What Leaders Say and Do When There is NOT a Crisis Matters
Issuing an institutional statement is important, but the daily choices you make about bias and equity, both institutionally and personally, are the choices that make a real difference.
University leaders are making bold statements and taking actions that show their support of the Black community. These statements are meaningful and necessary. They demonstrate a commitment to those communities and make the institutions’ values clear.
But for those messages to be believed, what leaders do and say when the public’s focus is elsewhere, has to be consistent with what they do and say under pressure. It has to be done over time, with intention, and tied to measurable outcomes.
I am white, and my pronouns are he, him. University leaders like me have to use our privilege to push forward change. Here are some of the lessons that I learned during normal times that ultimately mattered and had impact during crises:
Start at the top. It makes a powerful statement when people of color occupy senior leadership roles, such as cabinet positions. These leadership positions need to be ones that have real institutional power with mainstream portfolios that impact behavior and mission. Empowering these leaders to excel using their resourcefulness, cultural responsiveness, intentionality, resilience and creativity also empowers a wide variety of other people who see that it is OK to be fully who they are and to step out and excel in leadership roles.
Watch your leadership language. Academics use code phrases that are rooted in bias that sadly have become ingrained in our culture. It is time to get rid of them. Here are a few:
“Best and brightest” — There are several ways to measure “best,” including cultural competency, creativity, teamwork, tenacity and emotional intelligence. Often, the terms “best and brightest” precede a discussion about selectivity and entering freshman GPA averages and test scores, which we know have bias. University leaders should be more descriptive about the strengths of their students and get rid of this cliché.
Come from the “best schools” — Whether talking about new faculty hires or new students, this is often code for elite schools that do not educate a representative student body. There is little evidence that their outcomes are better. Let’s have real discussions about the “best schools” for social mobility as a starting point.
Come from a “good neighborhood” — If there is a good neighborhood, what is a bad neighborhood? Think carefully about all the biases this term entangles with regard to all the social disparities of marginalized communities such as income, employment, health and education. Erase this language and open the door to real opportunity.
“High-risk students” — This language articulates the bias that if a student has a lower income or their parents didn’t go to college then they are automatically at risk for failure. We should eliminate the term and look deeper. What are the practical roadblocks for students that universities can address? What roadblocks can be eliminated that would make a meaningful change in relation to working and studying, transportation, childcare, campus dining, lodging and cashflow?
Keep focus and be accountable. When I was vice provost at Purdue University, I became familiar with Estela Bensimon and the Equity Scorecard project. I learned that equity issues are not student issues; they are institutional issues. In order to identify structural inequities, university leaders must transparently keep count of different outcomes among different groups and then hold themselves accountable for eliminating them. Intention, transparency and accountability engage everyone to become involved in solving the problem.
Put students forward. While president of the University of Central Florida, I was struck by the stories students told — their dreams, ambitions, intentions, commitment, and especially all they had overcome to achieve those dreams. But the students who represented the university in “professional” roles were not given a platform to share their stories. My wife and I changed that. We put students front and center in the university ambassadors’ selection, in their role at the microphone, and in their interactions with politicians and donors.
Change the rules. Policies are notoriously difficult to change, but outdated policies can embed biases that need to be addressed. Examples include position qualifications, academic credit transfer requirements, attendance policies, deadlines and payment requirements. University leaders must review policies with a goal of achieving equity in outcomes and ensure that the review team includes people who often are negatively impacted by the biases.
Get to critical mass. If the university is a majority white institution, it is important to think about achieving a critical mass of people from underrepresented groups, a step beyond representational diversity. Achieving critical mass in any group means that individuals carry less of a load of having to be the “pioneer,” and that there is enough representation for the group to have mainstream institutional power. Deep and long-term relationships with high schools can help achieve critical mass among students, whereas cluster hiring has helped achieve critical mass among faculty.
Who you spend your time with matters. As a university leader, take an honest inventory of who you spend your time with. Think about donors, students, cabinet, faculty and community stakeholders. Where are you getting your most intimate information? What do your social media pictures say about who you value? This is personal and it is important. Make a personal commitment to diversify your friends, confidantes, direct reports and partners, and it will pay in enrichment and growth.
Dale Whittaker is a Senior Program Officer in Postsecondary Success at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. A former executive at several of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing public research universities, he now works with other rapidly growing institutions with national and global footprints to help them innovate at scale to provide more degrees for more people with greater equity.
