What Happens When Campus Activism Affects School Policies

A new study from theÂ American Council on EducationÂ says thatÂ student-led protestsÂ are having an impact on college and university campuses across the country.

“Racial Climate on Campus: A Survey of College Presidentsâ€Â anonymously surveyed 567 college and university presidents to uncover how they feel student activism is changing the way students and faculty alike address race-related issues.

The results show that students at nearly half (47%) of the four-year institutions surveyed have organized around racial diversity concerns. And 75% of the folks presiding over four-year programs say that campus events related to Black Lives Matter, immigration, and Islamophobia have increased the racial dialogue at their school. That number drops to 62% at two-year schools.

While one president reportedly wrote: “The national issues have manifested at my campus as a genuine focus on eliminating the disparity in student academic achievement by ethnicity and on being more proactive in diversifying the faculty,â€ the increase in conversation has only led to modest administrative action.

On four-year campuses, just 55% of presidents said that the racial climate has become more of a priority, and 1% said its importance has actually decreased. Just 44% of leaders on two-year college campuses feel that it is more important now than three years ago.

Other key points:

86% of the presidents surveyed at four-year institutions say they have met with organizers more than once, with 11% having met with them one time and 3% never holding a meeting.
Across the board, public universities are much more likely to take action on racial justice issues than their private counterparts.
Presidents say that as a result of student activism, they are working on the following actions: implementing cultural competency training (19%), developing or revising curriculum (19%), increasing diversity (9%) and allocating resources for support services for students of color (8%).