A report released this week shows that more work is needed at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to rid the campus of discrimination.
The document provides an initial snapshot of the views expressed by 13,702 undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff who responded to the Campus Climate Survey last November and December. Among other things, they were asked to assess their satisfaction with the racial climate on campus, as well as their experiences in classrooms and workplaces. A fuller report, with more detailed analysis, will be released in the fall.
Among the key findings:
There is a disparity among racial groups in how they perceive the racial climate on campus. Overall, more than three-quarters of students, faculty and staff report being very satisfied or somewhat satisfied.
However, more than half of black undergraduate students, non-international graduate students and faculty expressed dissatisfaction with the racial climate. And about one-third of several other minority groups, including Latino and Latina undergraduate students, non-international graduate students and faculty said they were dissatisfied.
“Experiences with unfair treatment on the basis of social identity are too common,” the report states. Among the groups reporting the highest rates of discrimination based on their race/ethnicity, gender or political views were blacks, women faculty and conservatives.
Twenty-seven percent of undergraduate students and 32 percent of graduate students reported that they “sometimes” or “often” felt silenced in class because of some aspect of their social identity.
More than one-third of staff members reported being mistreated in their job “sometimes” or “often.”
“We are not where we want to be, that’s clear,” said Enobong Branch, an associate professor of sociology and the faculty adviser for diversity and excellence to Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy. “We want to be a campus where everyone feels included and respected.”
Subbaswamy wrote in the report, “The measure of inclusivity of our campus has to be judged through the perceptions of those who are vulnerable. … We must address these challenges, and each one of us must ask ourselves how we build a more inclusive environment.
“Our promise to you is that the survey is only the beginning,” Subbaswamy added. “In the coming months and years, we will work together to regularly develop dialogues, resources and methods of evaluation to create a campus climate where all members of our community can thrive.”
The campus survey is part of the Diversity Strategic Plan at UMass, which was adopted in 2015 and has five major goals. They include establishing “UMass Amherst as a destination of choice for students of color and other underrepresented groups,” and improving “the campus climate of inclusion.”
There have been several incidents of hate speech in recent years on the Amherst campus, most recently in February when fliers expressing white nationalist views were placed on vehicles in a parking lot. Last year, anti-Muslim graffiti was written on the Fine Arts Center plaza, and a swastika was carved in a bathroom stall in an academic building. Racist messages were found in the Student Union in 2015 and in three dormitories in 2014.
Reports of similar incidents on campuses and elsewhere across the country increased last year, particularly since the November election of President Donald Trump. In the Valley, anti-Semitic and racist graffiti was found on Mount Tom in November, and reports of anti-Semitic incidents at Amherst Regional Middle School prompted assemblies and a weeklong educational curriculum in December.
Allegations by parents of hate speech, racial prejudice, harassment and intimidation have roiled Easthampton High School in recent weeks. School officials responded by creating an advisory committee for parents, teachers and administrators; offering teachers and other staff training about responding to issues of bias and prejudice; and hiring the Collaborative for Educational Services in Northampton to lead forums and conduct a climate survey.
Discrimination for any reason is a problem that often is not easily eradicated. Easthampton High School is beginning the same kind of self-examination that identified problems on the UMass campus.
We commend UMass officials for being transparent in describing the shortcomings revealed by their campus survey, and we trust that Chancellor Subbaswamy will follow through on his pledge that this week’s report is just the beginning of a process to scrub the campus clean of discrimination.