Dive Brief:
- Several colleges and universities are asking faculty members to incorporate conversations about diversity and inclusion into curricula and requiring diversity electives for undergraduate students.
- Schools like St. Edward's University are working to hire more diverse faculty members, to aid in creating more authentic conversations around various topics affecting an increasingly varied student population.
- Larger institutions with a new history of inclusion efforts, like UCLA, are challenged in the numbers of students and faculty who have to buy into a focused academic diversity initiative.
Dive Insight:
Despite the best intentions of administrators, forced policies about diversity in academic space run great risk for controversies about academic freedom, freedom of speech, and coddling of students. Tolerance is an ideal goal for any college setting, but campuses are better suited with organic movements created by faculty and staff, rather than mandated policies which invite conversation and dispute.
Diversity recruitment strategies for faculty and students are a solid foundation for creating the genuine dialog among campus constituents, which can lead greater institutional success and outreach opportunities.