NorthWest Arkansas Community College Focuses On Diversity

BENTONVILLE -- NorthWest Arkansas Community College officials are set on developing an atmosphere in which people of different backgrounds feel comfortable.

Kathryn Birkhead, director for diversity and inclusion, led a 12-person committee of college administrators that met January through May to establish a diversity and inclusion strategic plan.

One of the plan's starting points was the college's overall five-year strategic plan that includes a commitment to "cultivate an atmosphere of diversity and inclusion throughout the college community through faculty, staff, and administration recruitment and retention."

That theme is echoed in the student learning outcomes listed in the college catalogue. "Students gain greater awareness of cultural perspectives" is one of those desired outcomes.

When the college has discussed diversity in the past, it has concentrated on the actual numbers of students by ethnicity and race, Birkhead said.

"And we're looking to move away from things you just count and look more at climate," Birkhead said. "How welcome everybody feels, how much they feel they find what they need to thrive in our environment. And those are much harder things to measure, of course."

The college began using a new climate survey starting last fall. The survey offered by Noel-Levitz will be administered once every two years.

"It's really just trying to get a handle on what the student's experience is like," said Lisa Anderson, director of institutional research.

Using that survey allows the college to compare itself to other similar schools that use it as well, Anderson said. Last year's survey cost the college a little less than $5,000, she said.

The college's plan also calls for more training for search committees to make certain those involved in hiring faculty and staff members are sensitive to certain cultural differences.

"That means making sure search committees can get outside the usual patterns of looking at people who aren't just like them," Birkhead said. "People of different cultures have different ways of communicating, and if you didn't pick up on those things, you might think they were being rude."

The college also is looking to expand the number and scope of its student organizations.

"We don't have an African-American student organization, and our Pacific Islander student organization has been dormant for a while," Birkhead said. "We are hoping we get the numbers to get those going again this fall."

That's important because attachment to small groups on campus affects a student's engagement and comfort levels, Birkhead said.

Student leaders will be encouraged to get more involved in planning and carrying out campus events related to the celebration of different cultures, she said.

Karen O'Donohoe, assistant director of the college's Disability Resource Center, was among those who worked on Birkhead's committee. The center works with students with disabilities by identifying how it can best improve access to the academic environment for those students, O'Donohoe said.

Disability is a natural part of diversity, O'Donohoe wrote in an email.

"As the nation's largest minority group, people with disabilities cross all racial/ethnic, gender, educational and socioeconomic lines," she wrote. "NWACC recognizes the value that these students bring to our community, and we as a campus want to ensure that they continue to receive excellent opportunities and support here at the college."

The college has a large, diverse student body, "And we want to continue to grow and celebrate that," O'Donohoe wrote.

The college's percentage of students identified as white dropped from 78.2 percent in 2009 to 69.6 percent last year. At the same time, the number of students identified as Hispanic or Latino grew from 10.8 percent to 14.9 percent of total enrollment. The number of mixed-race students grew from 0.1 percent to 2.5 percent of enrollment, according to college figures.

The college's enrollment was 8,020 last fall.

Birkhead has done a great job of identifying action steps from the committee's work, Anderson said.

"We are this community's college and we need to be serving the community in ways they want us to be serving them," Anderson said. "Diversity's a big piece of that."

This week the college is hosting a three-day program called LIFE, which stands for Learning, Improvement, Fun and Empowerment. It is offered to high school students from across the region to help them understand the higher-education opportunities available to them, as well as "to create an atmosphere of acceptance and cultural celebration by linking communities and peoples," according to a college news release.