UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Responding to Campus Racism: Analyzing Student Activism and Institutional Responses Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7j10b4kn Author Cho, Katherine Soojin Publication Date 2020 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Responding to Campus Racism: Analyzing Student Activism and Institutional Responses A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Education by Katherine Soojin Cho 2020 © Copyright by Katherine Soojin Cho 2020 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Responding to Campus Racism: Analyzing Student Activism and Institutional Responses by Katherine Soojin Cho Doctor of Philosophy in Education University of California, Los Angeles, 2020 Professor Sylvia Hurtado, Chair Scholarship on student activism describes how protests, demonstrations, and hunger strikes push higher education institutions towards progress and increased institutional accountability. However, cyclical demands, particularly from Student-Activists of Color regarding campus racism, suggest more complexity at the institutional level. In comparing the responses of two public higher education institutions from 2015 to 2018, this study explored the responses by senior-level administrators, faculty, and governing boards to determine how they align with students’ concerns. Their multiple perspectives, competing demands, and layered dynamics complicate what are considered to be the institutional responses and how they are perceived by Student-Activists of Color. Situating student activism through the Institutional Response Framework, this comparative case study employs document collection, archives, and interviews. Moreover, in the traditions of Critical Race Theory and Black Feminism, these responses are contextualized within the sociopolitical histories of each campus to further illuminate the roles of incrementalism, reputation, and trust. Through critical discourse analysis and thematic analysis, I ii map these patterns, tactics, and considerations onto three dimensions of the Institutional Response Framework: control, demand, and institutionalized racism. Findings reveal how responses minimize students’ concerns, criminalize activism, co-opt initiatives, and only “claim diversity” through empty dialogues. Yet, responses also result in educational initiatives, new curricula, changes in institutional policies, and strategic ways to “protect” students. The decision-making rationales regarding morality, the university’s “best interests,” and peer group comparisons reflect the larger narratives of embedded whiteness, racism, anti-Blackness, and neoliberalism within higher education. The subtle and sometimes stark differences between these perceptions and responses demonstrate the positional pressures and competing goals of each of these groups, while still inching towards institutional improvement. The functionality of the Institutional Response Framework and mapping these differences serve as an analytical tool to inform actionable practices. The study’s intersection of organizational theory and Critical Race Theory provides a unique interrogation of how racism and color-evasiveness materialize at the institutional level. Lastly, the research design offers an alternate methodological praxis that places under scrutiny an underexplored participant: the institution and its racialized dynamics. iii The dissertation of Katherine Soojin Cho is approved. Mitchell J. Chang Valerie J. Matsumoto Cecilia Rios-Aguilar Daniel G. Solórzano Sylvia Hurtado, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2020 iv DEDICATION To the generations who fought knowing that the futures dreamed would not become realities in their lifetime v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract of Dissertation...................................................................................................................ii Dedication........................................................................................................................................v List of Figures and Tables............................................................................................................. xi Acknowledgments.........................................................................................................................xii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................1 Background of the Problem.......................................................................................................1 Purpose of the Study..................................................................................................................2 Research Questions..............................................................................................................3 Scope of Study...........................................................................................................................4 Driving Motivation....................................................................................................................7 Significance................................................................................................................................8 CHAPTER TWO: (RE)FRAMING THE NARRATIVE OF STUDENT ACTIVISM...................9 Background and Current Context..............................................................................................9 Key Terms................................................................................................................................12 Student Activism............................................................................................................... 12 Racism and Campus Racial Climates............................................................................... 13 Institutional as Normative Structures................................................................................ 14 Institutionalized Racism.................................................................................................... 15 Student Activism and Race/Racism Research......................................................................... 15 Topics within Student Activism Research........................................................................ 16 How Student Activism has been Studied.......................................................................... 16 The Role of Administrative Allies and Institutional Documents.......................................17 Framing Student Activism and Its Related Theories...............................................................18 Race and Racism as Center Stage......................................................................................19 Shifting to Organizations and Institutions........................................................................ 21 Power, Performativity, and Partnerships.......................................................................... 22 Institutional Response Framework......................................................................................... 23 Demands, Dynamics, and Dimensions............................................................................. 24 The Four Types of Responses........................................................................................... 25 The Dimension of Institutional Racism............................................................................ 27 Function and Testing the Institutional Response Framework........................................... 28 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS...................................................30 Comparative Case Study Methodology...................................................................................30 Case Criteria.......................................................................................................................31 Timeframe....................................................................................................................32 The Approach of Replication and Embedded Units....................................................33 The Praxis of Anonymity.........................................................................................................34 Case Contexts..........................................................................................................................35 Campus Identities and Concerns........................................................................................35 The South and Confederate Tradition.........................................................................36 The Embedded Cases within UVA....................................................................................36 vi Student-Activists of Color..........................................................................................36 Senior-Level Administrators......................................................................................37 Board of Visitors........................................................................................................38 Faculty........................................................................................................................39 The Embedded Cases within UNC-CH.............................................................................40 Students-Activists of Color..........................................................................................40