Happy HBCU Week! Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) continue a record of unparalleled success at graduating Black leaders despite a history of being underfunded. Finally, their practices and strategies for training and supporting diverse student talent are being recognized and elevated as models for organizations seeking to exemplify inclusive excellence.
Earlier this year, the National Academies of Science Engineering, and Math released a report, Advancing Antiracism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEMM: Beyond Broadening Participation, which argues that it is time for predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) to move beyond focusing only simply recruiting minority students and instead also focus on creating climates of inclusion, belonging, and anti-racism so that ethnic minority students will be retained, graduate, and advance as professionals. Soon after that report was released the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) shared its research report which concluded that when HBCUs and PWIs are matched on key factors like funding and size, HBCUs graduate far more Black students and that these students graduate feeling better about their careers, earn a salary premium, and are more likely to be engaged in the community than if they had graduated from a PWI.
The NBER team suggests that HBCUs uniquely allow Black students the opportunity for Black racial identity formation through offering culturally relevant academic programs, service activities, Black faculty and Black staff mentors, and Black role models that all contribute to developing a positive sense of their identity. If PWIs, which educate far more Black students than HBCUs, and any organization wants to create environments in which all individuals are affirmed rather than expected to assimilate or to have their identities silenced, what can they learn from HBCUs to support members who increasingly represent a variety of races, ethnicities, gender identities, and ages?
One strategy clearly would be to have a greater diversity of leaders, mentors, and role models who contribute to an inclusive culture. Sharing space or having people sit next to each other who are different from another is not enough. Organizations have to empower their members to utilize their full knowledge, skills, abilities and experiences regardless of their origin; even when the knowledge gained is from outside of a formal workplace and may come out of community engagement. Institutions that prioritize multiculturalism, value diversity, and create climates of inclusion and belonging provide the opportunity for members to learn and innovate in ways that can support both personal and organizational effectiveness.
Diverse leaders, mentors, role models, and peers also have the task of deeply examining the ways in which definitions and examples of merit might differentially benefit certain groups given they are often steeped in generations of inequity. The current critique of legacy admissions in college enrollment is one example of this task. Other considerations might be to interrogate cultural assumptions around academic pedigrees or group think around what constitutes “professional” appearance, and even the appropriateness of hair type and style.
An additional practice might be identifying ways to deal with the discomfort that sometimes comes with working with those different from yourself. Diversity means that those we work with and depend upon might contribute from a different cultural frame of reference, communicate differently or even work hybrid or remotely. Diverse groups often can generate better and more creative or innovative ideas however, getting there might feel less comfortable and less efficient since collaboration might require more intentionality, more explicit communication and more frequent examination of members’ guiding assumptions. In other words, diversity might require that we simply be better.
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