Diversity Workshops On Campus: A Survey Of Current Practice At U.S. Colleges And Universities - Polling Data - Statistical Data Included

The Complete Book of Colleges categorizes colleges into four groups based on selectivity; after eliminating schools as above, there were 56 "Megaselective", 150 "Highly Selective", 455 "Selective", and 497 "Not Selective" institutions in our sampling frame (total 1158). Because we hypothesized that the more selective colleges would be more likely to have diversity workshops, we oversampled from the population of "Megaselective" schools. We included all 56 of the Megaselective schools, and took a random sample of 100 schools from each of the remaining three categories (total sample 356).

The Complete Book of Colleges also categorizes colleges by region (New England, Middle States, Midwest, South, Southwest, West), by cost (in-state tuition [is less than] $10,000, $10-15,000, [is greater than] $15,000), by size ([is greater than] 10,000 undergraduates, 4000-10,000, [is less than] 4000), and by environment (rural, sub-urban, urban). These categorizations, together with percentage of minority students reported for each institution (100%-% reported as Caucasion), were used in analysis of our results below.,

Survey Instrument

Interviewers introduced themselves by saying that they were working on a study of diversity training at colleges and universities across the U.S.. They described what a diversity workshop is--a small group situation in which a number of students and a group leader or facilitator discuss diversity-related issues--and then asked who would be a good person on campus to talk to about whether the institution had this or other kinds of diversity program. After getting to the appropriate respondent for an institution (see Procedure below), Interviewers began the survey questions. If the respondent's institution did not offer diversity workshops, Interviewers asked whether the institution had offered a workshop in the past, or whether it planned to offer a workshop in the future, then skipped to the end of the survey to obtain demographic information about the respondent.

Our survey questions appear in Table 1 in the order asked, except for screening questions and questions for institutions reporting no diversity workshop on campus (see below). As we began calling the schools in our sample, it occasionally became clear that we needed to add a question or response category for an existing question. The number of respondents for these later additions to the survey will be substantially lower than for the original questions and response alternatives.

Table I Characteristics of Campus Diversity Training Workshops

1. When are DW offered? (204) Freshman orientation only (31%) Freshman year only (5%) Open to all whenever given (61%)

2. (*)Who are DW offered for? Faculty (54% 202) Staff (55% 202) Students (95% 203)

3. (*)Are DW mandatory for? Faculty (5% 155) Staff (5% 156) Students (42% 155)

4. Do students get credit for participation in DW? (200) Yes (12%)

5. When were workshops introduced on your campus? (187) Before 1980 (2%) 81-85(5%) 86-90(30%) 91-95(48%) 96-97(16%)