The Problem We All Live With: A Critical Appreciative Approach to Undergraduate

Racial Justice Activism

A dissertation presented to

the faculty of

The Patton College of Education of Ohio University

In partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Stephanie A. Clemons Thompson

May 2019

© 2019 Stephanie A. Clemons Thompson. All Rights Reserved. 2

This dissertation titled

The Problem We All Live With: A Critical Appreciative Approach to Undergraduate

Racial Justice Activism

by

STEPHANIE A. CLEMONS THOMPSON

has been approved for

the Department of Counseling and Higher Education

and The Patton College of Education by

Laura M. Harrison

Associate Professor of Counseling and Higher Education

Renée A. Middleton

Dean, The Patton College of Education 3

Abstract

CLEMONS THOMPSON, STEPHANIE A., Ph.D., May 2019, Higher Education

The Problem We All Live With: A Critical Appreciative Approach to Undergraduate

Racial Justice Activism

Director of Dissertation: Laura M. Harrison

The purpose of this study was to examine, through a critical appreciative lens, the actions of and response to undergraduate racial justice activism, as well as to identify the aspects of institutional culture that foster collaboration with undergraduate student racial justice activists. Recent examples of racial justice activism on university campuses have occurred from frequent use of microaggressions and recurring racist incidents from students, faculty, and staff that have created environments that are unwelcoming for underrepresented populations, particularly African American students. Hostile campus climates have encouraged activism among African American college students in their efforts to call attention to race related issues and implore that university administrators actively address and correct racist behaviors.

The topic of college and university student activism has been frequently studied, from attitudes of administrators toward activists, to attitudes of activists toward administrators, to the benefits of engaging in activism activities toward student development, to how students make meaning of their activism engagement. What is less frequently studied is how college and university administrators engage in proactive strategies to collaborate with student activists who call for multicultural reform on their campuses. My dissertation research sought to fill this gap in the literature to help student affairs 4 educators shift potentially negative views of protestors and demonstrators and embrace activism as a necessary developmental element of the undergraduate student experience.

The goal of my research was to place the experiences of racially marginalized populations at the center of campus racial equity reform work. My dissertation sought to identify what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism, as well as the aspects of institutional culture foster collaboration with student racial justice activists. The critical appreciative inquiry (CAI) framework aims to acknowledge the power that dominant structures have on solution-oriented practices that impact marginalized populations (Cockell & McArthur-Blair, 2012). For my own dissertation research, the CAI lens required that race be a central consideration when collaborating to create a racially just higher educational environment.

Using a case study method, a chronology of events provided a detailed description of racist incidents that led up to a student rally, the creation of a list of demands by student activists, and the response from campus administrators. Student, faculty, and staff subjects participated in semi-structured interviews which followed an interview protocol that solicited information about each person’s role in the rally. A review of the list of demands, university strategic plan, and various other documents were analyzed. Online coverage of the rally from multiple sources were also observed. Interviews, document analysis, and observation were used to identify what constitutes an appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism, and to describe the elements of the institutional culture that uniquely situated the case study institution as a model for collaborating with its students to co-create multicultural change on campus. 5

Four themes were revealed from the data collected for this study about what constituted an appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism: connection, collaboration, dialogue, and transparency. The four aspects of institutional culture that fostered collaboration with student activists were small campus size, early arrival programming, technology, and institutional planning. Strategies for student affairs educators to collaborate with undergraduate student activists who call for multicultural reform are shared for the co-creation of a campus climate that actively promotes equity.

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Dedication

For Jeilen and Sydney, that you remain courageous, compassionate, and persistent,

Jermelle, for your unwavering love,

And Victoria and Dr. Patty, who have been with me spiritually every step

7

Acknowledgments

I am the first person in my family to earn a doctoral degree and the weight of these words is tremendous. I began this journey in August 2012 with coursework and have been writing this document since 2016. Most people who begin the doctoral process do not complete their journey and I would not have realized meeting my goal of creating this research without my village: family, friends, colleagues, mentors, and other key folks who were placed in my path for this season to get me to the finish line.

The faculty at Ohio University have supported my academic pursuits for almost 20 years. I am grateful for my dissertation committee, Dr. Peter Mather, Dr. Yegan Pillay, and Dr. Gordon Brooks, and the guidance of my chair, Dr. Laura Harrison. Dr. Bob

Young advocated for my admission to both the master’s and doctoral programs and I am sincerely grateful for his soft rooting for my success. Soror Dr. Dwan Robinson and

Soror Dr. Lawanda Ward were unselfish with their time and shared their pearls of wisdom with me. Now that I am #PhinesheD, we have greater laurels to win and greater tasks to begin!

My partner has been by my side, pulled me from the front, and pushed me from behind as I worked to tell the important story of this research and I truly could not have done this without him. My children also encouraged me to complete each of these five big papers and I hope they adopt the power of perseverance through my example. My parents, Ronnie Clemons and Bianca Mitchum, along with my siblings, have provided countless hours of child care, nourishing meals, and boxes of tissue that were all necessary components of my process. Though none of my family members have ever 8 traversed this terrain, their prayers and words of support reinvigorated my desire to complete this process. My Sister Circle consisted of strong women who kept me grounded and reminded me of my “why” the many times I wanted to quit: Kia Quinn,

Cheria Dial, Dr. Qiana Smith, Ivory Douglas Levert, and many, many others. This doctoral degree is just as much theirs as it is mine and each and every family member and friend will be with me as my name is called, as I am hooded, and as I cross the stage.

Cohort 12 of the Counseling and Higher Education doctoral program at Ohio

University was a motley crew of personalities who were brought together for the common goal to add three more letters behind our names. We soon realized that this process required much more motivation than the desire to be called ‘doctor’ and embraced the power we have to change the world through our research. Dr. Carissa

Anderson and soon-to-be Dr. Ashlee Tatman celebrated each of my milestones and shared in my heartache of missed deadlines. There are no greater sheroes than these two phenomenal women who inspire me daily to be a better student affairs educator.

The participants for my dissertation research trusted me with the stories of their experiences with racial justice activism on their campus. The students, faculty, and staff at the case study institution were gracious with their time and I am honored to add their voices to the body of literature that exists about contemporary methods for managing the creation of multicultural change on college and university campuses. Thank you, ‘Clara’,

‘Doc’, ‘Gene’, ‘Jay’, ‘Kris’, ‘Maya’, ‘Rachel’, and ‘Rose’. I will carry your voices in my heart and mind as I continue the work of implementing equitable racial justice practice. 9

Finally, I stand on the shoulders of college and university racial justice activist giants and the privilege of writing a dissertation would not have been afforded to me without the sacrifice of these men and women. Georgiana Simpson, Sadie Mossell Alexander, and

Eva Dykes became the first African American women to receive PhDs in 1921. George

B. Vashon, Lucy Anne Stanton, and Mary Jane Patterson became the first African

American graduates from Oberlin College, the first institution in the U. S. open to

African American’s and women. Ruby Nell Bridges became the first African American child to integrate an all-White school in 1960. It is important to me to say their names in my dissertation and I honor these and similar other early examples of racial justice activism in the title of my dissertation. Because of each of you, I am my ancestor’s wildest dreams. Ase!

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Table of Contents

Page

Abstract ...... 3 Dedication ...... 6 Acknowledgments...... 7 Table of Contents ...... 10 List of Tables ...... 14 Chapter 1: Introduction ...... 15 The Problem We All Live With ...... 15 Activism on U.S. College Campuses ...... 16 Concerned Student 1950 ...... 17 College Student Activists ...... 19 Statement of the Problem ...... 22 Purpose of the Study ...... 23 Student Affairs Professional Competencies...... 25 Theoretical Framework ...... 29 Social Movements ...... 31 Defining Student Activism ...... 32 Research Questions ...... 34 Procedures ...... 35 Role of the Researcher ...... 35 Operational Definitions ...... 37 Summary ...... 39 Chapter 2: Literature Review ...... 41 History of African American College Students ...... 41 Integration...... 42 Affirmative Action...... 43 Campus Racial Climate...... 47 Racial Justice Activism ...... 52 University Response to Student Activism ...... 55 “Genetic, hereditary background.” ...... 56 “Inevitable conflict.” ...... 57 11

College presidents' statements...... 59 Perceptions of effective response to activism...... 62 Summary ...... 64 Chapter 3: Methodology ...... 66 Methodology ...... 67 Setting ...... 68 Procedures ...... 69 Data Collection and Analysis Procedures ...... 72 Semi-structured interviews...... 73 Document analysis...... 74 Observation...... 75 Data analysis and interpretation...... 76 Ethical Considerations ...... 80 Trustworthiness, Dependability, and Transferability ...... 81 Trustworthiness...... 82 Dependability...... 82 Transferability...... 83 Summary ...... 84 Chapter 4: Results ...... 85 Portrait of Participants ...... 86 Chronology of Events ...... 87 Pre-incident...... 87 Awareness...... 88 The incident...... 91 Rally...... 92 Rally prep...... 93 The day of the rally...... 94 Cabinet meeting...... 98 Post-rally...... 100 Participant Profiles ...... 103 Clara...... 103 Doc...... 107 Gene...... 113 12

Jay...... 118 Kris...... 122 Maya...... 127 Rachel...... 134 Rose...... 138 Clarification of terminology ...... 142 Rally vs. Protest...... 143 Expectations vs. Demands...... 143 Summary ...... 146 Chapter 5: Conclusion...... 147 Discussion ...... 147 A critical appreciative approach to student activism...... 147 Connection...... 148 Collaboration...... 149 Dialogue...... 150 Transparency...... 151 Institutional culture to foster student activism...... 153 Institutional size...... 154 Early arrival programs...... 155 Technology...... 156 Institutional planning...... 157 Limitations ...... 158 Multiple interpretations...... 158 Faculty participants...... 159 Sample size...... 160 Policy Recommendations...... 161 Climate...... 162 Campus context matters...... 164 Acknowledging and responding to collective trauma...... 165 Trauma recovery – dos and don’ts...... 165 Active listening...... 165 Speaking from the heart...... 166 “Acting with.” ...... 167 13

Building capacity prior to a racial incident...... 168 4-D Cycle Summit...... 168 Future Research ...... 170 Closing ...... 173 References ...... 179 Appendix A: IRB Approval ...... 196 Appendix B: Adult Consent Form with Signature ...... 197 Appendix C: Semi-structured Interview Protocol...... 200 Appendix D: Word Cloud Interview Analysis...... 202

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List of Tables

Page

Table 1 ACPA/NASPA Social Justice and Inclusion (SJI) Competency Outcomes ...... 28 Table 2 Portrait of Participants ...... 86

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Chapter 1: Introduction

The Problem We All Live With

Six-year-old Ruby Bridges prayed to God as she walked through a group of angry

White parents and towns’ residents and became the first African American child to integrate her school on November 14, 1960 (Ciardiello, 2004). Four U. S. Marshalls escorted Ruby into William Frantz Elementary School following the ruling in the landmark Supreme Court case that ended segregation of schools in the United States,

Brown v. The Board of Education Topeka in 1954 (Broadhurst, 2014). According to

Bridges’ own account, on her first day, she sat in the principal’s office, as she was the only child in the entire school (Bridges, 1999).

In 1964, American artist Norman Rockwell, who worked for Look Magazine, created an illustration of Ruby called “The Problem We All Live With” which depicted the first time she walked into the school (Gallagher & Zagacki, 2005). In the color painting,

Ruby is flanked by four individuals with yellow arm bands that indicate they are Deputy

U.S. Marshalls and gold badges pinned to their chests. A piece of paper is prominently displayed in the pocket of one of the Marshalls in front of Ruby, signifying the court order allowed her to attend the elementary school. With school supplies in one hand, she appears to walk confidently with the Marshalls through smashed tomatoes on the ground and does not seem to notice the words “Nigger” and “KKK” graffitied on a nearby outside wall of the school building.

Ruby’s bravery paved the way for other African Americans in elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as colleges and universities across the nation. Many other 16

African American children became the first to integrate their schools as well, including the Little Rock Nine. African American adults who integrated higher education institutions experienced a similar pathway toward education. I honor these and similar other early examples of student racial justice activism in the title of my dissertation research.

Activism on U.S. College Campuses

In the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) study conducted by the

Higher Education Research Institute (HERI), 97 percent of first-year students reported involvement in protests, demonstrations, or some other form of activism while in high school or since arriving at college (Eagan, et al., 2017). This is substantially higher than their peers who entered college the previous year (Eagan, et al., 2016). Historically, undergraduate student activism has been well-documented (Bishop, 2002; Evans & Wall,

1991; Ravitch, 1983; Teske & Tetreault, 2000). A search through the EBSCOhost database on college protests in 2015 produced a list of over 11,000 books, journal articles, and online blogs, some with personal narratives about the ways undergraduate students have engaged in social justice work. Some of the issues that have prompted these protests range from rising college costs (Mulhere, 2015), to opposition to police- involved killings of unarmed African American men and women with the Black Lives

Matter movement (Blake, 2016; Ross & Lowery, 2016), and demands to alleviate hostile racial college climates (Marans & Stewart, 2015). With the increased interest by undergraduate students to engage in social justice work while in college, it is important to 17 examine prevailing attitudes of students, faculty, and student affairs educators toward activism.

Concerned Student 1950

A recent example of activism was witnessed in the efforts of undergraduate students at the University of Missouri (Mizzou), who called themselves Concerned Student 1950, staged a series of protests after the administration had done little to effectively address multiple racist incidents on campus (Eligon & Perez-Pena, 2015; Marans &

Stewart, 2015; Pearson, 2015; Svrluga, 2015). The student protestors, organized mass demonstrations while supporting a graduate student who launched a hunger strike. The student protestors chose this name in homage to the year that the first group of African American students admitted to the university and used this moniker to identify themselves when speaking to reporters (Dietrich, Bajaj & Marvin, 2016). Student activists presented the administration with a list of demands, which included the immediate resignation of the president, Timothy Wolfe, and increased diversity training on campus (Libresco, 2015; Pollock, 2016).

In support of this movement, members of the Mizzou football team announced that they would not practice or play until university president Wolfe resigned (Nadkarni &

Nieves, 2015). The protests by the Concerned Student 1950 group and players of the Mizzou football team, coupled with negative press and pressure from university leadership and stakeholders, led the president and chancellor to resign on November 9,

2015. Wolfe delivered a statement during a press conference upon resigning: 18

It is my belief that we stopped listening to each other. We didn’t respond or

react. We got frustrated with each other, and we forced individuals like Jonathan

Butler to take immediate action or unusual steps to effect change. This is not – I

repeat – not the way change should come about. (Morris, 2015, para. 13)

Two years later, the university continues to face challenges with its image from the national attention garnered by student activism. Before the protests, the university had experienced steady growth, but for the first time since 2007, new enrollment dropped below 6,000 students from 2015 to 2016 (Finn, 2017). The campus now faces budget cuts due to the enrollment decline and less state funding and in response has had to close seven residence halls and cut more than 400 positions (Hartocollis, 2017). Months following the end of the campus protests, Missouri State Representative Donna

Lichtenengger used the activism to support passing a budget amendment that would deny

Mizzou an increase in state support, which many individuals viewed as a punishment against the university (Kingkade, 2016). President Barack Obama expressed that student activism is healthy and should be cautiously encouraged:

...whether there is campus activism. I think it’s a good thing. But let kids ask

questions and let universities respond. What I don’t want is a situation in which

particular points of view that are presented respectfully and reasonably are shut

down, and we have seen that sometimes happen. (Frej, 2015, para. 7)

This advice from former President Obama makes it imperative that student affairs educators embrace the activism efforts of the newest generation of college students. 19

College Student Activists

Current college student activists represent Generation Z. Born in 1995, the first wave of Generation Z students entered college campuses in fall 2013 as the Class of

2017. These students have always treated Wi-Fi as an entitlement, are not impressed learning someone is the ‘first woman’ to hold a position and have always said ‘only yes means yes’ as opposed to ‘no means no’ (McCrindle et al., 2009). Generation Z students described themselves as responsible (90%), loyal (85%), thoughtful (80%), determined (74%), compassionate (73%), and open-minded (70%) (Seemiller and Grace,

2016). Based on the above-mentioned characteristics, these students might be more civically engaged in their college and university campus communities and student affairs educators might consider providing multiple opportunities to develop skills as change agents.

The self-portrait painted by Generation Z students suggests that they possess the maturity and focus necessary for young adults whose deep concern for others can be actualized in the form of lasting change. This is a marked contrast from the Millennials, who are also referred to as Generation Me, the Lost Generation, and Trophy Kids (Howe

& Strauss, 2000; Twenge, 2006). Generation Z recognizes that societal issues are much larger than themselves and, armed with a realistic outlook of society inherited from their

Generation X parents, are committed to those around them and motivated by making a difference.

While there is an oversaturation of literature about the Millennial generation

(Bonner, Marbley & Howard-Hamilton, 2011; Cavallero, 2013; Espinoza, 2012; Howe 20

& Strauss, 2000), there is far less scholarly research about Generation Z (Combi,

2015; Seemiller & Grace, 2016). The research of Combi adds the voice of Generation Z students from the UK to the literature, while Seemiller and Grace’s research described what we could expect as these students enter our college campuses. There are few other studies about Generation Z (McCrindle, 2009; Fister Gale, 2015), but none that I have located that highlight racial justice activism research through a critical appreciative inquiry lens.

While most of the research about Generation Z provides trend data, a portion of one study focuses on what these students think about social change. The research of Seemiller and Grace (2016) highlighted a number of factors that put Generation Z students in a position to be strong, active supporters and allies of social justice on our college campuses. Their deep concern for issues of racism, sexism, and poverty shows that Generation Z is the least likely of the four most recent generations to believe in the

American dream that hard work gives everyone an equal opportunity to be successful.

Given that they are responsible, ambitious and lack a sense of entitlement, they are more likely to challenge notions of equity, access, and equality. This study also found that

Generation Z students are liberal to moderate on social issues, and the issues of grave concern to these students are education, employment, racial equality, violence, and human rights. Similarly, volunteering is the least used engagement method for

Generation Z students, as this social change-oriented generation sees their contribution to the world as being more about addressing the societal root causes of problems than wasting time on the symptoms. 21

The current population of traditional-aged college students represents the most diverse generation to date (Combi, 2015). More than 70 percent of new college students are motivated by not wanting to disappoint those they care about, advocating for causes that are important to them, and making a positive difference for those who they consider less fortunate (Combi, 2015). Undergraduate college students also possess a technological savvy that gives them constant access to world issues and they desire to find solutions to society’s ills (Seemiller & Grace, 2016). The results from the

2015 CIRP study suggest that these protests will not cease as new undergraduate students arrive on college campuses.

Demonstrating such a strong commitment to improving the plight of society suggests that some undergraduate student populations on college campuses are motivated by a deep desire to correct systemic oppression. Much social justice research exists on topics including definitions of social justice (Bell, 2013; Novak & Adams, 2015), attitudes toward advocacy and activism on college campuses (Broadhurst & Martin,

2014; Broido & Reason, 2005; Davis & Harrison, 2013; Meyer, 2000), and the development of student allies, advocates, and activists (Broido, 2000; Edwards, 2006;

Krejci, 2007; Moffett, 2016; Watt, 2007; Viray & Nash, 2014; Washington & Evans,

1991). However, there is little research on the appropriate steps for a university to approach student activism, which could aid in avoiding negative national attention, drops in student enrollment, state budget cuts, empty residence halls, and massive lay-offs of staff and other administrators. 22

Statement of the Problem

In higher education, social, cultural, and political environments are continually characterized by protests and public displays of student angst (Dickey, 2015; Libresco,

2015; Mulhere, 2015; Ross & Lowery, 2016; Wong & Green, 2016). Flat enrollment and low retention rates have threatened the emotional well-being for students of color

(Allen, Epps & Haniff, 1991; Campbell & Manning, 2014; Gin, Martinez-Aleman,

Rowan-Kenyon & Hottell, 2017; Green, 2016; Kalsbeek, 2013; Solorzano, Ceja

& Yosso, 2000). Faced with these trends, many student affairs educators have advocated for increased staff support, the creation of cultural centers, and the intentional implementation of inclusive strategic planning (Otchere, Williams & Bankhead, 2017).

Recent student activism has prompted changes within colleges and universities nationwide. Activism at some universities is encouraged for the learning outcomes that student activists possess upon graduation (Rosas, 2010). However, at times, these acts of civil disobedience cause repulsion, resistance, and even reprimand by university administrators. The Board of Regents at the University of Wisconsin-Stout recently approved a protest punishment policy that calls for suspending and expelling students who disrupt campus speeches and presentations (Richmond, 2017). However, focusing exclusively on the negative does not inspire change, and research suggests that a deep analysis of those areas in an organization that are working, called bright spots, is useful in shifting attention away from what is wrong (Harrison & Hasan, 2013; Heath & Heath,

2010). 23

Undergraduate student participation in activism is positively associated with fostering the growth of civically minded college students (Biddix, 2014). There is a range of institutional response to student activism – from implementing punishment policies to the creation of new roles and resources to support these civic engagement activities. Student affairs educators are uniquely positioned to amplify the voices of student activists among college and university administrators, thereby shifting potentially negative perceptions of protests and garnering powerful institutional allies (Harrison & Hasan, 2013). How can student affairs educators place the experiences of marginalized student populations at the center of campus multicultural reform work? More specifically, how can student affairs educators partner with undergraduate student activists who advocate for more racially just college and university campuses?

Purpose of the Study

As I considered ways I could utilize my dissertation research to investigate racial justice activism, I came across a story about a small university that had experienced a rally following an instance of campus racism in 2016. A White male student used a racial slur in the lobby of a residence hall where three African American women were studying, and this incident caused a rally to be planned and the creation of a list of demands. Immediately following the bias incident, the students sought advice and guidance from administrators at the institution to map out the details of the rally with a march through campus and to write a list of demands that would be presented to top leaders at the university. The administrators accepted the demands, published them on a 24 website, and continue to update them as progress is made toward meeting completion of each goal.

No students were punished, suspended, expelled, or arrested for their activism at this institution. I determined that it was important for me to tell the story of how this university affirmed the undergraduate student activists on its campus to add a positive narrative to the literature about how to respond to racial justice activism. The purpose of my study was to examine, through a critical appreciative lens, the actions of and response to undergraduate racial justice activism, as well as the aspects of institutional culture that fostered collaboration with undergraduate student racial justice activists. Using a case study methodology, a chronology of events provided a detailed description of the racist events that led up to a student rally, the creation of a list of demands by student activists, and the response from administrators at the case study institution. The case study institution placed the experiences of their marginalized populations at the center of their campus racial justice reform work and I provided strategies to encourage other student affairs educators to collaborate with undergraduate student racial justice activists for the co-creation of a campus that actively promotes equity.

The actions of the students and student affairs educators at this particular institution represented an innovative approach to addressing racial justice activism. Success was achieved through behaviors by that deviated in a positive way from the norm. Positive deviance (PD) is a problem-solving process that encourages attentiveness to outliers who represent “successful exceptions” (Pascale, Sternin & Sternin, 2010, p. 3). Positive deviance excels when addressing complex social system problems that require change, 25 such as responding to racist acts on campus or reaffirming an institution’s commitment to an environment that is welcoming and inclusive of everyone. PD provides a fresh alternative when problems are viewed as inflexible and redirects attention from what is wrong to what is right or can become possible.

Student affairs educators may benefit from positive organizational scholarship (POS), which emphasizes organizational thriving (Mather & Hess, 2013). During times of turmoil that result in campus activism, the POS framework allows college and university administrators to move away from punishment tactics and re-position their efforts on creating opportunities for student activists to flourish. For my own dissertation research, the case study institution experienced a racist incident that occurred on the campus in

2016 and undergraduate student activists and administrators worked together to organize a rally, create a list of demands, and talk with senior leadership. The administrators graciously accepted the protest and demands and addressed each request. This response was uniquely different from most other college and university campus activism and warranted additional investigation as to why the institution reacted so favorably. Perhaps the student affairs educators at the case study institution followed the competencies outlined by the guiding organizations of the profession when working with matters of social justice and equity.

Student Affairs Professional Competencies

In July 2015, the two guiding organizations of the student affairs profession, the

American College Personnel Association (ACPA) and the National Association of

Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), formally adopted a common set of 26 professional competency areas for student affairs educators. These 10 competencies define the work of higher education professionals and establish a baseline set of skills necessary for success within the current and future higher educational environments

(Johnson Eanes, et al., 2015). Each individual competency area possesses a unique set of defining characteristics while also connecting with outcomes of multiple other competencies.

An understanding of the full scope of the ACPA/NASPA professional competencies, as well as how students learn and develop, is imperative for the work of student affairs educators, who cannot otherwise effectively engage in equity and justice efforts (Johnson

Eanes, et al., 2015). The competency areas are: Personal and Ethical Foundations (PEF),

Values, Philosophy, and History (VPH), Assessment, Evaluation, and Research (AER),

Law, Policy, and Governance (LPG), Organizational and Human Resources (OHR),

Leadership (LEAD), Social Justice and Inclusion (SJI), Student Learning and

Development (SLD), Technology (TECH), and Advising and Support (A/S). The 10 competency areas have foundational-, intermediate-, and advanced-level outcomes. The foundational levels represent essential knowledge upon which the intermediate and advanced competency outcomes are built. Mastering the foundational outcomes for all competency areas should be a priority, with observable measurable movement from introductory skills and attitudes to application, leadership, and the adoption of values and habits.

The SJI competency area is defined “as both a process and a goal and includes the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to create learning environments that foster 27 equitable participation of all groups while seeking to address and acknowledge issues of oppression, privilege, and power,” (Johnson Eanes, et al., 2015, p. 30). The SJI competency area requires that student affairs educators possess a sense of how their own privileged and marginalized identities impact the power of their positionality and the ways they engage with colleagues and students. Professional development in the SJI competency area compels student affairs educators to understand oppression, privilege, and power before an understanding of social justice can be developed. This awareness guides how one utilizes the outcome lists in efforts to meet the needs of all groups through the equitable distribution of resources, raise consciousness, and repair past and current damage on campuses.

The outcomes of the social justice and inclusion competency area outline the knowledge that student affairs educators need in order to support students with marginalized identities, which provides insight into the experiences of these students and may explain why inequities would cause oppressed students and their privileged allies to engage in activism on campus (Johnson Eanes, et al., 2015). With a basic level of awareness of the SJI competency area, student affairs educators can possess a desire to deepen their commitment toward addressing institutional barriers. The outcomes of the intermediate level of the SJI competency area require movement from self-awareness to efforts to educate one’s community about inequity. The final SJI outcome level represents a set of outcomes that require a deliberate strategy to achieve a campus environment that is fully supportive of the activism efforts of its students. In the advanced outcomes of the SJI competency area, student affairs educators should strive to 28 create fair and equitable allocation of campus resources while meeting the needs of all student groups and working to restore dignity from social wrongdoing. There are eight foundational outcomes, nine intermediate outcomes, and 10 advanced outcomes for the

SJI competency area. The outcomes for each level are listed below in Table 1.

Table 1 ACPA/NASPA Social Justice and Inclusion (SJI) Competency Outcomes Foundational Outcomes Intermediate Outcomes Advanced Outcomes

1. Identify impact of lived 1. Design inclusive events 1. Ensure institutional experiences of systems of to challenge oppressive practices respect, represent socialization systems all people 2. Understand effects of, 2. Facilitate dialogue about 2. Assess effectiveness of participation in power, justice, inclusion, power, remove barriers to address privilege, oppression privilege, oppression issues of inequity 3. Engage in critical 3. Use non-discriminatory 3. Take responsibility for reflection to identify one's hiring, promotion for role in perpetuating own biases, prejudices inclusive teams discrimination, oppression 4. Do tasks to understand 4. Identify barriers to social 4. Advocate for social inclusion, privilege, justice, inclusion; assess justice values in mission, oppression, power role in addressing barriers goals, programs 5. Integrate justice, 5. Advocate for a more 5. Create ongoing strategic inclusion, oppression, inclusive, socially plans for continued privilege, power into work conscious department development of inclusion 6. Connect, build genuine 6. Interrogate roles in 6. Link departmental relationships; acknowledge oppression, privilege, performance metrics with intersecting identities power systems justice, inclusion work 7. Articulate understanding 7. Provide inclusion, social 7. Share tips with others to of social justice, inclusion justice professional dismantle oppression, in higher education context development opportunities privilege, power systems 8. Support local, national, 8. Effectively address 8. Foster, promote culture global justice, oppression, impact of bias incidents on that supports free, open privilege, power issues campus communities expression of ideas 9. Implement appropriate 9. Demonstrate prowess in measures to assess campus addressing incidents of climate of students, staff discrimination 10. Ensure equitable distribution of campus resources for all 29

Social justice education requires constant interrogation of what is believed to be true

(Davis & Harrison, 2013). Viewing college activism through a positive lens could aid in one’s development of empathy and provide practical support for undergraduate student activists. The added layer of activism that is identity-based may require a more critical positive lens.

Theoretical Framework

Through this research, I sought to examine undergraduate racial justice activism through a critical appreciative inquiry framework. This lens allowed me to investigate elements of a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism and identify how the case study institution collaborated with undergraduate student racial justice activists. It is worth exploring the differences between appreciative inquiry and critical appreciative inquiry, as it is this key distinction that allows student affairs educators to place marginalized students at the center of social justice reform work.

Appreciative inquiry (AI) is an intentional and positive approach that focuses on the strengths of individuals and organizations to accomplish co-created goals (Bloom,

Hutson, He & Konkle, 2013). Cooperrider and Whitney (2005) defined “appreciate” as the act of identifying the best in people or one’s surroundings and “inquire” as an examination to discover new possibilities. AI, as an organization development process, provides an approach to change management that grows out of social constructionist thought through its deliberately positive assumptions and rejection of deficit-oriented methodology (Cooperrider, Whitney & Stavros, 2008). Appreciative inquiry exists as an instrument for recalibrating the lens through which we understand a movement 30

(Harrison & Hasan, 2013). When developing a response to racial justice activism, interrogation of how race may impact the AI process should be examined.

Critical appreciative inquiry (CAI) acknowledges how difference, power, and diversity impact positive inquiry in which a highly complex problem has been identified

(Cockell & McArthur-Blair, 2012). More specifically, CAI positions the privilege, power, and oppression that dominant identities possess when exploring solutions to ensure equity and justice for those with marginalized identities. The concept of productive tension occurs through CAI when student affairs educators integrate inclusive dialogue into appreciative practice with the goal of creating a welcoming and just community (Brookfield, 2005; Grant & Humphries, 2006). The CAI model is useful when approaching positive inquiries that have audiences, issues, and/or circumstances in which one or more social identities are a critical aspect. While scholarship utilizing CAI as a framework continues to emerge, for my own dissertation research, the critical appreciative inquiry lens required that race be the central identity for the creation of an equitable and socially just higher educational environment.

CAI aims to acknowledge the power that dominant structures have on solution- oriented practices that impact marginalized populations (Brookfield, 2005; Cockell &

McArthur-Blair, 2012; Grant & Humphries, 2006). I believe investigating racial justice activism through a critical appreciative inquiry framework honors a shared humanity, affirms a sense of belonging, and creates urgency among a university’s administration that places its students of color at the center of reform work. Student activism can oftentimes be unpredictable, with little to no warning about when or why protests take 31 place, and this requires educational leaders to make quick decisions in response. My dissertation research examines campus racial justice activism from inception through university response to discover valuable lessons for what is perceived by the researcher as a case of effective handling of a student protest.

Social Movements

As people come to a critical level of understanding about the ways they knowingly or unknowingly participate in oppressive societal systems, they seek innovative ways to empower themselves to create social change (Harro, 2013). Social movements occur when groups of like-minded individuals collectively decide to challenge structures they are unwilling to accept (Meyer, 2000). Undergraduate students’ participation in protest and social movements may be a way in which they engage in social justice work as they become more comfortable on college campuses.

There are four key elements that distinguish social movements from other social and political events (Meyer, 2000). First, social movements confront some sort of authority deemed to have the capacity to rectify injustices. This authority is considered the most important individual or group and therefore the only body with the power to process claims, adjudicate disputes, and make decisions. Second, social movements challenge cultural norms and transform the lives of those who participate in them. They uphold humanity and can confirm oppressive norms that are unacceptable. The third element of social movements combines methods accepted by society with other social justice tactics, which cause traditional definitions of activism to expand. Strategies are chosen that place disenfranchised individuals at the center of reform work, and these movements are 32 defined by their visibility within mainstream culture. This third element of social movements is similar to that of tempered radicals, who have bold change agendas but modest and incremental methods of realizing that change (Meyerson, 2008).

The fourth and final element of social movements calls for a collection of organizations and individuals collaborating to achieve a similar set of goals (Meyer,

2000). Activists must build coalitions with other movements to be part of a larger social movement; failure to do so can hinder the effectiveness of a movement due to a somewhat limited scope (Moffett, 2003). Joining with other like-minded organizations can often propel a social movement forward so that it gains the recognition required for systemic change.

Defining Student Activism

Today’s undergraduate students are required to think critically to weigh relevant evidence and make sound decisions, craft a sense of identity that honors their own needs as well as the needs of others, and develop intercultural maturity to work competently with diverse others (Baxter Magolda, 2014). To feel the suffering of others and to then work to lessen that suffering is the most powerful social justice activism of all

(Viray & Nash, 2014). As individuals come to a more analytical understanding of the nature of oppression and the ways they participate in perpetuating this systemic phenomenon, they seek new and self-empowering ways to creating social change (Harro,

2013).

Most socially conscious people working to address injustices recognize that personal- level changes are insufficient (Harro, 2013). An activist is a person who participates in 33 direct action social movements to dismantle structural problems and build coalitions for systemic change (Moffett, 2003). Activism denotes taking bold action in order to produce immediate outcomes and is a product of radical candor, righteous indignation, critique, and immediate, tangible results (Viray & Nash, 2014). Ultimately, the development of social justice efforts must result in action that disrupts the dominant ideology that maintains social inequity (Reason & Davis, 2005).

Activists engage in social movements to free society from oppressive systems.

Liberation workers possess an awareness or consciousness of oppressive systems yet maintain a sense of optimism in the creation of strategies for widespread equity and justice (Love, 2013). Developing a liberatory consciousness contains four elements: awareness, analysis, action, and accountability. Awareness involves developing the capacity to notice daily thoughts, behaviors, language, and actions for the purpose of living life from a mindful position. Analysis is the second element of a liberatory consciousness, which requires individuals to not only notice what is going on around them, but to think critically about why and what can be done about it. The third element, action, recognizes that awareness and analysis alone are not enough.

Activists must decide what needs to be done and see to it that it is addressed (Love,

2013). The fourth element of developing a liberatory consciousness, accountability, requires establishing clear division of duties and places emphasis on how tasks are understood and managed to reduce working in isolation. Awareness, analysis, action, and accountability are necessary for engaging in social justice work. This work is achieved 34 through social movements, which represent the outward expression of frustration from activists with systems that stand to deny equitable access to everyone.

There are many ways that individuals can be activists. A liberation worker is committed to changing systems to create greater equity and social justice (Love,

2013). Activism, then, is noted by an active engagement in the collective efforts to disrupt systemic oppression (Harro, 2013; Moffett, 2003). For the purposes of this research, I was interested in further exploring and understanding student activism that involved student protests. These are events that draw groups of students together in order to make a statement about an issue and can include rallies, marches, protests, sit-ins, and other direct action (Atkinson, 2014). Undergraduate student leaders working to empower their communities are essential for creating change.

Research Questions

The research questions that guided this study were:

1. What constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice

activism? In other words, how did student affairs educators at the case study

institution support undergraduate student activism on its campus?

2. What aspects of institutional culture foster collaboration with undergraduate

student racial justice activists? In other words, what characteristics about the case

study institution allowed staff and undergraduate student activists to work

together?

The interview protocol is in Appendix C. 35

Procedures

This qualitative dissertation utilized an instrumental case study methodology to understand how one small, private, liberal arts university in the mid-west positively responded to student activism on its campus. Multiple forms of data were used to create a detailed description of the case and its setting (Creswell, 2013). Through purposeful sampling, in-depth, semi-structured interviews were held with student activists, as well as key faculty, staff, and senior university administrators. Observations of online video footage of the rally provide a more nuanced understanding of the setting. Document review of the list of demands, institution website, and the university strategic plan corroborated interviews and researcher observations.

Role of the Researcher

I have a vested interest in the outcome of this research, so it is important to provide transparency about my connection to this study. I have served as a student affairs educator for the past 15 years and in that time, I have worked in residence life, student activities, and financial aid, with the bulk of my career spent with multicultural affairs work. The focus of my work has been on providing support and services that I myself needed as an undergraduate student. I feel it is my purpose to guide students through the process of earning their Baccalaureate degrees and I consider it a true honor and privilege to have been part of the journey of the hundreds of students I have mentored. It is especially fulfilling to help students see the many ways that they can leverage their degrees to accomplish their dreams, and more rewarding when students 36 connect their academic pursuits with their passions for creating meaningful change in society.

I have worked primarily with underrepresented racial minority students throughout my career who often experience discrimination and oppression and are subject to countless microaggressions that challenge their presence on campus and question their academic preparedness. While many of my mentees have accepted that this is an unfortunate reality of their college experience, there have been some who refused to concede. These activists commit to gaining knowledge about the culture that perpetuates dehumanizing myths in order to dismantle systems that reinforce inequity. The learning is reciprocal, and the roles of teacher and student were frequently exchanged during our interactions with each other.

I have often served as an advisor for students who desire to apply the knowledge they have gained about various issues through their activism. As a student affairs educator, I am part of the proverbial Administration and my direct support of student activists has, in some instances, caused negative repercussions due to the highly politicized climate on the campus with which I currently work, which is not the case study institution. I view myself as a tempered radical (Meyerson, 2008) and if I am to maintain my position at this institution while helping my students strategize as they engage in activism, my guidance must be consistently and carefully negotiated.

A researcher’s background will affect what is chosen to investigate, the angle of inquiry, the methods judged most adequate for the purposes of study, the findings considered most relevant, and the framing and articulation of the conclusions 37

(Malterud, 2001). I identify as an African American woman who grew up in a small

African American community and was the first in my immediate family to earn both a bachelor’s and master’s degree and will be the first to earn a doctorate. As an undergraduate student, I attended a small, private, predominately White institution (PWI) and experienced many troubling interactions with White professors, classmates, and roommates about my racial, gender, and low socioeconomic status identities. During my life, I have worked as an advocate and activist for racial justice and it is through this lens that I view my dissertation research. This self-awareness, or reflexivity, requires that I be true to the ideas and perspectives of those I will study, which places me particularly close to the phenomenon in this study (Patton, 2014).

Operational Definitions

1. Racism: a “system of advantage based on race” that informs beliefs and

behaviors and dictates societal policies and practices (Tatum, 2017; Wellman,

1977).

2. Power: the socially constructed constraints over subordinate groups set by

dominant groups that must be conserved to retain systemic advantages for

privileged identity groups (Tatum, 2017).

3. Privilege: a societal classification of invisible benefits, whether earned or not,

that are denied to some simply because of the group(s) to which they belong

(Johnson, 2013; Tatum, 2017). 38

4. Oppression: the system of societal policies and practices that function to the

advantage of those in dominant groups and to the disadvantage of subordinate

group members (Tatum, 2013).

5. Racial microaggressions: harmful, subtle racial insults communicated verbally or

behaviorally, whether intentional or unintentional (Sue, 2010).

6. Social justice: is “both a process and a goal of full and equal participation for

all groups in a society,” (Bell, 2013; Reason & Davis, 2005).

7. Racial justice: the fair and equitable treatment for people of all races (Reason,

Roosa Millar, & Scales, 2005).

8. Activist: a person who participates in direct action social movements to dismantle

structural problems and build coalitions for systemic change (Moffett, 2003). For

the purposes of this research, I was interested in further exploring and

understanding student activists who participated in student protests.

9. Student affairs educator: an individual who fosters and promotes interactions for

teaching and development opportunities outside of the classroom, while

encouraging an understanding and respect for diversity, a belief in the worth of

individuals, and supporting the needs of students (NASPA, 2018).

10. Institutional culture: measurable evidence of the operational decision-making

processes, methodological procedures, and communication patterns between

individuals within an organization; elements of organizational culture include:

leadership, mission, information, environment, and strategy (Tierney, 1988). For

the purposes of this research, I was interested in further exploring and 39

understanding the aspects of university culture that foster a critical

appreciative approach to undergraduate student racial justice activism.

11. Appreciative inquiry: an intentional and positive approach that focuses on the

strengths of individuals and organizations to accomplish co-created goals

(Bloom, Hutson, He & Konkle, 2013).

12. Critical appreciative inquiry: the ways difference, power, and diversity impact

positive inquiry (Cockell & McArthur-Blair, 2012).

Summary

The purpose of this study was to examine what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism, as well as the aspects of institutional culture that foster collaboration with undergraduate student racial justice activists. Using a case study methodology through a critical appreciative inquiry framework, a chronology of events provided a detailed description of the racist events that led up to a student rally, the creation of a list of demands by student activists, and the response from university administrators. Strategies are shared that allow student affairs educators to collaborate with undergraduate student activists who call for racial justice for the co- creation of a campus climate that actively promotes equity.

Chapter Two presents a broad context of the history of African American college students, which has contributed to current chilly campus climates that are less than welcoming and wrought with racism and microaggressions. Examples of contemporary college campus racial justice activism and how college and university administrators have responded to demands made by its students for greater racial 40 equity highlight a gap in the literature about what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism.

41

Chapter 2: Literature Review

Why has there been such a strong reaction to the activism efforts by African

American college students? Perhaps an understanding of the broader historical context of how African Americans entered the education system may shed some light on the early struggles for inclusion and acceptance. In this chapter I provide an overview of the key literature related to college student activism and university response. A history of early

African American students on U.S. college campuses is described through the lens of school integration and affirmative action. These governmental legislative attempts to force inclusion, particularly in the south, fostered campus climates that were hostile, violent, and resistant to change. The inequitable treatment of African American students on college campuses following Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka created waves of activists nationwide who demanded justice as they called for multicultural reform to improve their campuses. I will conclude this chapter with examples of how university administrators have responded to protests, demonstrations, and rallies on their campuses to reveal a gap in the literature about what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism.

History of African American College Students

While some colleges and universities welcomed African Americans on their campuses and provided a climate that allowed for their education and training to become productive citizens of the country (Brown, 2002; Ravitch, 1983; Rhoads, 1998; Teske &

Tetreault, 2000), governmental intervention became necessary for inclusion at other secondary and post-secondary educational institutions. A series of key court cases and 42 legislation led to the racial integration of elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as colleges and universities.

Integration. As early lawmakers considered the integration of newly freed slaves following the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, particularly in the southern Confederate states, it was determined that additional legislation would be added to the Constitution to extend civil and legal protections to former slaves

(Wallenstein, 2008). The Thirteenth and Fourteenth amendments were ratified and mandated citizenship and full rights to former slaves. While these laws were created to ensure freedom and civil rights to former slaves, states began to pass legislation that would serve to disenfranchise these individuals through separate, but equal accommodations.

Restrictive Jim Crow laws were instituted beginning in the late 1890s that impacted most aspects of daily life and to enforce racial order (Alexander, 2012). Segregation of schools, parks, libraries, drinking fountains, restrooms, busses, trains, and restaurants were mandated in the American South. In 1890, the state of Louisiana implemented the

Separate Car Act which required train companies to establish rail cars for White passengers only and rail cars for African American passengers (Alexander, 2012). In theory, African Americans received separate but equal treatment, but in reality, the public facilities were nearly always inferior to those for Whites when they existed at all. In

Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court ruled racial segregation constitutionally permissible under the separate but equal statute. The separate but equal reasoning would not be overturned for 58 years. 43

A seminal case in the education of African American students in the U.S. was Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (Synott, 2008; Wade, 2008; Broadhurst, 2014). In

1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that states could no longer maintain or establish laws allowing separate but equal schools for African American and White students

(Wade, 2008). The Brown decision represented the beginning of the end of state- sponsored segregation when it overturned the Plessy decision from 58 years earlier. Elementary schools were among the first to integrate following the Brown ruling, but it was with much abjection. At the time of the ruling, 49% of Americans

(61% Northerners and 15% Southerners) believed Whites and African Americans should attend the same schools (Synott, 2008).

Between 1955 and 1960, federal judges held more than 200 school desegregation hearings (Broadhurst, 2014). In higher education, law schools across the country were among the first to experience integration through legal battles. Those who served as the first African American students at their law schools used the very legislation that stood to keep them out to gain admission. These individuals have become hidden figures in

American history, but their stories tell of a past that may have contributed to climate issues African American students experience on college campuses today. Their fight for admission paved the way for other African American students to seek similar education rights at colleges and universities in the United States.

Affirmative Action. Early affirmative action legislation centered on employment as the nation prepared to enter World War I (Wallenstein, 2008). Between 1941 and

1965, Executive Orders 8802, 10925, and 11246 required that government contractors 44 take affirmative action to end discrimination based on race, color, creed, or national origin (U. S. Department of Labor, 1965; U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission, 1960; U.S. National Archives & Records Administration, 1941).

Affirmative action did not enter higher education for another 13 years with the landmark court case, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, which shaped college and university admission's practices across the nation.

In 1978, Allen Bakke sued the Regents of the University of California after he was rejected from the UC-Davis medical school twice (Regents of the University of

California v. Bakke, 1978). As part of the school's affirmative action program, 16 places in each entering class of 100 were reserved for minority students and Bakke felt that his Fourteenth Amendment rights under the Equal Protection Clause had been violated. The U. S. Supreme Court found that Bakke was unconstitutionally denied admission to the UC-Davis medical school based on the affirmative action admissions policy. The Supreme Court also upheld some aspects of affirmative action by asserting the constitutionality of race as one component in admissions decisions and managed to minimize White oppression to the goal of equality. After all, 84 of the 100 seats for each

UC-Davis medical school class went to White students, so one might challenge who this is oppressive toward. While the use of rigid racial quota systems was ruled unconstitutional in the Bakke case, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth

Amendment would continue to be challenged in the U. S. Supreme Court.

In 2003, two more court cases would challenge affirmative action and the use of race in admission's policies. In Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger, White students 45 asserted that they were racially discriminated against in being denied admission to the

University of Michigan (Gratz v. Bollinger, 2003; Grutter v. Bollinger, 2003). The issue of each case was whether the use of race in admission's decisions were “narrowly tailored to achieve diversity as a compelling interest for the university,” (Gratz v. Bollinger, 2003, p. 20; Grutter v. Bollinger, 2003, p. 9). In the Grutter case, the court found that the careful use of race in admissions decisions by the law school was appropriate to ensure a diverse student body (Grutter v. Bollinger, 2003). However, in the Gratz case, the

Supreme Court found that the undergraduate admission’s office use of a point system to ensure a diverse study body unconstitutional, as it was too similar to a quota system

(Gratz v. Bollinger, 2003). The scrutiny of the use of race in college admissions decisions would be challenged again 10 years later in yet another landmark case.

As colleges and universities across the country have struggled to make sense of how to implement affirmative action procedures that did not violate the Constitution, many adopted race-neutral policies, including the University of Texas system. After being required by the Texas legislature to admit all high school seniors who ranked in the top

10 percent of their class, the remainder of the in-state freshman applicant’s race would be used as a factor in admission decisions (Fisher v. University of Texas, 2013). In Fisher v.

University of Texas, after being denied admission to the University of Texas at Austin for not being in the top 10 percent of her class, Abigail Fisher, a White woman, claimed that the use of race as a consideration in its admissions decisions violated her rights under the

Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The university argued that its use of race as one of many factors in admissions decisions was a narrowly tailored means 46 of pursuing greater diversity. The U.S. Supreme Court held that the University of Texas' use of race as a factor in the holistic review used to fill spots remaining after the Top Ten

Percent Plan was narrowly tailored to serve a compelling state interest (Fisher v.

University of Texas, 2016). Justice Anthony M. Kennedy delivered the opinion that previous precedent had established that educational diversity is a compelling interest as long as it is expressed as a concrete and precise goal that is neither a quota of minority students nor an unstructured idea of diversity.

Arguments in favor of affirmative action suggest that the consideration of race in college admissions decisions are justified to compensate for and/or correct past injustices and institutionalized forms of discrimination, while forward-looking affirmative action advocates cite the benefits of a more diverse workforce which are necessary to compete in a global economy (Rhoads, Saenz & Carducci, 2005). The underlying assumption of opponents of affirmative action is that people of color simply need to try harder and that any policy that considers race is essentially a form of racial preference, which violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (Connerly, 2002).

Since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the intention following the end of slavery was to ensure equal treatment of every American citizen regardless of race, color, creed, or national origin. However, after 155 years of governmental legislation, it does not appear to have made a significant impact on creating a society that is wholly willing to embrace every individual. College campuses tout environments that are welcoming of diverse others, but the climate is often chilly and wrought with examples that racism still plays a prominent role in the college experience. 47

Campus Racial Climate

W.E.B. Du Bois (1903) coined the concept “double consciousness,” whereby

“African Americans are essentially forced to have two identities and pressured to view themselves as they are perceived by their non-African American peers,” (p. 2). Racism remains an unrelenting problem within higher education, as hate crimes and discrimination continue to manifest within college and university campuses (Gin, et al.,

2017). Protests on college and university campuses across the country over the last several months have sparked conversations about racism in the age of political correctness and free speech and faculty and administrators struggle to find balance between appropriate levels of discomfort among students in these learning opportunities

(Green, 2016).

Students of color feel disconnected from their higher education institutions and though unconscious, long-standing racism creates emotional distance from White peers and faculty (Green, 2016). African American, Latinx, Asian American, and other racial and ethnic minority college students often must endure racial microaggressions, which are harmful, subtle racial insults communicated verbally or behaviorally, whether intentionally or unintentionally (Sue, 2010). Research has shown that repeated exposure to a climate of prejudice and discrimination in and outside of the classroom is a key factor that causes students of color withdraw from college (Cabrera, Nora, Terenzini,

Pascarella & Serra Hagedorn, 1999; Hurtado, 1992; Tinto, 1993). “Many students of color not only have to battle institutional racism, they also have to engage in academic 48 environments that condone microaggressions and stereotyping” (Gin, et al, 2017; Green,

2016).

Beyond subtle racism, African American students often experience overt hostility on college campuses. Unlike microaggressions, racialized aggressions involve overt intentional hate and racial prejudice in physical and cyber settings (Minikel-Lacocque,

2012). In one study, students were particularly struck by the quantity and regularity of overt hostility directed toward African American students (Gin, et. al, 2017). Racialized encounters on social media were particularly disconcerting to students in the Gin, et al.

(2017) study because online hostility further uncovered and reaffirmed an unwelcoming racial climate that existed on campus. African American students were discouraged by virtual racialized hostilities because they further magnified the difficulty of being a student of color on a predominately White campus.

In 2006, administrators at two predominately White institutions received negative press from their response to poor campus climate perceptions (Harper & Hurtado,

2007). On one campus, African American and Jewish students planned a protest at the president’s office and found locked doors and their concerns unacknowledged as the president silently walked by the group. At the other campus in the Harper and Hurtado

(2007) study, the release of preliminary findings from a campus racial climate audit indicated the institution had received a poor grade. Administrators at the second institution felt pressured to implement changes to improve the conditions only after having been shamed by local and national media outlets. 49

The primary goal of the Harper and Hurtado (2007) study was to highlight trends on many predominately White college and university campuses about how students understand their own campus racial climate. The multi-institutional qualitative study examined 15 years of research about campus racial climates, from which nine themes emerged:

1. “Institutional negligence”: student participants from all racial and ethnic

backgrounds did not understand why the institution’s stated value of diversity did

not result in observable action across the universities in the study (Harper &

Hurtado, 2007, p. 16).

2. “Race as a taboo topic”: many participants resented the hypocrisy that students

are expected to create their own cross-cultural interactions on campuses where

race is deliberately unacknowledged outside of ethnic studies (Harper & Hurtado,

2007, p. 16).

3. “Racial segregation”: some White participants felt student organizations for

marginalized groups prevented opportunities to collaborate and build friendships,

which may signal unwelcoming environments for both groups of students (Harper

& Hurtado, 2007, p. 16).

4. “Social satisfaction”: study participants expressed varying levels of contentment

as students at their respective institutions: White and Asian American were highly

satisfied with the social environment, Latinx and Native American students were

grateful to be enrolled, and African American students were highly dissatisfied in

their settings (Harper & Hurtado, 2007, p. 17). 50

5. “Overestimation of student satisfaction”: due to limited, meaningful interactions,

White participants incorrectly assumed their African American, Latinx, and

Native American peers were also highly satisfied with the campus climate

(Harper & Hurtado, 2007, p. 18).

6. “Racist reputational legacies”: most African American participants described the

racist views that family and friends in their hometowns held because of

prohibitive admissions practices from the past (Harper & Hurtado, 2007, p. 17).

7. “Pervasiveness of Whiteness”: For many students of color on the campuses in the

study, the predominance of White students, as well as activities, concerts, sporting

events, and books for classes, contradicted claims of commitment to diversity

(Harper & Hurtado, 2007, p. 18).

8. “Conscious, yet powerless”: Many of the staff of color interviewed for the study

knew that racial segregation existed on their campus, but most chose to remain

silent for fear of negative repercussion, such as reassignment or of losing their

jobs (Harper & Hurtado, 2007, p. 19).

9. “Unexplored realities of race”: many student participants indicated that this study

was the first time any formal or informal attempt was made to ask about their

experiences with race on their respective campuses (Harper & Hurtado, 2007,

p.19).

The Harper and Hurtado (2007) study highlighted that despite 15 years of racial climate research across multiple campuses, the themes of exclusion, apathy, and displeasure remain prevalent. 51

The current generation of college students thinks globally and acts locally. While the methods that student activists use to organize themselves and express dissent may be changing, protests remain largely peaceful as many activists follow protocols and policies established by the colleges and universities they attend (Barnhardt, 2014; Martin,

2014). Data gathered through the ongoing assessment of campus racial climates may help guide conversations to embrace discomfort with race, achieve inclusive excellence in fostering racially welcoming campuses, and strategize for lasting structural change

(Harper & Hurtado 2007).

Higher education institutions that promote commitments to multiculturalism without examining campus climates create spaces in which students from marginalized populations continue to feel dissatisfied and deprive all students of the educational benefits of cross-cultural connections (Harper & Hurtado, 2007). These feelings of exclusion and marginalization may lead to racial justice activism as students demand fair and equitable treatment. Turning to activists themselves to assist student affairs educators in redefining what activism looks like on campus may assist administrators in rewriting the script around student activists in higher education. Passivity and negligence should be replaced with intentionality in constructing culturally affirming campuses and experiences that facilitate the cultivation of racially diverse connections among all members of an institution (Harper & Hurtado, 2007).

Years of governmental legislation have opened doors for African American students in the U.S. education system, but beyond those doors lurk racism so ingrained in institutional policy that it is often easily missed. “It is beneath the dignity of a human 52 being to beg for the rights that belong inherently to all mankind,” (Du Bois, 1903, p.

35). Groups of racial and ethnic underrepresented students who have become weary of respectfully requesting equity and inclusion have strategized disruptive means to call attention to their experiences on some college and university campuses.

Racial Justice Activism

Racial and ethnic systemic discrimination persists among many African Americans in their schools and communities (Hope, Keels, & Durkee, 2016). A pivotal movement began on U.S. college campuses in the 1990s as students committed to educational equity

(Rhoads, 1998). During the National Day of Action on March 14, 1996, college students on the nation's campuses joined together to protest a number of causes: increased access to education, the rights of immigrants, affirmative action, and better campus climates for students from marginalized populations (Broadhurst, 2014). Institutions of higher education have a primary duty of developing a sense of civic responsibility, providing students the opportunity to practice engaging in societal issues of power and privilege with each other (Rhoads, 1998).

African American youth tend to navigate toward activism following acts of racism as a means to change oppressive systems and prevent future discrimination (Hope, Keels, &

Durkee, 2016). Similarly, experiences with systemic oppression contributed to activism within the African American community, and the awareness of institutional discrimination was related to political activism, which led to greater participation in activism activities (Hope & Jagers, 2014; Szymanski & Lewis, 2015). In a study of

African American college students, frequent experiences of racial microaggressions were 53 related to higher levels of activism and a greater sense of obligation to dismantle oppressive systems (White-Johnson, 2012).

Identity politics is a pejorative term used to belittle student struggles linked to race, gender, and sexual orientation (Rhoads, 1998). The efforts of students from marginalized groups to create their own place on campus through protests and demonstrations may also be understood as calls for equity. In the 1990s, African American student activists formed Black Student Unions (BSUs) and began issuing a variety of demands on campus, including: increased African American student enrollment, open admissions for students of color, hiring of additional African American faculty and staff, the creation of African

American Studies academic programs, greater representation of African Americans in campus governance, improved financial support for African American students, and better working conditions for the nonacademic staff of color (Broadhurst, 2014).

Although many strides have been made across the country to meet each of these demands, in the context of these calls for greater equity, identity politics represents democracy in a quantifiable form, as students from marginalized groups seek to build a truly multicultural society through the colleges and universities they attend (Rhoads,

1998).

In a recent study, campus activists were identified as holding “insider group status” and are established within the organization, such as students, faculty, alumni, staff, board members, and other stakeholders. (Barnhardt, 2014, pp. 45-46). Because of the many groups who hold this insider group status, colleges and universities are more likely to experience challenges from insiders than from outsiders. On campus, conventional 54 activism tactics could consist of numerous acts including students speaking during the university's governing board meetings, and through such events, capitalize on established forums to pursue their activism aspirations.

College student activists' tactics are largely peaceful. A recent study found that

“between 1989 and 2010, petitioning was the most common activism tactic used on college and university campuses,” (Barnhardt, 2014, p. 49). In this same study, 57% of the participants indicated that they experienced rallies, and 51% reported that students used letter-writing campaigns. One third of all campuses in the study experienced student protest or demonstration in the 20-year period. The study also mentioned that 92% of administrators indicated that the tone of students' activism was best described as “peaceful and well-organized”. While this study described calm methods of activism, there are student activists that rely on traditionally disruptive tactics or behaviors that take on the form of civil disobedience, including sit-ins and demonstrations.

Research on modern activism was produced to understand the nature of political activism among students of color. In a recent study, participants who experienced high incidents involving microaggressions were more likely to engage in activism than those with less frequent engagement (Hope, Keels, & Durkin, 2016). Results from this study also found that African American and Latinx youth with previous personal discrimination experiences and prior participation in activism predict future participation in activism activities.

American society continues to grapple with issues of racism and inequity among members of marginalized groups. Activism has become a preferred method among 55

African American and Latinx college students to address issues of racial and ethnic injustice and colleges and universities must support student development in ways that align with the vision and mission of the institution (Hope, Keels, & Durkin, 2016). Hope,

Keels, and Durkin (2016) recommended two strategies achieve this goal: the first is intentional inclusion of different groups of students, and the second consists of deliberate programming and workshops for meaningful connections to be made. Student affairs educators might consider a thoughtful integration of social justice themes in curricular and cocurricular civic engagement initiatives. Campus diversity officers may offer programs and workshops that teach best practices for race and ethnicity-related activism and increase awareness of appropriate channels for public demonstration that minimizes administrative penalties and fosters empathic understanding.

University Response to Student Activism

Student protestors on dozens of U.S. college campuses have made demands to senior- level administrators to directly address racism. A study recently identified that racial justice activism signals two things: that there is a need for academic leaders to verbally acknowledge racism, and that the frequency of these incidents suggests members of the campus community need racism in a college or university setting defined (Cole &

Harper, 2017). The ways higher education institutions respond to racial justice student activism is critical and much of the literature reflects the need for more robust guidelines about how to address race and racism. The next section highlights how some college and universities have addressed race and racism on their campuses. These examples are 56 shared to allow student affairs educators to reflect on the lessons from each institution and to examine how one’s own institution may have responded in each situation.

“Genetic, hereditary background.” A multi-institution case study was conducted in 1998 to characterize multicultural campus activism (Rhoads, 1998).

Rhoads analyzed the events of five protests that spurred highly visible campus demonstrations and highlighted the organizational approach associated with each social movement. One of the five case studies involved racial justice activism by a group of African American college students.

In the fall of 1994, former Rutgers University president Francis Lawrence attempted to explain the university's admission strategy to a group of faculty members and remarked that African American applicants had lower entrance exam scores due to a

"genetic, hereditary background" that prevented higher averages (Rhoads, 1998, p. 636).

A tape of the president’s presentation was replayed nearly three months later, and the phrase was published on the front page of the local newspaper in January 1995.

Hundreds of African American students and multiracial allies held a series of rallies and demonstrations in efforts to call national attention to the president's remarks. Though student demands for the resignation of President Lawrence ultimately failed, he rededicated himself to multicultural reform. However, many of the promises for a more inclusive campus were left unfulfilled after the negative press died down months later.

I believe the actions of the student activists on the Rutgers campus in 1995 laid the groundwork for the racial justice activism at Mizzou 20 years later that resulted in the resignation of both the university president and chancellor. These protests raised 57 questions about the effectiveness of university administration who seem to lack multicultural competence. My dissertation research provides strategies about how university administration and undergraduate student racial justice activists can collaborate for the co-creation of a campus that actively promotes racial equity.

“Inevitable conflict.” In their 2005 study, Kezar and Eckel interviewed 30 college presidents who had been “engaged in organizational change with a significant emphasis on lessons and insights from successful and unsuccessful experiences in advancing a campus diversity agenda” (p. 6). The insights were grouped into four themes: “commitment and focus; presidential leverage points; a focus on and investment in people; and inevitable conflict” (p.6). During a series of dialogues and discussions, the presidents in this study assessed their personal and institutional commitments to diversity.

The overarching message from the interviews in the Kezar and Eckel (2005) study was that new presidents should utilize intentional and systemic strategies. It was also noted that certain strategies were important first steps, such as creating commitment and framing diversity in support of the mission, developing a shared strategic plan that includes support for students of color, and creating campus dialogues. Other strategies, such as fund-raising, modifying the curriculum, and creating support networks outside of the institution, were more important after foundational issues had been addressed.

New college and university presidents interviewed in the Kezar and Eckel (2005) study stated that conflict was inevitable, and controversy should be an educational opportunity. Five key strategies were suggested for managing conflict: 58

1. Prepare for inevitable conflict by “appointing a campus group to monitor

incidents, inform the community of emerging problems in a timely manner,

organize campus-wide conversations, and reassure victims of violence that the

incident will be addressed,” (Kezar & Eckel, 2005, p. 24). These groups should

work to humanize the conflict and to get people to talk, thus learning from one

another.

2. Inform the campus about “any racial incident quickly,” (Kezar & Eckel, 2005, p.

24). Depending upon the situation, the president may choose to make a

statement. An important part of any acknowledgment of a racial incident is to

state clearly that racism will not be permitted.

3. Hold and attend a “town hall meeting or campus forum with trained facilitators,”

(Kezar & Eckel, 2005, p. 24). Make sure to set parameters and ground rules for

dialogue.

4. “Talk with important campus stakeholders,” (Kezar & Eckel, 2005, p. 24). Meet

with key student, faculty, and staff leaders, such as officers of African American

and Latinx student associations or Hillel, key faculty who serve on campus

diversity groups or committees, and members of the African American faculty

and staff union.

5. Put a “human face to the consequences of racism,” (Kezar & Eckel, 2005, p.

24). In some instances, campuses people to share their stories about the effects

the incident had on them personally, and this can be an effective strategy. 59

While conflict may be inevitable, the Kezar and Eckel (2005) study provides some practical tips for managing a campus racial incident.

College presidents' statements. The statement from a college or university president is critical following a campus racial incident. Two researchers sought to identify and analyze the aspects of 18 statements given by college and university presidents following campus racial incidents (Cole & Harper, 2017, p. 319). Student affairs educators could use this research as a tool to initiate important dialogue around race and racism on college campuses.

The results were organized into three elements: “exigence, audience, and constraints,”

(Cole & Harper, 2017, p. 322). Among the 18 statements analyzed, three college presidents did not mention the racial incident, 11 mentioned the incident using broad terms without discussing the details of the incident, and four offered a detailed account of the incident to the campus community. Also, worth noting was the amount of time it took for the 18 presidents in this study to respond to the racial incident on their campus: three college presidents made a statement the same day; seven made a statement within one-three days; two statements were made within four to seven days; three made a statement within eight to 10 days; three presidents addressed the campus community three months following the racist incident(s). While the authors did not specify what constituted a prompt response, one might argue that three months does not meet the standard of exigency.

College and university presidents' statements directly targeted three audiences:

“members of the general campus community, the individual or group perpetrators 60 that committed the racial offense, and those targeted by the racial offense,” (Cole &

Harper, 2017, p. 324). Thirteen of the 18 statements addressed the race of perpetrators, and five of the 18 mentioned the targeted individual or group. Constraints were the least mentioned element in college and university presidents' responses to racial incidents on their campuses. Three of the 18 statements analyzed referenced constraints, the most prominent being the broader societal or campus-wide culture that does not work to dismantle systemic and institutional racism. Omitting the historical context from presidential statements adds to a perception that academic leaders are saying and doing nothing about race and racism. Not addressing systematic and institutional racism may be the difference between academic leaders being perceived as reactive rather than proactive in addressing race and racism.

Several key implications are emphasized within this research. It is important to note that presidents frequently used statements to:

recommit the entire campus community to building a more inclusive campus

following a racial incident; however, presidents rarely went on record to discuss

the details of the incident to help the campus community understand how the

incident ran counter to the environment they committed to fostering, which has

the potential to make it more challenging to implement realistic inclusive

initiatives later because the statement about the racial incident hardly mentioned

race. (Cole & Harper, 2017, p. 326)

Presidential statements always directly addressed the larger campus community beyond the perpetrator and the students targeted in the racial incident. This positions 61 perpetrators' actions away from the rest of the campus, making them outliers to the inclusive values of the community. The need to dismiss the perpetrators and their behavior from the community holds value as the campus is challenged to renew its commitment to the institution's values.

The presidents' statements that “referenced only the current racial incident were oftentimes perceived as insufficient for positioning the racial incident as an isolated occurrence that is non-normative,” (Cole & Harper, 2017, p. 327). Many of these statements were exceedingly vague with little mention of race and racism. A statement that did not acknowledge the history of exclusion of ethnic and racial student populations served to further a college or university president's inability to truly address or redress racial incidents.

Chief diversity officers (CDOs) also had a “distinct role in college presidents' statements, as well as other forms of response, to racial incidents on college campuses,”

(Cole & Harper, 2017, p. 328). The frequency of racial incidents and the subsequent public attention further solidified the importance of institutional response, and the need that CDOs and college presidents collaborate to prepare these statements. CDOs should know how to apply campus climate research to the active practice of being inclusive.

Presidential statements should ensure considerations were made for the targeted individual or groups when consulting with college presidents to develop the initial response to racial incidents. CDOs must also know the sociopolitical context and culture of their campus to successfully impart change and understand how racial incidents are situated within the context, culture, and history of the institution. 62

Perceptions of effective response to activism. A recent dissertation studied perceived effective response to student activism and included interviews with administrators and student protesters. Through a grounded theory method, the author discussed an understanding of student and administrator perceptions of student protests at three University of California campuses (Atkinson, 2014). Specifically, the researcher discovered what actions and behaviors student protestors noted as effective and ineffective, the perceptions of student protests from key administrators, and how perceptions of protestors and administrators were similar or different.

Through the data collected, the author showed that both student protestors and administrators felt that communication, listening, and safety were key components to effective responses to protests (Atkinson, 2014). Although both groups agreed these three factors were important during protests, their perceptions of each other's priorities varied. Administrators felt they were communicating clearly, actively listening, and maintaining safety with student protestors. However, student protestors often did not agree and desired greater transparency from administrators to better understand how they could contribute to making change within their organization. Administrators were concerned about the continuity of campus operations during protests, which was not of primary concern to student protesters.

This research highlighted a number of recommendations for student activists and administrators alike. Administrators felt that student activists needed to develop an understanding of having a clear message and desired outcomes to communicate to administrators (Atkinson, 2014). Administrators also felt that if student protestors were 63 open to conversations about safety prior to the protest, it would prove useful. Some of the tools that administrators utilized while working with student protesters were relationship building, knowledge of student development theory, trust, and patience. The research supported the need for student affairs administrators to take the lead in responding to student protests, but student protestors felt that staff needed additional training related to diversity and social justice, conflict resolution, and listening skills.

Student protestors felt administrators needed more diversity training and understanding of students' experiences, as well as conflict mediation skills (Atkinson,

2014). Development of a student-led activism response training could proactively open communication between student protestors and administrators before a crisis ensues.

Students also felt that these skills would enhance the interactions they had with administrators. This would encourage a paradigm shift about how administrators and student protestors alike engage with activism on their campuses.

Student protesters and administrators in Atkinson's research also noted very differing views of police presence during protests. Administrators felt that police presence was necessary because of the training they had with crowd management and working with groups of students (Atkinson, 2014). However, student protesters viewed campus and local police officers as a negative response to activism and felt officers tended to escalate tension in protest incidents. Student protesters felt that administrators’ response to maintaining safety was to call the police, not realizing the negative and sometimes traumatic impact that could be had on students. Administrators should ensure students' safety from police and the presence of police made them feel unsafe. Atkinson’s study 64 indicated safety as a shared common goal among administrators and student protesters, further research should be conducted to explore ways student activists and campus law enforcement can collaborate during protests.

Two recommendations for future research from Atkinson's (2014) dissertation research are addressed through my own dissertation research. Further examination of the components of effective collaboration and how these collaborations are established are examined through an in-depth analysis case study to discover effective collaborations between administrators and student activists. My dissertation research utilized a case study method to explore what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism and the aspects of institutional culture that foster collaboration with undergraduate student racial justice activists through a critical appreciative inquiry lens. Developing a critical appreciative approach to activism suggests taking proactive measures to collaborate with student activists rather than the reactive tactics of a response to demonstrations and protests, as found in much of the scholarly literature.

Summary

Legislative measures have been created to ensure racial diversity on college campuses. While these laws make higher education accessible to students of color, they do not address campus climates that are hostile toward marginalized populations. As a result, racial justice activism on college campuses calls for racial equity for the creation of more inclusive campuses. The literature identifies many benefits of student 65 engagement in activism activities. Yet, colleges and universities continue to struggle with how to respond when activism efforts find their campuses.

The purpose of my dissertation research was to examine what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism, as well as to identify the aspects of institutional culture that foster collaboration with undergraduate student racial justice activists through a critical appreciative inquiry framework. Having utilized a case study method, a chronology of events provided a detailed description of the racist incidents that led up to a student rally, the creation of a list of demands by student activists, and the response from administrators at the case study institution. In Chapter

Three, I describe the methods used to collect and analyze data that helped to answer the research questions which guided my study.

66

Chapter 3: Methodology

The purpose of this study was to examine one university's approach to undergraduate student racial justice activism, as well as to identify the aspects of institutional culture that foster collaboration with undergraduate student racial justice activists through a critical appreciative inquiry framework. Having utilized a case study method, a chronology of events provided a detailed description of the racist incidents that led up to a student rally, the creation of a list of demands by student activists, and the response from administrators at the case study institution. The research questions that guided this study were:

1. What constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice

activism? In other words, how did student affairs educators at the case study

institution support undergraduate student activism on its campus?

2. What aspects of institutional culture foster collaboration with undergraduate

student racial justice activists? In other words, what characteristics about the case

study institution allowed staff and undergraduate student activists to work

together?

In this chapter I provide the details of the case study method utilized, including the setting, procedures, data collection methods, and data analysis. Lastly, the steps taken to ensure trustworthiness, dependability, transferability, and ethical research practice were addressed. 67

Methodology

Methodology outlines that steps that guide inquiry for the creations of results that yield rich, accurate, and complete descriptions of a phenomenon (Moustakas, 1990).

Qualitative researcher design is used to study how people understand their life experiences and what is important on a deeper level (Babbie, 2007; Merriam, 2009;

Rubin & Rubin, 2011). A key advantage of qualitative research is the ability to inquire in great depth for the creation of a thick rich description of a phenomenon (Patton, 2014).

The overall purposes of qualitative research are to “achieve an understanding of how people make sense out of their lives, delineate the process of meaning-making, and describe how people interpret what they experience,” (Merriam, 2009, p. 14). According to Merriam (2009), the following four characteristics are identified by most researchers as key to understanding the nature of qualitative inquiry:

1. Understand the “phenomenon of interest from the participants' perspectives, not

the researchers,” (Merriam, 2009, p. 14). This is more commonly referred to as

the emic, or insider's, viewpoint, as opposed to the etic, or outsider's, perspective.

2. The researcher serves as the “primary mechanism for data collection and analysis,

which could lead to biases that may impact the study,” (Merriam, 2009, p. 15).

Rather than trying to eliminate partialities, identify and monitor how they may

impact the collection and interpretation of data.

3. Qualitative research is “inductive, as theories are built from observations and

intuitive understandings,” (Merriam, 2009, p. 15). Findings are derived from the

data in the form of themes or categories that form a pattern. 68

4. Finally, the results of qualitative analysis are “rich descriptions of the situation,

the participants, and the activities of interest,” (Merriam, 2009, p. 16). Data in the

form of quotes from documents, field notes, and participant interviews are used to

support the findings.

A case study is an in-depth analysis and description of an event that occurred within a certain period of time and in a specific location (Creswell, 2013; Merriam, 2009).

Anchored in real-life situations, a case study produces a rich and holistic account of a single phenomenon, or unit, around which there are boundaries. Therefore, Merriam argued that the “unit of analysis, not the topic of investigation, characterizes a case study,” (2009, p. 51). The case study institution was selected to examine the approach used by one university as the faculty and administrators collaborated with student activists to create change on their campus following a series of racist incidents.

This critical appreciative approach to undergraduate student racial justice activism represents a diversion from tactics employed by other college and university officials across the country. Case study methodology was selected for its uniqueness to reveal thick, rich description about a phenomenon, and to provide knowledge to which would not otherwise be gained.

Setting

The university selected for this case study was founded in the mid-1800's by members of the United Methodist Church. A small, residential, private, four-year liberal arts institution located in a suburb of a major Midwestern metropolitan city, the university has approximately 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students. The campus hosts over 100 69 student organizations, a lively fraternity and sorority system, and several varsity and intermural athletic teams.

Undergraduate tuition and fees for the 2017-2018 academic year totaled just over $30,000, and annual room and board costs were estimated at approximately

$10,000. The university offers nearly 120 undergraduate majors and minors as well as graduate programs. The student-faculty ratio is 12:1 and over 60% of classes offered have fewer than 20 students. The four-year graduation rate is just over 50%, and over

45% of students of color graduate within six years. The gender distribution is about

60/40 women to men. White students make up approximately 75% of the student population, with African American, Latinx, and Asian students totaling just under

10%. Nearly 9% of students indicate their race as unknown.

The campus occupies over 100 acres of land, with less than 20 administration buildings and a number of classroom buildings and residential facilities. At this institution, over 60% of students live in university-owned, operated, or affiliated housing, and there are multiple residence halls with a variety of living styles from traditional to suites to apartments. The theme houses provide spaces for students with interests in education, spirituality, racial identity, and sexual identity. Theme houses serve as an on- campus living option for all undergraduate students in good standing with the university who share a common goal.

Procedures

The first step to collecting interview data required me to complete the online

Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) Program. After successfully passing 70 the training modules, I obtained approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at

Ohio University, the degree-granting institution, to conduct my research (see Appendix

A). Part of this approval process required me to obtain a letter of support from the case study institution to engage their students in my dissertation research.

Sample selection in qualitative research is usually “nonrandom, purposeful, and small,” (Merriam, 2009, p. 16). Patton (2002) advised that “purposeful sampling” is best for cases that require in-depth examination that can share a great deal about the issues central to the purpose of the study. “Snowball, chain, or network sampling” are the most common forms of purposeful sampling (Merriam, 2009, p. 79) and involves locating key individuals with critical information about the case (Patton, 2014). This strategy required me to locate a few key participants who met the criteria established for participation in my dissertation research.

I identified the sample for this study by creating a list of the attributes essential to answering the research questions, known as criterion-based selection (Patton,

2002). These criteria allowed me to solicit study participation from those individuals who were closely involved with the events leading up to the rally, the creation of the demands from the student activists, and the administrators who responded to the demands. Next, I collaborated with well-situated administrators at the case study institution who knew about the rally, including the dean of students and the director of the diversity office. These individuals gave me names and contact information of other people to solicit for participation in my research, which is known as snowball technique

(Creswell, 2013). Review of online documents and media coverage revealed the names 71 of four administrators and four student activists. Three student activists graduated from the case study institution in May 2017 but were solicited for participation in the study based on their direct involvement in the events leading up to, during, and following the rally. The final student participant is currently enrolled at the case study institution.

I established a professional connection with one of the administrator participants through mutual national student affairs educator organization membership and secured their commitment in helping me identify additional potential faculty and administrators who were also involved in the appreciative response to student activism on their campus.

I sent solicitation electronic mail messages requesting participation in my study to five faculty, seven students, and four staff. The email communication explained my research and requested one face-to-face or online 60- to 90-minute semi-structured interview. My student email account was used to send initial solicitation messages and each individual was instructed to send a message with their intent to participate to a disposable email account that was created solely for my dissertation research. Once I received an affirmative response, I sent a reply with information about myself as the researcher, my availability for an interview, the option to indicate their preference for a face-to-face or online interview, and a disclosure statement that the interview would be audio recorded for transcription purposes. Once a second reply was received, I confirmed the date, time, and location of the interview and attached a copy of the

Informed Consent (see Appendix B) and the interview protocol (see Appendix C).

At the start of the interview, each participant was asked to provide general demographic information that would be used to inform participant profiles. None of this 72 information was audio recorded as a way to ensure confidentiality of data. I wrote the response to each demographic question on each individual’s field notes, which became the cover sheet for each interview transcript. Student demographic information included age, race, sex, hometown geographic location, religion, estimation of family socioeconomic status, academic major(s), anticipated/actual graduation date, student organization leadership roles, and career goals were collected. The faculty and staff demographic information included role at the university, years in current role, years as a student affairs educator or faculty member, race, sex, and degrees earned. Demographic data was self-reported, and participants were strongly encouraged to report about themselves as accurately as possible so as not to distort the data. Participants also chose their pseudonym for the interview transcript. Only the pseudonym was used on interview transcripts. A separate password-protected document with each participant’s given name matched with their pseudonym was stored on an external hard drive.

Data Collection and Analysis Procedures

“Data collection and analysis is a simultaneous activity in qualitative research and begins with a review of the purpose of the study,” (Merriam, 2009, p. 165). It is important to begin a qualitative research study with an intentionally selected sample that can provide information in the data collection process that helps answer guiding research questions. The researcher does not know what will be discovered, what or whom to concentrate on, or what the final analysis will be. On-going analysis prevents the data from becoming unfocused, repetitious, and overwhelming with the sheer volume of materials that need to be reviewed. Merriam’s (2009) preferred method of analyzing data 73 in a qualitative study is “simultaneously with data collection, ideally after the second interview to compare the first set of data with the second,” (p. 171). This allows the researcher to engage in on-going organization and refinement of the data rather than waiting until all of it has been collected. The data collection process in this study occurred through three methods: semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and observation.

Semi-structured interviews. Qualitative interviews are guided conversations for an in-dept examination of a specific phenomenon (Rubin & Rubin, 2011), and for the purposes of my research, the conversations centered around what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism, as well as what aspects of institutional culture fostered collaboration with student racial justice activists.

“Interviews are necessary when we cannot observe behavior, feelings, or how people interpret the world around them,” (Merriam, 2009, p. 88). In semi-structured interviewing, the conversation is guided by a list of questions or issues to be explored, and neither the exact wording nor the order of the questions is determined ahead of time. Patton (2002) identified six types of interview questions: behavior questions, values questions, feeling questions, knowledge questions, sensory questions, and background questions.

Prior to conducting the interviews, an interview protocol, or guide, was created to focus the scope of the questions through a critical appreciative inquiry lens. An interview guide ensures the consistency of questions asked of the participants (Patton,

2002). Although an interview guide was created, I exercised flexibility to explore other 74 relevant topics that were revealed as each unique experience was discussed. The critical appreciative inquiry lens allowed me to ask questions about race and racial incidents that occurred at the case study institution with an emphasis on perceived positive steps taken to resolve the issues.

As some participants no longer lived in the area due to graduation or new employment, the option to hold an online interview was made available. The face-to-face interviews allowed me to capture non-verbal body movements, but it was more difficult to capture these gestures through online interviews. Every interview was audio recorded with permission from each participant to ensure accuracy of data collected and to aid in the ease of the transcription processes, and the self-selected pseudonym was used to protect the identity of each participant. After the interviews were transcribed, participants were sent a copy of the transcript via electronic message to review for accuracy.

Document analysis. Merriam considers documents “under a wide range of materials, including written, visual, digital, and physical material relevant to the study at hand,” (2009, p. 139). Public records and personal documents are two common types of documents used in qualitative research. Documents that were reviewed for this study included the list of demands created by the student rally co-organizers, university strategic plans, diversity committee and Trustee meeting minutes, university web pages, and a draft of the chief diversity officer proposal. I was given access to these documents by “gatekeepers, or the individuals I consulted with at the case study institution,”

(Creswell, 2013, p. 94). The contents of these documents were analyzed, and the details 75 were incorporated in the timeline that added thick, rich description to the events of the rally on the case study institution.

Observation. The third data collection method used for this study was observation. As Merriam stated, “the researcher's purpose is the most important factor that influences what is observed in a study,” (2009, p. 139). Other factors include the physical setting, the participants, activities and interactions, conversations, the researcher's own behavior, and other subtle factors, such as informal and unplanned activities, symbolic meanings of words, nonverbal communication from dress and physical space. The written account of the observation constitutes field notes. Merriam suggested that “researchers jot down notes during observation and hold off on recording in detail what was observed until after the observation ends,” (2009, p. 128). Field notes should be highly descriptive with enough detail, so readers feel as if they were there seeing what the researcher saw.

I took notes during each interview about the atmosphere of the space, the weather, clothing, facial expressions, hand gestures, and other non-verbal communication. I also made notes about laughter, scowls, hesitation and pauses, and any joy or discomfort during the interview. I completed my field notes after each interview was transcribed and included these details in Chapter Four.

My dissertation research was focused on a rally from 2016 and I was not present to witness firsthand what occurred. Observation of video footage of the rally provided data to help address my second research question about institutional culture, as well as to provide details for a thick, rich description of the rally. I scoured the internet and located 76 two news story segments that covered the rally at the case study institution. I also found a YouTube video from the day of rally that provided additional details from that day including crowd size, weather, and interviews with rally organizers and participants. The video footage was invaluable in that it provided confirming evidence about crowd size and police presence.

One of the participants shared a link to an online collection of photos from a group of students making posters the night before the rally. I was also able to take a screenshot of a Facebook post from one of the student research participant’s involvement in an incident that involved the use of a racial slur in a campus residence hall at the case study institution. This incident was reported by participants to have started the activism on the campus. The details witnessed in the videos, online photo album, and social media posts were included in the results in Chapter Four.

Data analysis and interpretation. Data analysis is “the process used to answer your research questions,” (Merriam, 2009, p. 176). Patton (2002) recognized the organic qualities of qualitative research and encouraged careful attention for the formation of ideas and themes, showing no clear distinction between data collection and analysis in qualitative research. Analysis should occur throughout data collection (Rubin & Rubin,

2011). According to Patton (2002), the researcher must be prepared to record one’s own thoughts on how to analyze the data as part of the notes from interviews. For the interview portion of the data collected for my study, a phenomenological data analysis was used, directed by Morrissette’s step-by-step guide to data analysis (1999). Although my methodology is that of a case study, Morrissette’s guide will allow me to extract the 77 essence of racial justice activism that occurred on the case study institution campus as described in each interview.

The goal of phenomenological research is to uncover the meaning participants make of the experiences of the event being studied (Morrissette, 1999). A phenomenological inquiry evolves through the interaction between the researcher and participant. It is essential that each step of this data analysis process be carefully and thoroughly applied to each individual interview before beginning the process again with the next interview.

This reduces cross-analyzing the data (Patton, 2014) and ensures greater clarity of each participant’s individual voice.

The first step in analyzing interview data is to listen to an interview soon after it has ended, ideally no longer than 24 hours (Morrissette, 1999). This provided me the opportunity to reflect on the interview, listening for emerging themes and emphasis placed on key points, and to make a comparison to my field notes. I followed this procedural requirement for each of the eight interviews I collected.

The second step calls for the interview to be transcribed, preferably by the researcher

(Morrissette, 1999). I transcribed each interview no more than 48 hours following the interview. I read each transcript carefully while listening to the interviews for any discrepancies (Patton, 2014). Transcripts were then sent electronically to each individual participant to conduct member checks, which gave them the opportunity to review for accuracy and to add or edit any information. Each participant was given seven days to review and either confirm accuracy or submit revisions. All but one participant responded within the seven-day timeframe. After seven days, I sent a follow-up email 78 reminder to the remaining participant with an additional three-day extension. I received no response still and accepted the initial transcript as accurate. This allowed me to move on to the next step in the data analysis process.

In the next step, major statements made by participants in the interviews were summarized and reduced to phrases, which were then numbered to assist in the analysis process (Morrissette, 1999). This created “meaning clusters,” (Creswell, 2013, p. 82;

Patton, 2002, p. 486), that provided me with insight into the essence shared by the participants. After printing each individual interview transcript, I matched each question with the appropriate section from my interview protocol. I wrote the words Pre-Incident in purple ink next to questions #1, #2, and #3, Awareness in orange ink next to questions

#4, #5, #6, Rally in blue ink next to questions #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, and #12 and Post-

Rally in green ink next to questions #13, #14, #15, and #16. Then I wrote short phrases of each response in the margin of the interview transcript in the same color ink that corresponded with the interview protocol sections.

Next, I sorted the interview transcripts into three categories by each participant’s role at the case study institution, student, staff, and faculty. I used a large piece of flip chart paper and wrote each interview protocol question at the top and divided the page into three sections for students, staff, and faculty. I transferred the words and phrases from each individual interview transcript onto smaller 3-inch by 3-inch color Post-It Notes that matched the ink and protocol category and placed them on the larger paper under the appropriate student, staff, or faculty section of the page. This gave me a very colorful visual of the themes for each interview question sorted by participant role. These themes 79 were then typed into a Microsoft Word document as the initial data sort. Finally, I entered the text from the initial data sort for each individual question into an online software program that produced a word cloud, which changed the font size to highlight the frequency of words used across all interview responses (see Appendix D). This process represented a second data sort and created a visual of frequently used words and phrases from each interview. The final data sort combined the words and phrases from questions #1-#6 to create the four themes that address the first research question of what constitutes an appreciative response to undergraduate racial justice activism, and the words and phrases from questions #7-#15 to create the four themes that address the second research question of the aspects of institutional culture that foster collaboration with undergraduate student activists.

Next, I summarized each participant’s experiences and connected them to the meaning clusters that emerged (Morrissette, 1999). By analyzing each participant’s interview summary, I was able to connect an individual voice to the purpose of the study. The participants conducted a second member check of their interview summary to verify that I recapped their interview appropriately. I emailed another copy of the interview transcript with the summary that I created to each participant and asked that they review for accuracy. The summaries of each interview are presented as part of the results in chapter four.

The last step in this data analysis process is my reflection on the significant experiences of the participants and the meaning clusters (Morrissette, 1999), which allowed me to develop a rich description. These descriptions are presented in chapter 80 five as part of the discussion and recommendations. A summary of the findings addressed what was gleaned from participants on both research questions. Strategies that allow student affairs educators to collaborate with student activists who call for multicultural reform are shared for the co-creation of a campus climate that actively promotes equity. This analysis of the experiences of these students, faculty, and administrators inform my recommendations for future research.

Ethical Considerations

The protection of the participants is of the utmost importance in qualitative research. Ethical guidelines steer the process of the research while ensuring safety during the data collection and analysis phases. I took steps to gain approval of this study through the Institutional Review Board at Ohio University, the degree-granting institution. I also sought permission from the site of the case study to collect data for my dissertation research.

I hoped that the participants would benefit from this experience in two ways. First, they were likely to develop a confidence to speak boldly about their experiences that lead to their social justice engagement work. I was also optimistic that the participants were inspired to engage in scholarly research around their social justice passions. The skills they gained about the qualitative data collection and analysis process would be invaluable to a professor seeking a new research assistant, or a community organization looking for an intern to help aid in their activism efforts.

The risks with this research were minimal, particularly for those students who were propelled into their social justice engagement through an unpleasant experience, known 81 as a “provocative moment,” (Pizzolato, 2005, p. 625). As is the practice in my professional role as a student affairs educator, if any of the participants were in emotional distress from contributing toward the research of this study, a referral for help to the appropriate professionals would have been made. I would have also followed-up to ascertain their intent to continue or be removed from the study if said trauma was too great. Thankfully, this was not necessary.

In exchange for their time and commitment to this study, participants were compensated through reciprocity. The chance to have their story included in a new study that will add to the body of literature that exists about undergraduate student’s engagement in social justice work gave them an altruistic sense of fame.

Trustworthiness, Dependability, and Transferability

In a qualitative study, the researcher must engage in ethical inquiry, which includes establishing that the research is conducted without bias or to produce a specific outcome

(Patton, 2014). The methods described above to organize and analyze the data ensure to validate the data, as well (Creswell, 2014). Research methods identify validity, reliability, and generalizability as measures for the relevance and application of a quantitative study (Patton, 2014). As this is a qualitative study, validity is replaced with trustworthiness, reliability with dependability, and generalizability with transferability

(Merriam, 2009, p. 210). The quality of this study was ensured through multiple

“member checks” as the participants verified the accuracy of their interview transcripts and the interview summary (Creswell, 2013, p. 63). The process of self-as-researcher 82 loaned transparency to the study and increase the credibility, trustworthiness, dependability, and authenticity (Creswell, 2013; Patton, 2014).

Trustworthiness. Trustworthiness of the data was done through three strategies used during the analysis process. Member checks increased the reliability of the results of the study and increased the likelihood that the meaning conveyed by the participants was true to their intention (Patton, 2014). After each interview was transcribed, a copy was emailed to each participant for their review, and they were asked to submit changes or corrections to provide greater clarity of their contribution to the study. A second member check was completed after the interview summary was written to verify for accuracy.

In collecting data, I had the unique fortune of finding video footage of the rally that occurred at the case study institution. Two videos were from local news stations and one was from a student in the crowd that day. These data provided me with multiple angles and perspectives of the rally, which supplied corroborating evidence about many of the details revealed during interviews and during document analysis. The availability of multiple videos served to validate my data through “triangulation,” (Creswell, 2013, p.

251), which added additional details for the thick, rich description that is the hallmark of qualitative inquiry.

Dependability. Prior to collecting data for the study, I actively set aside my own beliefs and assumptions (Patton, 2014) about student activism. “In qualitative research, investigators need to explain their biases, dispositions, and assumptions regarding the research,” (Merriam, 2009, p. 219). This created an open and honest narrative that I hope 83 will resonate well with the readers of this research to convince them that the data is valid. As this is a signature of good qualitative research (Creswell, 2014), I included comments about how my interpretation of the findings was shaped by my background and identities as a heterosexual, upper middle class, able-bodied, Black woman who works with social justice engaged undergraduate students. As I was intricately involved with the research process, I kept a field journal and noted my feelings about this work to maximize my awareness of the words used by the participants and to aid in the analysis process.

Finally, I enlisted the help of a peer to review and ask questions about the study

(Patton, 2014). Through peer debriefing, my account of the findings was investigated by another person, which increases the validity of the study. This peer works in another department across the campus that I currently work with, which is another way to address implicit biases I may have held toward participants in this research.

The four strategies utilized to organize and code my data (Morrissette, 1999), and utilizing member checking, clarifying my bias, and peer debriefing (Patton, 2014) all show whether my data is trustworthy (Creswell, 2014). The dependability of my data was ensured through the documentation of each step of the analysis and interpretation processes (Creswell, 2014). I also kept careful notes on each interview transcript’s themes, categories, and codes, as well as all interview summaries (Patton, 2014).

Transferability. The intent of qualitative research is not to generalize findings to individuals, sites, or places outside of those under study (Creswell, 2014). The significance of qualitative research lies in the context through which to information is 84 presented so that readers may determine how to transfer the findings for their own purposes (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). The value of qualitative research lies in the rich description of themes, and the hallmark of good qualitative research is particularity rather than generalizability. The goal of my dissertation research is not generalizability, but to provide a rich description of the timeline of events leading up to, during, and following a rally that occurred at the case study institution.

Summary

In Chapter Three, I described how I collected and analyzed data for my dissertation.

Case study methodology was selected to address what constitutes an appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism, and to identify aspects of institutional culture that foster collaboration with undergraduate student activists. Eight subjects participated in an individual 60-minute semi-structured interview with me that followed an interview protocol. Each interview was audio recorded for transcription and then coded based on the themes from each response. Documents including a list of demands and institutional strategic plans, as well as online photos and video footage of the rally, were analyzed. These data provided details about the timeline of events that occurred leading up to, during, and following the rally at the case study institution in April 2016.

Chapter Four presents the findings of the data collected. 85

Chapter 4: Results

The purpose of this study was to examine one university's approach to undergraduate student racial justice activism, as well as to identify the aspects of institutional culture that foster collaboration with undergraduate student racial justice activists. Using a case study method, a critical appreciative inquiry lens allowed me to create a chronology of events with a detailed description of the racist incidents that led up to a student rally, the creation of a list of demands by student activists, and the response from university administrators. The research questions that guided this study were:

1. What constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate student racial

justice activism? In other words, how did student affairs educators at the case

study institution support undergraduate student activism on its campus?

2. What aspects of institutional culture foster collaboration with undergraduate

student racial justice activists? In other words, what characteristics about the case

study institution allowed staff and undergraduate student activists to work

together?

The responses from the six interview questions in the pre-incident and awareness categories contributed to answering the question of what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to student activism. The responses from the seven interview questions in the rally and post-rally categories contributed to answering the question of what aspects of institutional culture foster collaboration with undergraduate student racial justice activists. In this chapter I provide a portrait of the participants, a chronology of 86 events leading up to, during, and following the rally, present the participant profiles, and give a clarification of terms.

Portrait of Participants

Four students, three staff, and one faculty member participated this study. I met with each individual separately for one semi-structured interview, which ranged from 49 to 67 minutes in length. Table 1 shows profile information of the eight subjects in this research study, listed alphabetically by pseudonym. Information about each participant is provided to give context about the roles each individual held at the time of the rally.

Table 2 Portrait of Participants Pseudonym Study Role Age Title Race Sex Years* Clara Staff 53 Chaplain White Woman 5

Doc Staff 63 VP/Dean White Male 20+

Gene Staff 31 Director Bi-Racial Male 10

Jay Student 23 Alumnus Black Male 4.5

Kris Student 23 Alumna Black Woman 4

Maya Student 21 Student Black Woman 3

Rachel Student 24 Alumna White Woman 4

Rose Faculty 45 Faculty White Woman 14

*Denotes length of time in years at case study institution.

87

Chronology of Events

The details of the rally that occurred on the case study campus based on data from interviews, documents, and observations are described in this section. A chronology of events is presented in the next section. Analysis of the responses in each section of the interview protocol allowed for the creation of a timeline. The data are separated into the four categories from the interview protocol questions: pre-incident, awareness, rally, and post-rally.

Pre-incident. Students, faculty, and staff who participated in the rally were asked why they chose to connect themselves with the university of the case study. The responses to this question provided data about elements of the culture of the case study institution that foster collaboration with student activists. Students cited the location, small size, and physical beauty of the campus as reasons they chose to attend the institution. Staff and faculty recalled wanting to work for the institution because of an opening as they were job searching and the location.

When asked to recall their first day on the campus of the case institution, all student participants recalled new student orientation events or participating in early arrival programs designed specifically for students of color at a predominately White institution.

Student study participants shared connections they made with various administrators and faculty at the university and relationships established with peers who became life-long friends. Maya, stated, “I guess I just really looked up to those people around me that were sophomores, junior, and seniors.” Staff and faculty expressed feeling overwhelmed and nervous about meeting new colleagues and understanding their role at the university. 88

Clara recalled taking a tour of campus with their supervisor and being introduced to colleagues during their first week on campus. There was also mention of a welcome

(back) celebration for staff and faculty where the leadership of the institution shared the newly revised mission and values, and it was during this moment that Clara knew she had made the right choice in working for the school.

The case study institution provided many structured opportunities for early connections to members of the campus community to be made. Student participants connected with staff in the diversity and dean’s offices upon their arrival to campus, and later bonded with some faculty in their academic disciplines. Second-, third-, and fourth- year students also served as mentors to new students through early arrival programs for students of color as well as through leadership roles in various multicultural student organizations. Residence halls also provided opportunities for students to build relationships with roommates and floormates, and theme houses served to deepen cultural understanding and support for many of the study participants. Faculty and staff mentioned making early connections with peers and colleagues across the student affairs department or within their academic discipline. They also recalled establishing close relationships with the students in the programs they managed or the courses they taught, many of those students who were participants in this research study.

Awareness. Study participants were asked to recall when they first began to notice racial issues on campus. The student participants recalled incidents of hearing racial slurs in residence halls, from various fraternity and sorority members, and from teammates on the sports teams of which they were members. After the students in her 89 class were instructed to get into small groups, Maya recounted an incident where she experienced isolation:

…everyone just turns away and you’re just kind of looking for another person.

Or you’re not the person that people want to talk to first and you can’t help but to

think is it because I’m Black or do you just not like me.

Student study participants also cited multiple instances of stereotyping and microaggressions from peers and faculty in the classroom, often having to serve as the sole educator on their experience based on their racial identities. Kris, a student study participant, stated, “I thought coming to college would be better but coming to a predominately White college as well was actually difficult.” Faculty and staff participants shared experiences of difficulty engaging students in dialogue about identity and students’ reluctance to having their viewpoints challenged. Staff subjects remember times when attendance at cultural programming was low or consisted of the same few students who supported their events because of a passion or connection through a lived experience.

Student participants described the climate of the campus leading up to the rally as hostile toward people of color. They remember the campus was divided by social categories – Greek Life, athletes, theater students, and student leaders, as well as by racial identities. The student participants recalled feeling pressured to join one or more of these cliques for their own collegiate development, and that they knew they would face challenges being the only or one of few students of color in these groups. The exceptions were NPHC fraternities and sororities and cultural-themed student organization 90 membership, where these students often relied on each other for guidance and support as they navigated the predominately White campus. Gene noted that challenges for people of color on campus created a sense of buoyancy but stated, “Just because you have resiliency doesn’t mean you have to take the oppression that’s happening to you.”

The student participants in this study also cited the use of Yik Yak on their campus as a barrier to creating a climate that was truly inclusive. The site allowed members of the campus community to post anonymous comments and was often a collection of the racism, sexism, and homophobia that existed on the campus. Student participants expressed fear from knowing that racist comments were made by their own peers and in not being able to identify who held these beliefs. Before, during, and following the rally, students on the case study institution campus utilized Yik Yak to express their disappointment in the organizers and participants using racist language, which only confirmed the activists calls for a more culturally accepting campus.

All participants in this study mentioned the campaign and election of the 45th president of the United States as another indicator of the hostile campus climate. Study participants recalled a number of White students who felt emboldened to engage in outrageous racist behaviors. Jay reflected that many students of color “have had instances of negative racial interactions with White people and it’s just like we’re sick of it. We’re fed up and something needed to be said as a whole.” Faculty and staff participants recalled that the campus community felt more intense and divisive before the rally and following the presidential election. 91

The incident. Though not one of my interview protocol questions, each participant described one specific event that a local news station called “an ugly incident of racial hatred,” in which a student used a racial slur in the lobby of a residence hall at the case study institution. This incident heightened their awareness of the racial climate on the case study institution campus and led to the organization of the rally on April 4,

2016. All eight student, faculty, and staff participants in this study cited this incident as the reason they mobilized to do something to change the campus culture. Maya was the only student study participant who witnessed the incident, which she documented in a public Facebook post from March 25, 2016, one day after the racial incident occurred.

During our interview, Maya recounted that she was in the lounge of her residence hall with her friends. The lounge represented the connection between one residence hall that housed first-year students and the other designated for second-, third-, and fourth-year students. The warm color palette of the lounge consisted of hues of red and orange, with a red accent wall, fire place, and red and orange sofas and arm chairs. Small four-person tables and single person built-in study carols lined the border of the lounge. With bulletin boards that had been decorated by the student staff of the building, the lounge symbolized a comfortable welcoming space for students who lived in both residence halls.

Maya recalled noticing three White males enter the building and that they spoke to another While male who was also in the lobby. Upon seeing the group of African

American women on the sofas, one of the males in the group that had entered the building yelled “I fucking hate niggers” and Maya heard laughter as the group ran away toward the stairs leading to their residence hall rooms. In an interview retrieved from an 92 online media source, one student recalled crying from the shock of the verbal assault after hearing the racial slur coupled with laughter. Maya remembers feeling confused, but then having to quickly hold her friend back, who jumped up to go after the group of males. The women decided to call their parents to describe what had just occurred and one of the parents called the police.

After a police report was filed, the women posted their experiences on social media.

Maya had received an out-pouring of shock and anger from fellow students at the institution in the comment section of her Facebook post and many of her online friends encouraged her to do something. Within a week following the use of the racial slur in a campus residential facility, planning for the rally had begun with assistance from Maya’s peers as well as faculty and staff supporters.

The decision to hold the rally was the result of multiple factors. Doc mentioned that the university had taken “fairly swift action” to hold the student who used the racial slur in a campus residence hall accountable for his actions. Some of the student participants in this study mentioned that the university had not done enough, even though they recognized that federal regulations prevented Doc and his staff from sharing the details of the perpetrator’s sanctions. Maya mentioned that she wanted the university to make a statement to the campus community that they have zero tolerance for racist behaviors.

Jay recalled, “The school didn’t do anything about that really and they didn’t really reply to our gripes about it. So, we got pissed off and we ended up planning that rally.”

Rally. The rally consisted on three parts: preparation that occurred the night before, the events that took place during the actual march around campus, and the 93 meeting with leadership of the case study institution. As this was a highly nuanced set of events, each part is discussed separately to create a timeline of events. Each section of the rally is described in detail below.

Rally prep. One week before the rally, student organizers contacted local news outlets to alert them of the date, time, and location of the event. Student participants in this study recalled that they wanted wide coverage of the rally to draw attention to the racial issues on their campus. Students also called for support from the networks of their various diverse involvement as leaders on campus, inviting current students, alumni, and students from neighboring colleges and university to stand in solidarity with their cause.

Countless hours were spent with administrators in the diversity support office on campus to prepare for the rally. Student leaders from multiple cultural student organizations were asked to speak about the reasons they served in these roles, and other students were asked to share their personal stories with racism on the campus. The student participants in this study who were organizers of the rally recalled how they reassured the faculty and staff who helped with planning the event that they would not stray from the strategy that was devised.

The night before the rally, a group of seven or eight students met in the lobby of the residence hall in which the incident occurred to create posters that would be used the next day. According to photos from this night, eight women gathered together in the lobby, with markers, paint, brushes, poster board, scissors, and their belongings taking up space on the multiple red patterned couches. Student participants recall fondly how positive the space was that night, as they laughed together and listened to music while they 94 brainstormed clever slogans for their posters. A faculty member brought pizza for the students to eat that night and bottles of water for the rally the next day and stayed to take pictures and provide additional emotional support. Photos of the posters show slogans like Our Education Matters, #BlackLivesMatter, Hire A Chief Diversity Officer, and

Hate Won’t Be Tolerated. Faculty and staff participants noted that this was an exciting time of resistance and disruption for the campus and eagerly supported this student-led initiative.

The day of the rally. The rally took place in the morning on April 4, 2016.

Individuals in the study expressed a series of emotions. Many research participants recalled that they felt a sense of nervous energy at the many unknown facets of the rally.

Some participants vividly remembered that they were worried that something would go wrong and the rally would turn violent, like many other college and university campus protests they had seen across the nation. Other participants feared that not many people would show up and to soften that blow had anticipated a small crowd of familiar supporters.

The student rally organizers instructed everyone to meet at the campus center in the middle of campus. Student study subjects recalled wearing all black attire for the rally and a group had purchased and worn Black Lives Matter t-shirts. Many faculty members ended classes early, postponed exams, or canceled classes that were held during the time frame of the rally and encouraged their students to support their peers. Faculty and staff study participants remembered being shocked at the turn-out for the rally. Video footage showed students wearing jackets and rain boots due to the intermittent rain showers 95 during the two-hour span of the rally. Student study participants estimated the crowd size between 75-100 people, whereas faculty and staff study participants estimated a slightly smaller crowd of 40-50 supporters. Online video footage of the rally from multiple sources confirm that the crowd size more closely matched estimates made by faculty and staff. The student rally organizers interviewed for this research mentioned that they were pleased to see that the media had come to cover the rally, while staff participants were surprised by their presence.

The data from the interviews with each participant highlighted the expectations held for supports who attended the rally. Student study participants wanted those who attended the rally to share the stories of their experiences with racism on the campus.

The hope of the student rally organizers was that those in the crowd that day would talk about what was learned with friends, peers, and colleagues to show how important it was to acknowledge how students of color experienced the campus. Faculty and staff study participants hoped that individuals in the crowd would listen attentively and respectfully allow the students to tell their stories. The faculty and staff supporters of the rally wanted to stand in solidarity with the students as they called for multicultural change on the campus.

Jay, one of the student study participants and student rally co-organizers, recalled that a faculty member passed him a bullhorn to speak to the crowd, which was not an anticipated need during the planning process. The megaphone was used to direct the crowd to the stairs outside as Jay stood on a wrought iron bench just outside of the campus center and recalled that he thanked everyone for coming and shared his own 96 experiences with racism on the campus. The bullhorn was then passed to another student, who shared similar experiences before Jay instructed the group to begin marching through the campus, engaging in call-and-response chants as slogans of justice and equity rang out through campus. Chants like ‘I won’t stand for hate,’ and ‘You want diversity. I want inclusion,’ were shouted in call-and-response style while students held umbrellas over their heads to stay dry in the rain.

Doc, one of the staff study participants, recalled that police officers at the case study institution stopped traffic as the rally participants crossed the street. One of the videos found online confirms Doc’s assertion and shows one police car and two officers blocking traffic at the intersection of the main street that runs through the center of campus. One other study participant, Maya, remembered police presence, but no one else recalled seeing the police at all during the rally. Clara, one of the staff study participants stated, “I don’t recall any police presence at the rally but it’s not something I would necessarily look for and I know that I have a different relationship with law enforcement than people of color.”

The next stop on the rally route was the library. The megaphone was passed around as more student leaders shared their stories not only about racism, but also about their hopes for a more inclusive campus, including the study body president. Online video footage captured the student body president saying, “It’s on all of us, especially White people because throughout history we’ve been the ones in power.” Maya, one of the student study participants, recalled when she shared her experience about her involvement with the residence hall incident with the crowd, “I’m surrounded by people 97 that hate me for no reason. You walk around campus and you’re not represented in any way. It makes you feel like you don’t belong here.” Her voice trembled as she spoke and although she was nervous, the nods in agreement from her peers in the crowd and their applause when she finished speaking made Maya realize that she had never felt more supported since she became a student at the institution. Kris reflected warmly, “I remember thinking that that’s what community is supposed to be like.” As the rally participants continued to share stories and march through campus, chatter on the campus

Yik Yak site was filled with negative comments about the reasons for the rally. Student study participants mentioned monitoring the comments for threats of violence to ensure safety. Kris responded to Yik Yak comments when probed for more information, stating,

“As a whole, I know that a lot of people didn’t like [the rally], or people had their opinions about it, but it felt good to finally do something. And even if a change didn’t occur, like, we tried, and we actually took steps forward to actually trying.”

The crowd then marched to the administration building, where more stories were shared. Kris, one of the student study participants and student rally co-organizers, recalled that the plan was for a select group of rally organizers to go into the president’s office and present their list of demands. One of the staff study participants described the moment the students were invited inside the building to meet with the president’s cabinet, which is represented by vice presidents from multiple departments across the campus.

The president was away from campus on the day of the rally, but the students welcomed the opportunity to meet with the cabinet in the president’s absence. 98

Cabinet meeting. Doc knew from planning with the student activists that the rally was set to end at the administration building. The students had hoped to present their list of demands directly to the president. Doc also knew that the president was out of town the day of the rally, so he arranged for the students to meet with the university’s top leadership officials. Gene recalled that he was contacted by staff in the campus marketing department and asked if he would coordinate with the student activists to meet with the cabinet members in the board room following the rally. “That ending wasn’t planned. We didn’t know what was gonna happen, so that was strictly the Administration being responsible and accountable and reactive to what they saw was an important thing happening,” Gene shared.

Study participants reported a number of incidents from the cabinet meeting. Student, faculty, and staff participants recalled that there were 20-30 people from the rally in the board room with cabinet members. The relatively large space was cramped, and everyone stood, despite the large round table and empty red leather high-back chairs in the room. The student rally co-organizers stood across from the board members with the table separating both groups, shared their experiences on campus, and presented the list of demands to the cabinet members. Very simply put, Jay told that administrators,

“Students want to see more from their university.” Faculty and student study participants recalled that most of the cabinet members genuinely listened to the concerns of the students and asked probing questions to gain a better understanding on demands that were unclear to them. 99

Kris, a student study participant, recalled, “I thought that that was cool that they

[administrators] allowed us to actually use our voices because that’s what college students should be able to do. I don’t think that a university should invite you to pay this money to go to this institution and then not be able to voice your opinions and to voice what’s important to you.” Several study participants mentioned one cabinet member who they felt was defensive and dismissive of their needs and concerns.

After the students presented their demands, certain members of the cabinet shared progress on some of the work they had begun through the diversity and inclusion strategic plan. The diversity and inclusion strategic plan included five strategies, each with three to five recommendations:

1. Create institutional accountability for diversity and inclusion

2. Enhance diversity and inclusion training for all employees and volunteers

3. Engage campus community in ongoing dialogue about diversity and inclusion

4. Support the creation of student organizations and affinity groups for faculty and

staff

5. Enhance efforts to attract and retain diverse faculty, students, and staff

These goals are evidence that the administration was already aware of the need to make the campus more inclusive and had been working toward a multi-year plan for improving many of the issues identified in the students’ list of demands. When the students left the room Gene recalled feeling, “What’s our action plan? So, what can we do first? We can’t just sit on these things.” 100

Post-rally. Following the meeting with cabinet members, many students returned to their regular class schedule. Jay, one of the student study participants, recalled that when he walked into the classroom of his class immediately following the rally, he was met with stares and whispers, which were assumed to be about his participation in the rally that had just ended. Jay also described having received multiple threatening social media messages from peers and strangers who disagreed with what they perceived as the reason for the rally. These messages were not shared with law enforcement for further investigation.

Each study participant observed the campus transform in both positive and negative ways following the rally. Maya felt that administrators “became more aware of the power of students and what they were and were not willing to accept”. Student subjects witnessed members of the campus community engage in genuine dialogue around inclusion issues. Faculty and staff study participants felt a greater sense of urgency and increased awareness of issues faced by students of color. Many of the demands were immediately addressed and communication about progress toward meeting the demands were listed and updated on a website created specifically to document progress on each directive was it was made. Rachel expressed pride in the institution for this effort and stated, “One thing that is unique about [name of institution] is the way they have responded [to the rally and demands] and I think it is important to examine especially right now on the national scale.”

In addition to holding the student who used the racial slur in the residence hall incident responsible for violating the student code of conduct, the institution pursued 101 criminal charges against the student with local city officials after the rally. There had been a pattern of prior similar incidents where this student used inflammatory language in public spaces on multiple occasions that according to Doc required this course of action.

Doc shared that the student was suspended from university housing but was still required to meet the financial obligation of his housing contract. According to legal documents, the student pled guilty to three minor misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges and the city court system fined the student over $600. These public records also highlight two additional disorderly conduct charges that occurred following the misdemeanor charge from April 2016, in which the defendant also plead guilty and paid additional fines.

The rally did not erase racism on the case study campus and there continued to be incidents that highlighted the importance of the issues that caused the rally to be organized. Jay recalled, “Everyone became a bit more polarized on the issues the same way the country had been.” Gene made an important observation about creating lasting change on a college campus and stated, “I think there is a difference between a band aid and surgery. I see many campuses put together band aids to address students’ concerns, but they’re very dependent on the people that are operating them. So, if that person decides to move on with their career or just their life in general, I’ve seen those initiatives fall apart.” Connecting diversity and inclusion work to positions and not people, as Gene suggested, is a critical element toward reaching inclusive campus goals.

Multiple study participants recalled a lip sync event hosted by fraternity and sorority life where a member of a sorority wore bronzer make-up and an afro wig in her portrayal of a Black actor. The student affairs administrators acted quickly and sent a statement to 102 the campus community about the incident that reinforced the institution’s commitment to a safe and inclusive environment. Staff study participants Doc and Clara collaborated on the statement and were pleased that the president of the institution allowed for the situation to be addressed in this manner. Shortly following this incident, the institution announced a diversity standard for all student organizations that requires attendance at a set number of designated inclusion events throughout the academic year in order to maintain funding.

Various leadership changes occurred at the institution following the rally. The provost and president left the university within a two-year span and though their departure was not connected to the rally, their vacancies seemed to pull focus from continuing the inclusion work that had begun. Doc assumed the role of the chair for the diversity and inclusion committee and maintained work on the proposal for the creation of a chief diversity officer position. The university sponsored a work group to go to the National

Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE) to learn about the process of instituting this new leadership position. Doc also used his extensive connections in the student affairs field to interview chief diversity officers at neighboring colleges and universities similar in size to the case study institution. The new president began working at the institution at the start of the 2018-2019 academic year and Doc presented the chief diversity officer proposal during a meeting on the president’s first day to discuss next steps. Doc stated,

“My argument with the CDO chief diversity officer is we say we value diversity. If we say we value the finances of the institution or we value our alumni relations, we would never think about not having a chief financial officer or a director of alumni relations. 103

But, yet, we debate over whether to have a CDO.” The plan is to have this position filled for the start of the 2020-2021 academic year.

Participant Profiles

Below is a summary of each participant’s interview. Participants are listed alphabetically by pseudonym. Themes and quotes from each section of the interview protocol provide details about each participant’s experience at the case study institution leading up to, during, and after the rally.

Clara. Clara serves as the chaplain at the case study institution (Clara’s title is listed here at her request) and assisted the student activists in writing the list of demands presented to the Administration following the rally. Clara walked from her office on the hot, sunny afternoon of our interview, which took place in a quiet study room at the local community library near the case study institution. An ordained United Methodist minister, she self-identified as a 53-year old White straight cisgender woman. Clara’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology, a Master of

Divinity degree, and a doctorate in higher education and student affairs. A student program that Clara currently runs is based on her dissertation research.

During our interview, Clara recalled that she chose to work for the case study institution because she was looking for a position after completing her doctoral studies and the location was close enough to her parents that she could visit without incurring large travel expenses. In describing her first days on the campus, Clara remembered walking the campus with her supervisor and meeting the directors of various student affairs offices who would become her colleagues. During her first few weeks at the case 104 study institution, she attended a campus-wide welcome back celebration and in Clara’s words “this event was memorable because I felt like I was part of the community then and not just sort of tangential to the whole thing.”

Clara became aware that the students in her first-year seminar course were not comfortable engaging in dialogue about issues of identity and seemed to lack experience interacting with people of color. She consulted with her colleagues across student affairs and learned that many staff members had similar experiences and sought to create opportunities for students to interact in meaningful ways across difference. Clara’s own dissertation research about the development of social justice allies through service learning caused her to create a student organization whose goal was to “train students to understand issues of identity, intersectionality, privilege, microaggressions, stereotyping, and implicit bias.” After learning that one of the students in this very same student organization was a silent bystander in an instance where a racial slur was used in the lobby of a residence hall, Clara decided to work with the students impacted by this bias incident and served as an advisor for the rally that took place on April 4, 2016.

For Clara, the rally symbolized a space where students could share and listen to stories of hardship. “It was not just a proclamation of what happened. It was an opportunity for solidarity. I can say this to this group of people and they will hear and understand what I am saying,” Clara recalled. Hearing the stories of the pain and frustration, she was honored to stand in unity with the student rally organizers and participants and listened while students of color voiced their expectations to members of the campus community. Clara also provided many details about the day of the rally, 105 including the path through campus that was walked, the demands from the student rally organizers, and accurate estimates of the number of attendees, as confirmed by multiple video footage sources. Though she could not recall if the police were present during the rally, Clara shared, “There are other rallies and demonstrations and protests on campus and the police are there, but it’s not a confrontational presence.”

Following the rally, Clara noticed some immediate changes regarding inclusion efforts on campus, including the creation of a website to share updates as the student demands were met, an adoption of more inclusive language in campus communications, cultural diversity among common read authors and topics, and a diversity standard for

Greek Life organizations. Other positive transformations on campus after the rally included more emphasis on bias reporting, greater intentionality in advertising to and hiring people of color, and the implementation of an equity and inclusion conference for staff. Clara has also written statements with the dean of students for the campus community following incidents of bias that occur locally and nationally. Clara stated, “It feels like there’s been a very intentional set of conversations about social justice and about racial justice on campus and I think the students that formed that rally that were really being active, I think that they are the ones that did that.”

Clara’s advice for creating lasting change at the case study institution was clear and concise: hire more people of color, including a chief diversity officer, and implement requirements for first-year students around identity. Clara declared:

We’ve got too many students coming in from corn fields who because they live in

very small rural communities have never had a conversation about race because 106

they’ve never had to, and we’ve got to teach them how to do that before they

graduate and go out into the world.

Clara further emphasized, “The experiences [of Black students] have to stay in the center of change because they’re invisible to too many people on campus.” She urged these students who are working with faculty and staff to create multicultural change on campus to collaborate, talk with and listen to each other, and to build coalitions while recognizing that there are “White folks on campus who will back them up and still need to be educated. I appreciate Black students who continue to be willing to educate me. I don’t want to require that of them but I’m grateful.”

To her peers and colleagues, Clara wished they would stop asking the Black students they work with to answer for all others like them. She advised faculty and staff to watch their own privilege and be more mindful of when they may be engaging in unconscious microaggression and stereotyping behaviors. Clara also shared that she would encourage her colleagues to listen to and build relationships with students of color while continuing to educate themselves. Finally, Clara encouraged White people to engage in dialogue with each other about privilege, particularly if there is interest in engaging in ally or advocacy work. In closing out the interview, Clara shared:

I think it’s really important to know that we’re not there yet. That [the rally] was

really good and that I think [name of case study institution] has responded well

and I think we continue to respond really well and we’re still a predominately

White institution with a lot of privilege that we don’t examine… There is still a

crap ton of work to do and will be. The University changes every year. We get 107

new people in and people leave so every year we have to reset the conversation

and we can’t get complacent.

Clara and I lingered a little while longer in the meeting room in the library after the interview ended. We discussed the work we do on our campuses and expressed a desire to collaborate on trainings for each of our staffs and colleagues.

Doc. Doc has spent 20+ years at the case study institution in multiple roles within student affairs. He serves as the vice president of student affairs and dean of students

(Doc’s title is listed here at his request) and arranged for the student activists to meet with members of the university Administration following the rally. We met in Doc’s office for our interview and I immediately noticed a photo of his son, who bears an uncanny resemblance to a famous Hollywood actor. We spent a few minutes talking about the careers of his children before discussing the collage of photos of both current and former students decoupaged under the glass surface covering his large wooden desk. These photos serve as a daily visual representation of the students whose lives Doc has impacted over the course of his extensive career.

Doc is a self-identified 63-year old White man from a small town on the east coast.

He is well-known and beloved in the field of student affairs, having served in and led multiple local and national organizations and has received awards and recognition for his service to the profession. Doc has built his entire career on the philosophy and practice of being present for and with others. He credited his success to taking the time to get to know the students, staff, and faculty he has come into contact with and believes that, 108

“You can’t just show up when all hell breaks loose; you gotta be there when things are going okay, too.”

Shortly before graduating with his master’s degree, Doc had completed an interview at a NASPA conference with one of his mentors and thought that they could be someone who could teach him about student affairs. He remembers not knowing what he was supposed to be doing when he first started working at the case study institution as there was no on-boarding for new professionals. Doc recalls:

I was hired to be a hall director and Greek advisor and I had never lived in a

residence hall. Even when I was an undergraduate the residence halls were filled

at the university I went to, so they put me in a fraternity house and I lived in a

fraternity house which was an interesting experience because they didn’t care for

the university housing people in the houses let alone a Yankee in a southern

fraternity house. So, I had a huge learning curve.

In those early days, he aligned himself with his colleagues and faculty across the institution to collaborate on initiatives to better serve the students he worked with and came to know through his various leadership roles in housing, Greek Life, student activities, campus center operations, and dining services.

The foundation of Doc’s career has been building relationships across the case study institution. During our interview, he shared that the day before he attended a celebration of life ceremony for a psychology professor who facilitated some training sessions during

Doc’s early residence life days at the institution. He also bonded with a graduate student who worked in his office and learned a great deal about racial issues on the campus. This 109 connection allowed Doc to learn about racial identity through their conversations, recommended readings, and observations of how she advised the African American student group on campus. “We didn’t study much of that in grad school back then, so I learned a lot from her and then I watched how she operated,” Doc recalled.

Experiences in Doc’s early career gave him a sense of what it was like to be an outsider on his own campus. He developed a great empathy for students, faculty, and staff from marginalized identities with whom he likely shared very similar desires of belonging to an unwelcoming community:

I was a northern Catholic Italian going to a southern school and being placed in a

pretty hostile environment, so I knew what it was like to be on the outside, but I

could quickly assimilate. I learned to say y’all and they didn’t know the

difference, so it wasn’t the same experience, but I knew what that feeling was

like, but never to the degree that someone that can’t change their skin color can

do.

His own undergraduate experience empowered him to create a campus environment that was welcoming of diverse individuals. Just prior to the rally, Doc witnessed the case study institution become more divisive as members of the campus community engaged in openly racist speech and behavior. Social media amplified these hostile sentiments and students of color relayed stories of microaggressions and stereotypes in and outside of the classroom, including the use of a racial slur in the lobby of a residence hall, which is said to have sparked the rally and student demands. 110

In his role as the vice president for student affairs and dean of students, Doc made his staff available to the students as they organized the rally and created their list of demands.

Doc recalled that many of the student activists talked to him before the rally took place and asked that he not take it personally. “They were just so respectful and really respectful to me and the president and some other administrators,” he shared. The day of the rally, Doc met the students at the campus center and marched with them throughout campus. He knew that the president was out of town and had arranged for the rally student organizers to meet with members of the Administration instead. He also identified a member of his staff to talk with the members of the media who showed up to document the events of the day. “I wasn’t surprised by anything,” Doc shared.

Doc named the event that took place on April 4, 2016 on the case study institution campus a rally but was the only subject to say the student activists presented a list of expectations. Doc explained, “They were demands from them but it’s what they should expect from us. They don’t need to demand that. They should expect that from us.”

Like Clara, Doc’s estimate of the crowd matched what is evidenced in multiple videos available online. The video footage of the rally also supports Doc’s assertion that the police stopped traffic as the crowd crossed the main street through campus. Only one other subject recalled the police presence the day of the rally. He provided detail about the meeting between the student activists and members of the Administration, including a few faculty members who “were with the students egging them on. They were standing behind them in the board room.” 111

Doc talked at length about changes he witnessed on the case study institution campus following the rally, as this work was executed by staff in his office. A student who used a racial slur in the lobby of a residence hall was found responsible for violating the campus code of conduct and charged criminally in the local city courts and as a result was removed from campus housing and fined by the city. Though he could not share details about the case with the campus community due to federal information protection regulations, he felt that the students harmed in this situation trusted the staff in his office to hold the alleged perpetrators accountable for their actions. This was vital to the relationships Doc had built with members of the campus community as a way to honor the trust they had placed in him as the dean of students.

Doc also observed a greater sense of urgency around matters of diversity and inclusion on the case study institution campus. He became the new chair of the diversity and inclusion committee and implemented a number of initiatives on campus, including the creation of a website to show how the student demands were being met. His office also sponsored a group of students to attend the National Conference on Race and

Ethnicity (NCORE) conference to learn about the process of creating a chief diversity officer position. He expressed great pride when he discussed his work on the proposal for responsibilities, staff support, and funding allocations for the establishment of a chief diversity officer position at the case study institution. Doc emphasized:

My argument with the CDO chief diversity officer is, we say we value diversity.

If we say we value the finances of the institution or we value our alumni relations, 112

we would never think about not having a chief financial officer or a director of

alumni relations but yet, we debate over whether to have a CDO.

Doc also witnessed the creation of a diversity and inclusion conference for administrative staff, which along with the already established diversity and inclusion conference for faculty, accomplished the goal of providing this training for all levels of full-time staff at the case study institution.

In order to create lasting change at the case study institution, Doc identified four directives. First, the campus needs to diversify students, faculty, and staff, even in those academic disciplines where it had proved to be a challenge in the past. He cited that the implementation of a diversity prompt on staff and faculty applications may help increase diverse candidates. “In student affairs when staff are hiring if they don’t bring me a diverse pool I turn them back, so I send the pool back unless it’s diverse,” Doc shared.

Second, the campus community needs to engage in more structured meaningful conversation about matters of diversity and inclusion. The case study institution also needs to improve its access and affordability efforts for first-generation and low socioeconomic status students. Finally, the university needs to better prepare faculty to discuss diversity and inclusion in the classroom. While there are a few programs in student life that train students to be peer mentors, they are not skilled at facilitating these conversations in academic settings.

When asked what advice Doc would give to African American students working with faculty and staff to create multicultural change at the case study institution, he gave a bright broad smile before answering the question. He advised these students to challenge 113 faculty, staff, and their peers when they are not practicing multicultural literacy. Doc also felt that it is important that African American students feel empowered to speak up and to know that people who care are listening and will work to implement meaningful change. Advice for faculty and staff at the case study institution that Doc offered is the importance of being present for these students while continuing to engage in self- education about the experiences of students of color on a predominately White campus.

Gene. Gene served as my contact for study related information by identifying subjects for purposeful sampling and providing access to documents reviewed for this research. He identified as a 31-year old bi-racial heterosexual Christian man who grew up in the capital of the state of the case study institution and serves as the director for the diversity support office. Gene assisted the student activists following a racist incident in a campus residence hall that spurred the rally. After graduating from high school, Gene enrolled at the case study institution where he earned both a Bachelor of Science degree in sport management and a Master of Business Administration degree. After completing his graduate degree, Gene secured a full-time position with the diversity office.

We met in Gene’s office for our interview, which is housed in a residence hall that is now used for office space. There are still remnants of the stereotypical residence hall room accoutrements, including cinderblock walls and built-in wardrobe and shelving units. Gene’s office is decorated with posters and photos of his sports heroes and favorite sports teams. The intentionality of the artifacts displayed in his office space creates an environment that shows his students what he is passionate about and encourages them to share their dreams with him, as well. His 10+ year career at the university has allowed 114 him to witness many changes in the inclusion work of the institution and, as a result, has built a good reputation with students, faculty, and staff over the year. He believes that his experience and knowledge of the university allowed others to value his opinion and he is proud of the “juice he brings to the table” as institutional policies and decisions are made.

Gene chose to connect himself with the case study institution as an undergraduate student. He recalled that the university was “in my backyard,” and remembered missing parts of orientation as a commuter student. Gene eventually made connections with peers in his incoming class, as well as faculty and staff from an early-arrival mentoring program with which he was a participant. It was through his own value of this work that

Gene saw the potential in being able to serve future students in a similar capacity and he made the decision to further his education at the case study institution, earning a master’s degree and securing full-time employment at the diversity support office on campus.

Early connections that Gene made with staff and faculty at the case study institution in the admissions office and through an academic support early arrival program helped him see the impact he could have on the experience of first-year students of color. “You have people from all over the place that are sharing the space with you and having different life experiences and sometimes it’s hard to navigate those experiences amongst others that don’t share them or don’t understand them,” Gene recalled. His early mentors empowered him to create opportunities for students at the case study institution to learn from each other through meaningful dialogue.

Gene’s early recollections of racial issues on the case study institution campus stemmed from his skin color privilege. Being of multiracial background with a White 115 parent and an African American parent, his lighter skin allowed him to appeal to multiple audiences in university brochures and ad campaigns, creating a sense of tokenism. Gene also noticed that his friends, who had darker skin tones, seemed to be unwelcomed in certain campus spaces as strangers stereotyped them without taking the time to get to know them. These unfair judgements empowered Gene to create structured initiatives for members of the campus community to come together and dialogue about diversity and inclusion issues. The amount of time spent at the university, from his undergraduate career to his full-time work, allowed Gene to call upon his mentors and colleagues across the university to implement these dialogue opportunities in classroom settings as academic requirements, and in student affairs programming.

The interview with Gene was somewhat challenging in that we did not always separate his undergraduate and post-baccalaureate experiences from his full-time employment experiences. An example of this is clear in how Gene responded when asked the share characteristics of the campus climate prior to the rally. As a student,

Gene recalled low retention rates, frequent microaggressions in and out of the classroom, and fewer faculty and staff of color with whom students could discuss these concerns.

Student subjects in this study cited similar examples of the climate they observed on the campus, with the exception of few full-time staff to talk to, and Gene was cited by each student interviewed as a mentor who helped them successfully navigate the challenges of being a student of color on this predominately White campus.

As one of the administrators who helped the student activists plan the rally that occurred at the case study institution on April 4, 2016, Gene provided a wealth of rich 116 data about the events of the day. He estimated that he spent over 40 hours as he helped the students write the list of demands and prepare for the rally and felt confident that they would stick to the agreed upon plan, consulting first if any deviations were being considered. Gene remembered seeing news stations and wondered how they found out about the rally but was relieved when staff from marketing and media relations worked with reporters. He was thrilled that the dean of students, his supervisor, had arranged for the student rally organizers to meet with members of the Administration and knew that this gesture would reinforce with the students how committed the university was by its response to their demands. He recalled hearing students share stories during the rally about their experiences and felt a sense of pride seeing his colleagues in the audience listening to and supporting the activists as they told their powerful narratives.

Gene estimated that at least 75 people attended the rally, the majority being students and 15% of the crowd was comprised of faculty and staff. This is slightly higher than what online video footage depicts, which is closer to 50 participants. Gene’s expectations of supporters of the rally were simply to follow the plan, listen to each other’s stories, show respect for the items in the list of demands, and to stay positive.

Gene did not specifically mention whether he remembered police presence at the rally, nor did I directly ask. An additional interview question asked the remaining subjects about their recollection of officers near the vicinity of the rally. Finally, Gene stated that the student organizers planned a rally, not a protest, to present the Administration with a list of demands, not expectations. 117

Following the rally, Gene witnessed an increased awareness of issues students of color on the campus of the case study institution experience in and outside of the classroom. Gene stated, “I feel a lot of people saw the importance of [the rally] especially when they saw the volume of students that were there. To see the various identities within that audience I think each administrator or faculty member knew someone within that population.” He also noticed that students fostered relationships through dialogue and began to advocate for one another. Gene also felt that the case study institution should focus efforts on connecting diversity and inclusion work to a position and not a person as one way to create lasting change.

Gene advised students on the case study institution campus who are working to create multicultural change to engage in dialogue with other students, build authentic relationships with faculty and administrators, and accept that there is no one experience.

He explained:

There was a little bit of tension between this person isn’t down for the cause and

they come up with a narrative because of that. They must not think they’re Black

or they’re not Black enough. The worst thing that you can do as a marginalized

population is further marginalize yourselves.

Gene warned his faculty and staff colleagues against creating narratives for the students of color that they work with. He also urged faculty and administrators to decorate their office spaces with artifacts so that students can learn more about staff members and build rapport and trust. 118

Jay. Jay graduated from the case study institution in 2018 with a Bachelor of

Science degree in political science and a minor in sociology and was one of the student rally co-organizers. He identified as a 23-year old African American heterosexual

Christian man who grew up in a major metropolitan area in the mid-west. During his time at the case study institution, Jay was a member of a National Pan-Hellenic Council

(NPHC) fraternity, served as a resident advisor for two years, vice-president and president of the African American cultural student organization on campus, a member of a student group for men of color, a member of the gospel choir, and a varsity lacrosse player for three years.

Although Jay still lives in the city that the case study institution is located, we opted for an online interview due to limited space availability in the local community library.

Through our interview, I noticed that his home was quiet, and he felt very comfortable to speak freely as he recalled his involvement in the events of the rally in 2016. As one of the student rally co-organizers, he credits this activism experience to his desire to run for public office. Jay’s career goals are to serve the community through public service as a member of the U.S. Congress.

Jay chose to attend the case study institution because of being selected as a member of a varsity athletic team, the small number of students, the beautiful campus location, and the availability of his intended major of physics. The first day on the campus, Jay described meeting his best friends and mentors through an early arrival program for incoming underrepresented racial minority students. “They brought us in and had us talk to different staff members. We went on tours on different parts of campus and I vividly 119 remember that entire week expressing myself and us telling each other stories,” he recalled. In Jay’s early days at the case study institution, he connected with faculty and staff from the early arrival program he participated in, specifically Doc and Gene, as well as the students in the program, including Kris who was also interviewed for this research study.

Jay sensed the racial issues he would have to deal with from early interactions with his roommate and teammates from varsity lacrosse. “I noticed that they weren’t necessarily racist but had a lot of racist tendencies and a lot of ignorant viewpoints that could attribute them to not having a lot of interactions with people of color,” he shared.

He further reflected, “There was Hip Hop music playing in the locker room and people would be saying the n-word and I would have to check them on that and I’d have that conversation over and over again.”

The campus climate before the rally was full of cliques of fraternities, sororities, athletes, theater students, and student leaders, each with “boundaries that people wouldn’t socially cross,” according to Jay. The presidential election leading up to the rally emboldened some students to make offensive and insensitive comments verbally or on the institution’s Yik Yak account. Students hid behind the anonymity of the site and expressed slurs that made it uncomfortable for students of color on the campus. An incident in a campus residence hall where a racial slur was used was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back and empowered Jay to confront the hostilities in his campus environment. More specifically, “The school didn’t do anything about that really and didn’t really reply to our gripes about it. So, we got pissed off and we ended up planning 120 the rally and that’s how that came about.” Jay’s perception of the lack of accountability by administrators for the students who used racial slurs in a residence hall sparked the creation of the rally on the campus of the case study institution.

As one of the student co-organizers, Jay shared lots of thick, rich details about the events of day of the rally. He specifically recalled that his professor ended class early and told the students to go support the rally. Upon entering the campus center, the gathering point for the start of the rally, Jay was overwhelmed at the amount of people who looked to him for direction. “I didn’t even know I was going to be the one that was pretty much the presumptive leader of this. I had no idea. I swear to God. I swear to

God,” Jay shared. A faculty member handed him a megaphone and Jay instructed the crowd to walk outside and gather on the front steps.

As Jay looked out at the crowd, he saw signs and people with video cameras and a larger than anticipated crowd of supporters dressed in black who held umbrellas as they stood in the light drizzle of intermittent rain. Jay’s estimate of 150 to 200 people in the crowd was slightly exaggerated when compared to online video footage of the rally. He expected that his peers in the crowd would have been loud and disruptive and vigilant as they shared their stories. This was an important element in emphasizing the need to change the campus culture.

While he had no recollection of police presence during the rally, Jay vividly remembered that the case study institution accurately covered the events of the day, while local news agencies reported a skewed narrative: 121

[Local news reporters] really tried to say we were pissed off because there is not

enough Black people on campus. All the people from the media who were

contacting me seemed as though they understood exactly why we were doing this.

By the time the videos and articles came out it was not at all what the hell we

were trying to do.

Jay was adamant that the purpose of the rally in his mind was to urge the case study institution to do a better job at creating a supportive climate for the Black students and other students of color and students from other marginalized identities that were already enrolled. This would ensure that new underrepresented students would enter into a welcoming campus environment.

Jay very clearly reported that a rally and not a protest was held on April 4, 2016 and expressed some anger when asked to clarify if a list of demands or expectations were presented to the administration during the meeting following the rally. He was very quick to say that demands were written and discussed with the administrators, but upon learning that they were published on a campus website as expectations stated, “We gave them a list of demands and it was pretty straight forward. They gentrified the shit outta that. Clearly I’m still upset but I’m going to send them to you and you’ll see ain’t one word on there that says expectations.” The original list was emailed to me by three participants and each one confirms that the group created a list of demands. It was not until the demands were posted on the website that they were listed as expectations.

Following the rally, Jay returned to class and was immediately met with stares from classmates who did not support this form of activism. He also received multiple 122 messages on his social media accounts from peers and strangers alike who expressed their strong dislike for his efforts which brought negative attention to their small campus.

Jay shared with a hearty laugh:

I was the only Black guy [in my class] so I was naturally one of the only people

that had participated in [the rally]. So, everybody was just looking at me like what

the fuck did you just do? I was just like well wow you really kind of pissed some

people off. So, it was an interesting day. It was a lot.

As a result of the rally, Jay felt the campus community was more in tune with discussions about race and bigotry and sexism. “It was no longer something you could not talk about,” Jay stated.

In order to create lasting change, the case study institution would need to utilize a top- to-bottom and bottom-up approach, according to Jay. He encouraged current students to create a better culture on campus by organizing more organizations that focus on the experience of students of color. Jay also urged them to get to know the faculty and staff on campus to build intentional relationships for support.

Kris. Kris graduated from the case study institution in 2017 with two Bachelor of

Arts degrees in journalism and media communication and a minor in public relations.

She identified as a 23-year old African American heterosexual Christian woman who grew up in the capital of the state of the case study institution and was another one of the student rally co-organizers. During her time at the university, Kris served in the African

American cultural student organization on campus, as editor-in-chief of the campus 123 magazine publication and was a mentor in two different student organizations. Kris also served on the homecoming court the fall semester after the rally.

Since graduating, Kris has moved out of the state of the case study institution and continued gaining experiences to help achieve her career goal of becoming a published author. Because of her location, we chose an online interview format and experienced very few technical interruptions. I noticed that the space she conducted our interview in was quiet and allowed for her to speak freely. She also has prepared for the interview and referenced the interview protocol questions provided to each participant prior to the day and time of the interview. At the time of this study, Kris was writing her first fiction piece and would love to eventually turn it into a screenplay to touch people across the world.

Kris instantly fell in love with the beauty and small size of the case study institution campus as well as to play basketball. After initially choosing to major in psychology, she switched to communications and decided against playing sports for the school. She recalled feeling both nervous and excited on her first day and feared getting lost while navigating campus. In her early days on campus, Kris connected with staff in the diversity office, including Gene, as well as Doc and upper class peers at the institution.

During the second semester of her second year, Kris began to notice racial issues on the campus of the case study institution. She recalled that the language some individuals used on the predominately White campus “to describe people of color and describing our culture was a little off-putting so I was like mmm I would let it slide and it just became more apparent to me.” Kris cited calls for safe space on campus as one of the moments 124 that led to the organization of the rally. The use of a racial slur in a residence hall was the second incident that spurred the rally, though her first exposure of the events was through comments made on the campus’ Yik Yak account. Kris shared:

You can’t use language like that in an open space, especially with people who it is

going to affect and just knowing what that word was used for back then it made us

see that even though it was 2016 racism is still there and racism doesn’t have to

be overt. Racism is very subtle.

Kris recalled that the climate on campus was “very cliquey” and that “each race group was in their own bubbles and no one really worked together.” Following the residence hall racial slur incident, groups of students came together in solidarity during the rally to share stories of their experiences and demand help from administrators to change the campus culture.

The day of the rally, Kris recalled that she had a psychology exam that was cancelled by the professor who felt it was important for the students in the class to experience the rally. Kris felt excited and nervous as she left the classroom building and made her way to the gathering point for the rally in the rain. She shared, “I didn’t know how people were going to react to the rally and there was already talk on social media about it.” She had read lots of negative comments about the rally on Yik Yak, Facebook, and Twitter from individuals who thought it was stupid. Upon entering the campus center, Kris estimated about 75-100 people total in attendance and immediately became overwhelmed at her approximation of the size of the crowd. Multiple online videos confirm that the crowd was about 40-50 people. Being a communication major, Kris was particularly 125 interested in the media outlets who showed up to capture the rally. “Seeing [local news outlets] even if people didn’t see the severity or importance of this we’re making strides and being loud with what we’re doing enough for the news to actually come to a small campus like [name of institution],” Kris shared.

Kris considered the student gathering that day to be a rally and not a protest, the distinction being that the crowd walked peacefully through campus and gave other students to opportunity to discuss the issues shared by students of color on the campus.

Upon being asked if demands or expectations were presented to the administrators, she initially indicated that they were expectations, but then changed her response to say they were demands. “I wasn’t involved in the process of making the list, but I do remember that we presented the cabinet with a list of expectations to demand what we would like to change.” After being asked about police presence, Kris did not remember seeing any police officers or police cars at the rally and had never thought about it until asked.

During the rally, Kris hoped that supporters in the crowd would actually listen to the speakers who shared their experiences of racism on the case study institution campus.

She also hoped that rally participants would allow their thoughts to be challenged. For

Kris, the goal of the rally was for people “to break out of their own bubble and realize that it’s not just a Black and White issue.” The cabinet meeting with leadership of the case study institution following the rally was a space where Kris felt genuinely listened to and supported. She recalled being in awe of her peers who spoke to the administrators and shared, “We have a group of young students who actually care about the world and 126 what’s going on.” Leaving the board room, Kris remembered feeling like, “Wow, guys.

We did it. We had a good turnout.”

Following the rally, Kris immediately noticed more collaboration across student groups at the case study institution, along with a greater desire for dialogue across racial groups and even organized dialogue with students of color from other nearby campuses.

There was a sense of urgency to engage in discussion about taboo topics among students, faculty, and staff which Kris attributes to the media coverage of the rally. “All of this led up to something cool at the beginning of my senior year when [name of national media outlet] actually came to campus to document a dialogue about the climate on campus right before the presidential election,” Kris recalled. The presence of news stations even after the rally opened up skeptical members of the campus community to the validity of the issues raised by students of color at the case study institution.

In order to create lasting change, Kris felt that the campus needs to create stronger mentoring programs to continue the work that needs to be done to improve the climate at the university. She acknowledged that she has kept in touch with some of the younger students and that they expressed feeling overwhelmed in their leadership roles as they continue to fight for multicultural change on campus:

They don’t think they can fix anything. They think it’s just too hard for them.

They’ve been discouraged I think that’s because coming off the high of the rally I

think it’s an expectation to continue that and it hasn’t been met in the way that

they thought it was going to be met. 127

Kris spoke of the slow process of implementing change within the relatively short timeframe of the average undergraduate career. The frustration experienced by those student leaders of color at the case study institution, in Kris’ view, added pressure to over-do the work of the student rally organizers so as not to lose momentum gained from the activism on the campus.

Kris advised current African American student leaders at the case study institution who are working with faculty and administrators to create multicultural change to be persistent, exercise self-care, rely on each other for assistance, and maintain a connection with others who share similar identities and experiences on the campus. Faculty and administrators working with these student leaders of color should remain patient as they seek to understand the experience of students of color at this predominately White institution. Kris recommended that these full-time employees talk with each other to share what is learned and to strategize ways to support students of color, while also establishing meaningful connections with underrepresented students on the case study institution campus. Kris ended our interview with this final thought:

A lot of [students of color at PWIs] are losing hope. I hope that young people that

are younger than our generation are rallying and pioneering for change. Seeing

that there are younger people on the campus taking initiative gives me hope.

Kris hopes to continue this type of work on a larger scale as a journalist and author.

Maya. Maya was just beginning the first semester of her third year at the case study institution when she and I met for the interview. Majoring in psychology, she identified as a 21-year old African American heterosexual spiritual woman who grew up 128 in the capital of the state of the case study institution. Due to the unavailability of space in the local community library, Maya and I discussed the rally through an online video chat platform. We experienced many technical interruptions due to her slow internet connection but managed to get through each question. Maya’s cats would sit on the couch near her, providing what I perceived to be protection and comfort as she recalled both the challenges and triumphs of the rally events in 2016.

She has served in the African American cultural student organization on campus and was one of the students involved in a racial slur incident in her residence hall that spawned the rally. This single event hurled her into the spotlight as she gave statements and interviews to the press and bravely spoke her truth during the rally. Maya felt strongly that faculty and administrators should listen to their students as they share their experiences. She has formed a lasting connection with Doc following the rally and recommends that others model his example.

Maya admitted that she had hoped to attend a historically Black college (HBCU) or university and made a “last-minute decision” to attend the case study institution in the city in which she was born and raised. When asked to describe her first day on campus, she recalled that this was the first time she had ever been at a predominately White institution and that she experienced microaggressions about her hair, which was braided, during orientation. Maya feared that she would get lost looking for her classes and laughed at the recollection since the campus is so small. She also vividly remembered her roommate and the memories of exchanging stories about the challenges of being

African American women on the White and male dominated campus. The comradery she 129 established with the other women of color on her floor during her first year served as a vital support network that is in place to this day.

Maya was one of the three women involved in the residence hall racial slur incident.

When asked when she first began to notice racial issues on campus, she explained her involvement in what is known as the provocative moment that propelled her into racial justice activism. According to Maya’s Facebook post, on March 24, 2016, during the second semester of her first year, she and two friends were sitting in the lounge of their residence hall studying when three males entered the building being fairly loud and obnoxious. They greeted another male who was also in the lobby on their way to the staircase and one of them yelled “I fucking hate niggers” and the group burst out in laughter as they ran away. Maya stated in her Facebook post that she sat in shock, felt embarrassed and ashamed to be Black because she allowed the words uttered by the male student to belittle her in that moment. Maya indicated that she would “not stand for hate speech” at the school she paid to attend.

During our interview, Maya gave lots of detail about the student who used the racial slur in her residence hall lobby and described him as a White male who was a student athlete and a member of an Interfraternity Council organization. She shared that she saw him frequently around the campus following the incident and chose to avoid him to maintain her own piece of mind. He sent Maya an email apology of sorts and shared in the message that he has Black friends and was simply mimicking a video he saw online and didn’t mean any harm. Maya took the time to educate him in her reply: 130

I just responded telling him basically the history of the word and why it offends

us today and why you can’t say that even if it ends with an ‘a’ and why having

Black friends doesn’t exclude you from racism and why he can’t apologize to me

about my feelings. He never responded to [the message].

The grace that Maya exhibited as an 18-year old first-year student in the face of this heinous act is remarkable.

Although Maya was not familiar with how students are held accountable for racist actions against their peers, she felt that the university did not send a strong message condemning such hateful speech. As Doc mentioned in his interview, due to federal regulations, FERPA specifically, the sanctions assigned to the student who used the racial slur could not be revealed to the campus community. It was evident that he was removed from campus housing because he moved out of his residence hall room. The court documents are public record and show that he was required to pay fines for his misconduct. In Maya’s words, “I wanted [the university] to just support more and if supporting more means like him getting a harsher punishment or like zero tolerance and I can’t know whatever happens to him or any other student, then so be it.” Maya’s frustration at the lack of transparency about the university’s stance on acts of racial hatred adds to a campus climate that is somewhat hostile toward students of color.

The night before the rally, Maya shared the details of an event where friends and faculty supporters came together in the lobby of the residence hall where the racial slur was used to create signs for the rally. Photos of this gathering showed seven undergraduate women spread out in the lobby with poster board, paints, brushes, and 131 markers. The women brainstormed slogans for the posters that they would carry and hand out the next day to other participants. Maya talked about how supportive the space was as they listened to music and ate pizza. “We talked a lot and then we were emailing news stations just to try to make it bigger than what we thought it was going to be because we didn’t think it was going to be as big as it was,” she shared with a hearty chuckle.

The day of the rally, Maya awoke, showered, and dressed in a Black Lives Matter t- shirt that a friend bought for a group of women to wear, including the three women at whom the racial slur was used. Maya went to class and asked her professor to leave class early to go to the rally and he enthusiastically cancelled class and told the rest of the class to support the rally. “He so happened to be the husband of a professor that came the night before and so he let class go early and I just thought that was like speaking loud words to me just showing his support,” Maya recalled. Upon entering the campus center,

Maya remembered seeing so many people and she was taken aback, not expecting such a huge show of support. She mentioned reading some of the comments on Yik Yak, most of which were negative and discouraged support of the rally.

Maya estimated that 100 people showed up for the rally that day. However, multiple online videos show about half as many supporters. Maya hoped that students who attended the rally would speak up if they had an experience to share. The students marched across campus according to Maya yelling, “We won’t stand for hate.” Maya was the only participant who definitively remembered that the campus police were present at the rally. She described four officers who were not threatening at all and did 132 not try to stop the rally. Maya was adamant that she and her peers had not organized a protest, but a rally as they sought to let the campus community know about the issues they faced as students of color. She also shared that they presented demands because

“although we did expect [our needs] to be met we were also demanding that they be met.”

During the meeting with the members of the president’s cabinet, Maya shared her story of the residence hall racial slur incident. To her surprise, she felt that the senior leaders of the university genuinely listened to everything she said. “It just felt good that they were listening. It was fulfilling,” Maya recalled. One cabinet member seemed defensive and unresponsive to the student’s demands, but the remaining administrators were ready to listen and talk with the activists. She remembered various university leaders sharing updates on how each of the student demands had already been factored into the university’s strategic plan.

After the rally, Maya noticed that the university became more aware of the power of the students. She also witnessed apathy among her younger peers, who seemed more willing to accept inappropriate behaviors from members of the community:

They’re kind of like well I just want to hold hands and sing kumbaya. Everyone

in my year and beyond seem much more like hands-on. Let’s do something about

it. Let’s not take that. Let’s speak up. Let’s talk to this person and students now

that they’re just coming in.

Maya doesn’t feel it is her responsibility to make other individuals on her campus continue the work she started with the rally. “I think it kind of takes something within 133 yourself to continue this passion and this driving force that previous years have done,” she shared. She felt that the campus community as a whole need to learn from past mistakes to keep from repeating them in the future as a way of creating lasting change.

Building relationships with alumni to hear about their experiences on campus and what they’ve done to create multicultural change is a great way to strategize without recreating the wheel, in Maya’s view. Intentional opportunities to collaborate with other cultural organizations on campus would also build stronger coalitions among students of color at the predominately White case study institution.

Maya’s advice to African American students at the case study institution who seek to create multicultural change is to create strong connections with faculty, staff, and students. Faculty and staff working with these same students should take the time to listen to the stories of their experiences and attend their events to learn what is important to them. Maya ended the interview by expressing her gratitude for one administrator at the case study institution:

After the rally, I gained such a strong relationship with the dean of our school to

the point that I feel like I can tell him pretty much anything that goes on on-

campus. After [the residence hall racial slur incident] [the dean] reached out to

me and since then he’s been amazing. Of course, the dean of a school can’t do

that for everyone, but I think that type of support is exactly what is needed on

every college campus across the nation. 134

There were multiple examples of this similar impact that Doc had on the student participants of this study and countless other students over his career as a student affairs educator at the case study institution.

Rachel. Rachel graduated from the case study institution a month after the rally occurred with two Bachelor of Arts degrees in women’s studies and English and a minor in creative writing. She identified as a 24-year old White heterosexual atheist woman who came to the university as an out-of-state student. Rachel is currently attending graduate school at the University of Iowa to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing. Due to her location outside of the state of the case study institution, Rachel and I held an online interview. While we experienced a couple of minor internet interruptions, her space was calm and quiet, and she used the interview protocol questions to guide her contribution of data to my research study.

Rachel was not involved with the racial slur incident nor was she an organizer of the rally, but at the time, she held very influential leadership roles at the institution and her support and networks helped with the successes achieved that day. Rachel served as a student trustee (Rachel’s leadership role is used here with permission) and in that time noticed the structural racism that existed among the leadership of the university. She challenged the administrators on the board to consider adopting inclusive language in lieu of divisive terms and phrases and has pushed for the development of a system where student voices have as much weight as those of the faculty and staff.

The small campus size and desired academic major were the reasons Rachel chose to attend the case study institution. “The social justice aspect of [the case study institution] 135 and the institutional value for things like gender equality and racial equality were the things that most immediately impacted me and my decision,” Rachel shared. She also developed connections with members of the faculty in both the English and women gender and sexuality studies departments who convinced her to make friends get involved at the university. During her first days on campus, she recalled that a faculty member she met during summer orientation introduced her to another first-year woman and they became close friends who are still roommates even after having graduated from college.

Rachel also made connections with members of the LGBTQIA+ student organization and lived in the theme house on the campus of the case study institution.

Awareness of racial issues on the campus were immediately prevalent to Rachel, who could not help but notice the “extremely White campus” and that there were “not a lot of students of color and very few faculty of color. I think my entire years of taking classes I had one Black professor and she taught my Race Theory course in my senior year,”

Rachel recalled. As a student trustee at the university, she did not interact with many students of color in this prestigious leadership role and also noticed that the positions of power among the Administration were held by White men. Racist and sexist comments made by her White male peers in the presidential campaign of 2016 revealed how emboldened they felt to use offensive slurs. She also noticed the use of we vs. them language among the leaders of the campus when discussing recruitment strategies for students of color:

If [name of case study institution] continues to only bring in the affluent White

students that is has so far it will become obsolete. That’s the truth of it. And they 136

know that. But that the way that they are doing [recruiting students of color] still

had that creepy coercive attitude about it which really struck me as uncomfortable

especially since there are so few Black people and no Black students to be able to

be part of that conversation to talk about it, so it felt weird.

The behavior Rachel witnessed as a student trustee empowered her to do something to raise awareness about the experiences of students of color on campus among the senior leadership at the university.

Rachel remembered the rain the day of the rally. She met a group of students on the steps of the campus center before marching through campus. “Everyone was wearing

Black and that was part of the statement and then I remember that they had organized it so student activists from all different pockets of campus had the opportunity to speak,”

Rachel shared. She estimated that the crowd was less than 100 people, and online footage of the rally confirms between 40-50 participants. Early in the interview, Rachel stated that “the students who put it together had a very succinct very clear list of demands” but when asked directly about whether demands or expectation were presented

Rachel recalled, “I can’t remember exactly what they said but I would say expectations less like demands. I just don’t feel comfortable saying for sure either one because I don’t want to say the wrong one.” She also did not remember a police presence that day.

Following the rally, Rachel witnessed that the mission and values of the case study institution had changed to reflect the work to be done around creating a more inclusive campus. Within the work she was involved with as a student trustee, she noticed greater engagement in conversation about creating diversity requirements among leaders of the 137 university. However, a number of key administrators left the university in the months following the rally and while their departure was not connected to the activism on campus, their absence pulled focus from the diversity and inclusion work that had begun.

In order to create meaningful change, Rachel felt that the administrators at the case study institution should create a meaningful system where the student voice has just as much impact as that of a member of the board of trustees. “On the one hand you are set up to value these voices and then on the other hand those exact voices are demonstrated not to have any weight in actually what carried out,” Rachel recalled:

It is more than possible to implement change in the four years that you’re there

but only if you had the kind of support from your administration that would

enforce it that would keep checking to make sure that it was sustained change

over time and right now I don’t see that [name of case study institution] has that

model in place.

Rachel made a plea for a greater sense of shared governance at the case study institution that would involve its students in the democratic process of creating a campus that truly values the voice of the marginalized student population.

While Rachel did not feel it was her place to offer advice to African American students fighting for multicultural change on the case study institution campus, she encouraged the administrators who work with these students not to take critical feedback personally:

It’s not personal. It has nothing to do with you in particular. We talk about things

that are structural. They are to do with policies and procedures and when you 138

distract from a request that a student is making by making it about yourself and

taking it personally then you have done that student a disservice and an injustice.

Rachel was very appreciative of the opportunity to speak with me about her experience at the rally on the case study institution campus.

Rose. Rose served as the only faculty member to participate in this research study and identified as a 45-year old White heterosexual married mother of two children.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Wesleyan University and a PhD in

English from Emory University. Rose and I met in a quiet study room in the local community library to discuss the events of the rally held on the case study institution campus in 2016. She was very generous with the information she shared during our interview and gave me names of other individuals who were directly involved with the activism incidents studied through my dissertation research. We exchanged multiple emails following her interview that contained links to online video footage of the rally, access to view an online photo album from the prep work that the students engaged in the night before the rally, and a copy of the original list of demands created by the students.

Rose has worked at the case study institution for 10+ years and was one of the faculty members who assisted the students in organizing the rally. She rallied her colleagues from various departments across the university to support the students’ efforts. Rose’s collaboration with other faculty at the institution resulted in the creation of an ethnic studies program that serves as the academic home for diversity and inclusion issues on the campus. 139

The relatively close proximity to Rose’s family was the reason she chose to work at the case study institution. She recalled being overwhelmed by all of the teaching on her first day of work. “I had never taught more than one class at a time before and so I had I think three, so it was just a lot of meetings, a lot of students. It was pretty overwhelming,” Rose stated. She participated in a learning community for new faculty sponsored by the center for teaching and learning and met colleagues across the university and these early connections led to bi-weekly gatherings. “We shared our highs and lows with teaching, usually over wine [chuckled] and it was very, very helpful in that first year,” Rose recalled.

Rose first witnessed racial issues on the case study institution campus in the classroom:

I remember teaching James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time in a gen ed class and

just finding that the White students in particular had a very hard time talking

about race issues and it was a striking difference to me because our campus, I

think progressed further and earlier on LGBTQ issues and so often our students

were pretty, you know, progressive and pretty savvy and, you know, evolved on

those issues but much less so on race.

Rose described silence, discomfort, and sometimes overly racist or offensive statements made during class sessions. “More often, a hesitancy, a parroting of stereotypes, that I felt like even they weren’t quite sure where they got all of those things,” Rose shared.

Rose continued to explain, “I did not feel prepared to manage this when I first started at all and it was a long growing process for me of reading more.” 140

Rose and two faculty colleagues created the race and ethnic studies program at the case study institution to provide coursework around racial issues. “It was probably the most important turning point because when there was no academic home for those concerns,” Rose shared. The creation of the new program assisted in her efforts to become a tenured professor and department chair. “There’s been a real shift for me that has become a focus not only with my teaching, but just of my service work on campus and my life in general, I would say,” Rose recalled.

When asked to describe the characteristic of the campus community before the rally,

Rose shared, “There were excellent students like [Kris and Jay] whom the university valued and commissioned to speak on behalf of the university. I think the university had no idea that there was any discontent brewing among students of color.” She also described the incident with the use of the racial slur in the residence hall as the impetus for the activism that occurred on the case study institution campus. Rose recommended that I speak with Maya after she identified her as one of the students involved in the incident.

The night before the rally, Rose met a group of students in the residence hall where the racial slur was used as they created posters for the demonstration the next day. She provided me with links to an online photo album with pictures that showed a small gathering of seven or eight students surrounded by various art supplies in the lobby of a residence hall. As the students discussed the plans for the rally Rose shared, “The beautiful thing about that rally was that it really was student-organized and executed. 141

The rally was really amazing for many reasons, but partly because it really was from the students and by the students.”

As Rose walked to the crowd of students the day of the rally she recalled, “I had not seen anything like that on the campus before.” She further explained:

This felt like it was just disrupting something on the campus for me in a really

good way, but it was making people uncomfortable. It was hugely powerful I

thought to see. Our campus feels like a pretty White space and on this day it did

not and that was amazing.

Rose estimated that 40 people were in the rally crowd that day, which was confirmed by video footage of the events that day. She also shared that a rally took place rather than a protest and was adamant that the students presented demands to the administrators.

“Seeing them called expectations totally came from the university. And that typifies the shift that the university wanted to make with the rally,” Rose shared. The day of the rally, Rose recalled feeling supported by faculty colleagues from across the university who attended the rally.

Rose noted that the campus transformation that occurred following the rally coincided with the cultural moments of the country, particularly the presidential election and the

Black Lives Matter movement. “It was like finally getting our voice and figuring out how to break the artificial politeness of the campus,” Rose reflected. Conversations became more genuine and diversity representatives were designated for each search committee. There was also dialogue about how to institute general education diversity 142 required courses in the curriculum. Movement toward creating a chief diversity officer was also expedited.

When asked what advice Rose would give to African American students about working with faculty and administrators to create multicultural change, she shared that students should seek support, be proactive, and avoid being tokenized. “We don’t have that many students of color and so often they get asked to kind of represent the university and from talking to them, it’s just exhausting so, I would advise them to say no liberally,”

Rose chuckled as she responded. Rose also shared how hopeful she was about an upcoming collaboration with a social justice organization:

I think that plugging-in so our students can work with students from other

campuses will be really good to get them some leadership training from a national

organization. A lot of our students of color are really tired of the community

engagement service model where you go out and help [in air quotes] at homeless

shelters. They want to engage with the community by meeting with these

amazing activists so that is the next step that needs to happen.

Rose also shared how uncomfortable it felt following the rally when her colleagues sought her opinions on racial experiences they had in their classrooms. “People tended to come to me because I’m easier to approach because I’m White. I don’t want to be in that role. Sometimes it felt kind of gross,” she recalled.

Clarification of terminology

During the first interview conducted, an interesting point of clarification became necessary as it pertained to whether the students held a rally or a protest. Additional 143 probing was also required into the presentation of demands or expectations by students to administrators. Though it was not in the initial interview protocol, an additional question was asked of remaining subjects about these two important distinctions.

Rally vs. Protest. All eight study participants immediately identified the events that took place on April 4, 2016 as a rally. Several subjects explained their rationale for why they felt a protest did not take place that day. Maya explained, “When I think of a protest, you have to be protesting something, so I don’t think we were going to drop out of school if they didn’t do whatever. Rather, we had a cause and we were really just letting you know about this cause.” Jay added, “We could have disrupted the campus center and blocked people from getting food or interrupted an athletic game. But we weren’t protesting. We simply held a rally.”

Expectations vs. Demands. One staff and two student study participants believed that the administrators were presented with expectations the day of the rally, while the remaining five subjects were adamant that a list of demands were created. Jay became angry when he learned that the list had been changed from demands to expectations and stated, “They gentrified the shit outta that.” The list of demands presented by the students to the administration contained 12 directives:

1. Implement diversity training for faculty and administrators

2. Hire a chief diversity officer by the end of the academic year 2016-2017

3. Increase the cultural diversity of our faculty

4. More participation from faculty and administration in diversity and inclusion

efforts 144

5. Better university support for diversity events

6. First-year seminar general education diversity requirement

7. Interdisciplinary studies diversity event requirement for students

8. Strengthen residence hall diversity programming to increase intercultural dialogue

9. Resident assistants should document and report all acts of hate to university police

10. Each chapter in Greek Life needs to start implementing their diversity standard

11. Highlighting incidents of racism during cultural vignette program

12. More ethnic diversity amongst selected common book authors

The work on the case study campus continues. Student study participants noticed that common book authors became more diverse and intentional dialogue about the issues highlighted in these books occurred among groups that had not typically participated in these conversations. Staff and faculty subject participants noticed more direction was given on implementing diverse hiring practices. Clara stated, “We have a lot of work to do and I’m not saying that we’ve reached some pinnacle or nirvana, but there is a good core of students who are really committed to this work and all they need is a place to do it. If the student who yells the n-word walking into a dorm gets immediate push-back, I will feel like I have done some transformational work on campus. It’s not that I’m going to fix the guy that thinks using the n-word is okay, but if other students around him hold him accountable for that, I’m participating in changing the culture on campus. That’s the goal.”

The participants interviewed for this research seemed to agree that the case study institution needed to do more in its work with diverse populations on the campus. 145

Student participants cited that they desired more structured opportunities to build cultural connections between student organizations, peers, and alumni. Faculty and staff subjects wanted to see more diversity on campus among students and faculty and staff hired.

Clara stated that lasting change would come if there were more people of color in leadership positions at the university. Rachel, a student study participant, stated, “The administration is majority White just like I am, so they look at me and say you’re one of us. You’re the ‘us.’ You’re not the ‘them.’” Rose mentioned the need for a diversity requirement for first-year students that is both curricular and co-curricular.

While faculty and staff desired to see an increase in people of color on campus, student study participants called for the institution to be more intentional with the opportunities provided to the students currently on the campus. Clara stated, “[Students of color] experiences have to stay in the center of change because they’re invisible to too many people on campus.” Jay noted, “We were not rallying to get more Black people on campus. We were rallying because the school doesn’t know how to handle the Black people who are on campus already.” Simply recruiting more people of color to the university does not address issues that serve to cause retaining these individuals challenging.

Each participant was asked to share a piece of advice they would give to both African

American students working with faculty and staff to create culturally inclusive campuses, and to faculty and staff working with African American students toward the same goal.

Responses of advice to student activists were consistent across student and faculty and staff participants, who shared the importance of building authentic relationships and 146 seeking support to create strategy. Advice to faculty and staff was also consistent across participants and seemed to be directed toward White individuals though no specific race or identity was indicated in the question. Participants’ responses could be categorized into three groups: listening, self-education, and believing students of color when they share their experiences. Rachel added, “If you’re critical of the fact that there are so many White people in positions of power… it’s not personal. It has nothing to do with you in particular. We are talking about things that are structural. They are to do with policies and procedures and when you distract from a request that a student is making by making it about yourself and taking it personally then you have done that student a disservice and an injustice.”

Summary

The material presented in this chapter described the data collected for this research study. The questions that guided this research sought to explain what constitutes an appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism, as well as to identify the aspects of institutional culture that foster collaboration with undergraduate student activists. Data from eight individual interviews with student activists, faculty, and staff from various administrative roles highlighted how the experiences of these individuals shaped the events leading up to a campus rally that called for multicultural change.

Online videos and documents were used to support each individual’s statements. The data were presented in four parts: pre-incident, awareness, rally, and post-rally. Key findings from each category were merged and themes were created and discussed in

Chapter Five. 147

Chapter 5: Conclusion

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism, as well as to identify the aspects of institutional culture that foster collaboration with undergraduate student racial justice activists through a critical appreciative inquiry lens. Using a case study methodology, a chronology of events provided a detailed description of the racist incident that led up to a student rally, the creation of a list of demands by student activists, and the response from the Administration. Strategies that allow student affairs educators to collaborate with undergraduate student racial justice activists who call for racial reform are shared for the co-creation of a campus climate that actively promotes equity.

A critical appreciative approach to student activism. The first research question sought to identify what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism. In other words, how did student affairs educators at the case study institution support undergraduate student racial justice activism on its campus? The case study institution was selected to examine the approach used by one university as the faculty and administrators collaborated with student activists to create change on their campus following a series of racist incidents. This critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism represents a diversion from tactics employed by other college and university officials across the country. The six interview protocol questions in the pre-incident and awareness categories encouraged participants to recall why they wanted to be part of the case study institution, share their vivid 148 memories of their first day on campus, and describe who they made early connections with on campus. Subjects also recalled when they first noticed racial issues on campus, when they felt empowered to address these racial issues, and the share their perceptions of the campus climate before the rally. The responses to these interview protocol questions answered the first guiding research question of what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism. The four elements that contributed to a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism on the case study institution campus were connection, collaboration, dialogue, and transparency. Each theme is described below.

Connection. Staff, faculty, and second-, third-, and fourth-year students at the case study institution spent time getting to know first-year students of color on the campus. This intentional relationship-building was especially helpful in establishing trust as students began to experience racism which is inherent to many predominately White campuses. African American students that served as study participants indicated how comfortable they felt approaching specific faculty and staff following the racial slur incident in their residence hall because of the connections that were made early on in their time at the university. The longevity of the careers of specific staff, including the dean of students who has worked at the institution for over 30 years and the director of the diversity office who has been there for a decade, have seemed to instill a sense of trust among students of color at the case study institution.

Many African American students who may be experiencing racism for the first time in overt ways will turn to mentors and older peers to process how they are feeling. The 149 staff and faculty at the case study institution positioned themselves and student leaders of color in organizations and initiatives that allowed them to provide culturally-relevant support and resources to students in crisis. As African American student subject participants made sense of how the racial slur incident affected them, they resigned to make positive change for the campus community and turned to members of the administration with whom they had formed relationships with for assistance.

Collaboration. African American student activists at the case study institution sought guidance from faculty and staff advisors as they created the list of demands and planned the rally. The roles that these faculty and student affairs educators played at the university allowed them to help the students navigate the bureaucracy of campus politics and present their grievances in a constructive manner. The students interviewed for this study also acknowledged that the university had greatly increased the population of students of color, but there appeared to be little collaboration between staff in admissions and staff in student affairs and the academic departments to create opportunities to prepare the campus community for this influx of life experience. Increased hiring of faculty and staff of color in tandem with underrepresented student enrollment may have increased the pool of mentors available to guide students of color at the case study institution through their undergraduate experience.

While staff participants in this study saw this collaboration as extremely positive, faculty and some student participants were disappointed that the university changed the language from demands to expectations. Jay specifically mentioned that he felt the university had “gentrified” the list of demands in publishing them on a website as 150 expectations. This potentially dangerous tactic utilized by some college and university administrators could backfire and come across as dismissive of the undergraduate experience of students of color on predominately White campuses. While this transgression was not egregious enough that the student activists at the case study institution lost trust in the staff members who provided support throughout the rally process, usage of whitewashed language to soften the blow of uncomfortable truths could impact future collaborations with students of color who call for multicultural change on the case study institution campus.

Dialogue. Staff at the case study institution arranged for student activists to meet with the leadership of the university immediately following the rally. In this meeting, the students presented their list of demands to the vice presidents who served as counsel to the president. In turn, the cabinet members shared the diversity and inclusion strategic plan to the student activists to highlight the areas that overlapped across the two documents. Though some student and faculty participants in this study mentioned that certain administrators seemed defensive, the majority of the campus leaders listened eagerly to the activists call for their university to take tangible to create a campus environment that was more welcoming of their diverse experience.

Language also presented itself in the data as an important tenant of the rally. All study participants identified the events that took place on the case study institution campus as a rally and not a protest. However, the students and faculty interviewed for this research were adamant that a list of demands was presented to the top administrators of the university and took great offense when they learned that the language had been 151 changed to something deemed less aggressive. Though the student activists at the case study institution had high levels of trust in certain members of the president’s cabinet, other members seemed defensive at hearing constructive criticism. This change in language by administrators may have been viewed by members of the campus community as “political spin,” which should be avoided when managing racial crises in lieu of speaking from the heart (Kezar & Fries-Britt, 2018, p. 26). Student activists at the case study institution called for the university to move from numerical diversity strategies to inclusive tactics that created a welcoming campus environment.

Transparency. The Administration accepted the demands from the student activists and has continued to update a website with progress that is made as each directive is met. The creation of this website is the greatest example of transparency that the case study institution can tout as a genuine response to racial justice activism and a successful racial crisis management tool.

Student affairs educators at the case study institution managed to maintain contact with the student activists and explained the processes and procedures that inhibited the immediate results being sought the day of the rally. For example, student activists called for the hiring of a chief diversity officer for their campus for the start of the next academic year. Administrators met with the students to explain the multiple mitigating factors that prohibited this demand from being met based on the desired timeline. They described each of these factors, from getting a new position created at the university, to budget designations for salary, benefits, and support staff, to the recruitment and hiring process for this executive-level position. The university also sponsored a group of 152 students and staff to attend a conference to learn more about the CDO position in contemporary higher education. The above-mentioned steps taken by administrators at the case study institution revealed the process that must be followed while it preserved trust among the undergraduate racial justice activists with university leadership to co- create lasting multicultural change.

Accountability for the individual who used the racial slur in a residence hall lobby, which sparked the rally, represented an area where strategic messaging would have increased transparency among members of the campus community. Some of the student participants in this study expressed concern that they felt the university did not do enough to send a message to the campus community that these actions would not be tolerated.

Federal regulations protect the alleged perpetrator and prohibit the university administration from revealing judicial proceedings regarding students. While the records of the local community court proceedings are accessible to the public, campus hearing activity is sealed. Student participants in the study shared that the alleged perpetrator had used similar language in multiple other incidents and it was unclear if accountability was exercised in the past.

This perceived pattern of racist behavior was disturbing to many of the research subjects and the lack of information sharing, coupled with the rampant usage of Yik Yak to share racist sentiments before, during, and following the rally, created a campus environment that felt unsafe for students of color. Researchers have found that a well- written, well-timed statement from the university delivered by the president within 24-48 hours following a campus racial incident may instill a sense of transparency among a 153 campus community (Cole & Harper, 2017). The president at the case study institution could have shared the facts of the incident that occurred, who was impacted and the harm that was caused, the specific behaviors that were inappropriate, the steps the administration would take to address the behavior, and ways the campus community could come together to heal from the incident. Such a message from the university president could set a tone for zero tolerance for racial hatred in the campus community and serve to place students of color at the center of restitution efforts.

Institutional culture to foster student activism. The second research question sought to identify the aspects of institutional culture that foster collaboration with undergraduate student racial justice activists. In other words, what characteristics about the case study institution allowed staff and undergraduate student racial justice activists to work together? The 10 interview protocol questions in the rally and post-rally categories encouraged participants to reflect on specific details of the rally, including crowd estimates, police presence, and their expectations of others that had gathered for the rally. Each participant also shared their perspectives on the ways they witnessed the campus transform following the rally, what is necessary to create lasting change at the case study institution, and advice for students and administrators working to create multicultural change.

The responses from the interview protocol questions in the rally and post-rally categories contributed to answering the question of what aspects of institutional culture foster collaboration with undergraduate student activists. It is worth noting that questions to clarify police presence and language about the type of gathering that was held and the 154 requests made by student activists were not in the initial interview protocol but were added during the first interview. The major findings included four themes: institutional size, early arrival programs, technology, and institutional planning. Each theme is described below.

Institutional size. The case study institution had approximately 2,300 enrolled undergraduate students during the 2015-2016 academic year. As indicated in the themes from the first research question, establishing connections between staff and undergraduate student activists is an essential element to adopting a critical appreciative approach to racial justice activism. The small student population size at the case study institution allowed student affairs educators to develop meaningful relationships and build trust with students of color. As marginalized students experienced racism at the predominately White institution, they sought refuge with trusted administrators and strategized how to prevent future racist incidents.

Researchers have found that deliberate strategies designed to present faculty and staff of color as mentors to students of color shrink the size of a large campus and instill a sense of community among marginalized groups of students at predominately White institutions (Freeman, 1999; Ishiyama, 2007; McClain & Perry, 2017; Quaye, Griffin &

Museus, 2015; Strayhorn & Terrell, 2007). At mid- to large-size colleges and universities, it may be more challenging to build authentic connections between students of color and faculty and staff. While genuine relationships are not impossible to establish, student affairs educators at larger institutions often rely on targeted initiatives to create opportunities to connect with marginalized students. Many staff of color at 155 predominately White institutions, like Gene in the current research study, seek to provide experiences in which to construct intentional interactions with students of color to build rapport and gain trust.

Early arrival programs. Orientation and other early arrival programs on the case study institution campus facilitated early connections with faculty and staff. The university has a number of identity-based pre-enrollment programs that are managed by student affairs educators who bring in colleagues and faculty that help new students learn to navigate the campus environment. This early exposure to faculty and staff mentors at the beginning of the academic year instills a support network that can be tapped later as inequality is experienced and desires for activism arise.

The active presence of identity-based pre-enrollment programs at predominately

White institutions signal an acknowledgement that the experiences of these marginalized students require a specialized set of skills to successfully navigate their undergraduate career. Early arrival programs are used on most campuses to increase retention of students of color from their first-year to their second-year and provide guidance in areas including study habits, resource-sharing, financial savvy, career readiness, and community standards.

Upperclass students often serve as mentors in pre-enrollment programs as a means to control costs for summer staff and to allow for early connections with incoming students.

Second-, third-, and fourth-year students will often share their own personal experiences at the institution with new students about where to live, the best food to eat, professors to avoid, and organizations with which new students should get involved. Upperclass 156 students could also be provided opportunities to candidly discuss their own occurrences with racism and share strategies they have utilized to manage bias situations.

Technology. The use of technology was central to the rally in both positive and negative ways on the case study campus. Technology was also positively utilized at the university with the creation of a website to list the student demands. The website is updated as demands are met, which increases transparency with members of the university community. Periodically, the dean of students will send an email update to the student body about the progress that has been made and directs faculty, staff, students, and other stakeholders to the website for more information.

Each study participant mentioned ways that Yik Yak negatively impacted the climate at the university. During the rally, it was monitored for credible threats of violence to protestors. Following the rally, it was used by members of the campus community to express their dissatisfaction with activists. The app was eventually disabled on campus.

It may have been particularly impactful for the university president to have incorporated some of the racist comments on Yik Yak in an address to the campus community and to engage in dialogue about the different perspectives.

The students interviewed for this study expressed feelings of anxiety with the campus use of Yik Yak due to the anonymous nature of the site. The student subjects knew that only members of the campus community could have access to the institution-specific web platform, and the rampant racist rhetoric served only to instill a hostile university environment. While Yik Yak is now defunct the damage it caused on the case study institution campus lingers. The Yik Yak app served as the container for racist comments 157 from members of the campus community and the fact that it no longer has a presence on the campus does not mean racism is not an issue. Students fighting for racial justice on their campuses maintain valid racist experiences whether online or in person (Gin,

Martinez-Allman, Rowan-Kenyon & Hottell, 2017; Minikel-Lacocque, 2012). Student affairs educators must collaborate with students and faculty to address racism through deliberate discussion that realigns inappropriate behaviors of bias with university values of diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice.

Institutional planning. The campus created a diversity and inclusion strategic plan to articulate action plans toward creating a more inclusive university. The dialogue that occurred following the presentation of the list of demands by student activists to the cabinet included a review of how both documents could be merged. The flexibility of the university leadership to accommodate such a strategy highlights this collaboration.

While the university leadership created an opportunity for students to be part of the institutional planning process following the rally, more deliberate shared governance structures could be created. The case study institution took some of the student activists involved with the rally to a race and diversity conference to learn more about the process of creating a chief diversity officer position. Administrators also arranged for students to meet with CDOs at neighboring colleges and universities to learn more about the role.

Their feedback was directly sought in the creation of the CDO proposal which the dean of students presented to the new president of the university. This direct involvement ensures the needs of the most marginalized students are placed at the center of reform work. 158

The diversity and inclusion strategic plan for the case study institution is a separate document from the overall university strategic plan. The committee that created the five- year plan which ends in 2020 stated that a critical component to the success of the plan is the need for it to be fully integrated with other institutional strategic plans. With Doc, the dean of students at the case study institution, as the new chair of the diversity and inclusion committee, part of his work will include updating the diversity and inclusion strategic plan. Utilizing his strengths in relationship building and collaboration, Doc will achieve success in taking steps toward creating a more culturally inclusive campus through integrating the elements from the diversity and inclusion strategic plan seamlessly into the university’s strategic plan, eliminating the need for a separate, stand- alone document.

Limitations

As with all research, my dissertation study could not encompass all aspects of undergraduate racial justice activism. I acknowledge that my research questions have multiple answers that largely depend on institutional context. The data presented in my dissertation apply directly to the case study institution and while generalities may be drawn to other colleges and universities, a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism may look very different on another campus. Below I highlight a few other areas that served as limitations to my research, including multiple interpretations, faculty participants, and sample size.

Multiple interpretations. One of the staff participants, Gene, held multiple roles at the case study institution as an undergraduate student, graduate student, and now as a 159 full-time administrator. Many of my interview protocol questions were designed to be answered through one lens, either student, faculty, or administrator. Gene’s multifaceted experiences at the case study institution caused him to pick the lens he was most comfortable with in responding to a particular question. We could have conducted two separate interviews based on his experience as a student and as an administrator and while that perspective would be fascinating, it often confused the results. Had I instructed Gene to focus his responses on the support he provided to the student activists for the rally in his administrative role, given that this was one of the criteria for selecting participants through purposeful sampling, this confusion could have been eliminated.

Faculty participants. My study participants consisted of four students, three staff, and one faculty member. Five faculty members were solicited for participation in my research, but only one agreed to the interview. The other four faculty no longer work for the university and chose not to speak with me about the rally. One faculty member solicited initially agreed, but then declined to speak with me just before the interview was scheduled to take place citing mental stress that would be induced having to recall the events from the rally. A former member of the faculty at the case study institution declined to participate because of their involvement in the promotion and tenure process at their new institution and did not want anything to corrupt their chances of securing a more permanent place in their department. The other two faculty I asked to participate provided no response to my email invitation which could suggest an incorrect address.

This lack of willingness of faculty to speak with me about their involvement in the rally for this research may provide insight into the campus climate at that time. From my 160 experience and those of the faculty and staff participants in this study, faculty tend to very eagerly want to share their experiences supporting student activism on the campuses with which they work. Even after having left the case study institution to work at different colleges and universities there was still a reluctance and even fear from at least one faculty member to talk with me. I want to acknowledge that the timing of my data collection in the summer months may have conflicted with vacations, but each faculty member refused to participate in my study despite my reassurance that their anonymity would be protected.

Sample size. As the purpose of the study was to interview individuals directly connected to the rally, the sample size was relatively small. Purposeful sampling was necessary to speak with individuals from the case study institution directly involved in the events leading up to, during, and immediately following the rally. Many of the students, faculty, and administrators who participated in the rally have graduated or since left the institution and while Gene was able to provide me with contact information for three of the student study participants who graduated, he had not maintained contact with many others. Other research subjects shared names and contact information of other individuals with me that they thought would be good to include in the study.

Additional groups of people were mentioned during the interviews and it might have been interesting to get their perspective on the events that led to the rally. For example, I would have wanted to speak with the individual who used the racial slur in the residence hall. This was the incident, or provocative moment, that sparked the creation of demands and the rally. Some of my interview protocol questions would not be appropriate, 161 specifically the questions in the rally category, but it might be interesting to get feedback from the alleged perpetrator in the pre-incident, awareness, and post-rally categories while also presenting a more balanced view of the events on April 4, 2016.

I would also like to have spoken with the president and a few of the vice president’s in the cabinet to gain their perspective from the pre-incident, awareness, and post-rally interview protocol categories. The president of the case study institution left the university shortly before I conducted research for my dissertation and was not available to interview. Doc, the dean of students and one of the staff research participants, is a member of the cabinet and it would have been interesting to hear from some of his colleagues, particularly about the meeting with the students following the rally. I would have also wanted to speak with a few police officers who were present the day of the rally. Only two of the participants in my dissertation research recall police presence as the group of protestors marched through campus. I would be curious to ask the officers questions from each of the interview protocol sections and find out directly who covered the rally and what their role was that day.

Policy Recommendations

Higher education is in a time of tremendous change. The literature tells us that activism is a hallmark of the contemporary college student experience that shows no signs of subsiding in the near future (Bishop, 2002; Eagan, et al., 2016; Evans & Wall,

1991; Ravitch, 1983; Teske & Tetreault, 2000). How do student affairs educators support undergraduate student activists in ways that encourage development, foster a just environment, and maintain satisfaction among university leadership? An analysis of the 162 data collected for this dissertation research provide a number of policy recommendations that can be implemented in higher education institutions. These strategies may aid student affairs professionals in the work of supporting marginalized undergraduate students who fight for racial justice on their campuses.

Climate. The activism at campuses like the University of Missouri has demonstrated that over 150 years of governmental legislation which sought to enforce equal opportunity for all American citizens had failed in creating welcoming spaces for students from marginalized backgrounds. This historical context is wrought with hardship and turmoil for people of color who defied the odds and participated in higher education (Dickey, 2015; Libresco, 2015; Mulhere, 2015; Ross & Lowery, 2016; Wong

& Green, 2016). Many college and university campuses were dangerous spaces for people of color, who risked threats of mental and physical harm and death and students fought for equity in the midst of these hostile racial climates (Marans & Stewart, 2015).

As undergraduate student activism is positively associated with fostering the growth of civically minded students (Biddix, 2014), it is unfortunate that most colleges and universities do not acknowledge their past activism as a connection to current campus climate issues.

Student affairs educators possess knowledge of how undergraduate students learn, develop, and engage in advocacy efforts. Professional development in the Social Justice and Inclusion (SJI) area of the ACAP and NASPA professional competencies compels student affairs educators to understand oppression, privilege, and power (Johnson Eanes, et al., 2015). This skillset uniquely situates administrators in a position to create 163 opportunities for the campus community to learn about its history. Topics such as how the institution was impacted by slavery, migration patterns, internment camps, and other national atrocities against people of color in this nation need to be exposed for the purpose of framing remnants of these acts in modern day policies, language, and behaviors. Dialogue about the socialization of racism moves the lens from random, individual acts of meanness on a college campus and tells the story of a national history that continues to negatively impact marginalized populations today.

Integration laws introduced constitutional amendments for newly freed slaves, which were challenged by Jim Crow laws (Alexander, 2012) and seminal court cases like Plessy v. Ferguson and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (Broadhurst, 2014; Synott,

2008; Wade, 2008). At the case study institution, enrollment reports indicated an underrepresented student increase from 13% in the 2014-2015 academic year to 18% in the 2015-2016 academic year. At a predominately White campus like the case study institution and many others that have experienced racial justice activism, this influx of students was likely to have caused tension as students from varied marginalized backgrounds clashed with students of similar privileged identities.

Themes of exclusion, rhetoric from administrators over action, and marginality persist in racial climate research and if institutions are to overcome discomfort with race, plans for institutional transformation must be set (Harper & Hurtado, 2007). Careful institutional planning is necessary when strategic plans reflect a desire to increase the population of undergraduates from marginalized identities to create a more diverse student body. This planning must include intentional dialogue about institutional history, 164 contemporary issues affecting marginalized populations at predominately White institutions, and an increase in support services and resources as well as strategies to attract academically talented students of color. Consideration of how an institutional community can manage this type of cultural change will minimize negative impacts on the campus climate to create racially inclusive learning environments.

There is much research about the impact that campus racial climates have on students of color (Gin, Martinez-Allman, Rowan-Kenyon & Hottell, 2017; Green, 2016; Harper &

Hurtado, 2007; Minikel-Lacocque, 2012). This data can be a critical tool to examine before, during, and after crisis occurs on a campus. Research with college and university presidents provides guidance for managing racial incidents on campus (Kezar & Eckel,

2005). The American Council on Education (ACE) released a report of a case study that identified seven lessons learned from the racial crisis at Mizzou (Kezar & Fries-Britt,

2018). The seven themes from the ACE report are listed below, followed by my recommendations for how student affairs educators can operationalize each lesson.

Campus context matters. Many campus racial crises are “deeply embedded within the layers of social, cultural, and political contexts of the campus community and the broader national setting,” (Kezar & Fries-Britt, 2018, p. 8). University leaders must assess and analyze these contexts, and the role they play in how the racial crisis unfolds, in the recovery from a crisis, and in ultimately building a more inclusive environment.

Based on the findings of this research, student affairs educators can facilitate and participate in campus-wide dialogue about the varying levels of shared governance and the impact had on promoting a just and inclusive community. 165

Acknowledging and responding to collective trauma. The impact of a racial trauma on a college or university campus can vary depending on the “campus’s efforts to build competence prior to the incident,” (Kezar & Fries-Britt, 2018, p. 19). Trauma leaves a great deal of collective emotional pain with members of a campus community following a racial crisis. Emotions are most often ignored by campus leaders, which causes difficulty in emerging from racial crisis as a community. Based on these findings, student affairs educators are often the first to learn from students about incidents of racial bias and are trained to provide first responder support to these individuals, as well as organize town hall meetings to bring the campus community together to begin healing.

Trauma recovery – dos and don’ts. The features of collective trauma recovery frameworks include “active listening, speaking from the heart, and “acting with”,” (Kezar

& Fries-Britt, 2018, p. 23). The creation of a task force, data collection, and report generation should not occur immediately following a racial crisis, as this routine approach rarely creates meaningful change and does not address racial crisis trauma.

This research suggests that student affairs educators can instead work with counseling colleagues to organize story circles with groups of individuals impacted by a racial crisis and through this restorative practice, the staff will exercise active listening, speaking from the heart, and “acting with.”

Active listening. Active listening is “a structured form of listening and responding that prioritizes the speaker and encourages mutual understanding free from debate or judgement,” (Kezar & Fries-Britt, 2018, p. 24). This strategy allows members from marginalized groups who may have been impacted by a racial crisis to share 166 problems and struggles, acknowledge difficult feelings, gain perspective, take ownership, rebuild relationships, create their own solution, and develop resiliency. This practice tends to be a routine part of most student affairs educator’s work that organically happens in daily interactions with the students who may have been impacted by a racial crisis.

The administration at a college or university that has experienced a racial crisis that has caused trauma should refer students to connect with a student affairs educator with whom they trust to engage in an active listening dialogue. I would also recommend that specific blocks of time be designated within 48-72 hours following a racial crisis to prioritize these conversations and not add this responsibility on top of an already potentially over- worked staff.

Speaking from the heart. Speaking from the heart involves “authentic communication from leaders, with no political spin, by sharing and responding to emotions,” (Kezar & Fries-Britt, 2018, p. 26). When leaders speak from the heart, they can build the trust needed to overcome fear and fatigue. While prepared comments are discouraged, it is important for leaders to talk through their emotions with trusted colleagues prior to being vulnerable with those who have been directly traumatized in a racial crisis. This critical dialogue could begin with the statement given by the institution’s president following a racial incident (Cole & Harper, 2017) and student affairs educators can serve as leaders of meaningful discussions around race and racism on college campuses.

I would caution staff who hold dominant identities to strike a balance of sharing and listening so as not to redirect attention from victims and the pain they may have 167 experienced to themselves. The White participants in my dissertation research shared how they supported African American students on the case study institution campus following the racial incidents that led to the rally. Clara, whose own dissertation research was about the development of social justice allies through service learning, shared her desire to stand in solidarity with the student activists and that she just wanted them to feel they had genuinely been heard. Rachel shared that she wanted White students in the rally audience to stand quietly and listen and was reluctant to respond when asked what advice she would give to African American students working with faculty and administrators to create multicultural change on the case study institution campus. “I don’t think I can answer that one because it’s not my experience. I don’t know what advice I could give to someone that doesn’t have the same privileges that I have,” Rachel recalled during our interview. While this silence allows space for the narratives of marginalized students to be heard, speaking from the heart involves engaging in courageous, authentic communication so trust can be established, which requires White individuals to balance listening and speaking when working with undergraduate racial justice activists.

“Acting with.” Overcoming collective trauma utilizing the strategy of “acting with” allows leaders to “promote progress by directly engaging with those most affected by the traumatic events,” (Kezar & Fries-Britt, 2018, p. 28). “Acting with” requires leaders to act in measured ways that deeply connect with community members, rather than rushing ahead to solve the problem. The relationships that student affairs educators have with students can assist college and university leadership in organizing listening tours with students identified through the active listening story circles. Gene from my 168 dissertation research aided the racial justice activists on the case study institution campus in creating the list of demands and organizing the rally. Doc arranged for the student activists to meet with other administrative campus leaders to share their list of demands.

The experiences of marginalized individuals who were directly impacted are used to inform the development of a collective strategy to address the root causes of a racial crisis, placing them at the center of reform work.

Building capacity prior to a racial incident. College officials should reflect on what it means to “have the capacity to respond effectively when a racist incident occurs and adjust their approach accordingly,” (Kezar & Fries-Britt, 2018, p. 13). Leaders on high capacity-building campuses have a shared context from which to communicate during and after a crisis. As indicated in the ACE report, the University of Missouri case highlights how low capacity around diversity and inclusion led to a prolonged and traumatizing experience. For my dissertation research, the case study institution engaged in numerous high capacity activities in their response to the racial incidents on their campus, including established trust among key staff, collaboration for the creation of demands and the rally, and meeting with senior leadership to discuss the needs of the students impacted. Campuses that build capacity ahead of time can accelerate their ability to respond effectively during and after a crisis, which requires student affairs educators to demonstrate a sustained commitment to issues of diversity and inclusion even when things appear to be improving.

4-D Cycle Summit. One such way to build capacity prior to a racial incident is through engaging as a campus community through the four stages of appreciative inquiry 169

– discovery, dream, design, and destiny (Cooperrider & Whitney, 2005). The AI Summit is a community wide dialogue that focuses on discovering and developing an organization’s strength for strategic planning. The Summit is designed as an institution- wide activity involving every individual in the organization and can result in significant sustained change.

Racial incidents that occur within higher education institutions are not isolated events, but rather a manifestation of broader societal constructs experienced by members within the campus community. Racial justice activism signals that there is a need for academic leaders to acknowledge campus racism, and the frequency of racial incidents suggests members of the campus community need racism defined in the context of a higher education setting (Cole & Harper, 2017). Critical appreciative inquiry is better suited for campuses seeking to build capacity for racial incidents due to the acknowledgement of the power that dominant structures have on solution-oriented practices that impact marginalized populations. When a college or university community has experienced a racial incident, coordinating a 4-D cycle summit may be helpful in facilitating healing following the trauma of the event.

Potential topics of a 4-D Cycle Summit can include creating an activism response training (Atkinson, 2014), or a review of university statements following a racial incident

(Cole & Harper, 2017). Summits could also be held around implementing the ACPA &

NASPA Social Justice and Inclusion competencies, creating a student activism policy, strengthening collaboration with police during protests, and establishing expectations for support of campus activism. Implementing the 4-D Cycle Summit through a critical 170 appreciative inquiry framework allows student affairs educators to place marginalized populations at the center of restorative justice work by seeking solutions that focus on welcoming environments.

Future Research

The purpose of this study was to identify what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism, as well as the aspects of institutional culture that foster collaboration with undergraduate student racial justice activists. It may be compelling to replicate this study with a different population of students. Activism at the University of Missouri began when a graduate student staged a hunger strike after repeated requests to meet with university leadership were denied (Eligon & Perez-Pena,

2015; Marans & Stewart, 2015; Pearson, 2015; Svrulga, 2015). The hunger strike was supported by undergraduate students who held marches throughout campus and spoke with various stakeholders about their experiences which led to such activism. The dynamic of the relationship between graduate students and university leaders, as well as undergraduate students is worthy of additional research.

I was also deliberate in my study of racial justice activism, though many other identity categories fight for equality on college and university campuses across the nation. While my dissertation research sought to describe what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to racial justice activism, similar strategies should be considered for other ways marginalized groups may engage in protest for the creation of more just higher education environments. Utilizing critical appreciative inquiry (Cockrell &

McArthur-Blair, 2012) to study how institutions can collaborate with activists who 171 demand equity for religious, ethnic, sexual, gender, socioeconomic, and other oppressed identities would increase the dependability and generalizability of CAI as a more reputable theoretical framework.

The use of technology in the rally at the case study institution was of particular interest. Racialized encounters on social media reaffirm an unwelcoming racial climate on college and university campuses (Gin, Martinez-Allman, Rowan-Kenyon & Hottell,

2017). While the student rally organizers utilized various social media platforms to spread the word about their activism, other students in the campus community who disagreed with the methods used to highlight racial inequality on the campus took to anonymous online sites to voice their dissent. The use of Yik Yak at the case study institution before, during, and after the rally may reveal a wealth of data about the climate of the campus due to its discrete format. Yik Yak is now defunct at most college campuses but has most certainly been replaced by other online message boards such as

Reddit and the like. Future study of online message boards and the comment sections of news stories about specific racial justice incidents that occur on college campuses may provide insight into how these remarks contribute to the campus climate.

Student activists at the case study institution made lasting connections with two administrators who have worked at the university for a number of years. Future research of student affairs educators who work at the same institution for 20 years or more, like

Doc from my own dissertation study, may illustrate how the longevity of the careers of these staff members supports students of color at predominately White institutions. It would also be interesting to study administrators who work full-time at the institution 172 from which they graduate. For alumni of color who choose to work at their alma matter, like Gene from my own dissertation study, inquiry about the transition from student to employee who work primarily with students of color would add rich data to the literature.

The role that campus police departments have in campus protests is also worth further investigation. In my dissertation research, the majority of the participants could not recall if police officers were present or not, which could mean they were not there or that they diminished their presence so as not to escalate the fears that those in the crowd.

Particularly with students of color, police officers may induce feelings of anxiety due to recent public reports of police brutality. Research about the ways police officers can collaborate with student activists to develop appreciative approaches to campus activism may begin to ease tensions and create trust with police officers as important campus partners.

The creation of a list of demands and coordination of the rally began with the use of a racial slur in the lobby of a residence hall at the case study institution. The student who was identified and sanctioned by the campus and charged in the local courts sparked the racial justice activism that occurred. The ripple effect of this individual’s actions in

March 2016 is still being experienced today as the campus continues the work of restorative justice. Much attention is placed on a single racist action or behavior and rarely is a root cause identified and addressed. Empathic investigation with alleged student perpetrators on college and university campuses whose racist rhetoric triggers controversy and activism may provide rich insight into motivations, intentions.

Identifying potential ignorance and misunderstandings among students, faculty, and staff 173 who knowingly or unknowingly engage in racist behavior may lead to changing the hearts and minds of these members of campus communities.

Closing

Student affairs educators must place marginalized populations at the center of racial justice reform work. “In order to get beyond persistent racial disparities and to realize the vision for a version of American higher education that is truly equitable and inclusive, we must first take account of racism and its harmful effects on people in postsecondary contexts,” (Harper, 2012, p. 22). This requires understanding and implementation of restorative justice and practice (Johnson Eanes, et al., 2015), which validates the traumatic experiences of individuals of color and atones for past wrongs. All members of the campus community should be empowered to actively participate in racial justice work which will prevent repeating damaging behaviors and practices in the future. Student affairs educators should continue to prioritize building genuine relationships with students, for it is the hallmark of our field.

Recently, there has been much media attention about undergraduate student activists who are punished, suspended, and/or arrested by college and university officials. My dissertation research presented timelines of multiple racial justice activism incidents at higher education institutions and the ways college and university administrators have responded to these events. Punitive reactions to racial justice activism are not only terribly destructive toward a student’s college education, but also serve to bring negative attention to a college or university campus. With the loss of tuition dollars and budget cuts due to low enrollment as potential consequences for what may be perceived by 174 society as harsh handling of student activists, alternative methods to manage activism must be implemented.

Research tells us that undergraduate students engage in largely peaceful protests

(Broadhurst, 2014) as a means to call attention to their silenced experiences of pain and trauma at the hands of their peers, professors, and other members of the campus community. Violent protest is the physical manifestation of being treated as if invisible and if these cries for equity and justice remain ignored, higher education institutions are likely to see more incidents of violent demonstrations. Students of marginalized identities will continue to stand up to racist ideologies and practices, while students with dominate identities will continue to push back as a means of self-preservation. Let us not forget the White supremacist Unite the Right rally at the University of Virginia in

Charlottesville, and the counterprotests that occurred in response (Heim, 2017). Racism in our society cannot be tolerated and I am obligated to change this narrative for future generations of undergraduate students who deserve the chance to achieve their baccalaureate degree dreams in a hate-free environment.

My dissertation research identified connection, collaboration, dialogue, and transparency as four elements that constituted a critical appreciative approach to racial justice activism at the case study institution. Institutional size, early arrival programs, technology, and institutional planning created a culture that fostered student activism at the case study institution. While these data apply directly to the university of study for my dissertation research, many of these themes can be replicated at other colleges and universities. Those student affairs educators reading this research should carefully 175 examine which of these elements are imbedded in current institutional practice and strategize to implement others that are necessary to support undergraduate students who engage in racial justice activism on their campuses.

The critical appreciative inquiry framework requires student affairs educators to acknowledge how the racist past of a college or university connects to the current racial campus climate. A color-blind aversion to how racism is perpetuated in the campus community serves to isolate individuals of color while maintaining White supremacist culture. Over 150 years of governmental legislation only served to open the doors of academic institutions to students of color. It has always been the responsibility of faculty and student affairs educators to maintain environments that ensure the success of marginalized students in the midst of a society that holds them in a lower status.

Campus leaders must interrogate what they know about racial equity and racial problem-solving and seek to expand that knowledge for appropriate management of racial crises on their campuses. One such method to achieve this goal is to hire a consultant who is trained to assist in imparting and mobilizing action in the area of racial equity and justice. The University of Southern California’s Race and Equity Center hosts an eight-week course for campus leaders that covers topics from the basics of defining race and racism to navigating moments of crisis after a racist incident (Brown, 2018).

The Center for Transformation and Change sponsors a variety of trainings designed to,

“help organizations create inclusive, equitable environments where all people feel valued, respected, and challenged to deepen their capacity to effectively meet the needs of the increasingly diverse populations they serve,” (Obear, 2018, para. 2). As there are 176 significant costs associated with either of these companies, college and university leadership should consider how these capacity-building trainings benefit the entire campus community by diminishing trauma against marginalized student populations in a cost-benefit analysis.

Higher education institutions must openly admit their participation in past racial transgressions. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. has served as the president of the Southern Baptist

Theological Seminary for 25 years, and recently commissioned a report on the role racism and support for slavery played in its origin and growth (Gjelten, 2018). The 71- page report is a “recitation of decades of bigotry,” (Hassan, 2018, para. 2) and is accompanied by a letter from President Mohler in which he states:

We have been guilty of a sinful absence of historical curiosity. We knew, and we

could not fail to know, that slavery and deep racism were in the story. We

comforted ourselves that we could know this, but since these events were so far

behind us, we could move on without awkward and embarrassing investigations

and conversations. The moral burden of history requires a more direct and far

more candid acknowledgement of the legacy of this school in the horrifying

realities of American slavery, Jim Crow segregation, racism, and even the avowal

of White racial supremacy. (Mohler, 2018, p. 2)

The Seminary’s report is the latest example of a school trying to confront its racist history (Hassan, 2018). While a commissioned report to document historical participation in racist policies and practice is a commendable first step, the Southern

Baptist Theological Seminary report has been criticized for ending its detailed 177 chronology of events in 1964. In an interview with NPR, Emory University U.S. religion historian Alison Greene noted that the Seminary continued to struggle with the legacy of slavery and racism in the decades following the civil rights movement. “Making a statement about Confederate monuments or taking a stand on questions of voting rights in the 21st century would be really significant,” Greene tells NPR (Gjelten, 2018, para. 19).

Full acceptance of how historical participation in racism impacts contemporary practice is required to move toward healing from racial trauma.

No matter the size of the campus, strategy and intentionality are still required to create trusting, supportive connections. Efforts to make larger campuses feel smaller to students who may engage in racial justice activism increase the chances of connections and collaborations between staff and activists. As my research suggests, a necessary element to creating a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism is connection, which is inherently organic in the work of student affairs educators. This seemingly magical ability to connect with others is vital to creating campus cultures that cultivate connection and courage.

The presidential election campaign season of 2016 was especially polarizing for

Americans of marginalized identities. All of the participants in my dissertation research reported feeling tension on campus as the climate became increasingly hostile. While the

Administration at the case study institution held events and programs to educate the campus community about matters of inclusion, there is no evidence that these initiatives addressed the effects of the presidential candidate’s rhetoric on students, faculty, and staff. The current government administration is reflective of the 2016 campaign season 178 and has only heightened concerns of safety and belonging for many marginalized populations. Strategic proactive methods for encouraging dialogue that allow attendees to express their viewpoints in small group settings have the potential to minimize oppressive behaviors that cause feelings of isolation and foster a sense of belonging. To avoid escalating anger among student groups who feel devalued, clear and consistent dialogue is necessary. Seeking out those staff members who have established trusting relationships with student activists to communicate messages of institutional policy and procedure would aid senior college and university leaders in increasing transparency.

Ruby Bridges and countless other racial justice pioneers who came before and after her sacrificed their safety and subjected themselves to indescribable trauma for equity in education for all students. As student affairs educators, this tenet must be central to our work. I envision a world where race relations are no longer a problem we all live with, but a welcomed opportunity to co-create a world that practices equity and justice for all.

179

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Appendix A: IRB Approval

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Appendix B: Adult Consent Form with Signature

Ohio University Adult Consent Form with Signature

Title of Research: THE PROBLEM WE ALL LIVE WITH: A CRITICAL APPRECIATIVE APPROACH TO UNDERGRADUATE RACIAL JUSTICE ACTIVISM Researchers: STEPHANIE A. CLEMONS THOMPSON AND DR. LAURA M. HARRISON Protocol #: 18-X-174

You are being asked by an Ohio University researcher to participate in research. For you to be able to decide whether you want to participate in this project, you should understand what the project is about, as well as the possible risks and benefits in order to make an informed decision. This process is known as informed consent. This form describes the purpose, procedures, possible benefits, and risks of the research project. It also explains how your personal information will be used and protected. Once you have read this form and your questions about the study are answered, you will be asked to sign it. This will allow your participation in this study. You should receive a copy of this document to take with you.

Summary of Study The purpose of this study is to examine the events before, during, and after the rally at the case study institution campus in April 2016 and would like to interview you to learn more about your experience. Your voice may help inform the creation of student activism response plans at colleges and universities across the nation.

Explanation of Study This study is being done to share strategies that allow student affairs educators to proactively collaborate with undergraduate student activists who call for multicultural reform for the co-creation of a campus climate that actively promotes equity and justice.

If you agree to participate, you will be asked to participate in one 60- to 90-minute interview. This interview will be audio recorded and will be transcribed within 2-3 days following the meeting. A copy of this transcript will be sent to you electronically and you will be asked to verify if the information is correct and add anything else you may have forgotten to say. You will also receive a summary of your interview transcript via electronic mail and asked to verify for accuracy.

Students, faculty, staff, and administrators will be solicited to participate in this study. You should not participate in this study if you were not directly involved in the rally that took place on the case study institution campus in 2016.

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Risks and Discomforts No risks or discomforts are anticipated. Multiple steps will be taken to protect each participant's identity. First, the name of the university will not be used in the study. Second, a pseudonym of your choice will be used to reference your interview responses. A general title/position (student, faculty, staff, administrator) will be used to reference your interview responses. Finally, following the interview, you will have a chance to review your transcript and make any changes to your responses.

Benefits This study is important to society to gain an understanding of how university administrators can work collaboratively with undergraduate student activists who call for multicultural reform on their campuses. This study is also important to society in providing aspects of the culture of a university that facilitate working proactively with student activists to create more equitable campuses for students of color.

Individually, you may benefit from the opportunity to share the experiences of your involvement in the rally on the case study institution campus in 2016. Your voice may help inform the creation of activism response plans on campuses across the nation.

Confidentiality and Records Your study information will be kept confidential by using a pseudonym for all records associated with your interview. You will have the chance to pick that name. A master copy of this identifying information will be kept in a password-protected folder on my personal laptop. This master list which matches your name to the pseudonym for your interview will be destroyed in December 2019.

Additionally, while every effort will be made to keep your study-related information confidential, there may be circumstances where this information must be shared with:

* Federal agencies, for example the Office of Human Research Protections, whose responsibility is to protect human subjects in research; * Representatives of Ohio University (OU), including the Institutional Review Board, a committee that oversees the research at OU

Future Use Statement Data collected as part of this study may be used for future research reports. Your name and any other personal information will be removed.

Contact Information If you have any questions regarding this study, please contact the investigator, Stephanie Clemons Thompson, [email protected], or the advisor, Dr. Laura M. Harrison, [email protected].

If you have any questions regarding your rights as a research participant, please 199 contact Dr. Chris Hayhow, Director of Research Compliance, Ohio University, (740)593- 0664 or [email protected].

By signing below, you agree that:

• you have read this consent form (or it has been read to you) and have been given the opportunity to ask questions and have them answered; • you have been informed of potential risks and they have been explained to your satisfaction; • you understand Ohio University has no funds set aside for any injuries you might receive as a result of participating in this study; • you are 18 years of age or older; • your participation in this research is completely voluntary; • you may leave the study at any time; if you decide to stop participating in the study, there will be no penalty to you and you will not lose any benefits to which you are otherwise entitled.

Signature ______

Print ______

Date ______

Version Date: 05/31/18 200

Appendix C: Semi-structured Interview Protocol

Greeting: Thank you for serving as a participant in my study!

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand what constitutes a critical appreciative approach to undergraduate racial justice activism, as well as the aspects of institutional culture that foster collaboration with undergraduate student racial justice activists.

Procedures: I will ask you several open-ended questions. Please feel free to answer them as fully and completely as you wish. I will be digitally recording what you say during the interview in order to accurately document our conversation. If you would prefer something not to be recorded, please indicate this and I will pause the recording. All recordings, transcripts, and other documents will be coded and altered to safeguard your identity.

Do you have any questions before we begin the interview?

Review and sign the two consent forms. Give one to the participant.

Prepare the recorder and begin.

Demographic Data:

Directions: To begin, I will ask you a few questions about yourself. This information will provide me with some context about you and your role at the university. Please answer what you feel comfortable sharing with me and let me know what you would rather not share. • What is your age? ______• What is your race? ______• What is your sex? ______• What is your gender identity? ______• What is your religious affiliation? ______• How many years have you been part of this institution’s community? ______• What is/was/were your academic major(s)? ______• What is your hometown (city, state)? ______• A pseudonym will be used in this research to tell your story and protect your identity. What name would you like to use? (First name only) ______

Let the subject know you will use their pseudonym throughout the interview.

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Interview questions: a. Pre-incident: i. What attracted you to want to this institution? ii. Describe your first day on campus. What vivid memories do you have? iii. Who did you connect with as you began your college career (roommates, classmates, staff, faculty, colleagues, etc.)? b. Awareness: i. When did you first begin to notice racial issues on the campus? ii. What empowered you to do something? iii. Describe the characteristics of the campus community before the rally (climate, cliques, cross-cultural connections, etc.). c. Rally: i. What do you remember about the rally? ii. How many people do you estimate attended the rally (students, faculty, staff, Administration)? iii. What were your expectations of the members of the campus community following the rally? d. Post-rally: i. In what ways did you witness the campus transform after the rally? ii. What do you think the campus needs to do to create lasting change? iii. What one piece of advice would you give to African American students on this campus about working with faculty, staff and administrators to creating multicultural change? iv. What one piece of advice would you give to faculty, staff, and administrators about working with African American students on this campus to support multicultural change?

Summary questions: 1. Is there anything you think I should have asked that I have not asked you? 2. Is there anything you would like to add to your comments? 3. Are you willing to meet with me again to discuss this topic further?

Closing: Thank you for sharing your time and thoughts with me. In the coming weeks, I will send you a transcript of this interview and ask that you review it for accuracy. You may also add to it if you realize that you’ve left something out. I will also send you some of my thoughts and findings when all of my interviews are completed. Thank you again for sharing your story and making my dissertation research meaningful.

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Appendix D: Word Cloud Interview Analysis

Pre-Incident Q1: What attracted you to the institution?

Students –

Faculty & Staff –

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Pre-Incident Q2: Describe your first day.

Students –

Faculty/Staff –

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Pre-Incident Q3: With whom did you make early connections?

Students –

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Awareness Q1: When did you first notice racial issues on campus? Students –

Faculty/Staff –

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Awareness Q2: What empowered you to do something?

Students –

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Awareness Q3: Describe the characteristics of the campus community before the rally. Students –

Faculty/Staff –

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Rally Q1: What do you remember about the rally? Students –

Faculty/Staff –

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Rally Q2: How many people do you estimate attended? Was it a rally or a protest? Were demands or expectations presented to the administration? Do you recall police presence?

Students –

Faculty/Staff –

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Rally Q3: What were your expectations of the campus community during the rally? Student –

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Post-Rally Q1: In what ways did you witness the campus transform after the rally? Student –

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Post-Rally Q2: What does the campus need to do to create lasting change? Student –

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Post-Rally Q3: What one piece of advice would you give to African American students on this campus about working with faculty and administrators to create multicultural change? Students –

Faculty/Staff –

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Post-Rally Q4: What one piece of advice would you give to faculty and administrators about working with African American students on this campus to support multicultural change?

Students –

Faculty/Staff –

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