Higher Education Administration -- Case Study in Higher Education

Running head: POLICY ISSUES RELATED TO MULTIRACIAL STUDENTS

Case Study in Higher Education

Student Affairs and Higher Education Policy Issues Related to Multiracial Students

Jessica L. Gore

EDLD 7431-02F

Dr. Don Stumpf

March 3, 2014

J Gore

POLICY ISSUES RELATED TO MULTIRACIAL STUDENTS

Case Study in Higher Education:

Student Affairs and Higher Education Policy Issues Related to Multiracial Students

For this case study I choose to explore and analyze the issues covered within the article, “

Student Affairs and Higher Education Policy Issues Related to Multiracial Students.” Racial and

ethnic data collection and reporting have recently been placed under the microscope, as many of

the policies created in 1977 by the Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 under the Office of

Management and Budget (OMB) are more favorable to monoracial classifications and less useful

in reflecting our Nation’s diverse population (The White House, 1994). As an Admission

Counselor for a campus that is trying to expand and grow its population of “students of color,” I

have come to notice that the categorization of our students through the admissions process is not

always reflective of the true identity of the students. Since many students are limited to defining

their race by checking one or all boxes that apply, it leads me to question how multiracial

students decide on how they identify themselves. And I’m not the only one, as leaders of

multiracial organization express their concern as to how the uniqueness of an individual’s racial

makeup can be obscured due to the ‘two or more races’ category (Kellogg & Niskodé, 2008).

This same concern has now translated to our campuses and administrators as they question how

to properly provide race-based policies and programming to multiracial students without limiting

how they are able identify themselves.

Issues

The major issue that institutions of higher education face when tracking multiracial

students is that of how the data is collected and ultimately, how it is used. The purpose of the

Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 is to “ensure that all federal agencies, such as schools, the

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Social Security Administration, and the Bureau of the Census, report data in consistent

categories (Kellogg & Niskodé, 2008, p. 93). Since 1997, five categories have existed, including

White, Black/African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and

American Indian/Alaskan Native; this in addition to the ability to now identifying with the

ethnicity of Hispanic Origin or Not Hispanic Origin (The White House, 1994). Moreover,

federal agencies are required to offer the option to choose more than one racial identity, where

before 1997, multiracial students were forced to classify themselves as belonging to only one

racial category, and usually this correlated with the race the student identified with the most.

Collecting accurate racial and ethnic data is a problem that still persists in higher

education due to the fact that the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) has yet to

inform institutions on how to report data to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.

As a result of this delay, many institutions collect ethnic and racial data in the format of first

asking a student to identify if they are of Hispanic/Latino origin and then selecting one or more

of the five defined categories. By following this process, any student who selects more than one

box will be reported in a “two or more races” category with the idea that everyone within this

category is the same. (In a way, it is still plugging them into a group that is about as relatable as

when they could only select one, huh?) Although this opportunity to check more than one box

exists, many bi and multiracial students only identify with only one race. According to Schmidt,

this way of thinking has been instilled into our culture since the Jim Crow era when multiracial

people with any association to a minority race were treated as though they are purely of that race

(2010).

On many campuses, students first disclose their race and ethnicity through the application

process. As the article states, this method of collecting data is inadequate as more and more

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students are refusing to identify their race; between 1991 and 2001, the number of students for

whom race is unknown doubled to 938,000 of all students and to 1.1 million students in 2004

(Kellogg & Niskodé, 2008,). However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, many multiracial

students “strategically” identify themselves as a single minority race when they think they will

benefit from it, as can be the case in the college admissions process (Schmidt, 2010). Page and

location is only required when you are using a direct quote.) With institutions of higher

education attempting to diversify their campuses, students believe that being of one race over

another will benefit them more than disclosing their multiracial heritage. However, the dispute

to use race v. to not use race in the admissions decisions process is constantly being challenged

through affirmative action so do students really benefit from not disclosing or inaccurately

disclosing their race and ethnicity?

Although federal agencies have some regulations in place, a lack in consistency and

continuity exists across institutions of higher education when it comes to the issue of race and

ethnicity and how to accurately expand the categorization of multiracial students beyond

monoracial categories. Currently, the policies and programming for students at most institutions

of higher education remain monoracial in focus and intent. For example, when a student of color

applies to an institution any and all students who have checked a box of African American, are

automatically being grouped together, whether mono or multiracial. According to Herman

(2004), this “one drop” rule has caused many multiracial students to learn the differential status

that is associated with each race and the advantages and disadvantages of disclosing this

information (p. 732). The concept of “higher education institutions considering all multiracial

students as students of color” is harming our creation of polices and programing for multiracial

students as they have learned how to take advantage of the system (Kellogg & Niskodé, 2008, p.

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99). For us to be able to accurately identify our students, we need to stop pushing our students to

choose a singular race identity and instead better inform them of their racial and ethnic identities.

Alternative Solution

From the research, I think it is important for institutions and administrators to remain in

compliance with federal policies, but to also consider how race and ethnicity will be evaluated in

the future as well as within the context of affirmative action programs. We want to ensure that

our institutions are indeed diverse in the same manner as our national population, but since the

initial collection of race ethnicity data is collected during the admissions process, it is crucial for

Enrollment Management Offices and Departments to find ways in which to accurately collect

this data as well keep it consistent across the entire campus. This does not necessarily mean

adding more boxes to check or limiting the category of multiracial to one box only as according

to Professor Reynolds Farley at the University of Michigan as mentioned by Saulny (2011),

“grouping all multiracial people together glosses over differences in circumstances between

someone who is, say black and Latino, and someone who is Asian and white” (para. 13).

This idea of classifying students into race categories is going to be forever changing, in

the same way that new colors can be created from the mixing of paint, so institutions must

attempt to be proactive in this issue of race and ethnicity. It is also imperative for institutional

leaders to proceed carefully when addressing this issue as well as they should consider including

the input of current students, as their voice can be the driving force behind what additional

measures should be taken. More often than not, multiracial students want both their races to be

acknowledged (Saulny, 2011,).

Factors Affecting the Success of the Alternative Solution

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Race and ethnicity identity may begin at the home, but is it fair to ask our students to

identify with only one or the more prominent race? In the same sense, is it correct for an

institution to classify a student of a multiracial background into one or another category to

showcase that they have a diverse student population? Higher education must not only collect

race and ethnicity data, but must also provide the resources and knowledge to help students

identify themselves on paper and on their campus. As the racial make-up of our country

continues to change and become more diverse we must question how to accurately capture this

melting pot in an easy to read and decipherable statistical manner. Unfortunately, indicating

ones race is not a simple one box answer, but more often than not, it includes an “all of the

above,” approach, but how much information is needed from our students and at what point will

we eventually decided that accurate race and ethnicity is too difficult to code.

Conclusion

As our nation’s mixed-race population continues to rise, it will become increasingly

important to document these students accurately as they begin to apply and enroll into

institutions of higher education. Presently, higher education is severely lacking in how they

categorize their students of multiracial backgrounds, but unfortunately, this fault stems from

Federal Government Policies. Higher education also wants a nice and neat manner in which to

collect and report their minority data, however they are failing to collect data in a meaningful

way to help assist in programing and policy for students who classify. We are not doing

ourselves any favors by classifying all multiracial students into one lump sum, but nor are the

students helping themselves by identifying with only one race (and the one that they can). Even

the President of the United States faces this issue because most will say he is the “first black

president,” but in reality, he is the first “multi-racial president.”

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References

Kellogg, A., & Niskodé, A. (2008). Student affairs and higher education policy issues elated to

multiracial students. New Directions For Student Services, (123), 93-102.

Herman, M. (2004). Forced to choose: some determinants of racial identification in

multiracial adolescents. Child Development, 75(3), 730-748.

Saulny, S. (2011, January 29). Black? White? Asian? More young Americans choose all of the

above. The New York Times. Retrieved from

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/us/30mixed.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Schmidt, P. (2009, April 15). How researchers classify biracial subjects skews study results,

authors say. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from

https://chronicle.com/article/How-Researchers-Classify/47183/

Schmidt, P. (2013, October 16). Many biracial students game racial-classification system, study

suggests. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from

https://chronicle.com/article/Many-Biracial-Students-Game/125715/

The White House, Office of Management and Budget (1994, June9). Standards for the

classification of federal data on race and ethnicity. Retrieved from

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg_notice_15

Feedback:

Well-written and researched. I always enjoy reading papers where the students bring their own

experiences in the workplace into them. 148 points

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Higher Education Administration -- Case Study in Higher Education