Dr. Alford A. Young, Jr., the Center for Social Solutions's associate director, penned a reflection on racial harmony at community colleges for Ferris State University’s Doctoral Community College Leadership (DCCL) Alliance monthly publication, Perspectives. The newsletter compiles discussions relevant to community college environments, focusing this month on issues of systemic racism. 


While speaking to how community colleges can help promote a campus culture of inclusion, safety, and racial harmony during these challenging times, Dr. Young was able to fold in his own research into the discussion. “I consistently think about community colleges and their students,” he writes. “I do so because I spend much of my time researching and teaching about the plight of African-American men...Some of these men have garnered upward mobility through higher education. A portion did so by attending community college.”


Continue reading below or read the full September publication here.


Ensuring Racial Harmony at Community College Campuses

Alford A. Young, Jr., PhD

Associate Director of the Center for Social Solutions and Faculty Director of Scholar Engagement and Leadership for the National Center for Institutional Diversity
The University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan


I begin with a disclosure; I have never attended a community college nor have I ever taught in one. Indeed, my first exposure to public higher education of any sort was when I accepted a position on the faculty of the University of Michigan in 1996, where I have remained. Prior to beginning my career, I attended private higher educational institutions, Wesleyan University and then the University of Chicago.


However, I consistently think about community colleges and their students. I do so because I spend much of my time researching and teaching about the plight of African-American men. It is no surprise to anyone that these men are often at the bottom end of the distribution in terms of socioeconomic status and opportunity. Some of these men have garnered upward mobility through higher education. A portion did so by attending community college. The story about those men is more complicated than can be explained here. However, the simple point of the matter is that community college has been important for many African-American men, and many others, to pursue success. In each year between 2000 and 2017, between six and eight million people enrolled in these institutions (American Association of Community Colleges, 2018). Their purpose for being there is to move from disadvantage to possibility and promise. In short, community colleges serve people who are most at-risk but most desiring of achieving the American Dream.


During each year of the past two decades, no less than 40% and up to 70% of community college attendees throughout the country were students of color (American Association of Community Colleges, 2018). Taking regional differences in enrollment patterns into account, it remains that community colleges provide opportunities for white American students to interact with students of color in more sustained and consistent ways than is common for many students in American higher education. If America is going to improve in achieving racial harmony and mending the wounds produced by social difference, the social exposure and experiences engaged by community college students can serve as an important model for doing so.


This being the case, it is imperative for academic leaders and instructors in those institutions to cultivate and incorporate race and ethnic awareness throughout the curriculum. This is especially imperative for courses tailored to professional opportunities and trade-related skills. Students in these courses are learning the skills required for working in an increasingly complex business world — in skilled manufacturing, industrial, and technological labor sectors — that will draw from people of vastly different racial and ethnic backgrounds to fulfill their employment needs. Ultimately, these individuals will be working in a country that has a vastly changed demographic portrait over the next twenty years. America is projected to reflect a “majority-minority” population by the middle of this century (Taylor, 2015). Therefore, learning how to work with people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds will be an essential for surviving in the world of work in the immediate future.


Those who participate in elite private education have the luxury of thinking that such change may not bear upon them as immediately. The fact of the matter is that elite circles in America will not as quickly reflect the kind of diversity unfolding in other spheres of America. Given the diversity already embedded in the community college system, it can best exemplify interracial efforts in the pursuit of mobility and attainment. The project of building racial harmony through education and extracurricular social interaction stands before all of American education, from preschool through graduate training. However, given its population base the community college occupies a unique place in this effort.
What, in particular, remains to be done? Courses involving professional skill building should have a deliberate emphasis on interracial team building and teamwork. Classroom instructors should also dedicate some time to exploring the history of the temporary circumstances of race and ethnic relations within the professional sectors that they are preparing their students to enter. Professional training should also be met with personal training and support that helps students to understand what challenges or obstacles they may face as being a part of a changing demographic presence in the sectors they desire to enter into.


It is the responsibility of educators throughout the higher education system to partner with community colleges in pursuing this effort. If we do so, I suspect that some of the most important students for learning about effective change will be the educators in these other higher educational sectors. That is because we will be afforded a unique opportunity to observe how preparation for change unfolds in frontline territory for such an effort: the community college. 

 

References:

American Association of Community Colleges. (2018). “Community College Enrollment Crisis? Historical Trends in Community College Enrollment.” Washington. D.C.

Taylor, Paul. (2015). “The Next America: Boomers, Millennials, and the Looming Generational Showdown.” Washington, D.C.: Pew Charitable Center.