A Case Study of Whiteness and Inclusive Excellence in Student Affairs: Challenges and (Im)Possibilities

• In Event: Difference and Dissidence: Im(Possibilities) Within the Neoliberal and Imperial Educational Complex

Abstract

Purpose: Using a case study of mid-career student affairs professionals, this paper examines the omnipresence of whiteness (Gusa 2010) and how it operates in higher education and student affairs (HESA), as an example of neoliberal institutions espousing inclusive excellence, while continuing to fail their students of Color and other marginalized student groups.

Perspectives: Whiteness is encapsulated by the ways white racial identities have been produced over time to maintain dominance over communities of Color, connected to pervasive racial domination, privileges, and cultural practices which reinforce white supremacy (Manglitz, 2003). Within HESA, this white institutional presence (Gusa 2010) is captured by the domination of white power structures over students, staff, and faculty of Color (Brunsma, Brown, & Placier, 2013). Examples, within HESA and in all instances of whiteness, include maintaining white privilege, positioning white norms as natural and normal, and espousing post-racialization to suggest society is beyond race and racism, to name a few (Matias 2016).

As a way to (supposedly) combat racism--and by extension, whiteness--colleges and university have adopted an ethic of inclusive excellence, whereby campuses institutionalize diversity initiatives for student and institutional enrichment (Williams, Berger, & McClendon 2005). On the surface, diversity initiatives put in place seem rooted in students’ best interest, but inclusive excellence satisfies the institutions’ need to appear to care about its marginalized students and maintaining a narrative of social justice yet perpetuating whiteness.

Whiteness within HESA is nothing new, but the current political climate of the US demands an understanding the role of whiteness, especially as HESA staff work with students of Color and students with other marginalized identities.

Methods: Case study is utilized because it “facilitates exploration of a phenomenon within its context” to answer how and why questions (Baxter & Jack 2008: 544). HESA professionals were the focus rather than students because of their role as student advocates and agents of the institution.

Sources: Data were culled from extensive field notes from participant observation of a group of mid-career student affairs professionals at a medium-sized public university in the Midwest during the 2016-17 academic year.

Findings: This study illustrates the centrality of endemic whiteness in higher education and its implication in reproducing inequities for marginalized communities through hollow visions and engagements. Insights from this study highlight the necessity of uncovering the harmful attachments of the pleasant goals of whiteness and strategies for HESA professionals to disrupt these attachments and meaningfully care for marginalized students.

Significance: This work has both theoretical and practical scholarly significance that helps bridge the lived experiences of student affairs professionals with theory while creating an opening to understand more fully how to better serve students of Color rather than perpetuate their failure under the guise of inclusive excellence.

Author

• Geneva L Sarcedo, University of Colorado - Denver