Fostering Belonging: How to Avoid Tokenism, Woke-Washing and Homophily on Your Campus

Description

Modern workplaces face increasing pressure from internal and external stakeholders to maintain positive impressions of their commitment to diversity. This is especially true of higher education institutions. Research shows that heterogeneous learning communities benefit everyone and that, as the nation changes, learning institutions and organizations need to evolve to more closely resemble the students and communities they serve.

But simply hiring members of a minority group or recruiting a more diverse student body will not ensure that marginalized people will feel comfortable enough to contribute to the heterogeneous culture the institution strives for.

Learning Outcomes

• Describe tokenism, woke-washing and homophily and how these concepts impact campus culture
• Consider how tokenism, woke-washing and homophily negatively impact marginalized identities
• Use learning to shift organizational values from promoting culture fit to promoting culture add