Underrepresented Student Needs Assessment Project

Introduction

In response to the unprecedented challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement to address institutional racism across the country, Western Washington University’s Social Justice and Equity Committee (SJEC) commissioned four research projects that engaged students, staff, and faculty to co-create an assessment of the state of underrepresented and marginalized students in the WWU community. We are deeply grateful for the faculty, staff, and student research assistants who stepped up on short notice and in difficult circumstances over the summer and into the fall to produce the work presented here. 

The results of this work are clear.  Our students from minoritized populations, and in particular our Black students, are frustrated and suffering under the current structure and culture of our university.  Many of these students' basic needs are not being met and they look to the university for support that would help them achieve basic academic goals.  In order to meet students' needs, dramatic changes are needed in terms of the structure and function of university programs.

In seeking to address the diverse narratives and needs presented in these projects, it is important to understand the following concepts: 

1. Western Washington University is a Predominantly White Institution (PWI).
2. The university is structurally inequitable in ways unique to a PWI (white supremacy is mostly invisible to the majority of the institution, opportunities for multicultural exchanges are low, multicultural competencies tend to be low, etc).
3. Students want to be treated with empathy and understanding, as the complex whole human beings that they are, with all their identities welcomed and supported.
4. It is necessary to then examine inequity through an intersectional lens with multiple axes: race, gender, sexual identities, class, ability, work eligibility, veteran status, citizenship status, neurodivergence, etc.
5. For each individual, inequities are compounding. On top of their traditional academic work, marginalized students face the additional challenges of simultaneously navigating all of the institutional barriers that they face on multiple axes.
6. The pandemic amplifies those inequities, it doesn’t create them.
7. Pandemic responses are then prototypes for ongoing systemic change.
8. We need to rethink and reprioritize stabilizing and meeting survival and security needs (food, housing, physical health, psychological health and identity supports) as a fundamental aspect of the university’s primary academic mission.
9. Mentorship, individual counseling, healing from racial trauma and identity support emerge as critical needs, especially in students’ first two years at Western.

A Comprehensive Framework for Evaluating Student Needs and a Paradigm Shift

The pandemic, with its economic, institutional, and social disruptions, is an amplifier for inequity and injustice. Our immediate responses to the disruptions created by it must also reveal and seek to address the long term inequities and injustices that pre-exist it. 

With this in mind, we affirm the following:

1. Improving conditions for the most marginalized students at Western will improve the experience of all students through innovation.
2. We need to meet students’ most basic needs for them to thrive, and in some cases survive.
3. If the university is going to be successful in the future, it needs to be creating positive experiences for diverse students now. 
4. To improve the experiences of Western Washington University’s underrepresented students, we must first address our condition/status/culture as a predominantly white institution (PWI). 

Primary Categories of Need

We developed a needs framework from the students’ perspective that integrates the results from the five research projects targeting many of our underrepresented students. This framework emerges from hundreds of hours of conversations, surveys, and student focus groups, and is created in collaboration with the team leaders and the SJEC committee.  This framework identifies three primary categories of needs that can compound in ways that put many of our students in stressful situations not amenable to academic success. 

1. Safety and Survival
2. Educational Access
3. Institutional and Structural Biases

The full framework is included in the section below. 

Students have made it very clear that it is impossible for anyone to thrive academically unless their Safety and Survival needs are met first. Within the narratives and the data we see a picture emerging where our underrepresented students depend on and need comprehensive institutional support. Throughout the recent history of higher education, we have focused primarily on the academic mission, with housing, food, safety, security, mental health, physical health and healing support as supplementary to the academic mission. As the university faces the next phase of higher education in the post-pandemic world where climate change, economic inequities, and racism continue to amplify existing challenges for minoritized students, we suggest it is critical that it consider ways it can address the first needs category of Safety and Survival to be relevant to diverse students.

Students in this study have clearly stated that they see the university's role during this time as an institution that can create security and meet needs in the categories above, while they are pursuing their degrees, and especially for students who do not have family or other support systems. If we look at access, resources, and power through an intersectional lens, many of our high performing students have these needs met independently from the university or in spite of the demands of a traditional university education. The advantages of having one’s food, housing and financial security, as well as mental, physical and identity health and support needs met before facing the transformational academic experience are obvious. For marginalized and underrepresented student groups, safety and security needs must be considered as a fundamental component of  the academic mission for the four-year university.

Educational Access and Institutional and Structural barriers are intimately related and can amplify each other such that students may see the distribution of resources in these areas not as just a matter of logistics. BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) students express regularly and consistently the experience of attending an Primarily White Institution (PWI) is othering, ostracizing, and dismissive. This can make communication about existing, planning, and delivery of resources by the university ineffective.  For example, the university may offer counselling support, but knowledge of this service is not well known across populations who need access, or the counselling services provided are inadequate (too few sessions, not enough Black counselors, lack of ability to make same day appointments, and counselors that can serve other marginalized identities). Therefore, the university is failing to provide comprehensive support, despite the fact that some resources do currently exist. Issues with academic technology are similar, and if a student is challenged in both areas simultaneously as many are, the impacts are amplified. 

We recognize that this framework presents a dramatic departure from the status quo at public universities in the way we have provided education and training experiences, and a departure from the idea that by nature, we are inclusive as a liberal institution of education. However, we argue that this perspective provides new opportunities for the role of the public university as we move into a future where we anticipate dramatic changes to higher education, and an opportunity to address our culture as a PWI.

A Comprehensive Framework for Students Needs

The comprehensive below framework was developed in summer 2020, and expands on the three primary categories described above. Despite the unprecedented times in which this framework was drafted from our data, it is clear that these needs have been, and will continue to be important to the survival and success of our most vulnerable students.

Safety and Survival

• Food security
• Housing security
• Financial security
• Mental health support
• Physical health support
• Healing racial trauma
• Identity safety and healing support for all identity-based trauma 

Educational Access

• Internet access for learners
• Equipment for internet-based learning
• Physical spaces for learning
• Knowledge of existing resources and support from the university
• Internet quality of faculty and instructors
• Culturally sensitive curriculum and pedagogy

Institutional Barriers and Structural Biases

• Communication channels
  • Culturally competent faculty 
  • Culturally competent administrators
• Access to mentorship from people at the university who are actively promoting
• their well-being (currently primarily BIPOC faculty and staff)
• Identity Support
  • Support services that acknowledge racial, cultural, gender/sexuality, disability, socioeconomic, immigration status, veteran status
  • Culturally aware academic identity development
• Sponsorship from people at the university to open doors to opportunity and commit resources to student advancement
• Peer community and support
• Family support

We suggest that this framework should be the lens by which we begin to understand the data, stories, and testimonials shared below in each of the individual projects. There is a need for coalition building and resource mapping across the university, followed by strategic planning and resource deployment by the institution. The university must immediately generate specific and achievable programmatic plans so it can deploy resources in service to the needs identified in the first part of the study. We believe it is possible to envision transformational innovation within the institution that will support all students in their educational pursuits. Ultimately this type of institutional transformation will position WWU as a leader in educational excellence.

Executive Summary of the Primary Research Projects

Over this past summer the Social Justice & Equity Committee (SJEC) at Western, with the support of the Provost’s Office, commissioned four research projects lead by five faculty and staff members--Brett Coleman (Human Services), Nini Hayes (Environmental Studies) & Elaine Mehary (Educational and Social Justice Minor), Brandon Joseph (Counseling, Health, and Wellness), and G I McGrew (Chemistry & AMSEC)--and supported by 23 student research assistants from departments across the university. Robin Kodner (Biology) and Aric Mayer (Master’s of Business Administration and Arts Enterprise and Cultural Innovation) served as project managers, coordinators and facilitators on behalf of the SJEC with oversight and collaborative input from the SJEC main committee. This work is an effort to give voice and structure to the needs of our underrepresented students in the unprecedented institutional disruption brought on by the pandemic.

Dr. Nini Hayes (Environmental Studies) and Elaine Mehary (Education and Social Justice Minor) led a project focusing on the experience of Black students at Western Washington University. They used a 52 question survey with 50 respondents, (all Black, 38 students with one or more years at Western and 12 alumni) examining the needs of Black, African, and/or African American students at WWU during the pandemic. Black students and alumni describe a compounding set of challenges at the university. First, is the academic work itself. The logic of the university assumes this work to be equally challenging and attainable. Black students report an additional compounding set of challenges inside and outside the classroom that include: the additional work of navigating a Primarily White Institution (PWI), the daily work of responding to the historically white supremacist culture and systemic and institutionalized racism of Bellingham and Whatcom County, the individual and group work to deal with current racial trauma such as the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, the individual and group work to recover from generational racial trauma, and the intellectual and emotional labor of trying to reform the university. Black students experience one of the lowest four-year graduation rates at Western, 45% lower than white students. These challenges are amplified by the pandemic. On a standard net promoter score question, participants gave Western a score of -85. Immediate critical needs include educational access technology support, expanded mental health and identity group support for Black students with a focus on addressing racial trauma, anti-Blackness awareness and anti-Racism training for faculty, staff and administration, a shift in resource allocation away from campus policing and towards resourcing Black wellness initiatives, and a university-wide, integrated Black student retention and success initiative.

Brandon Joseph, Men’s Resiliency Specialist (Counseling, Health, and Wellness), utilized an indigenous methodology to host three talking circles with students from underrepresented communities that produced hundreds of pages of transcribed narratives. A component of indigenous methodology is to recognize the researchers as both outsiders (researchers) and insiders (participants) of the talking circles because of their shared identities with the participants, which may create an inherent understanding of certain experiences. A thematic analysis reveals four primary themes: 1) Racism in Bellingham and on campus is pervasive, and causes anxiety and stress to students and they feel the university administration is unresponsive or slow to respond to their concerns for safety, 2) Lines of communication from the university were not working to communicate important information to students and much of students’ knowledge and support came from their community, 3) The university has not been willing to provide broad transformative institutional support for Black students, faculty or staff, 4) There is a need for academic related support that includes a need for faculty cultural competency training for white faculty and support for BIPOC faculty and staff, especially Black faculty and staff who provide support and mentorship for BIPOC student community.

Dr. G I McGrew (Chemistry and AMSEC) led a team that completed three distinct projects focusing on different target populations: Undocumented students, Disabled and chronically-ill students, and LGBTQIA2S+ students.

Undocumented students: a 37 question survey was distributed with 29 undocumented student respondents. Undocumented students report a compounding set of additional challenges that they face in pursuing an education at Western. These include: reduced financial stability and income opportunities, increased workload and academic pressures in the move to remote teaching, increased health risks as most do not have access to health insurance, increased anxiety about deportation and work eligibility, perceive lack of support from the university, and a need for increased funding and support for existing programs that support undocumented students. On the standard Net Promoter Score question, respondents gave Western a score of 0. The recommendations are: create an emergency Undocumented student fund for the duration of the pandemic, create a formalized DACA support fund to waive or offset DACA application fees, create an emergency healthcare fund for the pandemic that will cover Undocumented students, create faculty-wide inclusion training and resources to decrease stigma and increase awareness of Undocumented students, increase available digital and IT resources to students, increase funding for Undocumented-specific programs, creation of a university website for undocumented students with a comprehensive list of resources available for Undocumented students at WWU, and the creation of a center on campus focusing on support and resource provisioning for Undocumented students, along with the hiring of a full-time director with commensurate experience working with the Undocumented community, and the hiring of an Undocumented student in an Undocumented Student Ambassador position. These need to be long-term commitments from the university.

Disabled and chronically-ill students: 130 respondents identified as chronically ill or managing a chronic health condition and 143 identified as Disabled. The pandemic is first a health risk, a threat experienced acutely throughout these communities. Stress and social isolation are amplifying pre-existing health conditions as well as triggering new conditions. The ensuing disruptions in university and broader social and public health operations are creating additional stresses. Disabled and chronically-ill students are experiencing multiple acute health, safety and survival crises. This is amplified by the perception that they are unwelcome, unsupported, and unsafe. There is a gap in student needs for accommodation vs successful access to accommodations within individual classrooms, with barriers to accommodations at the personal/attitudinal, technical, faculty/staff, department, and university administration levels. The transition from in-person to online learning can change individual accommodations and needs more support. Disabled and chronically-ill students need a staffed office and a VP-level position specifically in support of them, with the creation of a safe space and access to mediation between the students and the university. On a standard Net Promoter Score question, respondents indicate decreasing levels of willingness to recommend Western to others as their seniority with the university increases, with freshmen giving the university an optimistic score of 75 and seniors giving a score of – 30.

LGBTQIA2S+: 138 respondents self-identified as part of the LGBTQIA2S+/queer umbrella. The move to online or remote teaching heavily disrupted campus operations and with that, disrupted LGBTQIA2S+ student communities and support systems. More than one third of respondents do not believe that they have sufficient access to LGBTQIA2S+ friendly mental health resources and more than a quarter do not have access to LGBTQIA2S+ friendly medical resources. On a standard Net Promoter Score question, respondents give Western an overall score of -26. Higher need students who are making use of food assistance programs have a more negative view of the university, giving it an NPS score of -50. NPS scores also decreased by seniority with freshmen giving the university 25 and seniors -40. A primary and pervasive need is access to secure, diverse and on-demand counseling and mental health resources appropriate for the current generation of students. Low barrier mini-grants ($50-$500) on a rolling basis would provide grassroots support for student-led LGBTQIA2S+ initiatives. More campus-wide initiatives are needed to acknowledge, support and advocate for Indigenous identity, presence and positionality on Western’s occupied land. Increased mentorship is needed.

Dr. Brett Coleman (Human Services) and a team of five student research assistants led a total of 29 participants to share their perspectives on the needs of underrepresented students at Western. The study produced categories for interrogating the experiences of underrepresented students with qualitative narrative findings for each. Three analytic themes emerged. 1) Lack of response among faculty, staff, and organizations. Three categories of behaviors were identified; professors’ behavior, organizations’ behavior and the university’s behavior and institutional culture. It is recommended that the university provide expansive training for faculty, staff, and administration that emphasizes students’ humanity and the social and historical root causes that create marginalization. 2) Whiteness and anti-Blackness: Participants described manifestations of anti-Blackness, the dominance of whiteness, and the importance of having faculty/staff of color. As the university seeks to address anti-Blackness, it needs to incorporate a critical focus on normative whiteness, with the recognition that at a PWI, this will be an uncomfortable focus for whites, but that discomfort pales in comparison to the experiences of BIPOC community members. 3) Support or the lack thereof: Supportive spaces providing both psychological and material support are essential for underrepresented students, including virtual, online, spaces. Students and student networks share knowledge about the university with each other, and those informal and formal networks are perceived to be more effective than university support. Generational knowledge of how to navigate the university’s predominantly white culture and anti-Blackness is passed along through these networks. Supportive faculty and staff are essential to student success. There is also a perception that Western values money over students. Increased resourcing for spaces and mentors that BIPOC students rely on is essential. These spaces tend to be incubators of innovation born out of struggle, and the knowledge and skills developed in such spaces can be useful for equity and inclusion initiatives that are transformative of individuals and institutions alike. 

Limitations

This study provides insights into a number of marginalized communities of students on our campus, many of whom are already engaged in activism to improve the experiences of non-majority students.  It is not entirely comprehensive and thus does not address all marginalized or vulnerable identities.  Some of the sub-projects reached hundreds of students, while others focused on smaller communities.  This study can serve as a baseline for key issues and data on student needs, and a template for how to do this work as a collaborative effort between students, faculty and staff.

Expanded Primary Project Summaries

Team Leads: Nini Hayes and Elaine Mehary

Student team: Beth Girma, Ella Harris, Liz Kelly, Gabby Serrano, Selome Zerai 

Methodology

Throughout the summer 2020 quarter at Western Washington University (WWU), our subgroup (on faculty, one staff, and five students), working with Social Justice and Equity Committee (SJEC), created a survey designed to assess the needs of Black, African, and/or African American students at WWU during the pandemic. This was accomplished by gathering data while discussing issues surrounding student support at WWU, impacts from the COVID-19 Pandemic, and health resources. The purpose of the survey is to inform the distribution of CARES Act funds and student resources more accessible for Black, African, and/or African American students at WWU students in the upcoming academic year and years to come.

Our research team was made up of two co-leads who both identify as Black womxn, one staff and one faculty. Four of the five students also identify as Black womxn and one as Latinx. Thus, we approached this research leveraging our ingroup status to solicit participants who also identified as Black. For the student researchers, it is possible that the isolating and racist experiences they themselves have experienced at Western informed their desire to create a survey that might inform a social justice and emancipatory agenda for our campus administrators.

This team collaboratively designed a survey that was disseminated by team members through personal networks, shared on social media, and within student groups and organizations students are affiliated with. The survey was created using Qualtrics, an online software that aids quantitative representation of data and analysis. It consisted of a total of 52 questions that took participants an estimated twenty to thirty minutes to complete. All data were collected anonymously and analyzed aggregately. Participants had the option of filling out a joint survey and receiving $50 compensation in the polarizing form of an Amazon gift card. 

Our rationale for undertaking the survey was the following:

• Determining needs and support for Black students to thrive on campus
• Determining access to support and resources for Black students
• Determining what barriers impede support and resources to Black students
• Documenting and bearing witness to the ongoing problem of university administrators inability to support Black students at Western

Our survey was informed by these three research questions:

• How were Black students affected by COVID-19 and university changes to operation?
• Were Black students able to access information and support during COVID-19 and university changes to operation?
• What are the present needs of Black students at Western?

The survey asked questions based on the following topics:

• Student demographics
• On/off campus resources
• CARES Act feedback
• Campus communication about COVID-19 related resources, information and support
• Open-ended questions about what Western can do better
• Survey for Science Positions for Change grant

Insights

Supporting Black, African, and/or African American students in higher education, both inside and outside the classroom, is critical to their success.  Black students are disproportionately affected by the racial disparities in the healthcare system as well as the health crises caused by the pandemic. Supporting the physical and mental health of Black students is not catering to a luxury: for some, it is life or death. 

Our results reinforce our existing understanding of the experiences of Black students, their families and communities, and are exacerbated by the ongoing pandemic of racism and white supremacy that is systemic and institutionalized. Black students not only have to worry about their school work and navigating a PWI but also have to worry about their physical safety, their mental sanity and their emotional capacity. 

For generations, Black students on this campus have organized to bring attention to the ways in which the university fails to support them. Much lip service has been paid and piecemeal approaches taken, but there lacks intentional and sustained efforts to support and uplift the Black community at Western. It should be noted that the Whatcom County Public Health Advisory Board recently voted unanimously to send a resolution declaring racism a public health crisis to the Whatcom County Health Board. This disrupts the false narrative that Bellingham, Whatcom County and Western Washington University are liberal bastions, safe and healthy for all people. White supremacy and institutionalized and systemic racism in Bellingham and at Western negatively affects the lives of Black students as evidenced by their continued efforts for racial justice on campus and their low retention and graduation rate from Western. 

Student respondents to our survey suggest that this background culture is magnified during the Covid-19 pandemic and economic and environmental crises.  

A standard Net Promoter Score (NPS) question was asked: “On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend WWU to a friend or family member?” NPS scores exist on a continuum from -100% to 100%. Participants in this study gave Western a score of -85%. 

• An overwhelming majority of our respondents fall into the Detractor category (score 0-6), and reflected that 87% of respondents (41 out of 47 total) are dissatisfied students and alumni who would not recommend attending WWU to friends and family members, and could impact future attendance via negative word-of-mouth.
• 11% (5 respondents) are Passive respondents (score 7-8), satisfied but unenthusiastic students and alumni who would not positively or negatively recommend Western to friends and families. 
• Only 2% (1 respondent) counted as a Promoter (score 9-10)

Out of our survey, a number of critical areas of support (or lack of support) were made clear and listed below.

• Lower tuition
  • Students are not getting the same quality of education and are not afforded the same access to services and resources than if they were attending in person
• More CARES Act or state monies for students to apply for.
  • Streamline the process for how students can access money 
  • Better communication for how students can access money
  • Offer opportunities for emergency funding all year round
• Overall better communication needed from the university to students
• Ensuring students have the necessary technology to be successful with distance learning. 
  • Make possible the ability to borrow  a computer for an entire quarter 
  • Make free and accessible printing possible
  • Provide internet service, subsidize internet costs
  • Making the library open for computer use and printing 
  • The write-in responses to many of our survey questions portray consistent themes of frustration and distrust/lack of faith in the university systems, priorities, and decision-makers.

Limitations

Time

There was a small window, summer 2020, in which to recruit students, create and deploy the survey, then analyze the data. If we had had more time and during the academic year to work on this project, we would have hoped to be able to survey a larger number of Black students. 

Student schedules

Because we were asking students post spring quarter about participating on the survey team, many of them already had other significant commitments such as full time employment but were highly interested in participating and thus fit this project into their already busy schedules. 

Respondents

Our original total number of research participants was 58. However, one respondent self-identified as part of a population outside of our targeted demographic of Black students; this respondent answered “no” to the first survey question regarding self-identification as “Black, African, African American, and/or part of the African Diaspora.” We therefore opted to exclude this participant’s responses as outliers due to sampling error, as they were inadvertently drawn from a different population than the rest of the sample, and do not reflect our target research population. This exclusion did not affect whether this respondent received compensation for potentially completing the paid follow-up portion of the survey. We also opted to exclude an additional 7 participants and their responses, as they were discovered to have participated under false pretenses. Therefore, our adjusted total of completed, viable surveys is 50.

Our survey lacked any respondents who identified as first year students. This could be because our team was made up of  upper class students or the networks where we sent the survey link did not have first year students present this summer. 

Next Steps

Technology:

With the transition to online courses, we aren’t addressing the inequitable access to internet and technology and how expensive devices and internet service are. Students are having trouble accessing and completing their assignments because they cannot afford the necessary software or devices, and professors are not being flexible. Additionally, when the weather starts to fluctuate as it already has begun, there are so many chances of wifi outages, temporary or long term. Professors are not flexible enough to understand and be forgiving when assignments are late due to technical difficulties, although a lot of it is out of the students' control. It is imperative that a set of standards is given to faculty for students that are having technical difficulties, including a grace period for late work, and a halt on requiring additional software in which the costs are not included in tuition and class fees.

 

Mental Wellbeing:

A common thread amongst a majority of the survey respondents was the urgent need to get resources for mental health issues, including but not limited to the recruitment and retention of Black counselors. This is something that came across numerous respondents, as many of these students reported that they undergo immense mental health challenges but did not believe that the counseling center was able to support them as they are not trained in addressing racial trauma. 

Supporting Black Students:

Western administration needs to do a better job supporting Black students (staff and faculty). Black students are exasperated from reiterating their needs again and again while university officials nod their heads, pay lip service, then take actions that are not what Black students have previously identified. A good example is that earlier in the summer, Black student leaders on campus drafted a list of demands. Some of those demands were; Mandate anti-Racism and anti-Blackness training for staff, and create an Anti-Discimination policy that can hold faculty and staff accountable; to hire and retain Black counselors, defund campus police, shred the contract with Aramark, and address campus climate. 

In mid-September, the university drafted FY21 operating budget recommendations and in it they committed $225k for advancing diversity, equity and inclusion. Three things are identified, 1) an African-American Student Retention Counselor, 2) Anti-Racism and Anti-Black Racism Training for Faculty and Staff, and Support and Wellness for BIPOC employees, and 3) Support for Curriculum Development and Delivery in Ethnic Studies. While these efforts address some of the demands, some of these efforts can fall flat without a commitment to dismantling structural patterns and root causes of discrimination. For example, what will be done to recruit and financially support Black students such that they would be in a position to be retained by the university? Statistically, there is not much success with top down mandated anti-racism training so what is also being done to recruit, hire and retain faculty and staff who center justice and equity in all they do? And lastly, it is very problematic to create curricula for an Ethnic Studies program that does not have committed faculty lines nor have hired those faculty yet. It should be those faculty that create the curriculum and not the other way around. It would be more ethical and intentional to hire the BIPOC faculty and allow them the expertise and agency to develop curriculum for their work here at Western, in this regard, it is important to not put the cart before the horse. 

Team Lead: Brandon Joseph

Student team: Kameron Reitan, Eddie Toledo, Jess Alvaro and 2 other students

Methodology

This team utilized qualitative research techniques rooted in indigenous methodologies to host talking circles with students from “underrepresented” communities. The research team consisted of the team lead and five student research assistants from varying intersecting communities, including Black, Latinx, Alaska Native/American Indian, LGBTQ+, undocumented families and more. Our talking circles explored student perspectives on how the institution handled the last few months and ways we can move forward to be sure our communities are better served by WWU. Our research was guided by the following research questions:

1. How have you been impacted by the global pandemic and the most recent civil unrest?
2. How has the institution supported or not supported your experience as a student during these times?
3. What can the institution do moving forward to further support your experience as a student in 2020-2021?

A series of three talking circles were hosted by the team lead, with the research assistants being participants. Each research assistant was then asked to become the researcher and host their own talking circle with their community. Each research assistant was empowered to develop and define their own community and determine who they wanted to participate in their conversations. A component of indigenous methodology is to recognize the researchers as both outsiders (researchers) and insiders (participants) of the talking circles because of their shared identities with the participants, which may create an inherent understanding of certain experiences. Furthermore, indigenous methodologies validate the lived experiences of people and their stories as authentic data. Thus, our goal was to illuminate the perspectives and stories of our communities and conduct decolonial research in an ethical, respectful, and culturally appropriate manner that centers our stories and complements the research of the other teams.

In total, we heard from 18 student participants. Each talking circle was recorded and the audio was transcribed using Otter.ai software. The team lead reviewed these transcriptions for accuracy. Thematic analysis was used to find emerging patterns from student stories.

Insights

Many of the insights that emerged from this team were consistent with the findings of Nini Hayes and Elaine Mehary’s team and Brett Coleman’s team.  Students are frustrated, exhausted, and distrustful of the institution that, in their experience, has repeatedly failed them. Students see academic and student services rooted in the culture of a PWI.  Student expectation of disappointment is passed from cohort to cohort, such that freshmen are learning of institutionalized neglect shortly after they arrive at WWU.  Specific testimonials are recorded in hundreds of pages of transcripts from talking circles and will yield more data and provide great insights as they are analyzed.  From the initial survey of these conversations, we identified 4 areas in which students are challenged and ways in which they have built communities to support their own needs. These themes are:

1. Racism in Bellingham and on campus is pervasive, and causes anxiety and stress to students, and they feel the university administration is unresponsive or slow to respond to their concerns for safety.
2. Lines of communication from the university were not working to communicate important information to students, and much of their knowledge and support came from their community.
3. The university has not been willing to provide broad transformative institutional support for Black students, faculty, or staff. 
4. Academic related support that includes a need for faculty cultural competency training for white faculty and support for BIPOC faculty and staff, especially Black faculty and staff who provide support and mentorship for BIPOC student community. 

1) Racism in Bellingham and on campus is pervasive, and causes anxiety and stress to students, and they feel the university administration is unresponsive or slow to respond to their concerns for safety.  The background level of stress make any additional stress that results from incidents at Western even more challenging for students.  For example, one students shared this experience of the job off campus:

“Mentally, I already have anxiety. So anxiety is like, has gone through the roof. Police officers like come into my job and I literally duck behind the counter. And I call my manager over to cover the counter while I hide until they leave.”

 This is likely because the perceived threat to students does not register as real and immediate danger for the university bureaucracy,  For example, one student shared this thought, in response to questions about how current events, specifically following the murder of George Floyd, were affecting student experiences on campus:

“...one of you guys mentioned the whole white supremacist thing in Bellingham. I just want to call out Western because I feel like as Black students, we have been reaching out to the university about that for like two weeks, two whole weeks. And they gave us no response or they kept giving us, ‘Oh, you have to go here. You have to talk to that person. Talk to that person’. And they just did not help us at all. So the lack of response for stuff like that is like...mind blowing.”

Another student went further to clarify that:

“I think for this specific situation, this particular group of white males, they were yelling the N word at people in their trucks outside of the building.  I disagree with the whole it's not a Black and white issue because they are out here. Yelling racial slurs at people like, come on, bro. All throughout downtown, up here [on campus], throughout campus like they did that the whole day. And we got no response from the University at all. Until...No Actually I can’t even say at all, it was maybe like a week or week and a half later that there was a notification sent out about white supremacist activity, but by then the damage had already been done. See what I mean?”

Students see the university response as cursory and reactionary in order to placate students:

“When we talk about danger and safety of students, I don't see many racial things talked about whatsoever, unless students themselves are upset about it, right? I think they [the administration] do it to satisfy students' complaints, but they’re not very proactive about those kinds of things.”

2) Lines of communication from the university were not working to communicate important information to students, and much of their knowledge and support came from their community. This is true for safety concerns, academic program information, as well as information on CARES funding.

In response to threats of racialized violence in our community, a student shared the deep network Black students have created within the Western community to support  each other:

“So basically we have a Black at WWU group chat. And it basically has, I don’t want to say every Black person but the majority of Black people that go to Western in it. And we basically had to be like, you guys don't go anywhere by yourselves. If you need a ride, like hit somebody up. Like we basically have to get around Bellingham ourselves and navigate through that amongst each other versus getting help from, I guess, leadership or whatever you call them. I wouldn't call them leaders.”

Several students shared that they did not learn about the CARES Act from the institution. Instead, they learned about the grant from their peer community:

“There is the Black at WWU chat, right. And so I think of that when we talk about COVID resources, and like navigating the system. That chat has been like 100 times more helpful than anything the school has come up with, because it's just like a group of students offering support, and then telling each other about resources. Like, I found out about the CARES Act Grant through the Black WWU chat and not even through the school.”

Students  consistently  emphasize their intentionally built community was essential for survival, and was based on principles of sharing resources with each other and those more needy than themselves:

“You can see small communities of color finding resources, especially with community aid, especially in Bellingham. There's one for WWU and one for Bellingham. So, yes, there's these pots of money, but even now we're continuously helping our community, you know. And I think that when we do drives like this, when we do community aids, there's impact on queer and trans folks of color.”

3) The university has not been willing to provide broad transformative institutional support for Black students, faculty or staff. Students see the financial priorities of the university and it is clear to them that they are not one of those priorities. 

Though institutional transformation can be slow, students, and others, see the long history of sustaining the status quo, and the small steps towards changes as being inadequate to address the longstanding culture of othering BIPOC students in a PWI.  One student simply stated that, 

“This Western Washington University was not built for people of color.”

A student captured how they do see this as institutionalized, through inaction by administration to respond to the experiences of BIPOC students:

“...a lot of the admin in their positions have been there for a while. And for a long time, You can like, you could probably trace back all the complaints about all the people for like years. And it's not like they've learned anything. And it's just to the point where there's no use in having more committees or trainings or anything. They just need to leave.”

Further, student engagement  in the bureaucracy has been ineffective and exhausting for students:

“something I found for a lot of people, especially students, right, students of color, is that they committee you out. I felt like they keep putting you in more and more useless tasks until you're completely burnt out and devastated. And I've sat on a bunch of committees. I didn’t even know we had this many committees. I sat on like three committees and we didn’t do shit. We had good ideas, but we have no power. So they're like, Oh, yeah, that would be nice. So they still don't implement our ideas. I don't get paid and I'm exhausted, emotionally, physically and mentally.”

Institutionalized anti-Blackness is not just found even when the institution does provide some support, like building the Multicultural Center (MCC).  Though the space was built, the institution failed to anticipate the messaging and inadequacy of opening the center without a director.  

“Like, opening up the Multicultural Center with no director. It's like, wait, what you just you just sat there, all of you all the admin up there and students of color literally just told you, hey, we don't feel supported. So your response is to open up a building, thinking that just the structure is going to support them but not putting any resources in place to provide students support.”

Students also understand the role that these centers of community, and the support  for those, will be critical for building community post-COVID:

“I think if we do go back to in person classes, I think that they need to support their folks of color twice as hard. Because, losing community and trying to build up back on the internet is so completely different. And then trying to bring the community back on campus, it's going to be harder too. Because the ESC is so big. Like it's also the Multicultural Center and that includes so many other things. And that's only as big as it can be or like it's really small compared to other spaces. So I think that, I don’t know, supporting them, whether that's getting money or giving space, getting funding, like how can the university support folks of color.”

This is also true when BIPOC staff are put in positions of leadership within a PWI.  

“We had a Black woman running our counseling center. I didn't see mental health for Black students increase or change dramatically whatsoever, right. And I've seen that in several positions. We had a Black Dean of Students, right. And like, so it's like we have these people in, these are pretty high roles, and they're not low level roles, but we didn't see dramatic change, at least not the change that we were looking to see. How do we change a whole system while having it maintained?”

And it extends to the burdens on Western’s BIPOC faculty and staff, especially Black faculty and staff. For example students note the importance of having support from trusted people who can share their experience.  White faculty and staff can be supportive and provide teaching, mentoring, counselling, and advising to BIPOC students, but will never understand these students’ lived experiences.

“And I was thinking about, like, all the times that I've seen counselors in the ESC come and go. And like, people respond more to people, counselors of color that are engaging versus non engaging and people don't really engage with counselors that are white. So I'm just thinking about those in need of counseling that are stuck, you know, at home and counselors of color that are kind of overwhelmed with a lot of, more people needing help.”

“They [BIPOC faculty and staff] want to have time to check in with their favorite students or whatever. Like a lot of students of color might come in for them. So it's like, that's not even required in their job description, it's just like something they voluntarily need to do.”

This  also impacts students in the way initiatives are funded and through experiences they  have had with the Foundation.  Students see hypocrisy in that interface.

“Like yes, you can have Black and indigenous and other people of color in these positions, but it's not going to change the whole system because, like the donors… I worked as a student ambassador, so I worked with the donors. And it was a struggle getting my own pronouns on my name tag, let alone having pronouns on every single name tag. That still hasn't happened yet. Even though it seems very basic, I was told that the donors weren't ready for that.

4) Academic related support that includes a need for faculty cultural competency training for white faculty and support for BIPOC faculty and staff, especially Black faculty and staff who provide support and mentorship for the BIPOC student community.  This is funded as a pilot program in 2020-2021, but should be prioritized for upcoming Biennium.

There are many examples in which students feel that the classroom climate ranges from othering to hostile.  An example of this is was shared by a student:

“The professor was speaking about this [YikYac event in 2015] in a social psychology class full of white kids and like three POCs. The professor, the white Professor looked at me and was like, have you heard about it? And I was like…This happened before I came, like, and then there was, I’m pretty sure he looked at the other POCs in the class and it was just very interesting to see. And he was asking me for commentary on it and I was like, this feels targeted.”

Some students also talked about class flexibility could benefit students. Student stressors were lowered by professors and instructors who were more flexible with due dates and course requirements. However, they noted that their classroom experiences are not just based on course logistics and noted a few ways they were aware of the way whiteness and white culture is perpetuated in curriculum and pedagogy. These student comments address this issue from multiple perspectives:

“[in my Environmental Science 101 class] they never acknowledge indigenous knowledge and indigenous land, right? If we give like our land back, which we are on, that’s stolen…Do you know how better our environment would be if we just gave back to these people because it’s their land. They know how like it needs to breathe, it needs to eat. It needs to function. And the fact that this class never gave it the recognition that it deserved... I think that's crazy.”

“I'm not even going to talk about textbooks, but when Teachers use examples from articles and stuff. I really appreciate that some of my professors ...use relevant information. But some examples are relevant, but white. So it's hard because we don't get to see communities of color, that are owning businesses and having businesses and succeeding in the same ways that like, white businesses are succeeding.”

“Like, hey, yes, this academia is built upon like white supremacy. It is built for white people. But we have to use this knowledge by a white man because everything else is built upon it. By acknowledging that like the foundation is racist. We can try to change it as we go up, you know?”

It is clear that although anti-racism training will begin to address these curriculum issues, training is not enough to change the culture within these disciplines and in our curriculum.  It is critical that Western hire more people at all levels, especially people who will be creating curriculum and in the classroom with students. Students also can tie colonialist and white supremacists ideas taught in the classroom to their self consciousness of taking CARES funding and their own ideas of supporting community. 

“the tragedy of the commons is rooted in whites, and like the ideals of a white supremacist. So funny because it also leans on the fact that humans are inherently greedy, and that we're like, like these ugly beings. And it's just kind of like, why would you paint humanity like that? Because then you're just setting us up for failure. Especially with tying it back to how students who use the CARES act grant or like to work to be able to continue working during the pandemic, would continually give money to community aid whenever it would pop up, like of those requests. That's an entirely selfless act. Because it's all anonymous, like, I don't know, I think the fact that that tragedy of the commons has just like warped our perception of what humans are for people in general.”

Limitations

Technology

In addition to the limitations presented above such as time and scheduling, our research team was limited by technology. Talking circles are traditionally designed for in-person conversations and relationship building. Due to the global pandemic, we were forced to use Zoom to host our talking circles. While there are certainly benefits to hosting an online conversation, there are also limitations to hosting conversations on Zoom versus in person.

Time

This team generated substantial transcripts that with more attention will lead to a more comprehensive thematic analysis.  Data like this does not lend itself to creating lists of needs.  The methodology used in this study is an indigenous methodology that builds stories and conversations from communities, and thus leads to culturally complex information and the themes are layered.  These methods have the potential to be transformative.

 

Team Lead: G I. McGrew

Student team: Octavio Alonso Cruz, Katherine Yuko Fry, Erin Howard, Ranulfo Molina, Christina Mong, L.C. Osadchuk, L. Schmitz, Jazmine Z. Y.
 

Methodology

Three Surveys were created for and distributed to three target populations: 

1. Undocumented students, 
2. Disabled and chronically ill students
3. LGBTQIA2S+ students.

Insights

1. Summary of Undocumented Students research

The primary goals for our sub-group’s study of students within the Undocumented student demographic are:

 

• Determine challenges Undocumented students face at WWU, both before and after the onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• Review financial, academic, and personal stressors that have changed with the onset of COVID-19 for Undocumented students.
• Determine critical areas to request funding for immediate distribution of traditional and non-traditional funds for AY 20-21 to support WWU’s Undocumented students.  

Using an online survey distributed primarily via email, 29 Undocumented students responded with their experiences.  A summary of our findings is below:

 

1. Lack of financial stability and available income: work opportunities and financial aid packages at WWU do not meet Undocumented student needs.

 

2. Increased workload and academic pressures: Undocumented students faced increased workload when shifting to online formats during the pandemic.  Some have needed to put studies on hold, or drop out from WWU.

 

3. Health and safety risks, including deportation: Undocumented students are experiencing unique stresses that do not affect the documented student body, including increased anxiety about deportation, work eligibility, and health risks due to lack of available insurance options.

 

4. Lack of university support and negative experiences: Undocumented students did not feel adequately addressed or acknowledged by WWU either prior to COVID-19, or currently; many voiced negative experiences at WWU.
    
5. Existing WWU resources can better support Undocumented students, if funded properly: We identified resources at WWU most utilized by Undocumented students.  Student-led support programs and clubs, as well as a lending library to reduce costs, are in need of additional funding support.

 

We conclude that Undocumented students need specific emergency funds for financial, health, and academic expenses, as well as increased support on campus through additional funding of existing programs. Additionally, we recommend creation of an Office for Undocumented Student Affairs headed by a newly-hired Undocumented Affairs Director, a streamlined and up-to-date website that succinctly summarizes current WWU resources, and an Undocumented Student Ambassador position. 

 

The full report can be accessed here: [link to archived pdf]

2) Summary of Disabled and Chronically Ill Students Research

The primary goals for our sub-group’s study of students within the Disabled and chronic health conditions demographic are:

• Assess health, safety, and survival concerns of Disabled students and students with chronic health conditions: Students who do not have their basic human needs met cannot thrive or be successful as students.
• Better understand academic and accommodation needs of Disabled and chronically ill students, both generally, and with regards to the pandemic.
• Assess impacts from the COVID-19 Pandemic. 
• Determine critical areas to request funding in the form of immediate distribution of funding and CARES act funds in the coming academic year to support Disabled students and students with chronic health conditions.  

Using an online survey distributed primarily via email, clubs, and private social networks, more than 200 students responded with their experiences.  A summary of our findings and recommendations is below:

1. Students are experiencing acute health, safety, and survival crisis: lack of adequate health resources and access including mental health, personal safety, financial and course resource hardships, and food insecurity.  On top of this, many students are experiencing acute stresses and a majority of students surveyed are experiencing worsening of health conditions and disabilities.  Broad distribution of aid is needed
2. Disabled and chronically ill students are feeling unwelcome, unsupported, and unsafe.  They are in need of mentorship, inclusion, and representation.  A large majority of students, in particular those who are not feeling welcome or not having their accommodations needs met, report unenthusiastic or negative opinions of Western Washington University.
3. The current pandemic has impacted academic plans, causing students to change planned coursework or plans of study; it has negatively impacted motivation to complete studies at WWU.  On top of this, students’ choices for plans of study are also impacted by their Disability or chronic illness. 
4. There is a gap in student needs for accommodation vs. actual student access to accommodations.  Students report facing barriers to accommodations at the personal/attitudinal, technical, faculty/staff, department, and university administrative levels.  Additional mandatory faculty training and compensated professional development opportunities are needed
5. WWU should begin the process of creating a staffed office and VP-level position specifically in support of Disabled and chronically ill students.  They need support, representation, and powerful advocacy at WWU; this must go above and beyond the purview of the Disability Access Center, student clubs, and documented course accommodations.

 

The full report can be accessed here: [link to archived pdf]

 

3) Summary of LGBTQIA2S+ Students Research

The primary goals for our sub-group’s study of students within the LGBTQIA2S+ queer and questioning demographic, sometimes known as GSM (gender and sexual minorities) are:

• Assess health, safety, and survival concerns of LGBTQIA2S+ students: Students who do not have their basic human needs met cannot thrive or be successful as students.
• Better understand academic and support needs of LGBTQIA2S+ students, both generally, and also with regards to changes as a result of the pandemic.
• Assess impacts from the COVID-19 Pandemic. 
• Determine critical areas to request funding in the form of immediate distribution of CARES act funds in the coming academic year to support WWU’s queer students.  

Using an online survey distributed primarily via email, clubs, and private social networks, more than 150 students responded with their experiences.  A summary of our findings and recommendations is below:

1. Students are experiencing an acute health, safety, and survival crisis which includes: lack of access to adequate health resources including mental health, financial and course resource hardships, and food insecurity.   Broad distribution of aid to students is needed.  Transgender students in particular are in need of better health plan support.  WWU needs to contract with an on-demand virtual counseling service that can serve diverse student populations in modes that students are likely to engage in.  
2. Students are lacking in the resources, technology, and mentorship that they need to succeed as students. Worried that they cannot afford the equipment to succeed, financial barriers, alongside academics, mental health services, and disability accommodations were the most self-reported barriers to student success.  WWU needs a formalized inclusive peer mentorship system.  Additionally, underrepresented faculty and staff who are disproportionately mentoring underrepresented students themselves should have their time and emotional labor recognized and compensated.
3. The pandemic has impacted student academic plans, causing changes in intended coursework or plans of study; it has negatively impacted motivation to complete studies at WWU.  It also impacts finances and time to graduation, with the added complication of inadequate access to mentors and advisors of shared identity.  
4. There is continuing widespread lack of understanding and inclusive practices around queer identities, particularly non-western and indigenous identities such as Two Spirit (2S), as well as nonbinary and trans experiences.  Students report facing barriers to being included, lack of respect outside of the living space, microaggressions and lack of pronoun respect, lack of restroom facilities, and white Western-centric climate.  More compensated faculty training and professional development is needed.
5. Student opinion of the university decreases significantly as seniority increases, indicating that queer students are not being effectively served or supported as they progress through the institution.  This matches similar trends observed in the Disabled and Chronically Ill populations surveyed in their report.

The full report can be accessed here: [link to archived pdf]

 

Team Lead: Brett Coleman

Student team: Anselmo Cristobal, Lilli Donohoe, Nathaniel Gaines, Anna Schrieve, Olivia Westerfield

Methodology

Participants

Participants were recruited through the research team members’ networks to participate in either an anonymous discussion board, a semi-structured interview meant to elicit participants’ testimonials about their experiences, or both. A total of 20 students participated in the anonymous discussion board. Testimonials were collected from 9 participants, 6 of whom were students, 2 were staff members, and 1 was faculty.

 

Procedures

Participants were invited to participate in one or both of two ways to share their perspectives on the needs of underrepresented students at Western: a Padlet discussion board and audio/video testimonials. We describe each below.

 

Padlet discussion board. Padlet is a platform utilized for anonymous discussion boards. Participants can respond anonymously to prompts/questions posted by administrators, as well as to other participants’ responses. Our team member Anna Schrieve created an online forum where various questions were asked about WWU’s response to systemic racism and accessibility throughout the pandemic. The questions were discussed among the research team members before posting to the discussion board. Participants could respond to as many or as few questions as they wanted. The prompts/questions that participants responded to can be found in Appendix 1. Responses were compiled into a Microsoft Word document so that they could be analyzed thematically, as described below.

 

Testimonials. Audio and video testimonials were collected from various WWU students, faculty and staff through networking and outreach done by Nate Gaines and Anselmo Cristobal. Before scheduling a time to give their testimonial, each potential participant gave informed consent and had the opportunity to ask questions and get clarification about the purpose and process of the testimonials. Members of the research team collected testimonials via Zoom video conferencing platform, using the platform’s recording function. The research team members prepared prompts to facilitate a conversation with participants that was structured enough to focus on participants experiences and knowledge, but without being too prescriptive. Testimonials ranged in length from approximately 30 minutes to over one hour. They were transcribed using Descript, a transcription and podcast creator software, then checked for accuracy and edited, if needed, by Olivia Westerfield and Lilli Donahoe, resulting in separate Word documents for each transcription. The transcriptions were also subjected to the same thematic analysis strategy as the Padlet responses.

 

Insights

Analyses resulted in three analytic themes: 

1. Lack of response among faculty, staff, and organizations; 
2. Whiteness and anti-Blackness
3. Support or the lack thereof. 

 

A description of each theme is below, including their constituent categories and representative quotes from the Padlet discussion board and the testimonials. The full report can be accessed here: [link to google document]

 

This study is not intended to be an exhaustive assessment of need based on every possible perspective. Rather, it is an exploration of the experiences of marginalized students from the perspective of those who are already engaged in improving the experience of marginalized students to some degree. Therefore, any further study or other action taken in response to this report should take care to incorporate other perspectives not represented here (such as students of color who are not actively engaged in equity and inclusion work). Similarly, the qualitative  methodology used here is not intended to produce generalizable findings that represent a broader population. Rather, it is meant to explore in-depth perspectives and processes and to produce findings that may be transferable to other samples and settings that are qualitatively similar (Fine, 2006; 2012). One value of this approach is that it can inform the development of research questions and assumptions that can be evaluated using more representative methods.

 

1. Lack of Response Among Faculty, Staff, and Organizations

This theme represents participants’ perceptions of inadequate response among professors to harmful or otherwise problematic events in class, and inadequate responses to inequity among organizations, and the university administration in general.

        

Professors’ behavior. Participants described the ways in which professors failed to respond adequately to racially insensitive or otherwise problematic events in the classroom. They perceived that professors were not adequately prepared to respond to such events, and that “I can only think of one professor that has told a student that what they were saying was harmful,” and that professors “often let students get away with saying harmful things surrounding race to myself or other BIPOC students.” In the absence of appropriate responses from professors, students often have to fill the void:

I felt like I was constantly having to do the work of correcting students that relied on their Islamophobic preconceived ideas rather than the text during the discussions. The professor seldom corrected them.

In sum, participants perceived that faculty should be better prepared and more willing to intervene when racially insensitive or similarly problematic events occur in the classroom.

        

Organizations’ behavior. Participants described the ways in which organizations (such as the AS) fail to adequately represent or support BIPOC students, including lack of coordination among organizations to the lack of representation of underrepresented students. One participant described the AS as potentially “productive when there is a diverse, and motivated panel,” but that “they have not appropriately handled certain controversies well, especially so when they’re affiliated with BIPOC voices.” Problems of representation are likely further complicated by the perceived lack of coordination among organizations:

…each office is so different in how they do things. Even just like, as a student employee for admissions and alumni, like my jobs, two different worlds. It's so different. And even just how each office is run.

The perception that “every office is like really disconnected” suggests common, university-wide standards regarding equity, inclusion, and support for underrepresented students could be more well developed and implemented.

        

University’s behavior and institutional culture. Participants described the ways that the university fails to adequately address racial and other forms of inequity, including poor communication and follow-up related to COVID-19, the perception of insincerity about racial justice and equity issues, and the perception of lack of support for faculty of color.

         Given the sudden onset of the pandemic, it is not surprising that Western’s response would be perceived by some as “not the best, in my opinion, other than just like just words and sympathizing.” More specifically, the process of applying for and securing support was difficult:

I applied for the Cares act and they took like so long and it was so confusing to be like, like, am I getting it? Like, do I even qualify? I like, it was so hard to navigate. And like, I was a kind of more like, I really did need money because like me working at Western, like, it wasn't my solid like income.

         Beyond the pandemic, there was the perception that Western does a poor job of responding to racial marginalization among its students. Participants perceived that racist incidents have been “typically brushed under the rug weeks later and never readdressed,” and that “oftentimes there are no follow-ups [to emails about racism, inequity, etc.] or change.” Email communications about such incidents were described as “insincere,” “performative,” and that such communications are made “not out of genuine care but to be able to check a box.” Generally speaking, participants expressed the feeling that Western could improve its efforts to support students of color, and that their experience as students has not lived up to expectations, that “it's not all what I thought it would be with Western being progressive.” One participant was particularly frustrated with a perceived lack of understanding among people in positions of power:

It's just so like obvious to me, the things that need to be changed. And it's frustrating that you're in this room with these people who are making the decisions and they act like they don't know what needs to be changed, and it's like the shit's sitting there right in front of you, the students literally told you what they want and why can't we make that happen. And then they come up with excuses.

         Given that racism is a preexisting condition in society generally, it is not surprising that COVID-19 has exacerbated this problem, shining a light on the need for some rethinking what it means to support students:

I definitely know that COVID is wreaking havoc. Not only just from the disease, but also just from the societal impacts, you know, people who are losing their jobs, people whose jobs aren't going to be there when they come back. And that's primarily Black Indigenous people of color….I don't know what the solution is to that, but I do think Western can do way more in terms of thinking about the families and not just the students…and maybe this comes to the university having…like an identity check and rethinking what it is.

 

2. Whiteness and Anti-Blackness

This theme represents participants’ perceptions of the problematic nature of whiteness at Western, and the perception that the university culture is anti-Black.

Manifestations of anti-Blackness. Participants described the ways that individuals and/or organizations exhibit anti-Black practices and attitudes, such as racial profiling and silencing Black voices. Anti-Blackness can manifest in ways that may not reflect “traditional,” overt racism, such as interactions in the classroom:

I was in a class where I was called out to state my opinion on how slavery shaped Black culture today and it was no coincidence I was the only Black student in class.

Beyond the classroom, participants perceive that the AS “does not prioritize Black voices,” “consistently silences Black voices,” or is outright “anti-Black.”

         Relatedly, racial profiling by campus police and Green Coats represent a contradiction for participants:

We just get told that, you know, we’re this progressive hub of great ideas trying to save the world, but we're hiring students that are basically racially profiling two Black students, walking home from a party who did not do anything wrong…I want people in the higher-up positions to know that…even if they don't want to admit that racism is on our campus and very prevalent, it is there.

The dominance of whiteness. Participants described the ways in which whiteness dominates their experiences, ranging from underrepresentation of POC among the student body and faculty, to lack of adequate response to the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and other Black victims of police violence. On the one hand, the dominance of whiteness at Western is a matter of numbers. Participants decried the lack of diversity among faculty and staff, claiming that “all the teachers have been just pure white,” or that the lack of racial diversity among counseling center staff meant “they didn’t understand how my mental health was impacted by being at a PWI and how it impacted my depression.” They acknowledged that “there's a lot of really nice people, but there's a lot of really cold, you know, subtly racist and explicitly racist people.” These sentiments were related to a perception that there was a lack of willingness to address the root causes of these problems at Western:

And they just wanna be able to slap something, throw some money at an MLK event and call it a day. Right. They don't really want to unearth the situation underneath it.

The implications of the dominance of whiteness can be detrimental to the wellbeing of students of color. This is particularly true while the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement are making obvious the deep racism in society more broadly. Participants discussed the lack of preparedness for such issues among white professors:

You know, I remember when George Floyd first broke out and my teacher like couldn't even and speak to it, you know? And I understand I'm in a biology class, but it's like she just couldn't even word something. She's like, “I don't want to talk about current events right now.”

And they expressed concern for the safety of students of color:

Like for years, like a lot of students of color have felt unsafe at Western…And that's like one of the issues that I have with the questions that we ask for the admissions office, when we're hiring, when we ask if is Western diverse, what we should be asking is how are the people of color, or how are the students from like marginalized identities at Western, How do they feel?

Importance of having faculty/staff of color. The dominance of whiteness at Western speaks to participants’ perceptions of the value of having faculty and staff of color to relate to. They claimed that “the most positive experience has been from my teachers of color,” and that “I just wish Western would do more to retain its BIPOC faculty.” It is clear that the presence of faculty of color makes a difference:

I feel like I go to Vero all the time now, just because I feel like she is my academic mom. I just trust everything that she says. I don't question it because I really do aspire to try to be like that or try to be like a strong Woman of Color going into the education program and stuff like that.

 

3. Support or The Lack Thereof

The final theme deals with participants discussing the perception that other students, groups, and the broader community have proven to be more supportive than the institution of WWU. This included the value of supportive spaces, the role of mutual aid among students and support from faculty, the role of money and other resources, and the promotion of inclusivity.

         Having supportive spaces. Participants discussed the importance of spaces like ESJ and ESC to provide support for BIPOC students. One participant claimed that the Woodring Scholars Program “saved me… and having that cohort…and just kind of helping each other figure out that first year of college because a lot of us were like first generation.” Such spaces provide both psychological and material support, and this includes virtual, online “spaces”:

…the community, helping them through that Western community aid page, Like they helped me like a lot of times where I was like “yo, I really do need money”...they’ve helped so much, and I feel like way more than probably Western ever will, in this time.

Supportive spaces also compliment the formal education students receive. For example, one student claimed that the ESJ minor “also opened up like another door of opportunity.” Another student spoke to the uncommon experience of working in a lab that made particular efforts to be inclusive:

the second community that I also developed last year was getting into the bio lab that I work in… everyone in there is all white students and white faculty. You know, I would say that they have reached out to me in ways that I hadn't really experienced at Western with them being white students and me being a Black student and them being aware about the lack of representation in STEM.

         Students are more helpful than Western. Participants described the ways that fellow students provide more or better support than the university as an institution. An underappreciated form of knowledge is that which students gain through navigating the education system, and in turn pass on to fellow students:

The university as an institution does not really support students of color. And that's not only what I have felt, but me as an undocumented student, it  has not created those things. And the only reason why it has created those resources that I do have access to is because it was all started by students

The absence of support from the university can have deleterious effects on the student experience:

I feel like that just made me just kind of give up on the services…because it's like, why bother? You know? Cause it's like, You're not investing in me. Like I'm not going to waste my time. 

Not surprisingly, the pandemic has exacerbated this problem:

Western didn't give me any guidance, like my math professor, she had a health condition. So when COVID started happening, my class just stopped. And then I got like somewhere, like, I don't even know. It's not like an F, but it's like, not like a non-passing. It's just on my transcript, but I'm like, what? So now I know I need to retake that math because I just don't know what that means.

While much of the mutual aid participants referred to was informal and ad hoc, the role of student organizing can’t be overstated:

To me organizing is students coming together for a common goal or goals, uh, to help each other and collaborate with each other too. Achieve, whatever those goals are in hopes that it would make things better for them.

         Having supportive faculty & staff. As alluded to above, participants described the importance of the support provided by individual faculty and staff members. They described individual faculty, like Dr. Vero Velez, as surrogate parents, and praised them for providing additional support beyond the classroom:

And [the advisor] literally was giving me wrong information. The only reason that I learned that the classes I were taking actually did not apply to get into the major was because I had made a relationship with a professor who then gave me correct information.

Perhaps most significant is the willingness of faculty to have difficult conversations related to racial and other forms of equity in higher education:

And I mean, I've been in the biology major for a few years and not many professors were ever interested in ever talking about why we don't see the same representation of Black and Brown students in STEM, but my professor was willing to do that…And that meant a lot to me, to make me feel comfortable. And he had actually taken steps within the biology department to make, um, make the department more equitable. So that, that meant a lot to me. And it made me want to contribute more to the work that they're doing there. Um, both the science and the social activism.

Valuing money over students. Finally, participants perceived that Western values money over students, which manifests as a lack of financial support for programs meant to support underrepresented students. They understood that finances are important to universities generally, but that “my experience with working for Western, money has really been a big influence decision-making.” They felt that resources too often go to superfluous programs and that “if Western really wanted to help their students and really invested in their students, they would invest their money.” For example, the perceived overemphasis on the STEM fields appeared to one participant to reflect a lack of humanity: 

That's well, they're so focused so much on the STEM fields. That's what they get so much money on that stuff. So it's just like a huge budget for the math and science department. They do care that there's not really hearing, uh, the other needs that that really didn't matter that bring the humanity back.

The perception of lack of investment was not limited to the student experience. Rather, they understood the problem to exist at multiple levels:

I think Western should spend more of its resources on opportunities like that at all three levels. Um, you know, for students, for faculty, for staff and professors, and then also opportunities for those three levels to interact with each other.

Next Steps

This study offers several conclusions and recommendations. These are grounded largely in the perspectives of the research team, composed of students and one faculty member, the limitations of the study, discussed in the full document.

        

The first theme, Lack of response among faculty, staff, and organizations, speaks to the issue of accountability to students, especially students of color and others from marginalized backgrounds. There is a general need in higher education for faculty and staff to be more aware of  and sensitive to the struggles marginalized students face in academia (Yosso & Lopez, 2010). Such awareness and sensitivity may be improved by training that emphasizes students’ humanity and the social and historical root causes that create marginalization in the first place. Beyond awareness and sensitivity, more specific mechanisms should be in place to incorporate student feedback and into program, college and university policies and practices, and that incorporation should be more transparent and accessible to students.

        

The second theme, Whiteness and anti-Blackness, speaks to the need to specifically address the experience of Black students, to support and amplify the voices of students of color generally, and to directly address whiteness. Being among the smallest minorities on campus, the experiences of Black students should be studied on an ongoing basis so as to promote the continual improvement of their experience at Western and of programs to support them. This should include consistent reevaluation of pedagogy and curriculum with an eye towards rooting out practices that are framed as neutral but in practice have marginalizing effects.

         The challenge of improving racial and other forms of equity includes the possibility of reifying the victim status of marginalized students, despite good intentions. One way to minimize this problem would be to incorporate a critical focus on whiteness. As an epistemology and cultural phenomenon, whiteness constitutes a “fundamental dominant frame” that too often goes unnoticed and unquestioned, especially at a predominantly White institution like Western (Coleman, Collins & Bonam, 2020; Feagin, 2010). Thus, such efforts (like equity and inclusion training) should include opportunities for faculty and staff to explore and openly discuss what it means for whiteness to be “normal,” and what white people’s specific responsibilities are in promoting racial justice. These efforts should also take into account the fact that exploring the role of whiteness in society and institutions like Western is likely to be uncomfortable for white people. But that discomfort pales in comparison to the discomfort BIPOC students feel in very white spaces like Western, and may be a necessary stage to go through in order to develop an understanding of systemic racism and one’s relationship to it (Applebuam, 2013; Coleman, Bonam & Yantis, 2019).

        

The third theme, Support or the lack thereof, speaks not only to the need for more and better support for marginalized students; it also suggests there is much to learn from such students with regard to the navigational capital they develop through the experience of marginalization (Yosso, 2007). An obvious conclusion is that there should be more funding for the spaces that BIPOC students rely on, such as the ESC. We also believe those resources would be well used if they support greater institutional understanding of and support for the ways in which students engage in mutual support. Spaces where students of color and other marginalized people gather to share common experiences tend to be incubators of innovation born out of struggle. And the knowledge and skills developed in such spaces can be useful for equity and inclusion initiatives that are transformative of individuals and institutions alike (Case & Hunter, 2012; Coleman, 2020; Yosso & Lopez, 2010).

         In conclusion, they propose that the findings presented in this report serve as the basis for future study about ways to improve support for BIPOC students at Western. Specifically, they suggest the need to study and better understand the experiences, attitudes, and readiness of faculty, staff, and administration to engage in the practices we recommend. To that end, they include in Appendix 2 a draft of a proposed survey that could facilitate that effort.

 

References

Applebaum, B. (2013). Vigilance as a response to white complicity. Educational Theory, 63(1), 17-34.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77-101.

Case, A. D., & Hunter, C. D. (2012). Counterspaces: A unit of analysis for understanding the role of settings in marginalized individuals' adaptive responses to oppression. American Journal of Community Psychology, 50(1–2), 257–270.

Coleman, B.R. (2020). Managing the disconnect: A critical case study of neoliberalism in youth development practice. Journal of Community Psychology, 2020;1–20. DOI:10.1002/jcop.22350

Coleman, B.R., Bonam, C.M. & Yantis, C. (2019). “I thought ghettos just happened”: White Americans’ responses to learning about place-based critical history. In P.S. Salter & S. Mukherjee (Eds.), History and Collective Memory from the Margins: A Global Perspective. NY: Nova Science Publishers

Coleman B.R., Collins, C. & Bonam, C.M. (2020). Interrogating whiteness in the context of community research and action. American Journal of Community Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12473

Feagin, J. R. (2010). The White racial frame: Centuries of framing and counter-framing. New York, NY: Routledge.

Fine, M. (2006). Bearing witness: Methods for researching oppression and resistance—A textbook for critical research. Social Justice Research, 19(1), 83–108.

Fine, M. (2012). Troubling calls for evidence: A critical race, class and gender analysis of whose evidence counts. Feminism & Psychology, 22(1), 3–19.

Percy, W. H., Kostere, K., & Kostere, S. (2015). Generic Qualitative Research in Psychology.

The Qualitative Report, 20(2), 76-85.

Serrano, U. (2020). ‘Finding home’: campus racial microclimates and academic homeplaces at a Hispanic-Serving Institution. Race Ethnicity and Education, 1-20.

Yosso, T., & Lopez, C. B. (2010). Counterspaces in a hostile place. Culture centers in higher education: Perspectives on identity, theory, and practice, 83-104.

 

Appendix One 

 

Social Justice & Equity Committee: Shevell Thibou (Director of Teaching & Learning for Western Libraries), co-chair, Lucas G Senger (Master’s of Business Administration and Arts Enterprise & Cultural Innovation), co-chair, Nabil Kamel (Environmental Studies), Robin Kodner (Biology), Aric Mayer (Master’s of Business Administration and Arts Enterprise & Cultural Innovation), John McLaughlin (Environmental Sciences), April McMurry (Placement Coordinator, Woodring College of Education), Ranulfo Molina (Associated Students ASVP for Diversity), Benny Musonda (Custodial Services, Area Supervisor), Trula Nicholas (Human Services), Francisco Rios (Woodring College of Education), Rae Lynn Schwartz-DuPre (Communication & Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies), Shalini Singh (Diversity Recruiter & Retention Specialist, College of the Environment)