Assessing Campus Diversity Initiatives: A Guide for Campus Practitioners

Mildred Garcia, Cynthia Hudgins, Caryn McTighe Musil, Michael T. Nettles, William E. Sedlacek, and Daryl G. Smith. Association of American Colleges & Universities, 2002.

This 184-page guide provides tips and tools for designing and developing effective diversity evaluations. Topics addressed include the need for assessment, designing an evaluation plan, institutional context, audience, data collection and analysis, performance indicators, and theoretical models. An appendix also includes sample assessment and evaluation tools from campuses across the country.

Bibliography: "Campus climate" reports

Originally compiled by Robin Miller for the National Consortium of Directors of LGBT Resources in Higher Education. Last updated October 22, 2002.

Resource Link: http://www.lgbtcampus.org/resources/campus_climate.html

Campus Climate for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender People: A National Perspective

Susan R. Rankin. The Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (www.thetaskforce.org), 2003.

This 78-page report details the experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) people at 14 colleges and universities across the country. Based on a survey of nearly 1700 students, faculty, and staff, Campus Climate documents experiences and perceptions of anti-GLBT bias and harassment, along with levels of institutional support for GLBT people. It highlights differences in experiences between various identity groups (e.g. students vs. faculty/staff, gays/lesbians vs. bisexuals, people of color vs. whites, etc.).

Resource Link: http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/CampusClimate.pdf

Civilrights.org (The Online Social Justice Network)

Civilrights.org provides a home for policy perspectives, strategies, and research. Run by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, a coalition of 180 organizations working for equality and justice. Visitors can post events to the calendar, add content to the library, etc.

Resource Link: http://www.civilrights.org

ColorLines Magazine NewsWire

ColorLines is a national newsmagazine on race and politics. Keep up to date on the magazine's news, editorials, and event info by signing up for occasional emails from their email list, NewsWire. Visit the ColorLines website for more information, or email them at [email protected].

Resource Link: http://www.colorlines.com

Community Change, Inc.

CCI is a Boston-based non-profit organization which serves as a Center for action and collaboration among individuals and multiracial grassroots groups in the fight to achieve racial justice and equity. CCI maintains a resource center which features an extensive Library on Racism. CCI's website lists the thousands of books, videos, audio tapes, and periodicals which are housed at the library.

Resource Link: http://www.communitychangeinc.org

Core Issues in Comprehensive Community-Building Initiatives: Exploring Power and Race

Rebecca Stone and Benjamin Butler. Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, 2000.

Power and race are rarely acknowledged but undeniable influences in community change initiatives. This volume, which follows on 1996's "Core Issues in Comprehensive Community-Building Initiatives," explores the role and influence of power and race in the planning, practice, and evaluation of comprehensive community-building initiatives (CCIs). It is composed of essays by Stone and Butler and responses to those essays by key participants in the field of community building. The lead essays are based on extensive interviews and focus group discussions with stakeholders in CCIs nationwide, including community residents, technical assistance providers, CCI managers and site directors, funders, and researchers.

Resource Link: http://www.chapinhall.org/article_abstract.aspx?ar=1302&L2=63&L3=108

Helping All Students Succeed in a Diverse Society

Public Agenda.

Sometimes particular groups of students across a district are achieving at lower levels than others. In a society as diverse as ours, how can we best help all children succeed in school? This Citizen ChoiceWork Guide (and video) from Public Agenda examines three approaches: raise expectations, demand excellence of all students, and have higher standards for student achievement; increase parental and community involvement and help students with social problems that distract them from learning; and ensure a safe and respectful learning environment.

Resource Link: http://www.publicagenda.org/pubengage/pe_toolkit.cfm

National Coalition of Education Activists (NCEA)

NCEA is a multiracial network of families, school staff, union and community activists, and others organizing for equity and fundamental changes in local school districts. Its purpose is to support activists in their efforts to develop, promote, and implement progressive school reforms, to provide a counter to the right, and to fight racism and other forms of institutional bias.

National Youth Employment Coalition

The National Youth Employment Coalition improves the effectiveness of organizations that seek to help youth become productive citizens. NYEC provides the Voices of Diversity Dialogue Guide (2002) to assist schools and program staff in facilitating dialogues on institutional racism with young people.

Resource Link: http://www.nyec.org

Open Minds to Equality: a Sourcebook of Learning Activities to Affirm Diversity and Promote Equity, 2nd ed.

Nancy Schniedewind and Ellen Davidson. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1997.

This is a practical book for teachers for building multi-cultural, gender-fair classrooms and for teaching students about both discrimination and approaches to equality. Most teachers want to make their classes multicultural and gender-fair, but are seldom supported in the attempt. This book provides a piece of that support. Grounded in theory but fully accessible to teachers, the book's first two chapters explain the need for equitable classrooms, and the remaining chapters provide activities with full-size worksheets for use with children. This is a 'teacher-friendly' book that opens both teachers' and students' eyes, hearts and minds to equality.

Resource Link: http://www.ablongman.com/catalog/academic/product/0,1144,020516109X,00.html

PeaceWeb

PeaceWeb (formerly The National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution) was founded in 1982 to provide a forum where individuals working on and researching conflict resolution could gather to exchange ideas. PeaceWeb is a non-membership organization, open to everyone interested in issues of peacemaking, social justice, and conflict resolution. PeaceWeb provides an international forum for continuing dialogue about the uses of conflict resolution as a tool for social justice and a force for peace.

Resource Link: http://www.apeacemaker.net

Race Issue Guide

Public Agenda.

Race is the enduring, heartbreaking problem of American society, and has always been -- after all, the first slaves arrived in North America a year before the Pilgrims did. By many standards, minorities are much better off than they were 40 years ago, when the civil rights movement won its most enduring victories, however there persistent problems still remain. Public Agenda Issue Guides or ?“Citizen Choicework Guides?” contain background information on the topic and present three different approaches to the issue for people to deliberate.

Resource Link: http://www.publicagenda.org/issues/frontdoor.cfm?issue_type=race

Society for Values in Higher Education

The Society for Values in Higher Education is a fellowship of teachers and others who care deeply about ethical issues - such as integrity, diversity, social justice and civic responsibility - facing higher education and the wider society. We believe that such values call for study, reflection, discussion, and action. We pursue these activities through publications, projects, regional gatherings, and an annual national meeting. SVHE's Democracy Project, which began in 1999, is an exploratory initiative that examined models of deliberative democracy and higher education's capacity to engage those models.

Resource Link: http://www.svhe.org

Teachers, Study Circles and the Racial Achievement Gap

Catherine Orland. Capstone paper for the School for International Training (submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of Arts in Social Justice in Intercultural Relations), 2006.

The subtitle of Orland's 76-page thesis is "How One Dialogue and Action Program Helped Teachers Integrate the Competencies of an Effective Multicultural Educator." Study Circles, a dialogue and action process, brings together teachers, parents and students from diverse racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds to talk about the racial achievement gap. This study asks "How does the experience of participating in Study Circles bring teachers closer to integrating the competencies of the effective multicultural educator?"

Resource Link: http://www.thataway.org/exchange/files/docs/Orland-AchievementGap.doc

Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North

Ebb Pod Productions, 2007.

Traces of the Trade is a feature documentary in which Producer/Director Katrina Browne tells the story of her New England ancestors, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. Cameras follow as Browne and nine fellow descendants undertake a journey of discovery to Rhode Island, Ghana, and Cuba. Retracing the steps of the notorious Triangle Trade, we uncover a family's, a region's, and a nation's hidden past. Simultaneously, viewers will follow descendants of the DeWolf family as they grapple with the contemporary legacy of slavery, not only for black Americans, but for themselves as white Americans. The film is intended as a catalyst for dialogue and education through screenings in communities and classrooms, and discussion guides and other materials are being developed.

Resource Link: http://www.tracesofthetrade.org

Voices of Diversity Dialogue Guide

National Youth Employment Coalition, 2002.

A guide to assist schools and program staff in facilitating dialogues on institutional racism with young people.

Resource Link: http://nyec.org/voicesofdiversity

What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race, and the State of the Nation

South End Press Collective (editors); Afterword by Joy James, 2007.

This 200-page fundraising book for progressive hurricane relief efforts offers readers a different and, distressingly, rare approach to understanding the storm: let the people who have survived, helped, and agitated for justice speak for themselves. Short and accessible, this collection assembles a powerful jury, exploring the complexity of what is at once business as usual and the site of what could be a fundamental turning point in US history.

Resource Link: http://www.southendpress.org/2006/items/87670