Inequities in Higher Education: Issues and Promising Practices in a World Ambivalent about Affirmative Action

Abstract

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the legality of race‐based affirmative action at universities in 2003. Although the decisions affirmed the legality of considering race in college admissions decisions, their long‐term effects are not entirely clear. They neither resolved conflicts nor solved problems affirmative action was intended to address, namely, disparities in educational outcomes between Whites and ethnic/racial minorities. Although disparities have diminished since 1965, policies and practices to sustain and further increase diversity in higher education without affirmative action are needed. This article provides historical and conceptual grounding for this JSI issue, which examines approaches for attaining campus diversity. Collectively, the issue provides approaches for increasing diversity as well as strategies for managing and benefiting from diversity in postsecondary environments.

Table of Contents

“…The attainment of diversity depends on first attaining structural representation through the recruitment and hiring of women and minorities, followed by systematic efforts to ensure their retention, empowerment, and inclusion (Evans and Chun, 2007a). Critical mass, that is, having a sufficient and significant minority presence, is an important institutional objective as it helps dissipate stereotypes about minority groups that arise when few members of such groups are present and fosters a welcoming climate for diversity (Niemann and Maruyama, 2005). As a result, assessment of structural representation necessarily precedes evaluation of later phases of diversity progress.…”

Higher education reforms in Romania. Between the Bologna process and national challenges

“…Another perspective refers to the equality of participation across ethnicities or socioeconomic backgrounds (Harper et al 2009). This approach argues that the student body in higher education should reflect the distribution of socio-economic status and ethnicity/race within the population from which the student body is drawn (Astin and Oseguera 2004;Harper et al 2009;Niemann and Maruyama 2005).…”

Table of Contents

“…The aim is to enhance higher education's recognition of diversity issues by engaging campus community members in responding to social justice demands from racial and ethnic minorities, demographic shifts in society, and the promotion of multiculturalism in the organizational climate and culture (Haro, 1992;Niemann and Maruyama, 2005;Winston, 2001). Leadership practices, for instance, that focus on organizational transformation emphasize accommodation to and tolerance for racial and ethnic minorities, with diversity "awareness" programs required to alter organizational culture (Brandt, 1994;Sandham, 1997).…”