Race, Role, and Religion: Exploring Campus Racial Climate Perceptions

Abstract

Over the past two decades, researchers have shown an increased interest in analyzing the campus racial climates (CRC) of colleges and universities. Despite this growing literature, far too little attention has been paid to the CRCs of a specific institutional sector: Christian higher education. Drawing from survey data of 15 Christian higher education institutions across the United States, this quantitative study analyzed CRC perceptions and experiences across varied educational stakeholders (i.e., students, faculty, and administrators) within Christian higher education contexts. Our findings reveal that people of color (PoC) and Whites perceive their campus racial climates differently; that PoC report being treated unfairly and feeling at a disadvantage due to their race in Christian higher education; and that students, faculty, and staff of color experience a less hospitable campus culture, irrespective of their organizational status. By bringing together the CRC perceptions of these campus groups, we expand upon the shared racialized experiences and challenges of faculty, staff, and students of color. We conclude by offering implications for practice to foster diverse and equitable CRCs in Christian colleges and universities for all campus constituents.

Keywords:

• campus racial climate
• Christian higher education
• students of color

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The number of these groups is higher than the number in the final sample as some respondents fit into two categories.

2 The Princeton Review offered racial breakdowns for each college included in the study. Using that information allowed us to weight the data by race so that the percentages of actual racial breakdown for each college or university is represented in the final sample.

3 The low number of faculty of color in the weighted data provides some concern of statistical power. For example, the difference in the assessment of performance between White and non-White faculty is .241 (3.528 v. 3.287). A Welch t-test indicates that the likelihood of a type 1 error of rejecting a correct hypothesis is 17.75%, which is higher than a desired 5%. It is unlikely that there are large differences in perception of performance between White and non-White faculty, but it is possible, with a sample with a higher number of faculty of color, that a small difference between the two groups could be significant. Thus, as it concerns the faculty sample, it can be argued that the t-tests are better assessments of the presence of large and medium differences between Whites and non-Whites in the general population rather than all differences.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elijah Jeong

Elijah Jeong, PhD, Higher Education Studies and Leadership, Baylor University. [email protected]

Sarah E. Madsen

Sarah E. Madsen, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Educational Leadership, Baylor University. [email protected]

Esther Chan

Esther Chan, PhD, Assistant Professor, Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. [email protected]

George Yancey

George Yancey, PhD, Professor, Sociology, Baylor, University. [email protected]

Savanah Landerholm

Savanah Landerholm, PhD, Journalism, Baylor University. [email protected]