(This post is Part Two of a series of posts…you can read this post independently or read my previous post for background context on Multicultural Affairs as a sub-field of Student Affairs.)
Many universities and student affairs departments have either formal programs or informal mentoring to actively support undergraduate student leaders in considering a field in student affairs. Students that have thrived as RAs, Orientation Leaders, Sorority/Fraternity Life leaders, or campus activities leaders are often encouraged and challenged to apply to masters programs in higher education. I work as the director of a department called the Office of Multicultural Student Success. I feel proud to say that my staff are all passionate about issues of access, equity, student success, and cultural exchange. In a recent departmental staff meeting, members of my team and I were talking about how we could get more involved in supporting some of our student leaders to consider a career in Student Affairs. We run some fabulous programs that allow higher-risk students to have a much richer college experience and we hope that some of our student leaders pursue a career in Student Affairs. For me, I secretly really hope that some of our superstar student leaders pursue careers specifically in Multicultural Student Affairs. I’m biased…what can I say! In light of these aspirations, my staff and I did some brainstorming on what kinds of structures we could put in place to prepare some of our students to successfully enter higher education masters programs. Our brainstorm was moderately productive and we were all excited by the possibility of getting more students of color interested in our field.
I left work that day still thinking about our brainstorm. My mind was buzzing with creative energy and I felt a bit unsettled by some unresolved questions that lingered for me. If we were all so excited to get more students of color involved professionally in Multicultural Student Affairs, would simply helping them go to masters programs in higher education accomplish our ultimate goal? The more I think about it, the less sure I get. Here are some of the questions that continue to trouble my thoughts on this subject:
1. How many masters programs in higher education, student development, or educational leadership offer one or more courses to prepare students to work in Multicultural Student Affairs? To be more specific, how many masters programs effectively teach graduate students about the key issues, theories, and practices that inform successful work in a Multicultural Affairs department? A best practice would be programs that interweave this knowledge throughout their core curriculum, rather than compartmentalizing this set of issues into one course. Have any of you attended a program that does this well? Let us know!
2. How many masters programs in higher education have structured graduate assistantships or practicums in their universities’ Multicultural Affairs or diversity-focused offices? Without this type of practical experience, it will be difficult for newly minted student affairs grads to compete for coordinator positions in Multicultural Affairs departments.
3. What conferences should graduate students and new professionals attend to learn more about the core competencies and best practices in Multicultural Student Affairs? I hear from my colleagues in residential education that going to NASPA and ACPA is great for broad professional development, but that they get the most useful material for their work in residential education from the ACUHO conference (or their local CUHO conference). I often hear staff in orientation offices saying that they get enormous value out of NODA, similar to our conduct officers’ remarks about ASCA. This spring, I am going to the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity (NCORE) for the first time. Is NCORE the conference to advance the core competencies, best practices and skill-sets of our field? I’ll definitely let you know after I get back from the conference this June!
For those of us who are passionate about getting our undergraduate student leaders to consider a career in Multicultural Student Affairs, these questions about our graduate programs reveal some serious gaps in the preparatory experience. Getting our students to go to higher education graduate programs is still a fantastic thing, but I think it is important for us to take note of the possibility that these programs might not be preparing many grads to successfully work in Multicultural Affairs-type departments.
To end this post, I thought I’d respond to a comment I received on my previous post. Someone requested a reading-list that could help students and professionals become more educated on the issues central to the broader mission of Multicultural Affairs. Well, look no further! My sister and brilliant colleague, Sumi Pendakur, sent me this fabulous reading list that she was part of compiling at the University of Southern California. A while back, the staff from each of USC’s cultural advocacy offices helped build this list. Enjoy!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/topic.php?uid=51918367879&topic=9548
Vijay Pendakur 
I knew this post was coming soon 🙂
You ask “How many masters programs in higher education, student development, or educational leadership offer one or more courses to prepare students to work in Multicultural Student Affairs?” and it reminds me of when we are doing student leader trainings and every office wants facetime with our student leaders to promote their area. While we can’t include everyone we do our best to make sure we cover the “most critical” areas (subjective, I know).
However diversity education is a critical issue everywhere and I believe it is incumbant upon graduate prepatory programs to revisit the needs of todays masters students and the college stduents they will be serving.
The other question is, does adding additional courses make programs longer in length? If not, what is cut out?
Thanks for starting this discussion!
AMK! Thanks for the great thoughts and questions. I guess I see the best solution as weaving issues of justice, access, college student success, inter-cultural and intra-cultural competence, etc throughout the core courses in a preparatory program. So, if you are going to offer a class on enrollment management, talk about the issues connected with admitting low-income, 1st generation students and how this might impact total revenue for the institution. Or, if there is a higher ed law class, make sure that issues of identity, civil rights, etc are addressed through the lens of the law. It’s the same argument made by feminists about inserting women into everything we learn, rather than setting aside a class, or a part of a class, to look at the issues/needs of this “special group.” Currently, many of the ‘better’ programs seem to offer one course on social justice or “diversity and difference,” which is deeply problematic if these issues, theories, practices, and students are represented throughout the curricula. Even an assessment and evaluation course can have diversity and justice components to it…but most rarely bother to acknowledge these core issues.
Vijay
Thanks for another great post! More questions, as I’m sure you can come to expect from me, as I continue to process.
First, I think what you’re proposing sounds like a realistic and effective strategy for infusing curriculum with issues related to multicultural student affairs. However, if this isn’t currently happening in most graduate higher ed programs, should alternative studies be considered, especially if those programs can lead to similar professional outcomes? Not to be presumptuous, but given that your academic background is in history, which I think gives you the ability to grasp multicultural affairs with a more nuanced level of awareness and depth, should student leaders be encouraged to consider non-higher ed specific degrees? Or at least programs that would allow them to take cross-departmental courses for their degree requirements?
Building off of your concern for graduate assistantships in offices of multicultural affairs, I’m also curious about broader institutional support for minority graduate students. I have noticed most campuses have student support services directed at minority undergraduate students, but am unclear how many also have similar services for graduates. When I was at ACPA, I was impressed with the amount of networks supporting multicultural professionals. However, this also suggested that continued support is needed to navigate how certain aspects of identity fit into this field. So while grad students need to gain the skills to support minority undergraduates, they (I guess, we) also need continued support to persist through our degrees and consider how our racial identities might impact our decision to enter different campus departments. Do you know of offices that address the needs of graduate students? I’m guessing there are a lot out there that I’m just unaware of.
Emy, as always, your comments are provocative and educational for me. I love the idea of freeing up more elective space in student affairs grad programs and encouraging grads to take courses in history, sociology, ethnic studies, women and gender studies, etc. Thanks for calling out my past! 😉 No, for real though, I worry about advising students to pursue a non-traditional masters at this point in time. Student affairs has worked hard to codify itself as a profession and the need for rigorous masters coursework in the core skillsets and theories of student affairs practice is greater than ever. That’s not to say these things can’t be learned on the side, which I feel I have been able to do. Furthermore, the job market is tougher than ever and I don’t know if someone would be afforded the opportunity to work in our field without the appropriate degree anymore. What do you think?
I have to consider your second point some more before I can reply coherently. One thing that comes to mind, however, is that support programs for graduate students of color are generally best situated in a “graduate college/school.” If a university doesn’t have a well-developed graduate college, these types of centralized support services have to work with each individual academic college to try and reach grads of color…not very effective. More thoughts to come on this subject…
Best,
Vijay
Thanks for your thoughtful response! I obviously am still learning about the field and profession and really appreciate your blog for this reason. I think your feedback for higher ed masters programs cultivating a specific knowledge is excellent as well as the need to be mindful of the job market. As the field progresses, it would be interesting to see more room for electives (as you mention) or even see more opportunities for interdisciplinary work or dual degree programs (like M.Ed./M.Div. programs to cultivate better learning among campus chaplains).
Thanks again and I’m looking forward to your further insights!
Hi, I recently came across your blog via twitter. I’m currently a first-year graduate student in the Higher Ed program at Cal State Fullerton and I’d actually love to go into multicultural affairs.
I definitely agree with your idea of a more integrated approach. My program has a two core courses focused on diversity (one on student populations, another on access and equity). While I think it’s great to have solid core courses focused on this issues, I’m hoping to see them being connected to the rest of the program. For example, I really hope this is discussed in my fieldwork classes since they’re meant to be all about connecting theory to practice to better service our students. Since a lot (if not all) higher education/student affairs master programs require some sort of fieldwork/practicum experience, this would be a great place to discuss theories and research as they relate to serving different student populations. Regardless of the type of experience, the student population is so diverse and it is critical we know how to best serve our students and meet them where they are.
As far as conferences, I would really like to know! I’m planning to attend the NASPA Multicultural Institute in December which looks very promising. But I also wonder where/if there is a professional association for multicultural affairs/social justice educators. Please do share your experiences and perspectives on NCORE after you attend. I’d like to learn more about it.
Thank you sharing! I look forward to continue reading your blog 🙂
Carlos! Great to hear that you are interested in working in Multicultural Affairs. When you start your field work, I’d be interested in hearing about whether your diversity curricula is threaded into your field work classes. I’ll definitely write a post after NCORE to let folks know what I think about the conference. Thanks for the great feedback!
Great posts; however, that link to the reading list just took me to Facebook. Where can I find it?
Thanks,
Shakeer
Hmmm…interesting issue, Shakeer. When I click on the link, it takes me to the reading list. Do you have a facebook account? I think, for this to work, you have to have a facebook account and be logged in to that account. Then, open my blog in a second window and click the link…let me know if this works. If it doesn’t we’ll figure something else out.