With the Campus Climate Survey, issued this week by the Diversity Audit Committee, Houghton College has begun to “take the temperature” of the students, faculty, and staff on campus regarding topics of ethnic, racial, sexual, gender, and disability-based diversity.
Professor Intí Martínez-Alemán explained from where the need for a Diversity Audit came. In 2009 an incident occurred during a chapel celebrating Black History Month. Two students, one dressed as a gorilla and another in a banana costume, ran through the aisles. Professor Martínez-Alemán cited this event as a key piece of evidence in Houghton’s administration’s realization that diversity, and the way students perceive it, might be an important issue to address on campus.
Later in 2009, a few professors and college administrators attended a conference in Vermont which dealt with diversity topics on college campuses. Documents concerning the then-current state of diversity on Houghton’s campus and goals for where the discussion on diversity and the implementation of policies encouraging diversity should have gone in the coming years. According to Professor Martínez-Alemán, this document and its ideas were not explicitly implemented in any way. The Diversity Audit is ultimate result of earlier attempts to analyze Houghton in light of ethnic, racial, sexual, gender, and disability topics.
Once the results of the survey are compiled, the Committee plans to analyze the results and then create focus groups based on these results. This April, Jane Higa, current Vice President for Student Life and Dean of Students at Westmont College, will be coming to Houghton to look at the Committee’s and focus groups’ findings and to help draft a final document to present to the Board of Trustees and Administration of the college.
Professor Martínez-Alemán said “[we] have this idea of an average Houghton student: white, female, and 18-22 years old. Anyone that does not fit that description [, on our campus,] is diverse.” And so the Diversity Audit’s purpose is to take a look at why Houghton is most attractive to young, white females and to discover how, once students enroll and spend time at Houghton, the college shapes their thinking about themselves and people from different ethnic and racial backgrounds, for example.
Dennis Stack, Houghton’s Dean of Students, emphasized this purpose as primary to the committee. The Diversity Audit, and particularly the Campus Climate Survey is not at all meant to target any one group or make individuals feel guilty for thinking or feeling a certain way about others. Stack described the survey as a “safe, risk free, and comfortable” way for people to share their honest feelings about people different from themselves.
“We really want to know, or it would be really great to know, what lens everybody is looking at life through,” said Stack. And he followed by saying, “it would be of course ideal for everyone to see through the same lens, and for that lens to be the same one Jesus sees through.”
In order to get an accurate idea of the campus climate as related to issues of diversity, the Committee hopes for people to be willing to participate. Stack said, “we want everyone to take [the survey] because we want everybody represented.” The number of responses to the survey has already surpassed Stack’s original expectation, and he is hopeful that the rest of campus will take the initiative and contribute.
Ellen Musulin, a sophomore, is one of the students who chose to participate in the Campus Climate Survey. After completing the survey, she said, “It made me think, and took longer than I expected.” Musulin also related the relevance and merit of the survey; she said “I think the survey will help begin the process of looking at the topic of diversity; If this is truly an issue, then the college should really continue talking to students, faculty, and staff.”
President Mullen is also involved with the Diversity Audit. In response to a question that came up in the SGA student forum concerning the purpose of the Campus Climate Survey and the Diversity Audit, President Mullen said, “The Audit really should have happened three years ago.” And now that the Diversity Committee has been reformulated, with the President’s input, she is encouraging students to “participate thoughtfully.”
President Mullen also echoed and expanded upon the sentiments of Dennis Stack. She said, “we need to figure out a little more fully what it means to have a theology [in the realm of diversity] that is as rich and deep as the kingdom of God.”
In conclusion to the SGA Senate, President Mullen admitted that the process of a hard look at the college in light of diversity will not necessarily easy. She concluded her short address of the topic by saying “if we are going to go through with this, it is going to require some tough discussions, and I am committed to having those discussions.”