By: Jim Brooks

The past couple weeks I have been following the news stories around the issue of race at more than one of NASFAA’s member institutions. Articles on racial issues, and racial concerns have consistently cropped up in the media, but they never seem to have a life beyond just a quick story, and then on to the next story.

That changed over the past few weeks as African-American students at the University of Missouri - Columbia (MU) took a stand against issues around the campus, and were then joined by other student groups including athletes, and finally the faculty. Things came to a head last week, and culminated in the university president stepping down from his position effective immediately, and then the campus chancellor also announcing that he would move into a new position effective January 1, 2016.

Meanwhile, Yale University has moved into the headlines for issues around race at that campus, and students identifying areas where they believe that their race resulted in their being discriminated against by other students, and student bodies.

Other institutions are seeing students begin to voice their support for the struggles at MU, and marches, rallies, etc., are taking place across the country on our campuses.

I have had a few people reach out to me, not because of my role as NASFAA's diversity officer, but because I have friends and former colleagues at MU. I have spent a lot of time the past few weeks following the story because of my ties to the Midwest, my history with the institution, and because, as a person of color, and particularly an African-American, I am concerned, and I care about what happens on our campuses.

Race is a difficult thing to talk about. Within our profession, I’m sure there are members who feel like engaging in these types of conversations are outside of the scope of the financial aid profession, and we should defer to the traditional organizations or offices that typically handle social issues–for example, equity and diversity offices, student life, or residence life. However, in reality, race permeates almost everything that we do since it is a part of us. In financial aid, we are often called upon to be champions of college access–and let’s be honest that race, and certainly privilege, have a great deal to do with access.

I’ve certainly spent time thinking about my own institution, and the issues we have around race. I’ve listened as students have talked about their negative experiences either on campus, or in our city, and it concerns me. I don’t have answers, and I am as frustrated as others over our lack of progress when it comes to race. I keep remembering Rodney King’s comment in the early ‘90s, “can’t we all just get along” and yet I know that we can’t until we are willing to have a serious conversation around the issues of race and discrimination, and until we are all willing to work together to do something about it. It is a tough conversation, and by nature, we don’t like those conversations. We don’t like confrontation. We’d like to think that we’re all getting along, and our worlds are safe and secure. But they’re not.

What has occurred at MU hasn’t resolved the issue there, and in some ways, it seems to have inflamed certain groups even more. And so students of color are facing even more threats, which are then impacting the whole campus. One of my Facebook ‘friends’ who is actually truly a friend as compared to just a virtual friend, and lives in Columbia, posted on Monday night of last week that she had gone to campus to pick up her son and bring him home since she was so fearful for his safety.

So what do we do about this? How do we move ahead? As NASFAA members, we are all part of institutions of higher education—those so called bastions of liberalism—but our institutions are also very different. Yes, we have the liberal institutions, or institutions perceived as liberal depending on your political bent, but we also have institutions that are very conservative. We have institutions that serve different ethnic groups. We have institutions that serve non-traditional students. But regardless of our mission and background, race and racial concerns always seem to be there.

I’m writing this somewhat as therapy for me. It’s sort of a dump of everything I’m feeling right now, and I’m sure that I’m not the only one. One of the things that I’ve appreciated about NASFAA is that everyone is welcome. We are joined together because we support NASFAA’s mission, because we support educational opportunities and access for our nation, regardless of what we think about racial or ethnic issues, regardless of our backgrounds, regardless of our lives, regardless of our prejudices. Regardless of everything, we agree that we support students, and we put our efforts into this, and try to put aside everything else that might get in the way. NASFAA has recognized these issues, and consequently we’ve had a committee or task force that looks at diversity and inclusion. And now, NASFAA has a diversity officer.

But race is there. So what do we do with it? My hope is that we put aside our fears, and openly discuss it. Whether it’s in our committees, or at our conference. Let’s face these issues that could so easily divide us. Let’s talk about prejudice and discrimination, because even if we think it doesn’t exist in our association, it exists on our campuses, so it impacts our lives and our work.

At our conference next year, we hope to present sessions that touch on these matters. While they are not regulatory, or specifically financial aid related, they are related to how we work together as professionals. I hope that you will help us with this conversation. We don’t have all the answers. But together we can at least have a conversation, that could in turn lead to action, and could even positively impact our lives.

In the meantime, I would challenge you to begin those conversations within your sphere of influence. Look at your own attitudes and behaviors, and how as aid administrators you might oppress or negatively impact the students that you serve. Also, look at your relationships with your colleagues, and how you might be negatively impacting them. Have a dialogue within your office, talking about and then implementing realistic ways to create spaces where staff and students feel welcome and safe—and where a culture of inclusion can flourish.  

Jim Brooks is the director of financial aid & scholarships at the University of Oregon. He has served on NASFAA's Board of Directors in many capacities and is currently serving as the Board's inaugural diversity officer.

Publication Date: 11/19/2015

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