Talking the Talk, Walking the Walk: Discursive and Structural Commitment to Diversity in Higher Education

• In Event: 3429 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 10. Higher Education: Administrative Trends and Institutional Effects

Abstract

With intensifying discussion on diversity in higher education, a growing body of literature examines educational benefits of campus diversity for various outcomes ranging from student development to institutional excellence. This paper focuses on organizational aspects of diversity initiatives in contemporary American higher education. Specifically, the study explores the relationship between various institutional characteristics and the university’s discursive as well as formal structural commitment to diversity, using logistic and zero-inflated negative binomial regressions. Based on a uniquely compiled dataset of organizational characteristics and mission statements for a cross-sectional sample of 236 four-year non-for-profit colleges and universities across the United States, the findings suggest that cultural and institutional factors, above and beyond functional needs, influence (1) a university’s emphasis on diversity in its mission statement and (2) its establishment of the diversity office. Differential relationships are found for discursive and formal structures, indicating loose coupling in the higher education system. The implications are discussed.

Author

• Naejin Kwak