WASHINGTON — Diversity practitioners from schools across the country have gathered this week at the 12th annual meeting of the National Association of Diversity Officers In Higher Education (NADOHE) to learn the best practices to foster diversity, equity and inclusion on their college campuses.
In sessions and workshops throughout the conference — themed “With Urgency and Purpose: Transcending Boundaries, Eliminating Barriers, Leading with Bold Vision and Bold Moves” — NADOHE leaders and other institutional diversity officials shared strategies on how to hold candid conversations on campus, how to engage in diversity work without an official “chief diversity officer” title and how to achieve an environment of inclusive excellence.
“It’s a taxing and tolling kind of work” that diversity officers do, said Dr. Archie W. Ervin, president of NADOHE and vice president for institute diversity at Georgia Institute of Technology. “But that’s important, because the work must continue.”
MSNBC journalist and commentator Joy Reid opened the conference with a keynote highlighting the common challenges and tensions students of color face on various campuses. Challenges include being in a hostile environment or living and learning in buildings named after controversial figures such as Woodrow Wilson. Another challenge students face is not having institutional support, which could lead to wider disparities in degree-completion rates across racial groups.
“When you rank the United States against other developed nations, we score relatively low on everything from math and science ability to engineering degrees and STEM, and really every sort of sign of modernity and advancement,” Reid said. “Much of that gap has to do with the ongoing racial gap internally. If you caught students of color up with White students, you would actually close the United States’ gap with the rest of the world.”
During her remarks, Reid also recalled that her experience at Harvard University was “extremely jarring” because White students openly questioned Black students’ intelligence and presence at the school, and because there was a lack of Black faculty whom students could look to for support.
“We’re still fighting this battle for diversity and inclusion in everything, but particularly in higher education,” she said.
