ERIC Number: ED358777
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1993-Apr
Pages: 32
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Creating an Institutional Identity out of "Differences": A Case Study of Multicultural Organizational Change.
Bensimon, Estela Mara
This case study examines the efforts of one small private liberal arts college to exchange a monocultural organizational structure for one that is grounded in the racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity of the student body. The paper is based on interviews with faculty, administrators, students, and trustees and provides a detailed description of organizational changes that have taken place at the college between 1987, when a new president took office, to the fall of 1991. Emphasis is placed on the aspects of organizational structure that assisted or hindered the development of the college's identity as a multiracial and multicultural campus. The study shows that the ongoing transformation of the college into a multicultural institution entailed: (1) a new mission statement; (2) the appointment of women and minorities to the president's cabinet; (3) the appointment of African Americans and Latinos to the faculty; and (4) multicultural curricular transformation. The paper concludes with a brief analysis of four organizational factors that facilitated the process of taking on a multiracial and multicultural identity. These are leadership, a state grant, institutional policies, and academic practices. Contains nine references. (GLR)
Descriptors: Administrative Change, Affirmative Action, Blacks, Case Studies, Change Strategies, College Administration, College Faculty, Cultural Pluralism, Curriculum Development, Diversity (Faculty), Diversity (Institutional), Diversity (Student), Females, Higher Education, Hispanic Americans, Leadership, Long Range Planning, Organizational Change, Organizational Climate, Organizational Objectives, Policy Formation, School Policy
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, University Park, PA.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A