Williams and Clowney (2007) have identified and labeled four primary diversity models currently operating in higher-education institutions. According to the authors, each model characterizes diversity uniquely and proposes a different set of policies, programs, initiatives, and structures to reach specific goals. The models may occur simultaneously, although it is rare for them to be intertwined and exist in the same organizational division or structure (Williams and Clowney, 2007).
The Affirmative Action and Equity model, according to the researchers, is defined as the model that aimed to change overt barriers to education and employment for minorities and women. This model generally holds that institutions have a moral obligation to affirmatively redistribute opportunity to protected groups and ameliorate the current effects of past discrimination.
This model was therefore supposed to rectify past wrongs by creating policies that would end overt discrimination, through spurring change in demographic representation. Although meant initially for racial minorities, this model has been of great benefit to women, war veterans and people with disabilities. While this model does indeed help by increasing the number of minorities and underrepresented groups, it does not take the next step of changing the institutional culture to make it more inclusive. While it is a necessary first step, it’s still only part of the puzzle.
Diversity Tip: Just recruiting more people of color, but doing nothing to make the institution friendlier for them, is like electing the first black president and declaring that racism has now ended.
The second model, the Multicultural Model, is anchored in the ideology of Black Power and similar nationalist cultural movements which focused on embracing ethnic or identity-specific values, cultures and traditions. This model aims to celebrate diversity and the richness of different cultures. While the Affirmative Action and Equity Model seeks to break down barriers through integration, this model tries to understand cultural similarities and differences, and foster mutual respect and understanding across cultures.
To achieve this, the model calls for culturally aligned services, programs, initiatives and offices designed to nurture student success. By creating these unique offices and programs that focus on issues of race, ethnicity or gender as a first priority, institutions are taking a further step toward changing their culture and environment. Some programs and initiatives can be hard to categorize as one model, however. Williams and Clowney (2007) point to African American Studies and Gender studies which not only conduct research into experiences, challenges, and identities of minorities and genders, but also offer academic, cultural and social programs for members of their constituencies. Because of this hybrid nature of their mission, these programs exist between both the Multicultural Model and the Academic Diversity Model.
Diversity Tip: It’s not enough for campuses to be desegregated; they must strive to become places whereby individuals of differing racial and cultural backgrounds can search for the truth, wherever that truth leads them.
The Academic Diversity Model, on the other hand, takes inspiration from social-psychological theories of group contact. The model provides a rationale for diversity based on the positive aspects of group interaction and the academic and social benefits. According to Williams and Clowney (2007), the Academic Diversity Model is grounded in theories of cognitive and social psychology which suggests that the discontinuities associated with diverse educational environments are essential to enhancing the relational and cognitive abilities of all students.
So while the previous two models respectively define diversity in terms of social justice and redistributive equity, or supporting bounded social identity groups and advancing knowledge about these groups, the Academic Diversity Model argues that the presence of diversity, particularly racial and ethnic diversity, is an essential environmental condition for providing a high quality learning experience in the 21st century.
A key distinction of this model is that it moves diversity to the center of the mission of these institutions. Because diversity is seen as so essential to the best possible education, colleges and universities must make establishing a diverse campus a top priority.
This model also broadens how academic institutions define and operationalize diversity. It not only includes primary dimensions of diversity–such as race, age, ethnicity, or gender– but also secondary characteristics such as socioeconomic status, religion, geography or even learning styles. In this new tradition, diversity encompasses everyone, irrespective of race, ethnicity, or disparaged status as a minority group.
Finally, Williams and Clowney (2007) discuss the new conversation that is evolving around the Inclusive Excellence Model. The model borrows from lessons learnt and best practices from previous models that had been discussed. It is grounded in several assumptions, the first being that the legal, political and demographic challenges and changes facing contemporary society create the rationale for a diverse campus. Next, the model recognizes that diversity is a resource that must be enhanced, institutionalized, and channeled toward the goal of institutional excellence for the benefit of everyone.
To achieve this, organizational resources must be strategically used to ensure a diverse student body academically achieves at high levels and that those on campus who contribute to this goal are acknowledged and rewarded. The cultural differences a diverse student body brings to the classroom should also be highlighted and recognized as serviceable to the learning of all students. Finally, the model assumes that classes on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, power, privilege, and the interdisciplinary nature of these topics strengthen and better situate academic institutions operating in our evolving world. This model is in various stages of implementation across some schools.
Summary
These models have built off each other, starting with the Affirmative Action and Equity Model during the 1950s Civil Rights Movement. Rooted in social justice and shifting laws, it focused institutional efforts on enhancing the compositional diversity of the university’s faculty and student body. This paved the way for the Multicultural Model in the 1960s and 1970s which focused diversity efforts on supporting the newly diverse student bodies through special services, programs and initiatives. Still rooted in social justice, the Multicultural Model fostered a sense of community and tolerance on campus by giving underrepresented groups the services and programs to feel welcomed and engaged.
This in turn laid the foundation for the Academic Diversity Model, which is rooted in the educational value of diversity. No longer seeking to simply right past wrongs, this model appreciates how important diversity is as a resource for student learning. Diversity instead becomes one of the paramount concerns of academic institutions looking to provide their student bodies with the best possible education. Finally, the Inclusive Excellence Model employs the most successful strategies from the previous models to ensure that student intellectual and social development is being nurtured in the best possible educational environment for all students, irrespective of identity and background.
When preparing to implement your own diversity action plan, it is important to consider these models and determine which one(s) best suits your institution.
Diversity Tip: You can have diversity at your institution without undergoing a cultural shift but you can’t have an inclusive institution without organizational change.
