Race-Related Activism: How Do Higher Education Diversity Professionals Respond?

Diversity professionals are often expected to respond to campus race-related student activism. However, little is known about how they perceive their roles and relationships, or enact strategies as they engage in this work. Informed primarily by Williams's (2013) Strategic Diversity Compass and secondarily by Critical Race Theory (CRT), we conducted a qualitative case study of campus diversity professionals who had responded to race-related student activism. We found they relied most heavily on political leadership strategies, navigating existing structures of power and racism in the academy, educating the campus community, and translating student activists' needs to institutional leaders.