67. Provide students residential and campus housing affinity options that affirm their cultural, racial, and ethnic identities.[i]
Here’s what the federal government can do:
- The U.S. Department of Education should collect, conduct, and disseminate research on campus housing affinity options and their effectiveness on student outcomes.
Here’s what institutional leaders can do:
- Higher education institutions should provide students with residential and campus housing affinity options that affirm their cultural, racial, and ethnic identities.
- Higher education institutions should ensure that information about housing affinity options is shared in recruitment materials, catalogs, student handbooks, and on public websites.
Through affinity choices in campus housing, students can choose to live with peers who share common interests or a common identity such as race or ethnicity. Similarly to sports teams living together, students of color can find community with those who have a shared affinity and have interest in connecting to students who share cultural backgrounds.
[i] In addition to the note provided at the beginning of this document, additional information about the ongoing legality of developing curricula and engaging in activities that promote racially inclusive academic communities can be found in the Race and School Programming guidance published by the Office for Civil Rights on August 24, 2023 and available at https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-20230824.pdf.