Institutional Ethnography: Illuminating Intersectional (In)Equities in Advisement at a Southwestern Minority Serving Institution (SMSI)

• In Event: 50610 - Unpacking Intersectionality: The Tangle of Disadvantage

Abstract

Southwestern Minority Serving Institution (SMSI) has special designations as a flagship Hispanic and Minority Serving University. However, examining cohort graduation rates through an intersectional lens illuminates a picture in which race, gender, and college-generational status appear to make a great deal of difference for students’ progress toward graduation. This point is strikingly counter-intuitive as we examine the institution’s multiple advising systems including academic, integrated, and special populations. College advisors are positioned as students’ first point of contact and main source of information as they navigate the complexities of the institution. They help students with things like enrolling in classes or getting connected to personal, professional, and academic resources, but their time and positive attention can be critical for students facing historical disadvantages. This institutional ethnography explores the role of advising in how students navigate institutional requirements beyond university classrooms. The objectives of this research are to employ intersectionality as both inquiry and praxis, investigating how barriers and experiences vary among students and advisors within the different college advising systems at SMSI, based on their intersecting social locations like race-gender-first-generation college status. This research aims to shed light on advising as a crucial yet overlooked area where educational equity and inequity intersect.

Author

• Lacey S Hites, University of New Mexico-Albuquerque