When Diversity Fails: An Empirical Investigation of Institutional Status and Policy Implementation on Three College Campuses

• In Event: Critical Theory, Contested Educational Spaces

Abstract

Diversity is a guiding preoccupation in higher education; however, diversity work on college campuses has received little empirical attention, resulting in limited insight into diversity practice and its potential role in educational (in)equity. This multisite qualitative case study addresses this gap by investigating diversity policy implementation at three public campuses of varied social status in the same higher education system. It employs institutional habitus to explore how institutional status shaped policy practice. Only the middle-status campus engaged the policy because of its intersection with existing campus priorities, pressures, and habitual ways of being. This study argues that taking institutional responsibility for racial equity in higher education requires attention to how interaction between social status and policy facilitates or constrains institutional action.

Author

• derria byrd, Marquette University