As the coronavirus spurs an economic downturn, colleges and universities have started to tighten their budgets. But when institutions cut spending, will their diversity and inclusion work suffer?
Diverse: Issues in Higher Education explored this question and others with university leaders and diversity professionals in a two-part webinar moderated by editor-at-large Dr. Jamal Watson last Thursday. It was the final segment in a series of online discussions hosted by Diverse and CoopLew, a professional development organization for chief diversity officers in higher education.
According to Dr. Walter Bumphus, president of the American Association of Community Colleges, the answer is yes – the pandemic will set back diversity efforts – but the real question is how much.
For him, that depends on the extent to which universities maintain their focus on eventual outcomes for diverse students. It’s “critical” for these students to leave college with job opportunities, especially in a time of financial hardship, he said, so having diversity isn’t enough if universities aren’t offering underrepresented students pathways to employment. He praised community colleges for making job training a priority.
“We’ve got to continue keeping our eye on what’s going on with student success and diversity,” he added. “Because if you’ve got diversity only and you don’t couple that with student success and high expectations for all of your students, it’s all for naught anyway.”
Because the virus has put a spotlight on inequities, Dr. Timothy Sands, president of Virginia Tech, hoped that universities with strategic plans emphasizing diversity, equity and inclusion will use the limited funds they have to promote those values, assuming their boards are supportive.
The pandemic “opened up a window to the stories of our students that we had either ignored or just didn’t have time to address,” he said. It provided universities with “a better understanding of the range of conditions our students are operating in, especially for low-income, first-generation students of color, students of all sorts of backgrounds that really are challenged in the moment.”
