61. Conduct campus racial climate assessments and disclose the results of campus climate surveys

Campus Climate 09.6.24

Here’s what the federal government can do:

  • Congress should appropriate funds to enable annual campus racial climate assessments at all higher education institutions.
  • The U.S. Department of Education should collect and disseminate the results of annual racial climate assessments at all higher education institutions. Results should be shared publicly in an accessible manner.
  • The U.S. Department of Education should make model campus climate surveys available to institutions of higher education.
  • Congress should make new funding contingent on states assessing racial and socioeconomic disparities and student outcomes.

Here’s what state government can do:

  • State legislatures should require mandatory campus climate metrics in state outcomes-based funding measures. Metrics should be comprehensive to account for how a higher education institution is addressing its historical legacy of inclusion/exclusion of students of color, structural diversity, psychological climate, and student behavior.[i]
  • State legislatures should increase funding for higher education coordinating agencies given their roles in enforcement, dissemination, and monitoring of state campus racial climate requirements.

Here’s what institutional leaders can do:

  • Higher education institutions should conduct annual campus racial climate assessments.
  • Higher education institutions should ensure that campus racial climate assessment planning includes a strong representation of students (including students of color), faculty, staff, and any campus office of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.

Higher education institutions can gain critical insights on student experiences and improve their campus community by collecting and analyzing campus racial climate assessments. Higher education institutions could build more inclusive campuses by learning about the needs of their student community and being responsive through practices such as facilitating cross-racial interactions and discussions on race. Research shows that at colleges and universities that have seen an increase in the numbers of students of color on campus without implementing facilitated cross-racial interaction and ongoing discussions about race, students of color reported less overall satisfaction with their college experience.[ii] Colleges and universities can use the results of assessments to better understand the experiences of students of color and adapt through necessary practices that promote inclusive campuses.

[i]Student behavior is based on how students on campus interact with each other and faculty, especially among peers and faculty from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

[ii]Milem, Jeffrey; Walter, Allen; Clayton-Pedersen, Alma; & Hurtado, Sylvia. “Enhancing Campus Climates for Racial/Ethnic Diversity: Educational Policy and Practice” The Review of Higher Education, March 1998. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236696144_Enhancing_Campus_Climates_for_RacialEthnic_Diversity_Educational_Policy_and_Practice.