Western

Carolina
University
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION

1 CAMPUS CLIMATE

3 ASSESSMENT DATA

4 PROCESS

4 DIRECT FINDINGS

5 Importance of Inclusion

7 Self-Identified Inclusion

10 Inclusion Responsibility

11 Inclusion at Western Carolina University 

12 ASSESSMENT ANALYSIS

14 PROPOSED RECOMMENDATIONS

15 SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
 INCLUSION
ASSESSMENT
SPRING 2018

INTRODUCTION
          The Higher Education Student Affairs (HESA) EDHE 650-01 class has undergone research on
the campus of Western Carolina University to benefit various departments’ efforts to maintain a
regular practice of assessment, evaluation, and research. The team was comprised of four higher
education-focused graduate students at Western Carolina University: Hannah Boone, Jessica
Olshefski, Hannah Scott, and Hunter Yarborough. The assessment project assigned to our team
addressed the question: "Western Carolina University claims to be an inclusive campus. Is that
true"? Our focus on this imperative assessment question has lasted four months, all of which have
been spent studying the campus climate, and assessing qualitative data produced by the
Department of Residential Living ACUHO-I Benchworks Resident Assessment to maximize the
final assessment proposal for the campuses benefit.

&
CAMPUS CLIMATE

            After a year-long search, Ricardo Nazario-Colon was announced as Western Carolina

University’s first Chief Diversity Officer in April 2016 (Studenc, 2016). The installment of
Nazario-Colon’s position showed a small step in the right direction by the university to begin
working towards increased diversity and inclusion at WCU, and it could not have come at a
better time. Racial tension in the United States was at an all-time high as the voices of the Black
Lives Matter movement grew louder. This tension was reflected on the sidewalks of WCU as
students in favor of—and against—the movement put their thoughts and feelings into chalk
messages for all to see (Kays, 2016). Although jarring for the community, this display of political
and social belief brought the conversation about inclusion and diversity to the forefront.

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 CAMPUS CLIMATE (CONTINUED)
            Western was not the only university experiencing unrest. Conversations and initiatives
inspired by diversity and inclusion have seen a spike across the United States since the
acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer in 2012.  Black Lives Matter, a national movement
gained attention for addressing systemic racism within the criminal justice system (Black Lives
Matter, 2012).  This movement, among others, crept into higher education within the next few
years.  In 2015, student activists issued a list of demands to administration of the University of
Missouri, calling for the hiring of faculty of color in addition to a a hunger strike by a graduate
student that called for the resignation of the system president (Concerned Student 1950,
2015).  Ellis (2017) compiled a list of acts of vandalism, intimidating posters, swastikas, and
other symbols of hate disseminated at the University of Texas. Ndemanu (2017) analyzed 73
lists of demands from Black students across the United States following high profile acts of
racial discrimination and exclusion. Additionally, student activists across the country were
fighting to make higher education accessible for marginalized populations (Hoffman &
Mitchell, 2016).  

            In light of the contemporary social movements in the United States, universities need to
take preemptive steps to address the issue of minority exclusion and alienation on college
campuses (Ndemanu, 2017). As a predominantly white institution in a state with the largest
number of higher education institutions, it is paramount to find out how WCU students feel
about inclusion and then working to initiate action accordingly. The Department of Residential
Living ACUHO-I Benchworks Resident Assessment was an important step for the university as
the questions within it generated the opportunity to gauge the student body’s perception of
this important topic, as well as to gain insight into what can be done in the future to improve
the state of inclusion on WCU’s campus. The team’s hope is that the data provided from this
assessment that has now been synthesized and analyzed, will be utilized to create institutional
initiatives for education on inclusion and diversity for current and future students of this
regional university. 

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 ASSESSMENT DATA
            Because completing the survey was voluntary, the total
response number of each set of data varies. However, our
assessment team was still able to identify certain trends
among the demographics of the survey and compare them to Figure 1.1
that of Western Carolina University’s total population
demographics. The respondent samples consisted of between
800 and 1200 responses. Of these responses, approximately
60% identified as “Female,” 39.5% identified as “Male,” and .5%
identified as “Other Gender.” Additionally, approximately 76%
identified as “White,” 11% identified as “Black/African
American,” 7% identified as “Hispanic/Latino,” 3% identified as
“Asian,” 3% identified as “American Indian/Alaska Native,” and
1% identified as “Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.” Upon
comparing this to the demographics of the wider university,
our assessment team found that the demographics are rather
similar with insignificant variations. The only exception to this
conclusion is that no data was available for the university
“Other Gender” population percentage. For the sake of visual
simplicity, this data comparison has been illustrated in the
following table (Figure 1.1). 

              The
  purpose of this assessment was to gain an understanding of the WCU community’s perception on how
inclusive the campus as well as assess the perception of individual demographics within the community. Additionally,
our assessment team sought to find data which aids the university in its initiative to make Western into a more inclusive
environment than it has been in the past.

            The data utilized by our team was gathered from a survey released by the Department of Residential
Living with the purpose of gauging the student experience at Western. Within this survey was a section of
questions aimed specifically at measuring student feelings of inclusion and perspectives on different
aspects of it within the context of WCU. This survey was limited however in some areas. Because the
completion of the survey was voluntary, many students within the sample did not complete all questions
regarding inclusion on campus. Additionally, certain use of vocabulary can cause confusion for students. An
example of this is the question concerning responsibility in bringing inclusion to campus. However, the
choice in vocabulary for this particular question could have affected the results. The question inquired
about who is responsible for making WCU a welcoming environment. Seemingly, the confusion of these
two terms in this questionnaire is innocent. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The words welcome and
inclusion have dissimilar definitions, and therefore should not be used interchangeably. Some students
believed this question was gauging a student’s first-time experience at Western rather than their feelings
of being included throughout the entirety of their time spent here. Vocabulary can have a massive impact
on how questions are answered, meaning some results from this assessment could potentially be skewed.
Finally, as mentioned before, the university demographics provided to our team provided no data in regard
to the “Other Gender” population, causing an inconsistency when analyzing perceptions of inclusion across
all genders. Despite these limitations, our assessment team was still able to analyze the data and infer
recommendations for future improvement based on that analysis. It is our hope that the data and
recommendations provided in this assessment effort will be utilized to improve the experience of future
community members of Western Carolina University.

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1
 ASSESSMENT PROCESS
            Our assessment team was primarily responsible for analyzing the provided data and
reporting stages of the assessment process. The data was collected by Residential Living
through an online survey. Our assessment team received about 4,000 qualitative responses to a
survey about inclusion performed by Residential Living at WCU. The data was then divided into
four sets to simplify the analysis process; each set of data represented a different question
regarding inclusion at WCU. Each team member coded an assigned set of data and then reported
the findings back to the team. The team then extracted common themes from each of the data
sets and compiled them together to synthesize the overarching themes of the data. Following
the individual and collaborative evaluation of the assessment data, the team intentionally
viewed the findings in  different perspectives to begin making connections between common
themes and race and gender. Finally, the findings were compiled into a comprehensive report
and PowerPoint presentation for the Department of Residential Living and Intercultural Affairs
primarily.

DIRECT FINDINGS
            The assessment team was tasked with decoding four main qualitative sets provided by
Shawna Young by way of the Department of Residential Living. These data sets addressed the
following four questions: Why is inclusion important? Explain why you do or do not feel included at
Western Carolina University? Who is responsible for making the campus inclusive? What would
make Western Carolina University more inclusive? Through our analysis of the data, our group has
come to discover the following information we feel is imperative to the positive growth of the
Western Carolina University community.

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 DIRECT FINDINGS
Importance of Inclusion
            The Department of Residential Figure 2.1
Living provided the team with 1,015
responses to the survey question: Why is
Inclusion important in 2018? Due to such
a large amount of responses, it was
challenging to find just a few common
themes. From the various open ended
responses, 14 common answers
emerged, however, there were 4
categories that were more prominent,
and individually made up over 10% of the
total results. There were 10 categories
that made up under 4% of the total, and
for the purpose of this report, will be
categorized collectively as ‘Other’. Below
(Figure 2.1) is a visual representation of
the responses the team received:

            Of the total responses, 26% fell into the category of respondents did not answer the
question (Figure 2.2); this may be due to lack of interest, or possibly because the
participants may not have understood the question fully.
Figure 2.2

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DIRECT FINDINGS
Importance of Inclusion
More common responses fell into one of the following categories, Acceptance at
24%, Being a Part of Something 11%, and Related to University Experience 11%
Figure 2.3 (Figure 2.3). These categories included responses such as:

From these demographics

our team was able to
conclude a few
commonalities within the
responses received,  that
the team feels Residential
Living and
Intercultural Affairs will
find helpful. 

 - This break down shows

that non-minority groups
also understand the
importance of inclusion. 

- One race or gender was

not more likely to say that
inclusion was not important
in 2018.

- Throughout these
demographics there were
two categories that
appeared throughout every
gender and racial type. Both
were not among the top 4
main categories. (‘Being a
Part of Something’ &
‘Deserve it’)

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 DIRECT FINDINGS
Importance of Inclusion
            The Residential Living survey Figure 3.1
provided 857 responses related to
why a student does or does not feel
included on the Western Carolina
University campus. As a qualitative
assessment method, students were
able to type in their responses to the
prompt to explain their self-
identified inclusion level. (Figure 3.1)
expresses the inclusive
identifications of all student
respondents, categorized by
students who feel included, students
who do not feel included, and
students who do not understand the
meaning of inclusion.

            With a large number of students who do not understand what inclusion means, the data
truly only represents 80% of respondents. Of the 686 respondents who answered the question
with a reason as to why they do or do not feel included, there were outstanding common
themes that the team feels Residential Living and Intercultural affairs will find helpful.
Students that feel included on the WCU campus identified four common reasons that they feel

+
included:
 1. Friendly/Welcome Campus

 2. Student Clubs and Organizations/Involvement

 3. Positive Faculty/Staff Influence

 4. Church/Faith Figure 3.2

            Astin’s Student   Involvement
      Theory 1984
(Figure 3.2) explains that students who are
involved on their campus make meaningful
relationships and are more likely to persist
throughout their undergraduate career.
Additionally, residential students often have
more access to campus programing and are
inevitably more invested in the campus culture,
as is reflected in the provided data.

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 DIRECT FINDINGS
Importance of Inclusion

_
            In contrast to students who feel included, students who do not feel included on campus
shared a consensus of four main reasons they feel excluded:                        

1. Not a Friendly/Welcome Campus

 2. No Appealing Student Clubs and Organizations/Involvement Opportunities
3. Presence of Racism/Prejudice  
4. Personal Choice of No Social Interaction

             Prior to the synthesizing of the survey data, the team assumed that students belonging to
a minority group would have expressed a less positive response to their feelings of
inclusiveness, however this was not the case. The majority of minority students, or students
identifying with a traditionally marginalized population had a positive outlook on the inclusive
nature of Western Carolina University. The majority of respondents that had a lower level of
feeling included were White students. Due to the lack of racial diversity on campus, the team is
unsure as to whether this data reflects a true finding that White students feel less included than
other races, because White students made up eighty percent of the total survey respondents.

I'm n
ot
what even sur
the c e
envir am pus
onm
ent i
s

?
          Additional to the positive and negative quantitative
responses from students, 100 respondents indicated
that they were unsure of what “inclusion” means or why
it matters. twelve percent of students being unaware of
the meaning and importance of inclusion reflects a lack
of interest in the concept or a simple lack of knowledge.
To put this in perspective, of the 11,000 students that
attend WCU, 1,320 of them identify with this category.

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DIRECT FINDINGS
Importance of Inclusion
The below chart (Figure 3.3) visually explains different types of answers given by student
respondents. As can be seen, students who do not understand how to answer the question
provide reasons for feeling unable to do so.

Figure 3.3

+
_
?
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DIRECT FINDINGS
Inclusion Responsibility

            After interpreting the data, we found that the answer to the question, “Who is responsible for
making WCU a welcoming environment,” is a resounding everyone. From the 1,076--response
sample, 687 of those—or 63.9%—agree that the task of making Western Carolina University an
inclusive campus would be an institutional movement rather than an obligation placed upon
individual identifiable groups or functional areas. This trend can be identified across multiple race
and gender identities as well.

             Aside from the male population (42.8%), at least 50% of each demographic agreed that
bringing inclusion to campus is an institutional movement that all members of the community should
be involved in. We found that this difference in the male response pool was because male
participants were more likely to identify individual representatives or functional areas of the
university (i.e. Brian Boyer, Residential Living, Orientation, etc.), versus answering with an all-
encompassing “everyone.” Additionally, the data from this question equips us with valuable
information in regard to who the key players in this initiative would be. First and foremost, the
Department of Residential Living has a significant role to play. Within the responses, the
Department of Residential Living and/or its employee(s) were mentioned 142 times by respondents.
Furthermore, within this sample the words “RA,” “Residential Assistant,” and other relevant spelling
variations were mentioned 110 times. Clearly, from this data, we can see that Residential Living
staff would serve as a front-runner in this initiative. Not surprisingly, the RAs especially are in an
important position, as they have perhaps the most extensive amount of time with the students of
WCU. Also not surprisingly, the faculty of WCU hold a great deal of influence in this initiative. The
participants in this survey mentioned the word, “Faculty,” “Professor,” or “Teacher” approximately
154 times. This demonstrates not only  the influence that faculty members have on their students,
but also the propensity students have to look to the faculty rather than administration to affect
change on campus. It should be noted that the word, “Faculty” was mentioned many more times
than is represented in the number above. However, due to the multiple definitions of this term, it
can be assumed that many students use it to represent all employees of the university, rather than
just  academic faculty members. As such, responses that did not clearly identify faculty as an
independent group from general WCU employees were omitted.
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 DIRECT FINDINGS
AUGUST 22, 2019 VOL. 29

Inclusion at WCU
          All the responses to this question were coded 1-13. The process began with codes 1-5 and
CODING

the number grew the further the data set was analyzed. After calculating the percentages, the
six most prominent responses were recorded and subsets of those codes were identified.  For
example, the facilities code had subsets of parking, updating residence halls, and signage
(Figure 4.1). The most prominent responses are represented in the pie chart.

            There were 925 responses to this question.  The largest percentage of students (33%)
said they they did not know what would make WCU more inclusive or they did not answer at
all (N/A).  This indicates that a large percentage of students do not know what inclusion means
or their understanding is not developed enough to formulate a useful response.  Students also 
FINDINGS

used language such as “they feel welcomed”or “people are nice”, which reflects that they are
looking at inclusion at surface level or misunderstand how race and ethnicity is involved.  The
second largest percentage of students said they feel more events that involved everyone and
programming around diversity (30%) would make WCU more inclusive.  A subset of the
events/programs response was a call for programming from RAs that included everyone on
their hall.  About 150 students think that WCU is already inclusive (14%).  The next prominent
responses were based around the people (faculty, staff, and students-12%) and improving
facilities (6%) at WCU to make it more inclusive.  Students felt that they should see more
faculty of color, and staff and students should be nicer in general to one another.  Improving
facilities included more parking, more updated residence hall rooms, and a welcome sign at the
entrance to campus.
ACTION

            It is very clear from this data set that students need to be educated on what inclusion
means and how it affects different races, genders, and cultures.  It is also imperative to
understand that students really desire more programming that intentionally brings people
together.  There were no substantial differences in responses from race to race or gender to
gender.  

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 ASSESSMENT ANALYSIS
AUGUST 22, 2019

            The direct findings produced by the team upon the assessment of the Department of
Residential Living ACUHO-I Benchworks Resident Assessment data has offered an imperative look
into Western Carolina University students’ feelings of inclusivity on campus. There were 2,066
quantitative responses from residential students that indicated their self-identified level of
inclusiveness by addressing four specific questions:

                                                  

      
1 Why is Inclusion important in 2018?

2
Why do you or do not feel included on the
Western Carolina University campus?

3 Who is Responsible for Creating a Welcoming

Environment at WCU?

4 What would make WCU more inclusive?

            Student respondents answered transparently, offering valuable information for the use of both
Intercultural Affairs and Residential living in both departments’ efforts to make the Western
Carolina University campus more inclusive to all students. Overall, the voluntary survey was
comprised of mostly White students (76%) who identified as female and male, with minority
students representing 24% of the data in addition to 0.5% of students who identified with an
unspecified gender. The demographics of the respondents represent residential students only and
correlate with Western Carolina University’s total population within a margin of 3% difference.

            Upon analysis of the synthesized data, our team was surprised by the identities of residential
students that claimed they did not feel included in the campus culture. A majority of these students
identified as White students who overwhelmingly answered that they intentionally chose not to be
social or do not have a friend group they identify with on campus. The team’s expectations prior to
the assessment was that minority groups would make up the largest population that does not feel
included, however the data proves this to be false. Overall, minority students produced more
positive responses to the survey.  

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 ASSESSMENT ANALYSIS
AUGUST 22, 2019

1
            Aside from the direct findings within the quantitative data, the team identified three themes
that we believe may have impacted the data. The first is the campus climate during the time of the
survey. As previously mentioned (p. 3), residential students received and responded to the survey
in the fall of 2017, before the heightened racial tension on the WCU campus. After the active
education of students on diversity and inclusion in the spring semester of 2018, the team expects
that respondents may have different approaches to answering questions of inclusion.

          Secondly, it is apparent, as a result of the team's findings, that a large percentage of residential

2
students are not aware of what inclusion is. Though it is unclear why, students seem uneducated on
inclusion and diversity in addition to the importance of both concepts on an institution's campus.
On average, twenty-five percent of the total respondent population answered one or more
questions with "I don't know" or "what even is inclusion". The team is unable to identify if the
students who answered inconclusively are active contributors to the current racial tension on
campus or not. Regardless, it is our assumption that these students are not actively participating in
positive racial justice and equity movements.   

            Finally, one of the largest limitations the team faced when studying the data is that the total

3
population of the voluntary respondents are residential students. Because of this pool of
respondents, distance learners, part-time students, non-residential students, faculty, and staff
were not included in the findings. Though the demographics of the Department of Residential
Living ACUHO-I Benchworks Resident Assessment do reflect the total population of WCU, that
does not necessarily indicate that the 9,500 students that did not take the survey have the same
perspectives as the students who did. 

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ASSESSMENT RECOMMENDATIONS
AUGUST 22, 2019

Upon the analysis of the Department of Residential Living ACUHO-I Benchworks Resident
Assessment, The team has compiled a short list of realistic, and manageable recommendations.   

SURVEY SPECIFIC
Intentional description of 'inclusion' on future surveys to clarify what

1 the terms are being used to gauge on the WCU campus and maintain
consistency of terms throughout all common questions. 

Including categories to choose from as responses to each question could

provide students with the words to explain how they feel and would

2 provide clear data for future assessment teams to analyze. Students

who wish to expand on their chosen answer could elaborate in a text
box also included as an answer option for each question. 

When pulling the data from the initial survey responses, the team

3
suggests including the demographics of each student on the same Excel
sheet as their responses in an effort to correlate race, gender, and year
against their answers. 

Redistribution of the survey in the spring semester of 2018 or the fall

4 semester of 2018 would properly assess how students are feeling about
diversity and inclusion in light of the current campus climate. 

INSTITUTIONAL
1 Focused programming that targets the topics of diversity, inclusion, and
sensitivity training, specifically within the residence halls.

Creation and distribution of a survey focusing on diversity and inclusion

2 for non-residential students. The different perspectives may be

beneficial to institutional advancement. 

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 SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
AUGUST 22, 2019

A special thank you to Shawna Young for guiding the assessment team 
and working as a campus partner with the Higher Education Student Affairs Graduate program.

Department of Residential Living ACUHO-I Benchworks Resident Assessment

Images: Western Carolina University Photography & Google Images

Black Lives Matter. (2012). About the Black Lives Matter network. Retrieved from                                   
             http://blacklivesmatter.com/

Concerned Student 1950. (2015). List of demands. Retrieved from                                                                       

           http://www.columbiatribune.com/

Ellis, L. (2017, February 14). Posters at UT latest display of campus post-election racism. Chron.       
           Retrieved from http://www.chron.com/local/education/campus-chronicles/article/Racist-p   
           osters-at-UT-latest-post-election-10931366.php#photo-12269198

Hoffman, G. D. & Mitchell, T. D. (2016). Making diversity “everyone’s business”: a discourse                 

           analysis of institutional responses to student activism for equity and inclusion. Journal of           
           Diversity in Higher Education, 9, (3), 277-289.

Kays, H. (2016). Political and racial discussions continue at WCU. Smoky Mountain News.                   
             Retrieved from: http://www.smokymountainnews.com/news/item/17538-political-and-         
             racial-discussions-continue-at-wcu

Ndemanu, M. T. (2019). Antecedents of college campus protests nationwide: Exploring black             

           student activists demands. Journal of Negro Education, 86, (3), 238-251.

Studenc, B., (2016). Morehead State’s Nazario-Colon to lead diversity, inclusion initiatives at             
           WCU. The Reporter. Retrieved from: https://news-prod.wcu.edu/2016/03/morehead-               
           states- nazario-colon-lead-diversity-inclusion-initiatives-wcu/

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