A newly released report amplifies the narratives of staff of color (SOC) in higher education, highlighting the impact of whiteness in the workplace on their experiences.
Reporting on data drawn from interviews with 50 full-time SOC at the University of Michigan, “Thriving Staff of Color: Imagining Higher Education Institutional Transformation” is the latest report from researchers on the CASCaDE Project (Change Agents Shaping Campus Diversity and Equity). CASCaDE, an initiative for enabling equity-minded transformation in higher education, is a part of the National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID) at the University of Michigan.
The early stages of the research project were inspired by Nichole Burnside, managing director of the University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center, whose experiences and conversations with other SOC brought up questions surrounding discrimination and toxicity in the workplace.
“We were hearing about the racism, anti-Blackness and misogynistic silencing of staff of color who when attempting to expose the toxicity experienced in departments and units were ignored or viewed as lacking professionalism or incompetent,” said Dr. Patricia Coleman-Burns, assistant professor emerita at the University of Michigan. 
Amber Williams
According to the report, higher education stakeholders, employers, and managers must examine how racialized structures directly impact practices, policies, and norms that affect SOC.
“While there has been significant growth in diversity scholarship about racial campus climate and equity issues, few studies focus on the experiences of staff of color,” said Angie Kim, a research associate at the NCID and co-author of the report. “Our report shows patterns around how promotional and leadership opportunities, relationships with supervisors and colleagues, and workplace policies either diminished or empowered [SOC] sense of professional agency and expertise.”
The narratives shared by women and non-binary SOC in the report, highlighted the ways the emotional labor and caretaking within a particular unit or department often fell on them disproportionately.
“This study makes a giant leap forward to disaggregate race, gender and status,” said Coleman-Burns. “Staff are all too often seen as laborers and not part of the intellectual endeavor. Staff can be essential intellect creators in higher education and in society.”
The report also highlights how SOC were often overlooked and overburdened as one of the few staff members in their department with any minoritized racial status.
“These issues have real implications for retention in departments and for the well-being and livelihood of staff of color,” said Amber Williams, a research associate at the NCID and a co-author of the report. “To foster an environment where thriving is possible, there needs to be an intentional alignment between equity statements espoused by institutions and the multilayered experiences of SOC at the departmental level, including their interactions with colleagues and employers.”
SOC with positive workplace experiences also shared their narratives, attributing their perceptions to validation, diversity among staff, respect for SOC expertise and sense of belonging.
“Racial equity and institutional transformation in higher education can’t be achieved with staff of color at the margins,” said Williams. “Efforts need to be critical about culture, including how the culture of whiteness shapes the exclusionary practices many staff of color encounter.”
The report offered three actionable recommendations, strategies and guiding questions. The recommendations include cultivating a race-conscious organizational culture, respecting and affirming SOC professional agency and expertise and generating resources that support SOC wellness, social connection and professional development.
“For each recommendation, we’ve included concrete steps for managers and administrators to learn and reflect on conditions for SOC in their units, and to act on what they learn,” said Elizabeth R. Cole, director of the National Center for Institutional Diversity, and University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Psychology and Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan.
“I hope that through this report, SOC experiences can move from the margins and toward the center of higher education strategic efforts that include an intentional and measured focus on equitable policies and practices that shift the culture of the academy,” said Williams.
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