Running head: ISSUES REGARDING MULTIRACIAL STUDENTS

Case Study in Higher Education:

Student Affairs and Higher Education Policy Issues Related to Multiracial Students
Denise Stewart
Georgia Southern University
Dr. Don S. Stumpf
March 3, 2014

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Case Study in Higher Education:
Student Affairs and Higher Education Policy Issues Related to Multiracial Students
In this case study regarding higher education in United Stated the subjected article I
chose is Student affairs and higher education policy issues related to multiracial students
written by Angela Kellogg and Amanda Suniti Niskode, published in 2008. Speaking of this, in
this case study I will try to analyze current situation regarding multiracial issues in system of
higher education in US, as well as future plans, but also with insight to previous problems
concerning the identity of multiracial students in United States. The identity issue seems to be
one of the burning questions in 21st century. In combination with very sensitive period in life of
each high school student, the result of finding your own place in the community is crucial for the
personal development of every single individual. If one knows its own heritage and has chance to
speak up for itself, there is no doubt that this person will be valuable member of society one day.
Therefore, it is very important to nurture the positive climate and to encourage people to feel as
the part of American society, with their own traditions and origins.
Issues of the Case
According to Kellogg& Suniti Niskode, thinking beyond the monoracial organizations is
first step in overcoming multiracial issues. However, this needs the full engagement of agencies
at all state levels. When it comes to data collecting the pleading for two or more races- the
major change occurred in 1997 when the U.S. Office of Management and Budget allowed
Americans to identify themselves as belonging to two or more races, biracial and multiracial
individuals could only choose one of four racial categories: White, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander,
American Indian/Alaskan Native (Garbarini-Philippe, 2010). Moreover, in 2000 census more

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that 6 million people chose more than one racial option. However, the recent surveys has shown
that only certain percentage of higher education institutions offered their students to indicate if
their belong to multiracial category less than 30% of overall number of institutions involved.
Also, the number of students saying that they had been forced to choose just one racial box is
getting bigger, and also many of them dont want to identify themselves at all. Furthermore, there
is obvious lack of information regarding multiracial students before 2003; this implicates the
following: previous programs and services were not established in the proper manner and the
confusion regarding racial issue took its place.
There are many examples of students who directly experienced difficulties in their daily
life, regarding the multiracial issues in higher education institutions. Lina Roque is the student
with clearly multiracial heritage. She is one -quarter Portuguese, one -quarter Chinese and half
Italian. Although she is most familiar with her Chinese heritage, she never succeeded in
implementing herself in Asian student communities in Bentley University in Waltham, in
Massachusetts. When I tried to approach the other students, they kind of shied away, or made
awkward conversation. I could tell that, although I grew up with many of the same traditions,
they did not accept me. (Williams, 2014).
Solutions to the problem
The very first step needed in order to improve the current situation regarding multiracial
students is defining the barriers that these students are facing. The first barrier is perception of
others according to personal appearance of multiracial students. Hereby, we could recall
previously mentioned Lina, who is white girl, but she feels like Chinese girl. Here is the role of
prejudices very conspicuous. Moreover, some students are defining themselves as mixed raced,

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but their surrounding keeps putting them in particular ethnical frame. When people in the college
community are not willing to accept multiracial students as mixed race individuals, the learning
environment become a challenge and is difficult for multiracial students to feel accepted and
comfortable by the college (Jones & Jones, 2010). The second barrier is their personal feel
regarding their perception of belonging to particular community. They often feel like they dont
belong anywhere, and as final result they are marginalized and socially disconnected. One of the
solutions proposed is allowing these students to participate in higher education processes without
predetermination of their race. Other recommendations for higher education administrators are
to support mixed race faculty and staff in any efforts they might make to come out as multiracial
and help increase the visibility of mixed people in higher education campuses and encourage
these staff members to become mentors and role models to the mixed-race students (King, 2008).
Confusion also comes from mixing the terms multicultural and multiracial. These words are not
synonymous. Multiculturalism is linked to specific demographic area, and it refers to diversity in
fields of ethnic, race and culture of particular groups of people living in the same area.
Multiracial refers to individual, to one specific person who has diversity in its own heritage and
origin.
Conclusion
At this point, we can see that being a multiracial student in US is not easy. However, with
the work and good organization within the educational institutions, but also in other state and
federal organizations the situation could be quite improved. The steps that already have been
taken show results, but there is still lot of things that needs to be done. The cooperation and
interactive work between the organizations and multiracial individuals is of great significance.

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The individuals should keep giving their own feedback, and with that information organizations
could help improving the situation in general.

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References
Garbarini-Philippe Roberta. (2010). Perceptions, Representation, and Identity Development
of Multiracial Students in American Higher Education. Journal of Student Affairs at New
York University - Volume VI. Retrieved February 28, from
http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/scmsAdmin/media/users/lh62/Garbarini-PhilippeJoSA.pdf.
Jones, Adriana& Jones Jeremy. (2010). Breaking Barriers for Multiracial Students. National
forum of multicultural issues journal. Volume 7. Retrieved February 28, from
http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal%20Volumes/Jones,%20Adriana
%20Breaking%20Barriers%20for%20Multiracial%20Students%20NFMIJ
%20V7%20N1%202010.pdf.
Kellogg, Angela & Suniti Niskode Amanda. (2008). Student Affairs and Higher Education Policy
Issues Related to Multiracial Students. Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.
Retrieved February 28, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ss.290/abstract.
King, R. Alissa. (2008). Student perspectives on multiracial identity. In J. H. Schuh & E. J.
Whitt (Eds.), Biracial and multiracial student (pp. 33-41). San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass/Wiley Periodicals
Williams, Andrea. (2014). A Mixed Bag: Examining the College Experience of
Multi-Racial Students. Insight into Diversity. Retrieved February 28,
from http://www.insightintodiversity.com/race-ethnicity/a-mixed-bagexamining-the-college-experience-of-multi-racial-students-by-andreawilliams

Running head: ISSUES REGARDING MULTIRACIAL STUDENTS