Beyond the Rhetoric Part II: The Numbers Don’t Lie

Last week the Daily Princetonian published an op-ed by members of the Latino Graduate Student Association, Graduate Women of Color Caucus, and Black Graduate Caucus on the Graduate School’s recent decision to restructure the Office of Academic Affairs and Diversityand, effectively, deprioritize issues of diversity at the graduate level.While some may disagree with the tone of the article, its central premise remains: Recent changes in the organizational structure of the Graduate School significantly damage underrepresented students’ faith in the current administration's ability to increase minority representation and improve campus climate.

Persons of color are underrepresented at all levels of the Graduate School. Just last year, the Report of the Trustee Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity concluded the University was not doing all it could to create a diverse and inclusive campus climate. This is not particularly surprising when considering that only 1% of senior staff self-identify as Hispanic and 6% self-identify as black. The demographics are just as bleak among the faculty, where 2% and 4% of full professors identify as Hispanic and black, respectively. At the doctoral student level, Hispanic and black students make up about 10% of the graduate student body.

The trustees' report, however, did point to a few bright spots. One point of progress explicitly mentioned was the establishment of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Diversity position. While increasing minority representation is important, we know from the organizational diversity literature that having senior leadership connected and committed to issues pertaining to underrepresented groups is foundational for an organization committed to diversity.

Eliminating this position is a decision in direct opposition to another finding of the trustees' report, that “comprehensive and consistent strategies designed to promote diversity are harder to implement when authority is devolved among scores of academic and administrative units." It appears as though the Graduate School is not only ignoring the voices of current graduate students but also dismissing — and fundamentally contradicting — recommendations distilled from 20 focus groups, four surveys, a comprehensive literature review, national comparative data and the more than 2,500 members of the University community who comprised the final data set for the trustees' report. It is unreasonable for Dean of the Graduate School Sanjeev Kulkarni and the rest of the university leadership to ask students of color to trust their decisions when their actions clearly disregard recommendations endorsed by the University’s own trustees and the students who are purportedly being served by their efforts.

Yet the development of a welcoming and inclusive institution extends beyond increasing representation and organizational structure. Among other experiences, minority students at Princeton have reported receiving less attention from advisers, being perceived as less competent than their peers, having their work devalued and being reduced to racial stereotypes. In addition, students at Princeton have experienced overt racism — e.g., being the target of racial slurs or accused of stealing bikes when unlocking one's own bike — which further reduce their feelings of incorporation into the University community. With the release of last week’s article, it is still evident that these experiences of underrepresented graduate students continue to be largely hidden from view. Certainly, part of this is related to representation. Since minority students still constitute a small proportion in most departments, it is difficult to anonymize these experiences in ways that make students feel comfortable to share. To begin to assess these issues in a systematic way, the Graduate School should compile sorely needed data on minority experiences at Princeton and disseminate it to the University community in a way that respects the vulnerable positions of underrepresented graduate students, staff and faculty. The effort would not only help senior leadership be able to better serve these groups but also reflect a willingness to understand — ultimately rebuilding students’ trust.

While many of these issues will continue to be a part of the graduate school experience at the University, we had a strong advocate in the Office of Diversity under the leadership of an associate dean who was dedicated to improving both representation and conditions for minority students. We hope the Graduate School will work with us in ensuring that these previous commitments and priorities are not forgotten but rather expanded. Ultimately, we, as students of color, want what we are promised every time the University says it is committed to advancing diversity. We hope that as we move forward, that commitment becomes unequivocally clear in real and tangible ways, because it is certainly not what we are currently seeing or experiencing.

Signed,

Vladimir Medenicamedenica@princeton.eduPresident of the Latino Graduate Student Association

Janeria Easleyjeasley@princeton.eduPresident of the Graduate Women of Color Caucus

Concerned Students of the Black Graduate Caucus

Correction: Due to an editing version, an earlierversionof this article did not included the full name of theOffice of Academic Affairs and Diversitywithin the Graduate School. The 'Prince' regrets the error.