Creating Campus Cultures: Fostering Success Among Racially Diverse Student Populations ed. by Samuel D. Museus, Uma M. Jayakumar (review)

When we are asked about the proliferation of articles and books written about diversity issues on college campuses our immediate response is that “more is better.” There should not be a one-book-fits-all model when discussing multicultural issues on college campuses. Museus and Jayakumar have assembled 21 authors who prepared 10 chapters, and as a result they have found a niche in the diversity literature by connecting multicultural theories with programming and practices that assist the reader in gaining a deeper understanding of the approaches needed to retain minoritized and historically marginalized students on campus.

Creating Campus Cultures provides an excellent overview of often misunderstood and under-estimated aspects of creating an engaging campus culture for all students. This text attempts to address the challenge of moving beyond rhetoric and enacting concrete, evidence driven, practices which serve to honor the concept of equity. The editors and authors in Creating Campus Cultures challenge administrators, faculty, and staff to re-examine, for some to examine for the first time, the role they play in creating a campus culture that struggles to provide an environment for honest dialogue about the realities of students of color in the higher education system. It also addresses the personal biases individuals may have internalized which in turn keep marginalized groups from being fully empowered by those who are oblivious to the notion of being creators of a comfortable space for everyone. Overall, Jayakumar and Museus clearly state that “The aim then should be not only to work toward diverse and multicultural campuses, but also to cultivate campus cultures that are equity orientated” (p. 13).

Collectively, the text is a comprehensive primer to academic institutional issues such as racial and ethnic disparities in access and college degree attainment, understanding the intricacies of campus culture and climate, understanding the narrative associated with student voice to create equity for students of color, and on/off campus environmental factors affecting students of color. Individually, each chapter provides comprehensible examples of diversity theories, research, and practices within higher education.

Jayakumar and Museus explore the way in which campus racial climate impacts the behavior of the people and environment in chapter 1. The authors provide a framework for the book by stating that “if institutions are serious about effectively serving and maximizing success among students of color, then they must assess and be open to critiquing, adapting and transforming the cultures of their campuses” (p. 10).

Chapter 2, authored by Museus, Ravello, and Vega, initiates the presentation of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and its use in defining campus racial culture, highlighting counter-storytelling as a key to thinking critically about the student experience. This introduction to CRT provides the theory to practice connection needed for administrators who may not be familiar with the concept of self-narratives and how one’s voice can provide insightful data on campus culture.

Witham and Bensimon (chapter 3) and Guiffrida, Kiyama, Waterman, and Museus (chapter 4) provide information on how institutions of higher education engage in a culture of inquiry, an excellent segue into an insightful understanding of the cultural differences majority and minority students bring with them to campus and how they attempt to navigate the environment. The ideas of collectivism and individualism, as they relate to a student’s mentality and ability to adapt to a campus culture, are impacted by the traditions, values, and mission of the institution. The authors in chapter 4 also pose a challenge to colleges and universities to thoroughly assess their campus culture in order to provide environments that all students can thrive in both cognitively and psychosocially.

Quaye and Chang, in chapter 6, present the classroom as the chief environment that creates a divide for majority and minority students. The authors’ points are clearly delineated and based on Critical Race Theory and Freirian frameworks that espouse the importance of transforming...