially take part in your program. Thats a leap of faith that we make. We
need to have a better understanding of the diversity that we have, or the diversity we have on
campus, youve got to allow people to surface and name the diverse elements of their identities.
And if you dont do that, youll fall behind back to your programmed norm, which happens to be
white, traditional aged, undergraduate. And we know that it could be disputed if the numbers are
great or not, we can argue that later. But we know thats not all the students that we serve. Ill
give an example. Ive been meeting with directors individually to talk about what theyre gonna
do around assessment, because this is around the time we find people conducting end of the year,
annual assessments. So I have a section on my little checklist that talks about demographics. And
most people are really good about asking about race, gender identity expanding beyond
male/female, doing a really good job there, were gently pushing to ask about sexual orientation,
thats becoming a norm, its becoming okay to do, heres how you do it. But well ask about
international student status, were not much better about asking about military veteran status, and
now Im asking people, hey, ask people whether or not they are parents or legal guardians. And
thats where I filled out in one of the areas of assessment for me that we really need to do better
on is out of self-interest for me because I supervise that area. And I know that we dont have a
good handle on this campus as to how many student who are parents that we have. We dont
know that. We know theyre here, we speculate that we have more graduate/law students rather
than undergraduate students who are parents, but theres still a fair representation, and growing
representation, of undergraduate students who are parents. But our data systems are not set up to
allow those students to identify themselves as such so we can have a better sense to get our arms
around that. Theo ne data point that we know exists is in student financial services on the FAFSA
form, because they ask if youre head of household. Theres an implicit assumption there that
you are a parent or a guardian. But not everyone fills out the FAFSA. So were missing a whole
lot of people out there potentially. To better understand the diversity is simply to better set up the
data from the beginning with the demographics so the people then are invited to choose as many
of those things that apply to them in their personal context. Thats on us then to do more of the
deep dive work into the demographics. So, what do we know about what women say? Or
anybody else on the gender spectrum, versus what the quote unquote norm is. What do we know
about what mixed race queer students say about this particular program? Now that we have all
this stuff on an online platform like qualtrics, it is much easier to filter out questions that way and
filter out respondents that way, like wow we only have five respondents there. It could be
valuable information but its not exactly going to be statistically significant. You know we can
configure the data set that way. Weve got to get people more comfortable with doing that deeper
dive. Because right now were still surface level, because its easy. Well probably be able to
report bit results that way, but if we really want to understand whats going on for different folks
we got to be much more comfortable, much more of a natural inclination to dive beneath the
surface.
Ariana: Thank you.
Richmond: That would be what I would say, that you can do it because then you dont have to
wait around on a research question on diversity. You can weave a diverse understanding of
everything in the fabric of what you are doing. If you simply set up the data demographics
correctly and then you make it just a requirement to deep dive. Whats the surface say, and then
break it out into at least 4, 5 different demographic things: gender, race, and focus, demand
intersectionality too. I didnt wake up this morning and say hmm I think Im going to be male
today, and Ill be Catholic tomorrow, etc. and Im all those things at the same time. Well, for
your respondents, theyre all of those things at the same time when theyre filling out your
survey tool. Theyre all those things when theyre in the focus group or the interview. So youve
got to allow for that to surface and youve got to be better at asking those questions, providing
that platform for people to run with that and tell us about their experience as an integrated whole
persons, and were not really good at that yet.
Ariana: That completely makes sense, thank you. Well, a question about the campus climate
assessment now: can you tell me about how you engage the campus climate assessment in your
work here at SU?
Richmond: Well, I took the survey. I took the survey and I read the report. I havent had the
opportunity to dive into the data and what that said. I know that data has just been released. Im
not a statistician by nature so if its all raw data, Im no good at that, Id have to partner up with
somebody who really knows how to do that. So I think for a lot of folks, we need to get in there
and see what the data is like, what we can play with. But I am really curious again about the
intersectionality. Because even in the report, you know theyll say you know white students vs.
students of color, men vs. women, and thats a very natural way to go about it. And sometimes
that interpretation with all those identities, that theyre chattering in the background, theyre
chattering in the background and they may not be on the same page. So, part of I think our
responsibility and deciphering all that stuff is that as we use this information to learn more,
especially if we start doing focus groups and interviews based on this data will be to say I
noticed in the data that this, this, and this was going on. Help me make peace between these
things because theyre contradictory. And to give people the opportunity to create that language.
Weve got to become better at that, and we havent been put in a position where wed have to do
that before.
Ariana: Well, thinking back at your time at previous institutions, have you engaged a campus
climate survey in your work?
Richmond: I did in Missouri. That was just out of my office and it was out of a curiosity, nobody
said I had to do it. I could say theres some folks who didnt want me to do it, but I did it anyway,
probably didnt go about it the most politically astute way, but I went about and did it anyway
and collected the data and distributed the information widely, which was also frowned upon by a
couple people but oh well. The information was out there, I know it was read by higher ups, I
sent a copy of the report to the chancellor. I didnt tell my boss that I was doing the survey. Well,
I think I told him I was doing the survey, I didnt tell him how widely distributed the report
would be. So the chancellor of the university wrote me a note back! Said this is really good
information and he talked about something really specific in the report, and thats how I know
that he read it. So, but then he then approached the then-vice president, he even approached my
boss, and my boss was like dont do that, I had no idea. I got something to say about that. But
Ive not experienced an assessment on this scale like this. I know based upon what Ive done at
Mizzou that there had been talk about a climate survey, but by the time they were ready to do
stuff I had moved on to my doctoral work at that institution, so I had stopped my full time job,
and had gotten an assistantship purposefully in another area just so I could wash that out of my
system and let them go on and do what they needed to do.
Ariana: Great, yeah. Well, alright. Back to that course I was talking about that this research was
forming a foundation for, so, a course on how to conduct assessment on diverse student
populations, can you tell me about what you think would make it a successful course.
Richmond: Hmm. Gotta emphasize that assessment is not about statistics. I think thats what
scares a lot of people off from assessment initially. They think of assessment, they automatically
think of averages and formulas and stuff like that. Assessment is about setting up the structures to
get the information. Creating a methodology of getting that information that might involve
statistics, but it might not. Umm, theres got to be a heavy emphasis on language. Language
used. So, for example, instead of saying sex when you mean gender, say gender. You have to go
even broader than gender identity, you have to say gender expression. To understand the rationale
behind the language and if you dont use the correct language, youre going to get information
thats going to be less valuable than if you use the language that more closely matches the
information you want. Yeah, and to delve into some of the controversies that are around there.
People ask, well whats the difference between black and African American. Well, Black is more
about the diaspora. African American is specific to the United States, and not everyone whos
black is African American, and not everybody who uses the term black is okay with African
American, and vice versa. Theres a lot of politics and political power in the naming conventions.
When I was at Mizzou, it initially shocked me because I worked with the different student of
color clubs on campus. And one of them were for American Indians. And I asked which, Travis,
which terms do you like to use? Native American or American Indian? White people say Native
American. And I was oh, oh okay. Okay. But out here, its Native American or indigenous
peoples. Thats one of the ones thats emerged overtime. So, to understand the regionality of
languages as well. When I was back at Mizzou the word was minority, not students of color, and
it took a while for students of color to kind of catch on. They had an office of minority affairs, an
office of minority programing, minority achievement program, that was just the word out there,
that was the terminology.
Ariana: Also like the term marginalized.
Richmond: Right, right, yeah. So like, when you do assessment of diverse populations, the
language is so powerful because if you use terminology that nobody is accustomed to, or you
dont have that bridge between the old and the new, youre not gonna get very far, and thats a
political thing. Thats a power thing. Umm, so, understanding what language to use and how to
go about moving language from one era to the next. I think theres got to be some information
about that. I think to talk about the power of the report. Because the data is the data, and you
could write that up in a report, but if the stakeholder doesnt like that, then do I change the
report? Whats more important, is it more important to get the topic out there even if some
people may have messed with the report or do you stand with and say nope, this is the report, and
risk the possibility of the report never surfacing. To understand the politics and the interplay and
really the governance issues, the governance about who gets to decide what, when, where, and
how. And sometimes why. But its all about decision making and power. And so the principle
investigator may have the power of the information, but the stakeholder decides whether or not it
reaches the light of day or not. So theres got to be conversation about that, especially when
youre measuring for diversity or diverse populations. These days that is much more explosive
now. People get much more nervous about that now, even then they did even a year ago. So, even
that approach is loaded with stuff. And I think for people who are going to do this at any point in
time, I think they need to know what its loaded with so they know how to manage the situation.
We cant all think that everyones going to be thrilled with what I researched, no, no, no. There
would be people out there that dont want this to happen. So yeah, theres got to be conversation.
Conversation about how to do it, and then what to do with the information. How do you apply it.
How do you report it. How do you talk about it. How do you engage the talent on campus to help
you have conversations about it. I think it was a smart move for Father Sundborg to say I want
someone from student development, and I want an academic to co-chair this. Because that lends
an air of legitimacy for folks across campus, which also gives built in expertise of how to talk
about it. And thats when we often fall short, about how to talk about this now. How do we get
past whatever guilt is going to be there that will inevitably shut down folks that need to be
engaged in it. How do you get people through that to talk about it. How do we use this
information to make some change. So one course may not be enough. Something going against a
course like this is the quarter system format. This needs to be a semester course. Because you
will need those extra 4-6 weeks to really delve intoso maybe there can be a part 1 and a part 2
if this is going to be in the quarter system format.
Ariana: Well, this is a little different than thathaving a part 1 and a part 2but theres talks of
this class being offered for both undergraduates and graduate students, two separate courses.
Yeah.
Richmond: I would still say theres enough stuff in here where there really needs to be a part 1
and a part 2. Because you can really spend a whole term just on the methodology. But I really do
believe it has to be coupled with very extensive deep dive into how do we use it and talk about it.
The methodology piece needs to be the prerequisite of the what do we do after it piece. Were
great at compiling data on this campus. We have tons of data. But we have not made, we do not
have a mandate that says if you do a big survey, you have to make the time to dive into it and
report it out. We dont have the personnel to do that. We havent made the investment to do that.
But weve got the data. So, I think there needs to be a responsibility to your respondents. Say we
got the information, this is what you said, this is what were doing with it. Because if you dont
do that, theyll stop giving you information. Thats part of survey fatigue. Its not just how many
there are, there is, you didnt tell me anything about this. You didnt follow up with me. So why
should I give you an ounce more information. Im already giving you a mortgage. Why would I
give you more information if you dont have the respect of my time. To loop me back. And thats
something that I have to confess Im not very, Im not always good with. Im not always good
with. But I think in the future, as students especially become much more savvy customersand I
know not many people in higher education like to talk about students that way, but theyre
understanding themselves that way and theyre starting to feel the raw power that they have.
They will just withhold, or they will vote with their feet, which means theyll leave and we dont
know why. Theyll just be gone. And thats part of customer care. We value your time and your
energy enough to tell you, this is a summary of what we got. And this is what were gonna do
with it.
Ariana: Well, thinking of the differences between the graduate and undergraduate level, is there
anything youd adjust as far as differences between them?
Richmond: You know, my knee jerk, completely uninformed response would be that with
undergraduates, because we tend to go for the traditional aged student, theres just less life
experience where there may need to be more unpacking of why this is important, and more
unpacking on the students part on how they engage diversity vs. a graduate student that even if
they come straight from college, they still have those four years, or five years, or however long,
plus whatever else they might have done beforehand. SO yeah, I think, and this is widely
uninformed, but my guess would be that there would be some extra steps you would need to take
with undergraduatesthat I would assume you would also have to take with graduates too.
Because people are at all points on the spectrum about how they engage, why they dont engage,
and I see no color or the world is colorful and all sorts of other stuff. People, everybody will
probably be at every point on the spectrum in that room, but you have to thread that needle
somehow. So how do you do that. And no, some people will be like Im just going to present the
information. Im just going to present the information and well let you sort out all that stuff. But
I think if someone has not done some of the work, and let me say, people will always have work
to do, but there needs to be some base level of understanding, of privilege checking, no matter
who you are in the room. So that you can be doing this for the right reason, and that would be
another piece. Why would we even start to measure around diversity and diverse perspectives
and things of that nature. Some of it is a business model. Some of it is a business model. Some of
it is that we have become sophisticated enough, we are at the point where we cant just say
college student equals male, college student equals white, white male, whitewe are more
diverse than that. And again, we can argue about the numbers later but we are more diverse than
that. And if I am coming in at a position where my privilege and my ego is out in front in a way
that it should not be, then thats going to get in the way of how I do this work. Am I doing this
work alongside respondents or am I trying to be some savior and come in. Thats got to be
discussed too. You can devote 3, 4 whole weeks to that. Why do we do this and how should be
journey into this space. How are we in the space now and how do we need to be in this space in
order to well at this. I would imagine a course like this should borrow a lot of community based
research and those methods. How do we enter into a community that we are not a part of, that in
some way we may be part of the problem, and gain the trust, and do the research, in such a way
that it benefits a community first, and the researcher maybe third or fourth, and be okay with
that. Thats a whole course in and of itself. But thats got to be in the mix. Weve got to at least
start that conversation.
Ariana: Thats great, yeah.
Richmond: Theres a lot of pieces that need to be involved. And again, its not about the
methodology and what questions to ask, its how do we enter into the space, and then how do we
return to the space to say this is what we found. How could we work together tonumber 1:
does this information make sense. Does it ring true. Number two, if it does ring true, then how
can we be partners in developing solutions based on this information. And quite often, researches
dont necessarily do that. They come in with that savior complex and this is what we need to do,
and were just gonna run it. Communities are like well, this is intellectual gentrification right
here. I know my experiences. I have the senses of what works best. You, researcher, work for us.
It doesnt always work that way.
Ariana: Yeah.
Richmond: So I think delving into some of the literature around community based research
would be really beneficial for something like this, because it would check the mindset. At least
put the seed in there. They might still go out there and be a fool, but you cant tell me that I
didnt know.
Ariana: I like that, intellectual gentrification.
Richmond: Yeah, I mean, it happens all the time. Where were situated in the city, its easy for
us to do that. Its very easy for us to do that.
Ariana: I can see that, yeah. Well, thank you! Those are the structured questions I had for you. Is
there anything else youd like to share about your work, experiences with diversity assessment
that you think would be beneficial to my research?
Richmond: Oh, god. You know, I think we are all learning, for as passionately as I just spoke
about all this stuff, I dont do it much. So I need to take that upon myself to do that. Just because
the question is surface level, that doesnt mean I get to restrict my answer to being surface level.
I really need to dig into some of these things, and start to produce information that reflect the
complexities that is in my head. That is in my head. And to make that a standard part of the
practice. Just a standard part of the practice. And I can say we are all learning how to do this. We
are all learning how to do this. And once we figure this out, well be unstoppable. Well be,
people will be chasing us.
Ariana: Well, thank you so much!
Richmond: Not a problem, not a problem!
Appendix E
Interview with Kyle
Ariana: So, can you tell me about how you got into your current position and any experiences
you've had working with diverse students?
Kyle: So, my title is director of university retention initiatives, you know my title, I've only been
here for about three years, how I got here, so, I've been in the business of higher ed, and my first
gig after graduating was graduate student teaching, English and literature courses and working at
an R1 big school, 50,000 students.
Ariana: Did you study English as an undergrad?
Kyle: Yeah, that's right.
Ariana: Yeah, me too.
Kyle: Yeah *laughs* my first two degrees were English and sociology, and then my masters and
Ph.D. were in higher education leadership and policy. So, when I did work at the academic center
for athletics, actually that was my first entry into student services generally, advising or tutoring
or otherwise, supportive counseling, those kind of things. So then I actually kind of shifted to the
student services or non-teaching elements of student experience, not just the academic side, the
classroom side. I really, that job in particular is where I had the most greatest student contact
directly, and the widest array of populations of students, students of all colors, students of all
social economic backgrounds from all fifty states, The biggest different being they're all student
athletes. That's a different experience all together. There are students who are full scholarship,
kind of blue chip recruits if you will, so they have a very different experience than, being in full
revenue sports like football and basketball, and then students in what we refer to as olympic
sports had often partial scholarships or no scholarships. And they experienced differences around
that. So, that's where I really got to know that student athlete lens, the experience of what I'd
consider diverse populations around income level and around race/ethnicity. At that time we
weren't really--and especially in the Midwest--weren't nearly as in tune with sexual orientation
and gender/sex identity, and that's a more recent kind of part of my work and portfolio as it were.
Umm, after that job, so I eventually moved from my teaching realm to full time running the
academic center in athletics. It was my first full time job, did that for a number of years. And
then my next gig was director of a volunteering and service learning center at a regional
university and it was smaller, but still about 30,000 students and in that role I became much more
in tune with diversity as it includes socioeconomic and class status, and that's where I understood
a lot more about the reality of students who are food insecure, housing insecure, many other
things, or working heads of family, that kind of thing. I was introduced to a different layer of
reality around the student experience that I hadn't seen before. Still, not much in the realm of
sexual orientation or gender/sex identity. And then in my work now, so this is about eighteen
years of...whatever...my role now is easily on one hand far more in tune with different ways of
thinking about diversity and diverse student experience, and also the least amount of direct
student contact I've ever had, and in a career where you're in administrative role, that happens,
you begin to, I heard someone call it the other day, the maker, or I don't know what the
alternative, either you're a maker of the work, or you do the work, or you, you're in
administrator-ville where you're sort of the maker I"m not sure how that explanation works. Now
I'm, my office is one person, it's me. My staff is one person, it's me. I don't direct any services or
programs, instead my role is to operate and assist, that's my role, in ways stick my nose into
other people's business and say, what are opportunities for our students around your work as part
of the student experience. How does it benefit retention, how does it otherwise interact with
student success and are we doing right by our students? Are we supporting our students
personally, academically, financially, are there other ways that SU aught to, especially for what it
costs our students to be here. And so at SU, my diversity experience has gotten a lot deeper. Both
because of timing on a national scale, right, also because of our mission, we're very mission
driven, and our students are very mission driven, and so I'll pause there and see how that lands
on you.
Ariana: Yeah, I'm with you. Anything else you'd like to add? Alright, I'm curious how you define
diversity in the work that you do.
Kyle: Yeah, that's hard. I knee jerk kind of reaction to that is diversity can be umpteen things.
Diversity can be about the color of my skin or my orientation or how much money--all those
things, right? And then there's a way of doing that then doesn't privilege certain inequities,
marginalizes things that are centered on race, is what I think. So how I think about diversity is
right now, we need to keep addressing the question of race and ethnicity, and systematic
inequality and oppression. This is what I believe, this is why I'm here. I do believe we need to fix
that first, and I very loosely say first because I'm very in tune to the financial realities our
students face on top of being othered based on race or in our case age as well. So what I will say
is this: I'm pretty keenly aware among our undergraduate student population and largely our
graduate students think this you, you can correct me, there's a perceived norm when it comes to
folks thinking about our undergraduate student body, the perceived norm is that the majority are
in no particular order white female and affluent. And statistically that really isn't the case. We do
have more women students period. We do have more white students period, we have 18-19%
non-white if you will, but the third part about affluence is the norm, the perceived norm that I
care a lot about too. Many many many of our students struggle to pay their bill. Maybe graduate
students too, so there's a question of diversity around class or socioeconomic status identity that
also is very near and dear to me and that layer of diversity if you compound questions of racial
diversity or sexual orientation or gender identity and then you add on a money layer life just gets
really really bad where it's already hard to begin with. So I think those are the three pieces I think
about the most: race, ethnicity, sexual orientation/identity or money in no particular order.
Ariana: It's interesting how you said that one of the main perceptions is that our students are
women because I feel like overall, a perception is that college students are mostly male, so I
thought that was interesting.
Kyle: Hmm, where do you hear that perception?
Ariana: Just in general about college students, not even here at SU, but nationwide, thinking of a
college student, I'm speaking generally, I think the main perception is like white, male, affluent.
But I think that here at SU that maybe the perception is female.
Kyle: We're 2-1 female to male, have been for a while, and knocking on the door we're gonna be
3-1. Nationally, I'm aware of literature that says the majority of our college-going students, both
to 2-year and 4-year, are female. SO, it's shifting.
Ariana: Yeah, I know that's true, but still I think the perception is
Kyle: Yeah, certainly the perception, and the dominating identities are males and white or
whatever order you want to put those in.
Ariana: Yeah, thank you. So can you tell me more about your experiences with assessment of
diverse students here at SU, and maybe what have been some effective methods and what has
been maybe not so effective?
Kyle: We could talk about defining assessment, couldn't we. What I'm aware of are a couple of
things. So first within my work and some close colleagues work we surveyed and otherwise
informally interviewed students who have departed SU before they graduated without being
suspended or without being asked to leave, so students who leaved before completing their
degree. And when we do that, the survey doesn't focus on diversity, but we incorporate
demographic data so we can in our own analysis of our data understand if this student's reason
for departing connected to any of those demographics and are there any patterns. So there's a
layer there, but diversity is not the focus, it's why students leave, that's the focus. Joelle Pretty,
who I hope you interview her too, does a similar survey but it's the flipside, it's students who've
retained all the way until their senior year. We ask similar questions, they don't actually align, but
similar questions to say if you stayed, how are you successful, and what were the reasons you did
say, what did you stay in spite of? So why did you leave, how did you stay. Similar, but once
again diversity is an element there, not a focus necessarily. So that's there in the realm of my
work. I was on the I guess a sub committee that helped devise and implement and analyze the
climate study survey with Sue Rankin, so I got to see up close and personal her instrument out of
the box and then the ways we altered it for SU and then I was one of five readers that started
with the 500 and something page report at the beginning to then massage the data and boil it
down for campus and bring it back. So I was up close and personal with the data, not on the
diversity task force. What I would say about that, that was an assessment, and that was focused
on climate, so diversity. I think it was reasonably well designed, and I have to say that with some
modesty right because I was a part of that, I think the folks that worked on getting responses did
a hell of a job trying to be inclusive there because an assessment is only as good as the ways in
which you put it in front of the respondents, right, and if you don't get the right folks then you're
not hearing the voices that are kind of the whole reason you would might want to hear those
things. So, taking pains to have non-English versions of the instrument, non digital versions of
the instrument, multiple ways to come at it, so I felt pretty good actually about the efforts there,
that's good news. The results and the ways the results have been kind of shared and being
viewed, I have mixed feelings about because the executive summary was written by the
consultant, we reviewed it and made suggestions, but the executive summary was...I don't know
if I'd say rose colored classes, but it was very appreciative as a mode of writing about what was
in there and I think may have failed to highlight some things that I think are challenges in the
data, and the data represent challenges in our climate actually. So, I could say a lot more about
that work if you want to, but that's easily the deepest work I've been a part of or even aware of
about diversity. I think the task force is just great, it's a good step. It isn't the first time we've had
this step on campus and a lot remains to be seen as to what the cabinet chooses to do with those
recommendations. So set aside the task force and climate study, what else have I seen or been
part of. The short answer is not a whole heck of a lot. Thinking back, I did a couple of focus
groups early on of Costco Scholars and once again that wasn't, well it was, that was actually for
me to know more about their lived experience around their financial realities. If you're a Costco
Scholar, you get what we all consider a healthy extra scholarship, it's a big dollar amount, and
yet they struggle often to make ends meet. This is before we increased it to $10,000, it used to be
a different amount every couple of years depending on how much funding we received and see
how students, where I might be getting $9,000, you're getting $7,000 and they're sitting right
next to one another. Anyway, so that is once again directly within my work. Hmm. Assessment of
diversity. I can't think of a lot of other examples that I'm aware of. I think my colleagues in
student development do a variety of programing level of assessment and get a lot of student
feedback, you probably know about that more than I do. Umm, I wouldn't know to what extent
those focus on diversity. So I don't think we spend a lot of time yet systematically on this. I think
it is on the forefront, appropriately so, I don't know if you were able to attend Mission Day.
Ariana: I was actually, yeah.
Kyle: So Father Steve did a nice job kind of setting a tone for campus. Once again, we'll see
what the next day brings, the next series of moments brings. But I think we're just beginning to
understand what we ought to be considering doing on a systematic basis around not only
assessment but intervention, making changes, I think we are at infancy or close to it.
Ariana: Yeah well kind of a follow up question I have, what do you think Seattle University
should be doing when it comes to conducting successful diversity assessment?
Kyle: This is funny because I hear the questions and will get 80% through and then you will say
in relation to assessment, _so again, making it more specific, right?
Ariana: Yes.
Kyle: Things that I think will make successful diversity...assessment.
Ariana: Assessment, yeah.

Kyle: Umm, I think it's hard because if we only shape practices and interventions and programs
around empirical data, then the perfection becomes an enemy of the good, and there is some
realities that exist that we as a university and as a community should just stipulate in the absence
of hard data. The experience of students of color is different and inequitable compared to white
students here. I think as a campus we ought to stipulate that and not need a lot of data to accept
that that exists. And I think we do. It depends on who you ask, and what the rule is, and where
they see it. So I think we have an over reliance of seeking data first that may not be necessary.
Ariana: Like, data from surveys?
Kyle: Yeah. We've been having hard data for way too long. We know what's happening, we know
this exists.
Ariana: So, I have one example that I can give you that I've gained from research Iv'e done on
my own, is like mixing or putting together data, empirical data with running focus groups or
intergroup dialogues.
Kyle: Great, and i know those programs are out there, Moral Mondays, and intergroup dialogues
is what I might be thinking about, interfaith, there are things that I don't know a lot about.
Ariana: Well those are kind of events I think.
Kyle: Yeah, they're events and there are systematic, they are events, affinity based, whoever the
normal characters are that participate in those things go to them, but they don't percolate out to
the broader campus community.
Ariana: To those who need those conversations, yeah.
Kyle: Big, and deep conversations at the very broadest levels of shared consciousness in the
community. So I don't...I forgot what the question was. Diversity assessment...
Ariana: Ideas of conducting successful diversity assessment at SU.
Kyle: So, just so sort of go back to a thought, I'm a guy that lives and breathes and dies by data
in my role, and the most compelling case I make has a very strong data element within it if we
need to be giving recommendations. Just to go back to what I was saying, even if a particular
phenomenon isn't statistically significant as predictor of success or satisfaction or whatever, even
if it's not statistically significant we still need to pay attention to the experience of various
student groups. We only admit something like 1000 freshmen per fall and about 500 transfer
students each year, and those group by themselves aren't very big, in terms of statistical power,
and if we break them down by any subcategories, multiple layers of subcategories, then you lose
all the statistical power and if we only behave based on statistical significance, we're missing out
on a huge part of the students' story. And by god in matters for once too, right. We can do all we
want because it benefits 100 students, and if that student doesn't benefit and remains
marginalized and underserved, we've not done our duty for that student. WE have an obligation.
So, I have some pretty strong feelings about that.
Ariana: Yeah, great. Thank you. Well going back to the campus climate assessment, can you tell
me more about how you engage the results of the assessment with the work that you're doing
now?
Kyle: In this moment I have not gone back and used the data. That doesn't mean the data hasn't
shaped my work pretty deeply by osmosis or whatever as I've helped shape the instrument and
then analyzed it. So it's not as if I've never looked at it or been influenced by the data. I was just
in a meeting where we were talking about, let me think about it, data we hope to have on...I
forget what the purpose was, and, umm, I got to come back to that, but somebody said is that in
the climate data and then I thought wait, it is. We did cut it by this factor and that factor so we
could get after whatever the question was that I can't think of right now, I've got to come back to
it, so it's actually a think that I probably should be thinking more actively about as I consider
how I might do something. I don't know about student development because they have some
programming and things that are underway, they have a new GA position for student success and
retention based on some of these groups of students. I don't know how much they're using the
data, I hope they are.
Ariana: Well can you tell me maybe thinking about your past professional experience at
different institutions, how you've engaged diversity assessment and maybe a campus climate
assessment if you did at that institution, how you engaged that in your work, if you did.
Kyle: So well basically in three or four jobs, in the athletic jobs we didn't engage it at all. That
was very centered on the populations of what I served at that time. In terms, the only assessment
I did when I ran the volunteer and service learning center truly was around food, clothing and
housing insecurity and so at the end of my tenure we just opened up a food bank on campus that
served students and the community, and we did some assessment around that, I think we could
call that related to diversity in terms of class and income. But the purpose wasn't assessing the
diversity, was assessing need. Financial need and need that we could try to seek to fill reasonably
with a food pantry. So, in a very real way the work with the diversity task force and the climate
survey are my first really deep ways into it.
Ariana: Well, thinking again back on the class that I mentioned that my research will form the
foundation of, so a class on diversity assessment in higher education, can you tell me what you
think would make it a successful course?
Kyle: Well I think I'll actually ask a question first.
Ariana: Yeah, sure thing.
Kyle: You're getting stakeholder feedback or input about diversity assessment, when you say
diversity assessment what do you think, and that'll help me understand the class better.
Ariana: Yeah, so, assessment in all it's forms. It could be conducting surveys, intergroup
dialogues, focus groups, and when I think of diversity and diverse students, just identities that are
different than the norm.
Kyle: Okay, and the other think I'll ask you is, do you mean assessment of student experience,
programs, services, policies, academic programs, what is or is not included in assessment,
because that could mean a lot of things, right?
Ariana: I would think student experience.
Kyle: Okay, which would make sense considering the program and curriculum of SDA. Okay, so
what should a diversity assessment class include? Umm...
Ariana: And also diversity assessment can be woven into so many different types of assessment
if the survey or whatnot asks demographic questions.
Kyle: I think that's very smart, and in tune of what I was thinking about initially, which is if we
teach our SDA students that this can be done in a single solution kind of way like we have one
master diversity survey, we know all there is to know and fix everything there is to fix that's not
going to happen, and what you described, embedding it into everything makes sense. So, we
could be assessing impact and success of any given program or policy or whatever it is and we
should include questions around diversity within each and every one of those things.
Ariana: Yeah, the demographics questionnaire so you just know how folks with specific
identities or intersecting identities feel about it, yeah.
Kyle: A very specific example the common app, you know what the common app is?
Ariana: Yes.
Kyle: Okay, well the first time for this fall or maybe the next fall of students, it includes a
question of sex identity assigned at birth, it's never asked that before. So in all the data work and
demographics we've done here and elsewhere, we've got to do a lot of that data work, we've
never been able to get actually the experience of trans students, trans identified students, or
whatever term you want to use there, where the identity is different than what they were assigned
at birth. We've not been able to do that because haven't been able to in a safe and appropriate way
know who they are to then measure any kind of data or anything else, so having that question is a
huge critical and kind of easy step in the right direction. I would encourage when Monica Nixon
was emailing just yesterday in fact the dean of admission and me and some others, the next thing
I said was basically if we're gonna ask what their assigned identity was we need to ask what their
preferred current identity is because we need to be able to measure the experience of students
who have a different past identity than they have now versus those who are, er, I don't know what
the right term is once again but have the same identity they did when they were assigned in the
first place. You follow me?
Ariana: I think so.
Kyle: The experience of the majority students.

Ariana: Cisgender students.
Kyle: Yes, thank you. What does cisgender stand for?
Ariana: Cis just means it's kind of the other end of trans. Trans means different, different
identity currently than they were assigned at birth. Cis just means the same identity.
Kyle: I don't know why cis means that, I haven't really understood
Ariana: It's a science term, the root of it comes from, I read it a little while ago, something with
chromosomes, used in science jargon...
Kyle: I need to look it up, because I know then it'll stick in my head.
Ariana: I know scientifically it means the same, referring to chromosomes, I think.
Kyle: Yeah, so, exactly. So, we'll be able to compare the experience of cisgender vs. trans
identity, but if we've not asked what you were assigned and what are you now, then how are we
gonna know, I don't know how we'll get at trans identity students. That's one critical data that we
haven't had before, and we can make a lot more claims around student experiences than we've
had before because everything we have is solely based on anecdotal feedback from students who
chose to self-identity. Maybe if we have a form, it'll be less threatening than coming out to a
panel or whatever it may be otherwise, so that's a little about that. Iv'e already forgot the question
again. About the class?
Ariana: Oh yeah, recommendations about making it a successful class.
Kyle: SO one recommendation for making it a successful class would be once again stipulate the
question of racial equity is timely and primary kind of over other questions right now. Although I
would be hard pressed to say that I think it is the most publicly visible identity out there, and
maybe transgender identity. I would definitely want to encourage students to think about other
critical elements of diversity, specifically in my case I'm thinking about again class and finances,
and then the intersections of these different diverse identities and more than just the intersection,
then how do we provide wraparound services or philosophies for service to students where we're
as guilty here at SU as anybody else is as a student as a residence, so housing and residence life,
addressing them that way. And classroom, you know community diverse equity, thinking that
way. WE don't do a nice job understanding students taking off their hats. They're wearing all
their hats all the time. And the way we communicate, the way we structure things, the way we
interact doesn't reflect that all the time.
Ariana: So, stressing intersectionality.

Kyle: Yeah, and intersectionality of our programmatic and support offerings. So, students have
their own intersections, we ought to as well. We really don't. We tried to with OMA and ISC, we,
were you here last year?
Ariana: I was not here last year but I heard about it.
Kyle: Painful as hell. I get the philosophy about that move and what the division is trying to do
to say we're not gonna just segment it into one office, etc. And I just can't underemphasize the
role of money in all this. I was even just asking Tiana the other day, what is the literature that
exists around class or SES identity, there's not much. It's always built onto other research, which
is fine, once again I wouldn't privilege that over question of race or other identities, but it's not
all the focus on money, it's about equity and access, and attainment in high school and post-
secondary, but never around identity. We need that. So, I'd be curious how that might be at play
in the class.
Ariana: Well, great, thank you.
Kyle: Sure.
Ariana: Those are the structured questions I had for you, really. Is there anything else you'd like
to share about your work and experiences you'd like to share that would be beneficial for me to
note in this research?
Kyle: I'd go back to the last question about other elements to the class. I'm part of a group on
whiteness, on being a white ally, unpacking that reality. Because we are. So it's a group of white
folks and we've been meeting, I don't know, 4 or 5 times, to say, what does this mean, this
question of equity and these things we're reading about or participating as allies, and how can we
do it better. What are the realities of being white. I think the questions that we're grappling with
can get weaved into this class because it's easy for members of a majority, white or other kind of
majority to say, well I'm not racist overtly, so I'm good. I'll go on my way. And I think that
dominates our thinking often and it would be a great tool as a part of a diversity class to
challenge that thinking and get students to understand, like I asked a question in that group, and
now our students have taken to introducing my names and my pronouns, and I said, I don't feel
compelled to share my pronouns because I feel comfortable with them, why do I need to? And
another member had me see you're comfortable because you're part of the majority, you have that
privilege, as a white male I have lots of privilege happening, but if I don't participate in changing
the system with my colleagues, then I'm perpetuating the system that exists. So that's what I
mean by questioning whiteness, questioning majority status beyond just being a silent ally, or
inactive passive ally, to active allyship is a question of diversity as well.
Ariana: Right, so for researchers who old privileged identities to check their privileges as they're
going into communities they're not a part of to conduct research.
Kyle: We could certainly go into methodology here, I could spend a long time on that if you
want, *laughs* I could teach that class too. Not that class, that's condescending, but I mean I
have a, I'm an epistemologist, and I kind of get ahead of myself, umm, checking my privilege,
bracketing my privilege, I mean if you want to talk about the nature of qualitative research you
can never check it completely, right? Researcher as an instrument is part of that paradigm. Umm,
but checking it in terms of research design, absolutely in terms of behavior and interactions with
members of your research communities you're entering, yes. The thing is I wouldn't be asking
students to understand how to prevent an impact on it because it can't be prevented right? Once
again, I'm a qualitative critical research, so I believe no matter what I believe, no matter what I
try to do, I have biases, and my biases shape my work and shape my result and my write up. So
instead of trying to prevent or check it, it's about identifying it, right? Being in tune with it and
understanding as best as I can how it impacts these things, and accounting for it, right? So when
we teach epistemology we talk about bracketing research where you do your best to work with
members' lowercase truths and bracket my own things that have come into play in my analysis.
So, it's not about checking, but certainly identifying and articulating privilege that's at play in my
research work and not only in research work but my student development work in general.
Ariana: Mmhmm. Makes sense. Well those are my questions, thanks again!
Appendix F
Interview with Tiana
Ariana: So, can you tell me about how you got into your current position, and experiences
youve had working with diverse students?
Tiana: Okay, so, I got into my current position over the summer, I was working at my previous
institution for the last five years and I was contacted by colleagues who are here at Seattle
University, shared that there was an opening for the director of a department, um, if I was out of
curiosity interested in exploring that position and I was, and I went through the application
process and was hired to start at the end of September, early October, so Ive been here a few
months, doing multicultural outreach and engagement across campus. And the other part of the
question was how I found myself
Ariana: Experiences youve had working with diverse students.
Tiana: Yeah, so Ive been working in higher education for about 11 years, overall. In that time
Ive worked with residence live, and multicultural, intercultural centers and offices. My primary
expertise in the field has always been to support students in identity development, retention,
college access, really supporting the experiences of minoritized students, so in my current
position Ive primarily worked with the department thats situated on campus to really advocate
for underrepresented communities on campus and, so I think thats kind of the best way to
explain the fact that Ive been engaged in the work since the beginning of my career.
Ariana: Great. Im curious how you define diversity in the work that you do.
Tiana: Oh wow. Well, I thinkso, I mean, the understanding that I have of diversity as a term is,
you know, the reflection of, of, the varying levels to which people can be present in a space or
engage others in terms of how they see themselves and who sees them. And when I situate that
with my work I think that I play a role in supporting the creation of spaces that allow folks to
explore what that means. Thats a really open-ended question, Ive never heard it that way. But I
think that the way it shows up in the work with my department is helping support staff and a
department thats charged with advocating for those whose backgrounds are not historically
represented at the institution. Also, being a part of developing a community where identities
experiences and lived realities are both celebrated, explored, and challenged. Really with the
heart of it being around making sure we're conscious of systems of oppression, the way they
affect one's capacity to be successful in a space and making sure that we are doing to our fullest
potential and capacity whatever is necessary to allow that those who are facing disempowerment
because of the systems we're operating in, that they're receiving the support they need to be,
umm, successful. And for those that have power, helping them understand what that is, what that
looks like ,and how to not further perpetuate behaviors, mindsets, and actions that really further
suppress those, or further perpetuate dominant systems against those who are experiencing
oppression.
Ariana: Yeah, yeah, great. Can you tell me more about experiences you've had with assessment
of diverse students--I was going to ask here at SU, but I know, if you want to focus on your
previous institutions to
Tiana: Yeah, sure. Umm, so, my experience with assessment is a little bit of everything. Umm,
when I was in both undergrad and graduate school, I worked with both quantitative and
qualitative studies that were situated around identity development and cultural learning. I was
really lucky that when I was in undergrad, I had done fieldwork around some cultural identity in
Zimbabwe, and then I also did an identity development study in relationship to cultural education
as my thesis project in undergrad, so by the time I got to graduate school I was also taking
research and assessment courses that allowed me to further expand those experiences with a
study that looked at power differentials between racialized groups and that was my
comprehensive research study that I submitted for my program. Coming into the field as a full
time professional I had more exposure to working with quantitative and qualitative information
primarily in the vein of one being student demographics and understanding in teams of what
we're able to take in, well, in the information we take in from the common application and, umm,
kind of assessment tools that address diversity or umm, student experiences in relationship to
multiculturalism. I've had interaction with that, and using information, demographic information
to help myself and colleagues understand that when we say this is the student experience with
interculturalism, multiculturalism, this is what that means. So, looking at, you know, the ways
students would look for an understanding of themselves in terms of their racial identity, their
ethnicity, gender identity, some of the assessment there's an acknowledgement around sexual
orientation or gender identity but it hasn't been consistent and there's been reasons for that. And
also unpacking student satisfaction in and out of the classroom in exposure to multiculturalism,
interacting with people who are different than them on campus, and also just some focus groups:
talking about the ways in which they're experiencing the community in relationship to their
identities and that being mostly with students who are coming from minoritized backgrounds.
Both institutions I've spent quite a bit of time interacting with campus climate studies. When I
was at my previous institution I went through three iterations of creating a tool to actually
measure our climate with support of faculty and other staff folks. And then doing an analysis of
the information to present to the campus community. And then coming to Seattle U, umm...
Ariana: So, quick question.
Tiana: Uh-huh.
Ariana: You did that on, kind of on your own with the help of other staff and faculty...?
Tiana: Oh, no, I was part of a team.

Ariana: Oh yeah, it was part of a team, but it wasn't with Sue Rankin or anything?
Tiana: Oh, no, so at my previous institution--oh yeah, so this would actually be interesting for
you. So, Puget Sound had it's own in-house assessment tool that was created by a committee of
folks who were part of the Diversity Council. There was a subcommittee that worked with
institutional research to create questions and measurements for our climate study. So, that was a
longitudinal study for them because it had been in place. So they went from doing, the first time
they did the climate study, the second one didn't take place for another 6 years but then they
decided they wanted to do it more frequently so they could measure all the students, so they were
on a 2 year cycle measuring climate, so by the time I left, there was three. *laughs* So, does that
make sense?
Ariana: Uh-huh.
Tiana: And then here, SU worked with an external consultant, Sue Rankin, Sue Rankin is well
known across the country for all that is Sue Rankin *laughs* but particularly around campus
assessment. and so, this, the version I experiences with SU most recently is the second one.
There was a study that was done, I want to say in 2008, that was part of a, like a, I don't want to
say subcommittee, but there was some version of a diversity council that Marina spearheaded
that did a version of a climate assessment that probably wasn't as extensive as what Sue
presented, but there was a smaller version that gave us some [UNINTELLIGIBLE] Then, in
between all of that, I've used assessment in programming evaluations and then also training.
Kind of, competency assessment, or training evaluation that helped me learn what students
actually learned from that interaction.
Ariana: And, I wanted to go back to what you briefly said about, uh, how gender and sexual
orientation is not, like, consistently asked? That's some that came up in the research I did
beforehand, I was just wondering what your take on that was.
Tiana: Yeah, yeah! So, umm, so, institutions, typically the demographic information that they
pull is from common app, and just in general institutions, they will ask for folks to identify race
and ethnicity, but to disclose sexual orientation is not a general practice because it's not...it's a
self-disclose category in terms of how we're interacting with it on a societal level. So, I'm seeing
intakes where that's optional if people choose to disclose and that's something that was noted in
the campus climate study for us institutionally that folks chose, 2% of our population chose to
disclose genderqueer as an identity, which was huge, um, because again, it is a self-disclose
category. And then the gender piece, so, as our framing for the ways in which gender is
expressed or associated continues to evolve, the language that offered for how folks can disclose
about themselves is also, well, that's the hope. And then there's still a lot of room to grow. I
there's, actually I was thinking of you, there's an article that I haven't read yet, I think it was in
the chronicle or huff post but it highlighted the fact that now there are going to be more
categories for gender expression on the common app which was not the case before. I believe it
was, you can indicate if youre male or female. I think there was a period where you can indicate
you're transgender, but they're expanding it. So, Google it, or if I find it, I'll send it to you. But I
have it flagged. *laughs* For sure.
Ariana: *laughs* Okay, alright. Well, that was great *laughs* thank you.
Tiana: I was like ooh I should have read that article, participated in the study. *laughs*
Ariana: It's totally fine *laughs* Well, what do you think SU should be doing when it comes to
conducting successful diversity assessment?
Tiana: Hmm. Well, I think, well one thing I know is on my mind, I haven't had a chance to really
engage as much as I'd like to, and most likely will be a summer project, but I feel like we don't
really have the most, umm, data informed description of our student body. Like, in terms of
having something that's comprehensive and kind of a paper or one setting that gives us a chance
to kind of reflect on some of the elements in which our students identify, which could inform
whether or not they feel a sense of belonging or connection with the campus community. We
have it through the climate study but, there isn't kind of like a...I feel weird saying this because
sometimes it's just this idea of like here's a one page that kind of helps us frame like, when we
say the diverse experiences of our students, this is what we mean. So thinking about some of the
demographic characteristics that we talked about before. Seeing what students are saying us from
surveys like the NSSE or EBI, about their campus experiences in relationship to identity,
multiculturalism, etc., and we don't really frame that conversation in a holistic way. Like, I think
I'm able to spout out a couple statistics like this many students identify as, um, X racial category,
or this in terms of their gender, but I wouldn't be able to report with any specificity as it relates--I
guess I'm thinking in terms of like, you know, where's faith as part of this conversation, where is
socioeconomics as a part of this conversation, what are the highest yield locations of our
students, how do we look at the intersections of identity in that? I think we're missing that entry
point to framing what the campus experience is like in relationship to interculturalism or
diversity as opposed to just saying we have it. I can actually show you an example, two things
that I have in my, like...
Ariana: Repertoire? *laughs*

Tiana: *laughs* articles that I saw, that I think, that I have in my mind, like, we got to figure out
how to engage this in some degree. So like, for example, USF, they have a history of
multiculturalism, so basically kind of outlining the ways in which diversity has been part of their
campus. Now, this is just something online that's made available through Institutional Research,
but gives them at least from what I gleaned it gives a racial narrative and a gender narrative that
we have in places across campus, but they're being kind of comprehensive, or available for folks
to say wow, let's talk about this, this is our foundation when it comes to issues of diversity.
Another think that I glean from USF that oh we have to figure out to is um, so they actually have
a diversity manual, and I'm not necessarily super like oh yeah you need a book to understand
interculturalism but this is actually very well done and as you'll see is a combination of umm
institutional information that is, it's not, here are the five best places to get burgers, that's not
what I meant *laughs* but it has courses um it talks about um financial aid, jobs, it talks about
um varying departments that work in support of communities that are minoritized. It also has
scholarship information, oh sorry, it has a whole thing on supporting first generation students
with online tools and umm
Ariana: And this is just a booklet for students
Tiana: It was online--
Ariana: Online, yeah.
Tiana: Maps, locations, and granted, this is, um, would take a lot of work but this not to say that
we couldn't modify or find way to make this as available for us. Volunteer opportunities, you
know. Just even having it as a way, a starting point. Counseling services, a starting point, end of
the year ceremonies, loan information, which the description of what it is. So, recognizing that
both with dialogue and you know active and passive information being ways to engage the
conversation on...we have this stuff, it's just all scattered.
Ariana: Would you be able to email this to me? Is that possible?
Tiana: Yeah, yeah, you can actually go on

Ariana: Oh, I can just look this up
Tiana: Just go on their website, type it in, you could even, I'd just go to their...I'll send it to you.
Ariana: If it's online I can just find it. I can find it.
Tiana: You can find it?
Ariana: Yeah.
Tiana: Cause I actually have to send it to the working group, but if I find the link before I'll send
it. But yeah, you can find it. Just type in multicultural, intercultural resources and it'll show up.
Ariana: Yeah, sure.
Tiana: But yeah. My point with that was that, I think we have to find a way to make, to make
this information both comprehensive, so having it kind of centralized and more people can
access it, but then, so, figure out a way that we make it, have our students engage, or just our
community engage, so that being part of training, of conversation. And I do know that I used a
similar method at my previous institution that was effective, because I found that students were
making these statements that oh we're not diverse, but then couldn't really articulate what that
meant for them, and so I said, if you're gonna say that, let's at least be informed around what we
do know about what that means. Offering a chance for people to talk about what the numbers,
what the information kind of informed them to think about, and how they situated themselves in
it. So it also lended itself to people being able to deconstruct the places where their identities
have power and where they didn't and how that might show up in classrooms or living
communities or office environments and so forth. So, right.
Ariana: Alright, shifting gears just a little bit, *laughs* that was great.
Tiana: Okay good *laughs*

Ariana: Um, yeah. *laughs*
Tiana: It feels like this is a test *laughs*
Ariana: Oh, no *laughs* You kind of touched on this a little bit but could you tell me a little
more about how you engaged the campus climate survey in your work here?
Tiana: Uh-huh, yeah, so the climate study findings, I was part of a working, well, part of the task
force that did some assessment of the findings and then informed recommendations that were
provided to the campus community. So I was involved in clarifying what those recommendations
would look like. And I sat on the subcommittee that particularly looked at it from an employment
standpoint, so interaction around faculty and staff issues. And then I also had some interaction
around student experience. Um, post the task force recommendations I had been involved with
umm campus conversations about the findings and the recommendations. Umm, more
specifically I've been asked to chair a working group for student development that looked
specifically at how student development supports and inclusive living learning community and
how to make meaning of those recommendations in our practices, so Im in the midst of
engaging that to create a proposal to our VP of student development that provides an update on
where we're at in terms of the cultivation of community that's supportive of an inclusive climate.
But then also what practices we're utilizing specifically to work with minoritized students. And
the hope is that the recommendations from that working group would then support any strategic
efforts we have in the division for the next few years. So, it will, one thing, so one assessment
tool leads to more kind of direct focus practices that have a layer of accountability to it after.
Ariana: Gotcha. Great. Then, what do you think overall Seattle University should do in order to
successfully engage with the campus climate survey?
Tiana: Yeah. Well I think we should make sure that we keep talking about it. I've been part of
communities where folks are like okay we did a study, we have the answers, now move on to the
next. And one think I am pleased to say is that I've seen our community have, well, has made it
a--how do I put this, has been engaged since the findings were released. Umm, in different ways
that give me hope that this will be an ongoing conversation. So, I think about, you know, times
I've heard Father Steve talk about his understanding of identity and his own positionality with
that, both publicly and privately, I've heard him and seen him engaged; Mission Day, I think the
recent student development in-service where we did some workshopping around the task force
recommendations, and how I have an update on the working group. So that's where I've seen it
live out. And it's also been really cool to see students engaged that process too, I'm thinking of
SGSU, they've just had their climate revisited, so, there was a program where our students
facilitated conversation on the student reactions to the climate study. Umm, I'm also aware of the
ways in which the climate study has supported recent decisions. So, for example the next
common text for the incoming student body will be _Kindred, _and it looks at the narratives of
race, but from the perspective of unpacking the story of black women and why they've lived, er,
the tension around subservients in terms of interaction, where it comes from. I haven't read the
book, but I'm looking forward to reading it.
Ariana: It sounds interesting.
Tiana: Yeah, and I know that our faculty and our colleagues who worked with them to decide
that text, they wouldn't have voted Kindred as the book had we not just had a study that said we
don't talk about race enough. *laughs* You know, I'm seeing little pockets of that. I just had a
conversation with our VP for human resources and addressing training opportunities for staff
upon new hiring status. I don't know if we would have been able to have that detailed of a
conversation in terms of what are we doing to prepare incoming folks around--well, first of all,
what our expectations we have in practice and in support of an inclusive community, and two,
what are we doing to support skill development of our colleagues in that vein. We couldn't have
had that conversation if we didn't have assessment that informed, you know? So, I'm seeing
pockets of it live out, and I'm hopeful that people will continue to use it as a reference point in
conversation, which, it's cool, I was here 2005-2010, and that wasn't an institutional
conversation. It happened in pockets, and I forgot to mention I actually co-taught an assessment
class with Bridget Kelly who is a faculty member in the school of ed in the masters program at
the time, and we used my department as our client, I guess you could say. So, the students in the
class met with the department staff and did various assessments in support of what we were
doing programmatically in the office. So, when I say in terms of using research to inform
practice, at that time, that was the only thing I could think of tangibly that was going on outside
of that other assessment that Marina mentioned--or, I'm sorry, that I mentioned Marina oversaw,
and she might be somebody worth talking to as well in terms of what that looked at the time. So
now, fast forward, it's really great to see how our community has taken advantage of this took
that Sue gave us to think about what we're doing and how that's shaping our students'
understandings of themselves.
Ariana: Great, thank you.
Tiana: Oh, that's it? *laughs*
Ariana: Oh, no, no. *laughs* Almost there.
Tiana: Spoke too soon.
Ariana: No, so, thinking back to that course I was talking about that this research is helping
form the foundation of...
Tiana: Oh yeah.
Ariana: Umm, so, thinking hypothetically if that course was to be developed through the
College of Ed, and it's supposedly both for, two separate courses, one for graduate students, one
for undergrad students, on how to conduct assessment on diverse student populations, can you
tell me about what you think would make it a successful course?
Tiana: Mmm, yeah. I think making sure that there is consultation with folks in departments
whose responsibilities are to work with students. So, but, and so students overall, but also
thinking about it from that frame of who's having most contact with students that we're
unpacking their identities in relationship to retention. Umm, so thinking about departments like
OMA, the International Student Center, I'd even say residence life, I would explore campus
ministry, so thinking about where are those spaces where students are cultivating aspects of their
identity in relationship to Seattle U. Finding out more about their work and how we can be in
partnership, that would be really helpful. I think two, also finding mechanisms for making the
information available as appropriate. So, not that we will want to have all kinds of assessment of
our practices and then slap that online for people to see, but figure out a way of making a
relationship come from the assessment and doing it in a manner where it's not just oh, lets find
out what ISC is doing, and everybody just kind of critique what they think, but like, having these
groups consider together having interaction with the staffs in ways where we're talking about
okay, these are ways we discovered, how does it relate to your understanding of your area of
work. You know, how can we make what we've learned from this process available to the entire
division in support of our greater goal which is to ensure students feel connected on campus and
that their identities and who they are affirmed and supported. So, yeah. And then taking
advantage of the assessments to then, for me as a practitioner, identify what are the things that
we can attach thematically to our work. So, you're doing assessment and we find out that a
significant number of students don't feel like they have an understanding of their gender identity,
in ways that make them feel confident or supported on campus, then that tells me that I need to
make sure we are having lectures and speakers that are addressing gender identity and gender
expression. And then I also need to make sure we're providing ongoing trainings for my
colleagues to ensure that their language and capacity to engage it is also up to date and sensitive
to the needs of what students are sharing. Does that...
Ariana: Yeah, yeah, that...makes sense.
Tiana: Yeah, figuring out what the need is, where are the gaps and how can we use that
information to inform what we know to be important, which is that when you're working with
students, there's ongoing learning that has to be available for everybody involved, and two, what
are the different ways, you know, everyone's going to take information in different ways. What
are the different strategies that we have available for that. Examples of this can be, you know, the
Pinkwashing documentary that's going to be available on campus this week, things like a training
on asexual/aromantic identities that was facilitated with the staff this morning, these are things
that help us, the fact that we were talking about--and I know we were kind of joking about it, but
the fact we were talking about oh yeah, The Ethical Slut, like maybe we need to have copies of
that.
Ariana: Yeah.
Tiana: And thinking who are speakers that, you know, we might consider because we know this
is something students are reflecting on. And so, making sure we're tying it all in and that there's
synergy around it. Not just like, oh we'll just choose this person because they're cool. Being
intentional about it.
Ariana: Right. Well, are there any differences you'd consider between the graduate and
undergraduate level for the course?
Tiana: Oh, in terms of assessment, or...?
Ariana: Of course content, or...
Tiana: Oh probably, yeah. Well, hmm.
Ariana: I know it's a very specific question.
Tiana: Yeah. Well, I don't know. I think, I don't know how to answer that because it's also
dependent on what's the level of exposure of the student to the content. So, I'll use myself for an
example. Coming into graduate school I've had a lot of exposure to research because of the major
discipline I was in. I had peers who've never written a question for, you know, a study or
research. So, we were all kind of coming in from different perspectives but I do think the
expectations of what a graduate student should be able to offer compared to what an
undergraduate student should be able to offer might differ, so I don't really know how to answer
that question.
Ariana: And that's okay.
Tiana: It might need to depend on what the intended outcome is for the class, and then figuring
out what information, so current research or learning tools might be available, or seen as best
practice for an undergraduate student population versus graduate. But I will share that the times
I've worked with both populations around assessment, they've been able to do it. So it's just a
matter of exposing somebody to what those tools are and being clear about what it is that you
need or are asking for, and then going from there.
Ariana: Great, yeah. Well, that's it for my structured questions for you. Is there any other
information from your work and experiences with diversity assessment...
Tiana: Yeah, let me think. You know something that might be worth thinking about is how to
apply it outside of our campus context. So, I'll give an example. I had a conversation with
someone over in Career Services about...they frequently have community partners that will reach
out with the hopes of advertising opportunities to minoritized students. Pretty much they'll say,
we want to recruit diverse students and they'll send this email that says, apply to this job! That's
due next week! You know? Yay! And it's kind of like this, in my opinion, it's kind of like a cold
way of asking for connection to a population that for me and my understanding of the work
really yields best results when there's a relationship. So we talked about how do you help
external parties understand who our population is and if there's a desire to have a connection with
diverse students, what are the ways we can better prepare that relationship? What are the ways
we can support the development of a relationship that is before the ask versus just having an ask
and having people frustrated because they didn't get the yield that they wanted. So I could see
assessment being helpful in creating that story or what's the SU narrative around this? and it
would also assist us in having that clarification with external folks who want to connect with us
in saying like you know we're in the business of building relationships and supporting students in
their time here and we know that if a student has had an interaction with Tiana for at least two
years, prior to graduation, whether it's in a mentorship role or just exposure, she might actually
think about, or that student might actually think of Tiana as an attractive employer to work for
upon graduation, or vice versa. I think we've seen lots of programs that are situated in a way that
help create a pipeline of opportunities for folks in fields that we wouldn't see representations of
minoritized people as much. And so thinking about how that might a part of the conversation for
this course could be useful. And then also thinking about how you frame Seattle in all of this,
Seattle demographics, Seattle operations, Seattle climate, where is it factored into what we see
students saying because it's all kind of happening at the same time and some of it's bumping and
some of it is intersected too, so that might be interesting.
Ariana: True.
Tiana: And I also think what's happening on a national level with the common application would
be interesting to explore too. Because the common application tends to be the first place where
we glean any kind of information about our populations first, and I'm not quite sure, this is partly
why I have a homework assignment for myself over the summer, so I'll explain, at my previous
institution we had an internal data base that pull from the common application. So I could look
up as student and see all kinds of information about them based on what they reported, but once
a student goes through the matriculation process, decides to come to the campus and signs up for
classes, they can actually go into the system and adjust according to their preference as well. So,
with that, I was able to kind of see some patterns in terms of how students may be presenting
information about themselves before coming and how that influences experience upon arrival,
and that's not to say it's a huge statistical significantly different thing, but it was something to
kind of think about in terms of, I mean the information that we glean in this process only tells so
much. That's why I feel you have to have both. You have to have the data to form conversation
and the conversation to inform the data, like, it can't be separated. So I would just make sure
whatever comes of this class, you'd have those two pieces interacting at the same time. Yeah. I
think that's it. I think I've said all I've got. *laughs*
Ariana: *laughs* Well, that's great. This was very helpful. Thank you.
Appendix G
Interview with Marina
Ariana: Can you please tell me about how you got into your current role, and experiences you've
had working with diverse students?
Marina: Sure, well, it's actually been something I've been doing since undergrad, since I've been
involved with our API student group, activism around Asian American studies, my work study
position was in the office of African American affairs, so kind of connected with that and
maintained that even after I graduated and was working in an administrative role. And then I
moved into student affairs after about four years, and in orientation, did a lot of work around
inclusion in our program, we were developing an orientation program and so, worked with that.
And again continued to kind of be involved with mentoring API students and doing some
teaching and things like that. And then got into multicultural affairs full time in 2001 and so I did
that until 2014 basically, and then, 2013, yeah I can't remember what year. But anyways, then I,
so I was doing multicultural affairs at different schools pretty much full time: small liberal arts
colleges, mostly, and then at SU for 8 years. And then, moved into the AVP role after I completed
my doctorate. My dissertation is about WOC who serve as VPs for diversity...some title related
to that. So yeah. That's kind of my experience.
Ariana: Yeah, great. I'm curious how you define diversity in the work that you do.
Marina: Oh, I've been giving a lot of thought to this area. So...I have some...so, my undergrad
degree is in English, so language is something I'm super passionate about, and what language
people use to talk about, you know, issues related to equity and inclusion that matters to me. And
so, I both want both specificity and more expansiveness when people talk about whatever they
put under the umbrella of diversity. I think we use that as an umbrella term to mask a lot of
things and to cover a lot of things and I think sometimes we aren't really precise about it. Like
sometimes I hear, I've heard more times than Im comfortable with--and I hope I've raised it
enough that we can start to stop saying this--but, you know, we're the most diverse university in
the state of Washington, the most diverse independent university in the state of Washington,
right? And I just have challenges about that. So I've asked, what does that mean? Does that mean
for a PWI we have more students of color than any other 4-year school? Does it mean we just
numerically have more? Which I know isn't true. Like, what does that mean? And what does
talking about our students in that way--so, to use diversity as a proxy for race, and then to also
talk about our students as all the same, you know when we know we struggle to have 5% African
American students here, so I think that hides that experience when we use language that is that
kind of broad. So I want people to be more precise with their language. What do you mean when
you're saying this. At the same time I would like a more expansive understanding of what we're
talking about when we talk about culture, identity, inclusion, you know I really, before I even
knew the language of intersectionality it's how I approached my work so that's very important to
me as I think about, it's not even new but the past decade around polycultural approaches and
polycultural framing, you know that our cultures are influenced by our interactions of other
people so my experience of being Asian American is different than my friend Frank's experience
of being Asian American because of who we've interacted with, so we're both Asian American
and that's an important identity to us but we experience it differently. Can we still see solidarity
in that? Absolutely. But can we still see distinctions in that because of where we grew up, who
we grew up with, how we grew up. I think that's all important to make more complex what we
think about when we talk about identity, diversity, so yes, I paradoxically want more specificity
in language and a more expansive understanding.
Ariana: So what does it mean for you personally?
Marina: For me, how would I...
Ariana: Yeah, how would you define diversity.
Marina: Yeah, umm...
Ariana: Well I mean personally, but in your work.
Marina: Right. I really think we have to not have a fixed definition. Like I think we need...I like
the language of minoritized, like there's an action to that, so people who've had a minoritized
experience, like it means there's an agent or an actor in that who needs to be responsible for
helping to address that, so i like that language, but I think who we think about in that group, I
would be uncomfortable with, well... I also think minoritized has some opportunity and I say this
with some hesitation but I think it allows us to contextualize who we count, who we serve, so can
someone who is, who in the US social context has a majority identity, can they have a
minoritized experience? They can, right? If their context changes, and it can give them some
window, some empathy, now what I don't mean is if you go to study abroad and then you come
back you know what it's like to be a student of color, that is not what I mean, but I feel like that
allows us to, it allows us an opportunity for people who have Asian identities, if we use that
language to frame their experience and to understand why they feel uncomfortable sometimes
and why it is when they if they go with a friend to a, like if a white students goes with a lot of
friends to a black event, and their kind of discomfort we could talk about that as privilege, they
don't have to experience that, but we could also talk about the fact that in that space, you were,
minoritized is the wrong way to describe it, you had an experience of dissonance about expecting
a space to be made for you and it wasn't and I think can that give you a window of empathy. In
any case, I don't want to limit who counts because frankly in 2001 when I first got into fulltime
into multicultural affairs work, I really was thinking you know this is trans* students weren't on
my radar. They should have been, but they weren't, it was just not, I hadn't been exposed to that.
And I feel like I you know at that time said no we really need, we're talking about race, and I
think that could have been eliminating. I've been pleased to see how student services and
programs have grown in response to different--first gen students, we knew that was an
experience but we weren't studying it, I mean people were of course, but not at the institution I
was working, so.
Ariana: Well great, thank you. Can you tell me more about your experiences with assessments of
diverse students here at SU and maybe highlighting some effective methods and maybe things
that have been not so effective?
Marina: When you say diversity what do you mean?
Ariana: Yeah, that's up to you to define *laughs*
Marina: *laughs* So here at SU specifically?
Ariana: Mhmm.
Marina: Okay. When I first got here, well actually, so I've been a part of different retention
related conversations for the whole 10 years I've been here, and we've just started to get a little
more granular in how we look at retention data. So when I first got here it was basically did you
stay or did you go? Thats it. And even that was hard to track for some reason. Well, for a lot of
reasons. So we started getting a handle on that, and then it became who's staying, who's going.
And even now, you would not think this would be hard, but it can be hard. So then we started
thinking about how about our students of color? how are they retaining? Then how are our men
and women retaining. And here's the mindblower: if you look at students of color and
gender together, who's staying and going? *gasp* Oh my gosh! Revolutionary question! So, and
I actually still don't have that data. I don't have it, I don't know if Tiana does. You know, it's not
rocket science, but also then questions that come up for me are do they have hard times in
different colleges and schools? How about different programs? How about if they took a math
class? I want to know what the barriers are for our students of color, I want to look at
intersections of identity. So anyway...
Ariana: Can I plug something to you?

Marina: Yes.
Ariana: Something I've gained from my research and other interviews I've had. What do you
think of, on types of assessment on like programs and colleges and classes and things like that,
having a demographic component to the assessment tool, so we know what those identities, how
they're experiencing...
Marina: So I think we're actually getting to a place where we can do that without having to ask,
so I think in student affairs once we get orgsync up and going b/c students will be running, we're
running into a few challenges with this system-wise, we'll be able to know like if I swipe, they'll
know that Im Asian and white, that I live on campus, that I whatever it is. Were not there yet
but we will get there so we don't actually have to ask for that. We actually have at various points
in the division and in OMA ask for that data in assessments and so I think it can be effective
because you know who's coming to your programs, who's not.
Ariana: So kind of weaving diversity assessment through other, yeah

Marina: Yeah, I do think that with course evaluations, they're supposed to be anonymous so I
think that could really be identifying information.
Ariana: Oh, sure.
Marina: Especially for a lot of our students of color, it's like oh I put down I was black and
male, OKAY I KNOW WHO THAT ONE IS because I only have one in my class! And so I think
that makes it a little harder to give assessment in the ways that those processes are designed to
gather feedback. So when I first got here there was a taskforce on diversity in 2006, 7, 8, and we
did a quantitative assessment which was terrible, we created it in house, I was a part of a team, I
was like I don't do this for a living,
Ariana: Why was it terrible?
Marina: Well, we pulled questions from lots of different surveys, we used a student voice survey
and added a bunch of different things, it was like 150 questions long, the demographics questions
were at the end and most people tired out before they got to the demographics questions, so, I
want to say we got like a 10% response rate, and only 1/3 of those people answered the
demographics questions because they didn't get to the end of the survey. So, that piece wasn't
very effective and the piece that was effective was the qualitative assessment that 2 sociology
professors took on with their classes, and they interviewed and focus groups about 90 students,
and the data were amazing. So that qualitative assessment, those focus groups actually informed
the task force process much more than the quantitative pieces. With the committee to improve
trans inclusion we did a snowball sampling of trans students, faculty, staff,
Ariana: What does that mean?
Marina: So, snowball sampling?
Ariana: Mhmm.
Marina: We sent it to people who we knew were trans or to people who might know trans people
and just asked them to send it out. So it's like a snowball rolling down a mountain because we
didn't ask at the time, we had no idea of knowing who identified as trans on campus. And we
ended up with about probably 35 or 36 responses, so that was helpful information that informed
the CITI recommendations, the Committee to Improve Trans Inclusion, and certainly with the
most recent campus climate study, chairing the climate study working group and working with
an external consultant, in part to rectify some of the challenges that we had that first time, and
also just as we looked at, when I talked to other schools, we did quite a bit of homework on this
as a part of the taskforce. Talked to other schools, and I've been a part of an institution that's done
a couple sociology faculty members had done, had coordinated the assessment and they were
both POC, both junior faculty, they just had the expertise and the interest, but they were the
wrong people to deliver the messages. And me as a new staff member in a cultural center. The
three of us were kind of delivering these messages about experiences students are having and
became lightening rods. They also didn't get any release time, so they were wiped out from doing
this. And then the messages just, we were the wrong people to deliver the message in that
institution. We ended up with a lot of blowback, one of those people didn't end up getting tenure,
I ended up leaving, I was an interim director of the cultural center at the time, I didn't get the
fulltime job, lots of things happened. He's now an attorney living in Paris, I'm now here, so we
both ended up okay, but not the best opportunity. So that colored my experience of having
someone internal do it, you just become a lightening rod for all the messages, the defensiveness
people might have. So, going with an external consultant, and we asked around. For a long time I
actually, I was really resistant to doing a climate assessment, doing a full blown campus climate
study, in part because we had so much qualitative data. WE had the data from the focus groups
which were broadly represented in terms of race, it was so well done. We also had different
groups of students who met with trans students, queer students, native students, Latino students,
and I'm saying these identities like they're just one, I know they're not. They all had different
meetings with father Steve, the president, the provost, the VP of student development to talk
about their experiences, and they've all shared examples of the microaggressions, the ways
they've experienced the climate as hostel and exclusionary, and I was in those meetings, so I
know what they were sharing, and it was frustrating to me that that wasn't compelling enough to
move the institution. I was resistance to having a climate study because I was like we have this
information, why wasn't it actionable, why aren't the voices of our students actionable, and I was
feeling super frustrated about that. So finally when the task force was developed and they were
like we're going to do a climate assessment and I was like, okay, so, I could continue to be
frustrated that the way we were providing information isn't getting acted on, or we could change
the way we were providing information. That's on me to do, so I could continue to be frustrated,
continue to put students in this position, or I could say okay, if having the deeply quantitative
data delivered by a consultant the way that you will hear this, then that's the way we're going to
provide the information.
Ariana: Did that frustration last? How are you feeling about it on this end of it, now?
Marina: It was, I'm glad we did it. I'm so glad we did it. Again, people are hearing it differently.
Do I want them to be compelled by the narratives people share? Of course I do. Maybe what we
needed was the numbers. But I was nervous during the process of developing it. Once we
deployed the survey and were waiting for the findings, I was nervous because I thought, what if
the data don't confirm what I know these minoritized experiences are here?
Ariana: That was the fear?
Marina: I was so nervous about that. That was the fear. So I spent 2 years being tense about
what the climate study would say, and it wasn't until like Sue's team was doing it's initial run
through of the data and they were cleaning it up I was like Sue I gotta tell you, I am
like dying here, like I need to know this because I'm going to quit if *laughs* if what this tells us
is that everything's fine, then I don't know what Im going to do. And so she said don't worry, it
doesn't tell you that. Thank god. *laughs* Whew! So, yeah. It told us that a third of our campus
experiences this, and then you slice it by demographics, and the higher percentages of people of
minoritized experiences encounter exclusionary and hostility and all of that. Again, it's been
heard in some way that is different. Im not going to personalize, why didn't you hear me, but
you heard Sue? I knew that they could. Kind of one of our strategies was this, that Sue Rankin is
a white woman. And a researcher, right? Quantitative research is what she does. We chose the
best expert we could. And Sue knows this. Sue said what do you need me to tell people? What do
you need me to back up? What do I know that you've been saying? And the data back it up, and
how do we deliver this message. She knows her privilege. She knows her power, and uses it for
good.
Ariana: That's great. Yeah, wow. Well, can you tell me a little more about how you engage the
campus climate survey results in your work now? On this end of it?
Marina: Well it certainly has energized conversations about equity and inclusion on campus.
WE had the mission day that was about this, I know SGSU had a forum, we went to academic
assembly and talked about it, I think people are, the university leadership council with is a group
of about 60 people which includes like AVPs, up hierarchically, a lot of faculty, deans, folks like
that, so we talked about it in our last meeting and it continues to be the focus of our next
meeting. It's energizing conversations, it's been helpful, so I've been looking at the data for a long
time, and there were 5 of us from the working group that looked at the report initially to make
sure we didn't change findings in any way, but to raise questions to Sue like this doesn't make
any sense whatsoever, just this one example, the typical cutoff for low income that Sue has been
using in all her surveys has been $30,000 and below, and we were like one of the people in the
group is Kyle, so he was like we have a lot of students who are in the $40,000 and below, and the
number of students we wouldn't be including between 30 and 40, and when you think about a
family income of $40,000 and our tuition, I think low income when I think that right? So Sue
changed that. All of our low income stats reflect $40,000 and below or $39,999 for your family
income which is obviously self reported, but I think that is an example of something that fits our
community better. So things like that. We've been looking at the data for a long time but I use it
all the time. WE just did something for SGSU the other night to update them on the work of the
Committee for Trans Inclusion, and we had all the data about trans students as a part of that
presentation. I just met today with the design and construction facilitator from facilities, and
she's been helping us a lot of the gender inclusive restrooms and facilities, and she's already done
that look but she asked me to send her what I had, how are you framing these two so the way I'm
talking about the data is the way you're talking about the data, so we had that conversation today,
so it's getting used. I haven't heard it getting misused, and you know, by that I mean people
taking, I don't know what I would really mean, but saying like 60% of our people experience the
climate is GREAT! I haven't heard anybody saying things like that, I think people are
recognizing that oh my god there's two of us in here, if there was a third person one of us would
be experiencing exclusion on kind of a regular basis. So, I think people are recognizing that's
significant. I would actually like people to be using the data more.
Ariana: That kind of goes into my next question. What do you think Seattle U should be doing
in order to more successfully utilize the results?
Marina: I mean I do think the task force report, we use the results a lot. So the climate
assessment informed the task force's recommendations. As we went through and wrote the
report, we pulled data wherever we could. Wherever there was data to back up. There was
another piece of that assessment that happened during the task force project, and it was this
narrative project of faculty and staff experiences, so we kept journals for six weeks, and basically
it was women and POC and there were a lot of WOC in the pool, I think there was 15 people
who participated in the project and submitted at least one journal. And it's basically like
microaggression, microaggression, microaggression, microaggression, right? I think that was
another way of collecting some data. We referenced that and we quoted some of the people in the
taskforce report. So the taskforce recommendations, these six goals, are all based in the work that
the task force did to assess the campus climate. WE did it through focus groups, we did it
through, there were a couple faculty focus groups that happened, this narrative project, certainly
the campus climate assessment, we sent a survey out to our neighborhood partners, the
neighborhood perceptions of Seattle U, so all of that we quoted. We wanted to make sure people
could see the relevance, like if you participated in the climate study, then your voice is part of the
taskforce recommendations. Your time wasn't wasted. SO I think that was important to us in
terms of transparency and follow through. I got a question the other day from the VP of planning,
how do you find the task force report again? Because it has fallen off in the website transition, so
I was like ooh I better add that back on. I have it on my computer so I'm not going to the website
all the time. But I was like oh he wants to look at the data, and I was like YES! I was like don't
forget, it's a searchable .pdf, the community you want to know about, just type it in! And you
could find all the data about that group, so I would like people to be doing that more, because we
make recommendations about the direction of the division. Like, should we have more direct
first generation student support? Well let's look at our first generation student experiences. And
then people can access the data too, so you can, if theres another questions you want to know
about, if you want to know how first gen students experience the campus climate, I think there's
a little bit about that in the task force report, but if there's more we want to know, then people can
apply to look at the data to say, I'm doing a class project, or in the division of student
development we're trying to decide we want a position in OMA that deals with first gen
students? Well then we need to know more about that, and then that can be part of the
justification either for or again. Does it help us make our decision or uhh it turns out we don't
need that, but this other group we do need, so that's how I would like people to be using it, to
inform practice, polity, research, assessment.
Ariana: Moving back a little bit away from the campus climate assessment back to just general
diversity assessment we were talking about earlier, what do you think SU should be doing in
order, when it comes to conducting successful diversity assessment?
Marina: Yeah. Again I'm not super sure what you mean by that?
Ariana: By diversity assessment? Yeah, I can tell you kind of what I'm thinking about diversity
assessment personally. I think of it referring to minoritized identities overall.
Marina: So just assessing...
Ariana: Assessing how they experience the campus, or either like what we were talking about
earlier, weaving it through other sorts of assessment that's not specific on their experiences, but
how they experience...X.
Marina: Yeah, I do think that's worth doing. We participate in these national studies like the
National Study on Student Engagement (NSSE), Educational Benchmarking Institute for
housing, residential students, and it would be...I don't know how much, the multi-institutional
study leadership or the national college health assessment, those are the big ones that come to
mind from the division.
Ariana: We do those here?
Marina: Mhmm. And so, I dont know for example, I've never looked at those for how our SOC
experience things, or how again, I don't know if we can, we probably can look at WOC, or men
of color, some of those might ask students to identify their sexual orientation, queer students, so I
don't think we've even looked at the current assessment we're doing, it's hard to get access
Ariana: Where does that data go?
Marina: Institutional Research. And it's hard to access, our IR department is pretty swamped,
and they're involved in all sorts of things around modeling budgets and things like that, and so,
being able to look at that and Richmond has those data sets now, that's some of his pieces in his
role around kind of responding to changing student demographics as we need to know what our
changing student demographics tell us. But I also think things of the links, the first and second
year collegiums for commuting students is like, 75% students of color, and I think that has a lot
to do with which students choose to live at home. There are also heavily nursing majors. So,
that's a group of students we should be studying, because they're having a minoritized experience
as commuting students that's really geared to think about residential students, many of them are
students of color, many are women, many are women of color, so I think just wow, that's a group.
And we've talked with Kyle about, if we shared the names of those students with you, can we
track their experience? Do they retain higher, or lower? What's their financial aid look like? How
can we think about where we see minoritized populations and maybe try to understand their
experiences differently. So I think that, these bigger data sets, can we look at that? I think
certainly how do we use that in where we have a sphere of influence, in the division, in our own
programs, can we think more strategically how we can ask for that information. How we use it.
Because this is a think that bugs me. If we ask for information and then don't use it. So if we ask
students the demographic data...because this is what we used to do. We did used to do this. We'd
ask students the demographic information, but then when we typed up the information because it
was a student inputting all this, we couldn't then say which students said this? We weren't doing
sophisticated kinds of analysis. So we stopped asking the question because I said if we're not
using it, we shouldn't ask for it. That's just a thing ethically for me. So, but I do think if we can
figure out more ways to be sophisticated, right? Can we use qualtrics more often instead of paper
and pencil. Can we, will orgsync help us because we can use surveys for events through orgsync
so students will be I hope conditioned to be going on to orgsync regularly and a way to monitor
their own involvement. So can we add that they get credit or a badge for attending something
only if they complete the assessment, and then we can gather some of that data more easily.
Ariana: Yeah, great. Great examples, thank you. Thinking back to that course I was talking
about, that this research is forming the foundation of, so a course on how to conduct assessment
on diverse student populations, can you tell me about what you think would make it a successful
course?
Marina: I do think the ethics of asking for and using information, so were you at Mission Day?
Ariana: I was, yeah.
Marina: Okay, so when Christina Roberts in the fishbowl when she talked about basically being
invisibilized in every single survey we've ever done while she's been there, and for like on the
surface, well intentioned reasons, because if we pull out the data about our faculty who identify
as native, it will be Christina, and now there might be one person in the law school who I don't
think was here when we did the climate assessment 2013.
Ariana: And Kyle apologized to her, right?
Marina: Yeah. And oddly enough Kyle has followed up with Christina cause he was like I gotta
tell ya it's making me so uncomfortable that he said I'm getting tons of positive reinforcement
and Im curious if anyone has reached out to you, and it's like 2 people have talked to her, and
he's getting all this Way to be a good white guy! He's like oh my god, that just exemplifies white
privilege right there, and male privilege, and so, anyway. I think just again, ethical issues around
when we ask, and then we don't report someone's experience. How they experience that. I think
that that's really important to ask. I mean, confidentiality and anonymity were the top concerns in
how we did this study. And that then dictated, but it's like why would I take this as a native
student then anyways? Why would I bother taking that survey because I already know you're not
going to report my experience. I'm going to be globbed in with everyone else. Or, here's another
question about disaggregating data. Can we look at the experience of the children of Argentinean
immigrants, is going to be different from a Chicana from LA, right. Or like a 4th generation
Chinese American person versus someone who came whose family has refugee status from
southeast Asia. There are really different experiences, so are we disaggregating data, how are we
using it, I think those are important questions to consider in a class like this. Umm, so the
development of ethical instruments. How we report things like that. I think just the question of
bias. Like, how does that influence how you create questions, what you think is important. Just
recognizing quantitative research is inherently biased because people are involved. That doesn't
mean we shouldn't do it, it's just that we acknowledge it. There's a way that I look at the data that
might be different than how someone else does. I have what I consider to be skin in the game,
right? So, I'm gonna look at those data, I'm gonna be looking for information that backs up what
I think. So I think that's a really important experience too. The mechanics of it I think are
actually the last interesting part, but clearly I don't have expertise which is why that first survey
that I did here was so bad, so...*unintelligible*
Ariana: What was that?
Marina: I have a 4:30 meeting.
Ariana: Oh, what time is it?
Marina: 4:26.
Ariana: Okay, well, that's okay, those were the end of my structured questions for you. My last
question was just, is there anything you would like to share that I didn't ask that would help form
my understanding of what SU is doing in terms of diversity assessment?
Marina: Yeah, I do think, this isn't for the class necessarily, but I do think it impacts our ability
to use the data is accessing and making available data for people to use and I think that's
something we don't do well. Tackling that would probably help, in fact this is a funny story, at
the in-service that we did, the hackathon in the fall, we were sitting around my table, and another
administrator had prepared all of these data, like the Gallup-Purdue poll, the campus climate
study, all this stuff, the retention data that we had, and we were talking at my table, students of
color was our population, and they were like we should do a mentoring program! And I was like
why should we do a mentoring program?! And they were like, cause it's good! And I was like, or
look at the Gallup-Purdue survey, where the single most impactful practice is mentoring. Let's
use the data. So I think learning how to use data to inform practice. Like, yeah I know it's good,
and we like it, but it also matters and if you need funding for your program it's going to be a lot
more compelling if you can say,
Ariana: Look at the data.
Marina: Yup. Right.
Ariana: Well, thank you!

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Running head: DIVERSITY ASSESSMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Diversity Assessment in Higher Education

assessment in higher education should address.

Statement of Need and Purpose

Administration program. Assessment in higher education is defined as the systematic collection,

as the process of providing credible evidence of resources, implementation actions, and

doing in terms of diversity assessment.

microaggressions and feel more comfortable at Seattle University.

Intervention Matrix, which can develop evidence-based awareness of race-based inequities

(Bensimon & Harris, 2007).

a national level, institutional level, and individual level.

space is predominantly heteronormative and cisnormative, meaning heterosexuality and being

ring true on many college campuses.

of various meanings and interpretations depending on the institutional culture, location,

year/freshmen students, or graduating/senior-level undergraduate students. Two prominent

Education Research Institutes (HERI) Cooperative Institutional Research Program.

collects information from hundreds of four-year institutions regarding students participation in

assesses incoming students high school behaviors, academic preparedness, expectations of

student perceptions regarding the institutional climate, multicultural competencies of faculty,

diversity efforts, and initiate dialogues around multiculturalism (Astin, 2003).

Change Intervention Matrix (MCIM), and intergroup dialogues.

evidence-based awareness of race-based inequities among practitioners and to instill a sense of

these outcomes as a matter of institutional responsibility (Harris & Bensimon, 2007).

conceptualizing and planning multicultural interventions in student affairs. The assessments

intervention required to ensure that a comprehensive incorporation of diverse cultures, values,

norms, and ideas are developed (Pope, 2004).

interracial relations (Alimo, 2012). Race/ethnicity intergroup dialogues may specifically

towards social change (Reason, Roosa Millar, & Scales, 2005).

Assessment on the Individual Level

should a course on diversity assessment be taught?

(20-25%) reported personally experiencing exclusionary, intimidating, offensive, and/or hostile

non-conforming/non-binary students, student veterans, students of color, low-income and/or

including the classroom and climate (SU Executive Summary, 2015).

other two are relatively newer to the institution

campus climate assessment.

beneficial for the research.

be included to make the course successful.

deeper approach to her definition of diversity, moving beyond identities to interactions:

Being conscious of systems of oppression.

around what we do know about what that means.

is throughout the interrogation of what diversity means: strong multicultural awareness,

knowledge, and skills are needed.

development and cultural learningstudent experiences in relationship to multiculturalism. So,

sense of what students thought.

assessments, which were not very successful. Marina explains:

because they didnt get to the end of the survey.

which has yielded more successful results.

further that by weaving in demographics questions:

tell us about their experience as an integrated whole person.

this strategy, any sort of assessment will be incorporating diversity assessment.

it. Rather, as Kyle explains:

she knows her power, and she uses it for good.

when demographics questions are not being asked. Richmond concedes,

to be respondents to the assessment tool.

participants of the assessment. Richmond makes a strong argument to this point:

we got, and this is what were going to do with it.

recommendations. Your time wasnt wasted.

through the literature review.

with Harpers (2008) work in how there is an action being done.

As Marina stated, we need to not limit who counts.

assessment explored in the literature review: diversity assessment on a national level,

conduct in the short term are on an institutional and individual level.

Intervention Matrix (MCIM), and institution-initiated assessment forms like intergroup

Ariana: Repertoire? laughs

Tiana: Okay good laughs