Culture and Institutional Climate: Influences on Diversity in Higher Education

Kassie Freeman, ed. African American Culture and Heritage in Higher Education Research and Practice. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998. 237 pp.

M. Christopher Brown II. The Quest to Define Collegiate Desegregation: Black Colleges, Title VI Compliance, and Post-Adams Litigation. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1999. 166 pp.

Lenoar Foster, Janet A. Guyden, and Andrea L. Miller, eds. Affirmed Action: Essays on the Academic and Social Lives of White Faculty Members at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Oxford, UK: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. 203 pp.

Marilyn J. Ross. Success Factors of Young African-American Males at a Historically Black College. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 1998. 144 pp.

American higher education originally served a mission of educating the sons of socially elite White families who were destined to continue family businesses. Early manifestations of diversity were economic in form--when the sons of poor families, who were planning careers as clergy, entered this community of economically elite White males (Rudolph, 1990). The transition from a homogenous educational community to a diverse one has been a long process filled with passionate debate. The concept of "diversity" in higher education has expanded tremendously, and the once homogenous community is now a heterogeneous population that includes race, gender, class, and many other identifiers.

Reflections of culture and institutional climate are a natural progression of thought in discussions regarding diversity in higher education. Diverse peoples have identifiable cultures that influence expected behaviors of members of that culture (Lee, 1998), and diverse cultures influence the general climate of the institution. The relationship between culture and climate is an important one because it sets the stage for future progress toward diversity in higher education.

Four recent books contribute to the body of knowledge about African American culture and the institutional climate at historically Black colleges and universities. These works offer important insights that could foster diversity in higher education for many years to come. Kassie Freeman's (1998) book, African American Culture and Heritage in Higher Education Research and Practice, presents an overview of African American culture in research and practice in the higher education arena, thus providing a broad context for discussions regarding culture and institutional climate. M. Christopher Brown II's (1999) book, The Quest to Define Collegiate Desegregation: Black Colleges, Title VI Compliance, and Post-Adams Litigation, discusses major legislative and judicial policies that influence African American participation in higher education, including the influence of policy on the existence of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The third work, Affirmed Action: Essays on the Academic and Social Lives of White Faculty Members at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, by Lenoar Foster, Janet A. Guyden, and Andrea L. Miller (1999), addresses institutional climate from the perspective of Whites who are minorities in HBCUs. The final work, Marilyn Ross's (1998) Success Factors of Young African-American Males at a Historically Black College, brings the discussion of culture and institutional climate full circle when she addresses the cultural realities and the influence of institutional climate on African American males, an underrepresented group in the diversification of higher education.

Convergence of Culture and Research

Ogbu (1988) defines culture as a "way of life shared by members of a population. It is the social, technoeconomic and psychological adaptation worked out in the course of a people's history" (p. 11). A convincing argument for the importance of research that uses a cultural perspective appears in Kassie Freeman's edited volume, presenting the wisdom and scholarly reflections of senior and junior African American researchers in higher education. A central theme of this book is encouraging research that is conducted within an appropriate cultural context, thus permitting it to be accurately understood and correctly applied. Authors of individual essays point to the importance of African Americans' involvement in research, particularly on topics pertaining to African Americans in higher education. For example, Freeman argues:

Researchers have tended to focus...