The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3 - 73

Reaching Out

eventually comprised the hired staff of RAs for
a given academic year. Generally, the hired population approximated 280 students annually.
Data from all three reference points
allowed for a general comparison and indicated the degree to which selected student populations in the applicant pools and hired staffs
were proportional to those populations in the
institution at large. Specifically, small, intermittent RA recruitment gaps were evident in
that, during some years, African American students and Asian American students were hired
at lower percentages than were their respective
groups in the applicant pools. For Hispanic
students, RA recruitment gaps were also small,
but these gaps were consecutive throughout all
years under review. Both sizable and consecutive RA recruitment gaps were evident with
the international student population, a group
that ballooned from 10 percent of the student
population to nearly 25 percent in the last four
years. Despite evidence of some recruitment
gaps, we also found that the total number of
students of color and international students in
the hired RA staff had increased by 47 percent
between 2008 and 2014.
Participant observations and focus groups
yielded multiple assertions to explain RA recruitment gaps. In the focus group with RAs,
some suggested that underrepresented students were simply unaware of RA job opportunities. As one RA said, "They don't . . . know
what the RA position entails. There is very little
information communicated about what an RA
does." The same RA, an international student,
also noted that his fellow international peers
had concerns about language barriers and feelings of inferiority. A professional staff member
added that "the gap in international students

might be related to the 20-hour-a-week limit"
associated with visa restrictions.

Departmental Focus
Our study found that recruiting a diverse staff
of RAs was related to the degree to which the
department focused on diversity issues in its
mission and practices. Data from the focus
groups indicated that the department had
focused on diversity issues across a number of
areas, including RA recruitment, but this focus
was intermittent and sometimes perceived
as minimal. One professional staff member
commented,
In the last five years . . . we've used the
NASPA competencies, and the EquityDiversity-Inclusion competency being one of
them . . . but what gets lost is when new staff
come in but we don't return to that content
. . . it impacts overall staff awareness and
training.
A number of professional staff asserted that
diversity issues were not a consistent focus
because conversations about diversity were
naturally uncomfortable and that such conversations were mostly driven at an individual
level. As another professional staff member
phrased it, "I think there have been individual conversations between [our departmental]
conversations that are more in depth, but as
a department it's been minimal. There's also
a comfortability factor; some people are more
comfortable than others."
The focus group with RAs underscored that
even the smallest efforts by the department to
promote diversity issues were perceived as validation for underrepresented students. One RA
summed up the focus groups' comments about
recruitment and retention of staff:

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

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3