Prom 1 Chad Prom Dr.

Rios Annotated Bib 16 March 2014

How does being an Ethnic Minority Ultimately Work to Shape Usability at Universities? In 2014, the general response to the question posed in my title would likely be that being an ethnic minority at a university would have little to no effect on the usability of that space. Any institution of higher education would seemingly have the ability to look past race when it comes to usability of the university. Now, there may not be any written rules of the university that permit for a difference of accessibility of campus life and resources based on the premise of race. Rather, stereotypes and trends may develop at an institution where one or two races happen to be the benefactors of such developments and the remainders of minorities are denied an equivalent level of usability at that university. The purpose of my research will be to examine whether or not race does play a role at the university level and how that phenomenon came to be. -Staples, Brent. "Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space." Ms. Magazine, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. Brent Staples in Just Walk on By: Black Men and Public Space is a fine example indicating that race does indeed play a role in our society, even regarding usability at the university level. As a twenty two year old graduate student at the University of Chicago, Brent experienced shocking instances of racial profiling. Brent recounts his first victim as a woman crossing the street in order to avoid any encounter with his broad, black, six foot two inch frame. Ironically, it was Brent who was being victimized by racial profiling in this situation. Perhaps, there is some logic behind womans instinct to avoid one on one encounters with black males lat e at night as even Brent admits young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence (page 1). It is unfortunate that societal generalizations are made due to the wrongdoings of a minority in a particular race. Brent, a graduate student at a prestigious institution, is not granted the same usability to his university that a white male with a lesser stature might be. Brent faces the burden of being stereotyped at his university on a regular basis. Further, Brent has taken it upon himself to whistle the tunes of Beethoven, stereotypically popular music among white and educated folk, in order to calm the nerves of passerbys in the streets near the University of Chicago. Based on this research I find that race absolutely played a role in Brents ability to feel comfortable and make use of his university like his white counterpart. I think the evidence and details Brent recounts are sufficient to support

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the notion that due solely to his ethnicity, Brent was discriminated against and denied the usability a white student may enjoy around the University of Chicago. - Pippert, Timothy D., Laura J. Essenburg, and Edward J. Matchett. "We've Got Minorities, Yes We Do: Visual Representations Of Racial And Ethnic Diversity In College Recruitment Materials." Journal Of Marketing For Higher Education 23.2 (2013): 258-282. Business Source Premier. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. According to the article Weve Got Minorities, Yes We Do: Visual Representations of Racial and Ethnic Diversity in College Recruitment Materials the expression of diversity in recruitment materials is of the utmost importance for institutions of higher education (page 4). Timothy Pippert brings forward the possibility that ethnic minorities actually bring added value to any university and work to increase the universitys reputation and attract new students. Pippert highlights the mechanism by which colleges are especially notorious for advertising their diverse student body: brochures and pamphlets mailed to prospective students. Often times these brochures will show an ethnically diverse group of students studying under a tree on campus or linked arm in arm cheering at a school sporting event. These pictures are strategically formatted and work to prove that the university is indeed a diverse setting where individuals of all background are considered on a level playing field. The University of Central Florida is no exception to this phenomenon. Brochures sent from UCF to prospective students show a distorted perception of the true number of ethnic minorities on the campus. Personally, it seems as if universities are broadcasting their falsely high percentage of minorities to attract more diverse students and foster the illusion of an equally heterogeneous mix of races on campus. If I were to open up a brochure for a university and compare the percentage of minorities represented on the brochure with the percentage of minorities in attendance at that university, the brochure would be falsely high. Universities seem to exaggerate the usability of their campus to ethnic minorities via pamphlets and brochures because it emphasizes a universitys cultural diversity. - Park, Julie J. ' Research in Higher Education'); (' Yr:2013');(' Vol:54'); (' Iss:7' (' Pg:725'); (' -745'); ('" SFX by Ex Libris Inc. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.
Julie Park, in When Race and Class Both Matter: The Relationship between Socioeconomic Diversity, Racial Diversity, and Student Reports of CrossClass Interaction, asserts Engagement with racial diversity is associated with a myriad of educational and civic benefits such as leadership skills, commitment to civic engagement, interracial friendship, and bias reduction (Park 2012; Bowman 2011; Jayakumar 2008). Julie argues that when it is feasible, interaction between students of different

races actually works to benefit all parties involved. Whether it be the minority or the majority, all students involved are benefactors when concerning educational, civic, and leadership skills. However, Julie goes on to relate race to socioeconomic factors. Julie points out that all low-

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income students, regardless of race, are less likely to participate in fraternities and sororities which are associated with low rates of interracial-interaction. Not surprisingly, other studies led to the conclusion that lower to middle income students are more likely to interact with other races relative to their higher income peers. If Julie is correct, her argument is perhaps the strongest in arguing that minorities do not have the same opportunity to use the resources and benefits of the university to the fullest potential. Like Julie mentions, students of higher income families often have a narrower group of friends that are not racially diverse, ergo making it harder for a minority student to become affiliated with that group. Further, students with high socioeconomic backgrounds typically have more resources, connections, and opportunities. If minorities are excluded from these groupsoften fraternities and sororitiesthey inherently do not have the same chance to succeed. - Cokley, Kevin. "An Examination of the Impact of Minority Status Stress and Impostor Feelings on the Mental Health of Diverse Ethnic Minority College Students." N.p., 10 Oct. 2012. Web. 7 Apr. 2014. Kevin Cokley comments on how being an ethnic minority student can effect that students mental health and ability to use their university. Kevin goes on to propose the minority students can be negatively affected by additional Stressors, including experiences with racism and discrimination, traumatic stress, educational hegemony, insensitive comments, and questions of belonging on a college campus, in addition to the regular stresses a college student undergoes (page 83). Kevin suggests that minority students, due to stereotypes are especially vulnerable to high levels of anxiety in testing situations. The impostor phenomenon is something Kevin is particularly concerned about when it comes to minority students ability to be confident and successful. Essentially, the impostor phenomenon is a feeling that one does not belong or that their own intellectual ability is phony when compared to their peers. If a student is not able to be confident in their own potential as a result of their minority status, then it is difficult to argue that a university is as usable and accessible to them as it is for a white majority student. I believe that if a student is experiencing ill mental health and impostor feelings as a direct result of their race at a given university, than that university is not as accessible to the minority student as it is to a student without these stresses. - Wei, Meifen. "Minority Stress, Perceived Bicultural Competence, and Depressive Symptoms among Ethnic Minority College Students.." SFX by Ex Libris Inc. Journal of Counseling Psychology, n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014. According Meifen Wei in the Journal of Counseling Psychology yearly increases in ethnic minority student enrollment can give the impression that the institution welcomes these students. However, ethnic minority students on these campuses do not always feel welcomed and, in fact, often experience stress due to discrimination. Meifin recognizes that all college

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students have stress. She differentiates when it comes to minority stress, or, specific stress that is experienced as a result of ones identification with a group that is stigmatized and is th e target of prejudice and or discrimination: the type of stress minority students often feel when entering a primarily white university. More and more research is suggesting that minority stress has a direct negative impact on those student mental health and retention rates. Meifen essentially argues that minority stress is a large enough factor that ultimately leads to ethnic minorities not having the same usability and accessibility that students without minority stress have. I agree that students experiencing minority stress are at a disadvantage right out of the gate. College is already a very difficult transition period, but to add another sector of stress relating to ones identity can be the breaking point for many students, ultimately leading to the lower retention rates that Meifen reveals.

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1. Zimdars, Anna. "Fairness And Undergraduate Admission: A Qualitative Exploration Of Admissions Choices At The University Of Oxford." Oxford Review Of Education 36.3 (2010): 307-323. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. In Fairness and Undergraduate Admission: a qualitative exploration of admissions choices at the University of Oxford Anna Zimdars examines patterns of admittance to the University of Oxford. Anna considers a variety of factors when considering the admittance patterns of students including applicants previous education, family affluence, gender, and finally ethnicity. More specifically female applicants predicted probability of gaining an offer was 10% lower than for males; there was a 9% gap in admissions probability by school type favouring state school applicants; a gap of 14% when comparing Asian with White applicants; and applicants of professional class parents were advantaged compared to those with managerial class parents by a 12 percentage point gap in admissions probabilities. Clearly there are glaring disparities in the admittance of different groups of students to the University of Oxford. So once admitted to Oxford, are ethnic minorities granted equal usability? 2. KAUFMAN, James C. [b1] (analytic). "Using Creativity To Reduce Ethnic Bias In College Admissions (English)." Review Of General Psychology 14.3 (0001): 189-203. FRANCIS. Web. 17 Mar. 2014. In Using Creativity to Reduce Ethnic Bias in College Admissions James Kaufman takes a more doubting approach when analyzing how ethnicity affects accessibility to universities across the country. Kaufman reveals that the two main factors that contribute to either the admittance or denial by a given university are grade point

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average and standardized test scores, i.e., SAT or ACT. Further, Kaufman argues that too much weight has been placed on these two categories alone as certain ethnicities have historically exceeded others in these two factors of admittance. Kaufman suggests one possible way to work toward lowering differential validity and increasing nonbiased assessment would be to administer additional measures (beyond high school GPA) that may tap into other aspects of ability that are not assessed by typical components of the standard examinations (page 193).

3. Park, Julie J. "'); Tm.write(' Research in Higher Education'); Tm.write(' [0361-0365]'); Tm.write(' Park'); Tm.write(','); Tm.write(' Julie '); Tm.write(' Yr:2013'); Tm.write(' Vol:54'); Tm.write(' Iss:7'); Tm.write(' Pg:725'); Tm.write(' -745'); Tm.write('" SFX by Ex Libris Inc. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.