Why Diversity and Equity Matter: Reflections from a Community College President

Abstract

What roles can leaders play to create, nurture, and sustain a campus culture that can ultimately lead to improving student success, to diversifying the ranks of faculty and administrators, and to facilitating meaningful engagement concerning the critical issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion? This chapter offers the candid views and suggestions of an accidental leader, who now leads one of the largest community college districts in the nation.

Preparing Paraprofessionals to Become Teachers: A Study Examining the Effect of Catalytic Interventions

“…Additionally, similar to Bourdieu's (1986) conception of institutional habitus, this same cohort of paraprofessionals may entirely be excluded from the associated financial rewards of becoming teachers unless institutions training this population plan to teach needed capital. Attributing paraprofessionals' relative career stasis to one factor may appear reductive, yet, and to the point of this research, Rodriguez (2015), and Suleman (2018) both noted that straight-forward training aimed at skill acquisition is an effective method of career advancement. As seen in the results, this work underscored how better embedded training systems-such as offering mandatory workshops-tended to better serve the student population.…”

“…The Role of Community Colleges for Paraprofessionals in NYC Lehner and Johnson (2016) noted that community colleges are uniquely positioned to play an important role in the training of minority teaching candidates. According to Rodriguez (2015), community colleges are "the most egalitarian system of higher education in the world," accepting "100% of every high school graduating class" (p. 17). Community colleges are essential and "serve distinct roles in higher education," as they reach "a wide variety of individuals, including non-traditional students in terms of age, ability/disability, ethnic diversity, SES, and other demographics;" the result is that they "promote equality" (Torres et al, 2018, p. 73).…”

“…From a social capital perspective, Bourdieu, and a generation of scholars following his work, theoretically framed how underserved communities are often under-equipped with the types of social capital that afford social and vocational mobility. Rodriguez (2015) understanding of social reproduction, essentially a nuanced version of Bourdieu (1986) theoretical perspective, primarily collides with new higher education initiatives. For example, Suleman (2018) underscored that higher educational institutions tended to overemphasize vocational outcomes and deflect the historical and systemic concerns that perpetuate inequality.…”

Evidence That a Greater Presence of Latinx Faculty or Administrators Raises the Completion Rates of Various Cohorts of Community College Students

“…Hiring diverse faculty and administrators, particularly in a manner meant to match their demographics to the diversity of students on a college campus, is an often-touted goal. As summarized by Los Angeles Community College District Chancellor Rodriguez (2015, p. 5): “[h]aving administrators and faculty of color that reflect the diversity of the students we serve is not only beneficial to students of color but the entire student body.” Nonetheless, as Bristol and Martin-Fernandez (2019) report, the degree to which faculty and administrative diversity corresponds with student outcomes has not been fully established. This review summarizes the existing research on this topic.…”

“Coalition of the Willing”: Promoting Antiracism Through Empowering Community College Campus Members

“…These studies provide nuanced perspectives about how institutional actors may purposefully communicate responses about racial incidents that constitute ethnoviolence (Davis et al, 2022; Ehrlich, 1994; Perry, 2002; Rios-Aguilar & Deil-Amen, 2019), hate crimes (Rodriguez, 2015; Stotzer & Hossellman, 2012) and racial microaggressions (Pierce, 1969; Sue & Constantine, 2007). Institutional acts include “those racially marginalizing actions and inertia of the university evidenced in structures, practices and discourses that endorse a campus racial climate hostile to People of Color” (Yosso et al, 2009, p. 673).…”