Institutionalization of a Campus Culture Center: Exploring Racialized Administrative Burdens Faced by Students and Staff

• In Event: Leveraging Organizational Theory to Make Educational Systems More Effective and Racially Equitable

Abstract

This study leverages Ray’s Theory of Racialized Organizations to illuminate racialized administrative burdens that can be placed on minoritized staff and students by examining one Latinx Campus Culture Center at a Predominantly White Institution. This instrumental case study examines how institutionalization of the Latinx Campus Culture Center shapes student, alumni, and staff experiences over time. Findings from this study advance the field’s understanding of institutionalization as a more complex, fluid, and nuanced process within higher education that creates additional organizational policies, processes, and structures. Findings also encourage university leaders to consider the intentional or unintentional organizational consequences of institutionalization that particularly burden minoritized students and staff. The paper provides implications and recommendations for practice, theory, and research.

Author

• Jacqueline Pedota, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author