by Rena Cheskis-Gold and Carol Shuchman
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts have become some of the most critical imperatives in assessing a university or college’s sense of community. Students, faculty, and staff of all social identities must feel valued, important, and a part of the larger community, and there must be a system in place for everyone to receive fair treatment and have access to opportunities.
With a goal to integrate DEI into their philosophy, curriculum, workforce, and overall campus culture, higher education institutions may have taken a variety of steps. They may have developed DEI principles and placed these commitments front and center in their vision statements. Perhaps they have hired a DEI officer or team to evaluate programs, policies, and practices related to DEI; conducted a climate assessment to inform a plan of action; or focused on recruitment and pipeline initiatives for all campus populations. They may have implemented training modules for various staff and departments, developed recommendations for short-term and long-term goals, and instituted a system to monitor and assess progress. With all this campus-wide DEI activity, why might it be necessary for a campus housing department to have its own structure for a diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy?
While a college has a broad mission to foster student academic and career success, residential life departments are unique in offering a developmental student mission. Student housing once merely provided shelter, but today housing departments have a 24-hour-a-day responsibility to ensure that their students have a healthy and safe environment in which to grow. Just as housing may have an implicit or explicit goal to help students separate from their childhood home life and transition to living on their own, to balance social and academic demands, or to become increasingly self-confident in purpose, role, and beliefs, so too can diversity and inclusion become an essential part of the developmental mission. Residential students can learn to interact with and be aware of those who have different backgrounds, races, ethnicity, sexuality, and abilities.
In some cases – such as on campuses where living-learning, academic, and special interest programs allow students who share similar interests to live together in a designated residence hall or on a particular floor – these goals have already been stated and enacted. Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing has built many of these goals into their Residential Learning Model, which states, “Our students will recognize systems of oppression, intervene appropriately in instances of bias, and create positive social change.” In addition, the department hosts multicultural living experiences, such as their Multi-Racial Unity Living Experience & Intercultural Aide Program, whose mission is “Uniting students across difference to develop genuine relationships, build community, and promote student success.”
But even beyond formal programs, if building an inclusive community of students is a core value, there must be no tolerance for inappropriate behaviors within the residences, including bullying and unconscious or conscious bias. To meet this goal, residential life staff can and must be trained to recognize and address these behaviors among students. In addition, staff can offer intentional, and even mandatory, programming to provide students an opportunity to understand and discuss their differences and to model appropriate behavior.
Recognizing how campus housing supports overarching campus goals and missions yet also faces unique situations and opportunities can necessitate a more specific, focused, and expanded DEI strategy than one that would be applied to an entire campus. This strategy may include expanding to include additional staff (such as custodial or facilities teams), establishing campus partnerships, creating a plan for buildings and other physical spaces, and incorporating outside teams and vendors.
Housing programs around the world have taken on the task of improving their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Just two examples are Michigan State and California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) at San Luis Obispo. At MSU, the efforts were, in part, a response to student concerns that the school wasn’t addressing the lived experiences of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) students. At Cal Poly, after the university had developed its DEI Strategic Plan, University Housing saw the strategic opportunity to create its own DEI staff position to improve the campus experience for staff and students.
For these campuses and others, the first step in launching a formal program was to develop a mission statement to clarify their aims and values in an effort to achieve their goals and objectives. Developing a departmental pledge for diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice at MSU meant a clear commitment from the Residence Education and Housing Services (REHS) team to intentionally incorporate diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice into every aspect of the department and to develop programming and training that would affect issues related to race, gender, ethnicity, and sexual assault. While this DEI pledge on the part of REHS was derived from the university’s DEI mission, it was specifically focused on ensuring that students and staff were actively engaged with the residence halls and housing units on campus. Consider the housing-specific language incorporated in the pledge, “We, as the Department of Residence Education and Housing Services, have reflected upon our fundamental mission to foster a diverse, inclusive and safe environment for all Spartans living in our on-campus communities. We pledge to further support our students and improve campus climate pertaining to sexual violence, racism, ethnocentrism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, religious oppression and other forms of marginalization . . .” Similarly, at Cal Poly, the housing department’s mission states, “A positive housing community is welcoming, respectful and provides its members with a sense of value. We are committed to creating equitable and accessible communities for all residents, staff members and guests. We believe in intentionally supporting those who hold marginalized identities to create an environment that benefits the entire community.”
These mission statements set the language and tone for the central issues related to campus climate, both within housing and throughout the college. The DEI mission, pledge, and values should be represented in every aspect of the department, such as job descriptions, recruitment announcements, hiring and onboarding policies, and project requests-for-proposal (RFPs).
With a stated mission, the department can begin to set its policies accordingly. The department will be able to access college-wide DEI policies but may also require unique policies. For example, with the safety of their trans students in mind, Cal Poly created all-gender housing and all-gender restrooms and has moved ahead with a land acknowledgment program that led to the creation of a student housing complex of seven residential halls named after yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Northern Chumash villages throughout the Central Coast region.
Other campus-wide DEI human resources policies that may differ within housing pertain to staff recruitment and hiring: for example, building diverse channels for recruiting, developing a structured mentoring program for BIPOC staff, practicing inclusive onboarding, retaining staff, establishing training requirements, and formulating clearly defined DEI performance indicators for reviews.
Having a high level of transparency is a best practice for diversity, equity, and inclusion strategies. A DEI statement, mission, or goals should be incorporated into the departmental website, RFPs, reports, posters, and even buildings and their signage. Michigan State has an eye-catching “Hate Has No Home Here” panel prominently featured on their REHS home page. Cal Poly similarly has a “Diversity, Equity & Inclusion” panel on their home page at the same high level of importance as the links to “Campus Safety” and “Health and Wellbeing.” A dashboard of initiatives that align with housing's strategic goals for DEI is also recommended. Dashboards that benchmark progress on DEI initiatives are used by many organizations. Developing and implementing a dashboard with specific emphasis on housing strategies would ensure both transparency and accountability. Best practices are to indicate whether an initiative is “on track/completed,” “in progress,” or “not yet started.”
One of the most tangible means of demonstrating commitment to DEI initiatives is through the resources that are dedicated to diversity and inclusion. For that reason, Cal Poly clearly posts on its housing website a current list of resources that improve housing equity and affordability. Among them are nearly $1 million in housing grants each year for low-income students, a lower cost housing option (triple and quad rooms) available across all housing communities, accommodations for residents with a disability, emergency housing for students experiencing housing insecurity, and improved access to food resources through a food pantry.
For Michigan State, a visible change was the creation of a new position – associate director for diversity, equity, and inclusion within REHS – that would involve acting as the point person for the challenges on campus, particularly those occurring within housing. The position was specifically created at a level high enough to show that it had value and could exert influence throughout the department. The DEI staffing within REHS has since grown to three positions: the associate director, who works with internal staff and initiatives; an assistant director, who partners with institutional units in coordinating DEI initiatives and is responsible for internal student programming; and a graduate assistant, who builds relationships with student groups. According to Ray Gasser, executive director of REHS at Michigan State, “It is easier to climb the hill with allies at all levels of the organization, especially the president. But we still have a long way to go as DEI is not yet woven into every aspect of the department.”
Experience has shown that one of the primary steps of this work is a commitment that DEI cannot sit on the periphery of planning, but must become a core planning principle.
Gathering feedback from a variety of constituents is another important aspect of building a DEI strategy. When Kari Mansager was appointed director of diversity, inclusion and outreach within Cal Poly’s housing department, she immediately began by reaching out to people around campus. She conducted more than 50 one-on-one meetings with groups as diverse as the facilities manager of custodians, the ethnic studies department, and the Center for Teaching, Learning & Technology. She analyzed and reported on the changes that were being sought and on ideas for new staff initiatives that could be implemented within housing. She also developed a feedback form, available to Residential Student Experience (RSE) staff and custodial and facilities staff, to gather ideas on barriers, what was missing, and what was needed to improve conditions within housing. Building on a statement of inclusion that had already existed within RSE, but also coming indirectly from her data collection, the department crafted the previously stated mission.
Finally, training is needed to provide staff with the tools, resources, and strategies they need to better interact with students on topics such as unconscious bias, allyship, inclusion, and intersectionality. Training programs are also professional development opportunities that transfer to a staff member’s future workplace environment.
At Michigan State, the housing staff partnered with the university Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives to provide many types of training, including implicit bias training, a monthly equity series, a Bias Buster Lunch Book Series, and a two-day racial literacy workshop. Housing staff have been specifically trained on bias reporting protocol and microaggressions, training that is applicable to both their relationship with their students and to their own experiences in the workforce. REHS supervisors are now represented on the university BIAS Incident Task Force. Michigan State REHS staff have also developed their own training activities. They organized webinars addressing the needs of specific identities, brought in an outside speaker and trainer on interculturalism, and succeeded in embedding an inclusion outcome in the Residential Learning Model outcomes. In addition, Culinary Services, a divisional partner of REHS, has trained their staff on allergens and religious issues of cross contamination.
Cal Poly housing has a Social Change curriculum in place for all of their residents through their residential learning community program. Throughout the year, they regularly host diversity-related events and programming for students within all of their housing communities. Four advocates for underrepresented students have been embedded in housing communities; these student staff members hold dual roles: within housing as resident advisors and within the Student Diversity & Belonging Division as student assistants. University Housing also has programming to support their special relationship with local indigenous tribal leaders.
Just as the best practice in student recruitment is to develop a pipeline for diversity, the same can be encouraged or even incentivized for design and construction teams and outside vendors. A housing department can monitor whether the team or vendor sponsors a career apprenticeship program or partners with vocational high schools and local unions to develop a pipeline of diverse workers. In addition, a statement of equity in a request-for-proposal or a construction contract can state that the university encourages applicants from all backgrounds and may be paired with a specific goal for the percentage of a team that must meet a certain standard – for example, minority-owned or women-owned businesses. If there is a campus-wide statement of equity for hiring outside teams and vendors, a housing department may choose to exceed the guidelines or to expand them to vendors unique to housing. For example, while there may be a state-wide compliance goal for minority- or women-owned businesses being hired for projects built with state money, a housing department may choose to extend this goal to all design and construction projects. If there is no campus-wide statement of equity for outside teams and vendors, housing may choose to bring the request to the purchasing department or to develop their own statement. If a unique area of disadvantage is particularly meaningful to housing, it may be specifically listed. For example, a school with a specific land acknowledgment may specifically seek vendors with federal tribal recognition.
In the wake of rising protests and greater recognition of societal inequalities, the urgency to address diversity, equity, and inclusion has been steadily building. However, it is imperative to recognize that this cannot be a one-time initiative; it must become a permanent, reinforced, and monitored feature of any housing and residential life program. When DEI is defined as a guiding philosophy, it has the opportunity to not only shape a successful housing program but also to support and build on the overall DEI mission of the university.
Experience has shown that one of the primary steps of this work is a commitment that DEI cannot sit on the periphery of planning, but must become a core planning principle. This means that each and every initiative includes someone or something dedicated to the DEI lens. One can appreciate the beauty of the circularity: announcing that DEI is a priority makes it a priority. But the announcement must be reinforced in all actions, and one must follow the money. If a university makes diversity, equity, and inclusion a core of its strategic planning process and highlights it in the budget, then these goals become the responsibility of everyone at the university, and the programs receive a commitment from senior leadership. At Michigan State, the current president has made diversity, equity, and inclusion a high priority, creating a chief DEI officer at the vice president level and commissioning three task force reports on faculty and staff, campus climate, and policing, as well as endorsing the construction of a new multicultural center on campus.
Once the commitment is actualized, a DEI strategy can begin with the staff already in place, but it is likely that, in order to further develop the program, additional staff will be needed. Priorities should be identified up front so that, even with a low level of resources, some initiatives are undertaken, and as more resources become available, more can be accomplished. Student input and participation should be included in all initiatives.
Finally, administrators need to be assured that programming is effective, that any extra investment in time or money has value, and that reporting systems have utility for the DEI initiative. An annual or bi-annual monitoring and assessment of each initiative is recommended to evaluate its success. An assessment can be simple or detailed, done in-house or by an external consultant who specializes in this area. One method is to develop a logic model, with inputs, outputs, and short-term and long-term outcomes for each initiative or activity. Another method is a stakeholder-based evaluation which utilizes interviews, focus groups, or a survey format. Many schools have implemented the Equity Scorecard™, developed by the University of Southern California, sometimes called an “equity mindset checklist,” to identify what is meaningful to the various university populations.
Diversity initiatives are imperative to the work of campus housing departments as well as higher education institutions as a whole. As the American Council on Education notes, “diversity enriches the educational experience” and “challenges stereotyped preconceptions.” In addition, “education within a diverse setting,” and particularly within housing and residential life, “prepares students to become good citizens in an increasingly complex, pluralistic society” and “fosters mutual respect and teamwork.” In short, a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion goes to the core of the educational mission and should be treated with a resolute and intentional dedication.
Rena Cheskis-Gold is principal and founder of Demographic Perspectives, a higher education consulting firm focusing on data and analysis for planning and strategy, with specialties in residential life, housing, and DEI. Carol Shuchman is senior advisor for Demographic Perspectives. Learn more at www.demographicperspectives.com.