The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3 - 70

C. Daryl Healea * Patrick J. Hale

its advertisement strategies as well as include
multicultural competence in its job descriptions, hiring criteria, training, and ongoing
supervision.
With MCOD as a theoretical framework,
this study builds upon the existing literature
on RA recruitment and diversity by exploring
how diversity is cultivated within an RA staff
and why that staff exhibits a particular form of
structural diversity. The specific research questions for this study were as follows:
How does a predominantly White institution
(PWI) of American higher education attempt
to cultivate a diverse RA staff?
Why does an RA staff at a PWI exhibit a
particular form of diversity?
What are the practice-based challenges and
opportunities of recruiting a diverse staff of
RAs at a PWI?

METHODS
We set our study in a large private research
university in the northeastern region of the
United States that enrolls more than 30,000
undergraduate and graduate students. More
than 11,000 of these students, or approximately
75% of all undergraduates, live in campus residence halls. The residential life office, which is
organized within the student affairs division, is
responsible for the recruitment, training, and
evaluation of all staff, including 280 RAs, who
serve the residential community.
To address our research questions, we
applied an interpretive case study approach
to the ongoing assessment, evaluation, and
improvement efforts of the RA recruitment
process at this institution. Case study research draws on many data sources to explore
a "bounded system" (Creswell, 2012, p. 97). A

case study approach is particularly appropriate
when researchers want to explore how and why
questions about a contemporary phenomenon
(Yin, 2013). By utilizing an interpretive case
study approach, we uncovered rich, detailed
descriptions that illuminated new understandings of the complex individuals and environmental factors involved in the phenomenon of
RA recruitment (Merriam, 2007).
Our qualitative methods involved a position between the researchers and the subject
that incorporated assumptions, biases, philosophies, and worldviews (Creswell, 2012). Specifically, the researchers have invested years in
the pursuit of multicultural competence both
professionally and personally. Moreover, the
researchers served as administrators within
the residential life office being studied, and
they also helped to coordinate the recruitment
and retention processes of RA staff under
review. Given this unique positionality, the
researchers acknowledged limits to objectivity
from the start of their study and cross-reviewed
their notes with non-researchers to mitigate
bias from invalidating their findings.
Data collection included participant observations, document analysis, and focus groups.
Participant observations were made across
all phases of the university's RA recruitment
process: publication materials, advertising and
promotion campaigns, information sessions,
application vetting, candidate interviews, and,
finally, RA selection and placement. Document
analyses focused on seven years of statistics
that tracked the percentages of selected underrepresented students at the PWI being studied,
in the RA applicant pools, and in the hired RA
staffs (see Table 1). Focus groups were convened
at two separate times, once with professionals

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3

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