Academic Support for an Increasingly Diverse Undergraduate Population: Challenges in Initiative Design and Implementation

Abstract

When an institution diversifies its student body, its effort must extend past admissions to ensuring students an inclusive learning environment. We describe the changes made and proposed by the College of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) following the university’s commitment to becoming more racially and socioeconomically diverse, as a case study for institutions engaged in similar efforts. In developing proposals for change, we consider design challenges such as how to define our target populations specifically enough to allow for meaningful engagement while avoiding stigmatizing or further marginalizing the students we want to help. New initiatives include: faculty and staff training, curricular change, and development of a more robust academic early warning system. We continue building mentoring programs and enhancing existing cohort building programs. While the success of particular programs may be tied in part to institutional specifics, certain lessons can be generalized. Communication about new initiatives, during both development and implementation prove critical, as students interact with often siloed offices within the university. Small-scale pilots with specific student populations can be effective stop-gaps while the university makes larger institutional changes and as experiments with different approaches. Assessment of initiatives, though challenging, must be attempted to understand whether new activities impact outcomes, and if so, which components provide the most value. A straightforward formula for an inclusive college environment which fosters success equally for all students appears unlikely, but the development of evidence-based best practices provides a starting point for institutions interested in change.

Citation

Smith, J.R., Rice, H.J. and Chang, M. (2016), "Academic Support for an Increasingly Diverse Undergraduate Population: Challenges in Initiative Design and Implementation", The Crisis of Race in Higher Education: A Day of Discovery and Dialogue (Diversity in Higher Education, Vol. 19), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 321-341. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-364420160000019017