Social Capital and Underrepresented Minority Graduate Students at the University of Washington School of Marine and Environmental Affairs Brian P. Tracey A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Marine Affairs University of Washington 2019 Committee: David Fluharty Lekeilia Jenkins Elizabeth Litzler Program Authorized to Offer Degree: School of Marine & Environmental Affairs ©Copyright 2019 Brian P. Tracey 2 University of Washington Abstract Social Capital and Underrepresented Minority Graduate Students at the University of Washington’s School of Marine and Environmental Affairs Brian P. Tracey Chair of the Supervisory Committee: David Fluharty College of the Environment The major focus of this research study is to explore how, and to what extent, social capital affects under-represented minority (URM) students in a graduate level marine science program at the University of Washington (UW) - School of Marine and Environmental Affairs (SMEA).
URM students are defined by UW as Blacks/African-Americans, Latinos/Hispanics, and American Indians, Pacific Islanders, Native Alaskans and Hawaiians for the 2013-2014 academic year. This thesis focuses on the experiences of Black/African- American, Latinos/Hispanic, and Native/Indigenous American students at the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs. In this thesis, social capital refers to the connections and support networks between peers, faculty, and administration, and the resulting benefits from these connections. The primary hypothesis studied is that the inability to make these connections inhibits URM student participation.
By placing attention on these underserved groups, this thesis also investigates to a degree, the cultural competency of faculty and administrators. It has been shown that, possessing the awareness and understanding of differences within and between cultural groups is a key factor in enabling educators to be effective with students of diverse backgrounds (National Education Association, 2014). At the three graduate schools of marine science at UW’s College of the Environment: Oceanography, School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences (SAFS), and Marine and Environmental Affairs (SMEA), URM graduate enrollment is approximately 11. That amounts to roughly one graduate level URM marine science student for every ten non-URM students.
Based on SMEA’s ability to attract more URM students than the other graduate marine science programs at UW, this research explores the experiences of gradate URM students at SMEA, and how this corresponds to social capital. It should be noted that SMEA is vastly different from SAFS and Oceanography in academic design. SMEA is an interdisciplinary program that combines the social and natural sciences. For this thesis, SMEA is still considered a STEM program.
In conjunction with existing literature on URM students in STEM programs, the purpose of studying such strategies is two-fold: 1) to learn the dynamics of social capital in a marine science graduate school from perspectives at all three academic levels (e. students, faculty, administration) and 2) to create a set of realistic recommendations that faculty and administrators can implement to create an inclusive and supportive environment for URM graduate students in SMEA. Understanding the type of relationships necessary for social capital and URM student representation in graduate level marine science, is the impetus of this study. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Title page Declaration Table of Contents: List of Tables and Figures………………………………………………………….2 Proposition…………………………………………………………………… 10 Chapter 2: Theory and Literature Review………………………………………………….2 Journal/News/Magazine Articles…………………………………………….37 Chapter 4: Findings and Discussion………………………………………………………….1 Knowledge of Diversity-Related Resources………………………………….56 Chapter 5: Limitations, Recommendations, and Conclusion 5.
Nine Areas of People Activity in the Known Universe. Interview Guide 4 LIST OF FIGURES Page 2. School Districts with Worst Achievement Gaps ………….2 Rate of Homelessness Among Ethnic Groups in Seattle, Washington .3 Average Wage Earning between Black and White Workers Based on schooling.4 Distribution of STEM degrees among URM Students 2000-2012…….5 Generational trend of U. Adults with Latino/Hispanic Ancestry Who identify as Latino/Hispanic……………………………………………………….6 Table Distribution of Funding to Washington School Districts…………26 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report is coalesced from centuries of blood, sacrifice, insight, foresight, death, and dedication to replace the system of white supremacy with a system of justice.
Special thank you and reverence to my: ancients, elders, family, friends, mentors, thesis committee, and to all of my formal and informal advisors. To the living and non-living who have, in one way or another, inspired me to complete this degree. The sky is only the beginning. 6 DEDICATION This thesis is dedicated to 5am December 25th, 2018.
It is also dedicated to the next generation of counter-racist warrior poets. May the failures of your predecessors act as a foundation for your success, in replacing the system of white supremacy with a system of justice. This is dedicated to those who are no longer here but have, and will, never leave my side. May you rest in power.
Finally, I dedicate this work to those who are here, and are the source of my inspiration. 7 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION There are six core values at the University of Washington (UW). Among these six guiding principles, diversity has become a primary focus as UW seeks to achieve its research, educational, and outreach missions, while strengthening its role as a national leader in diversity (University Diversity Council, 2010). In the past several years, fatal encounters between United States (US) institutions and members of Latino/a, Native American, and particularly Black/African-American communities have propelled issues about diversity to the center of nation-wide conversations about representation and equity.
Fueled by the rising social unrest, college campuses across the country, including UW, have had increased incidents of bigotry, prejudice and racism against the aforementioned groups while concomitantly making efforts to avoid them. Despite strong rhetoric and UW’s long history of addressing issues of diversity on campus, a 2011 diversity report found UW to have the third lowest proportion of minority (defined by UW as Asians, Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans) graduate students among other research-intensive institutions in the United States (Aisenberg, 2013). The most current graduate student enrollment figures for underrepresented minorities (defined by UW as Blacks/African-Americans, Latinos/Hispanics, and American Indians, Pacific Islanders, Native Alaskans and Native Hawaiians) for the 2012-2016 academic year highlight the need for on-going vigilance. Over a 10-year period, UW lags national trends of overall URM student versus Non-URM student new enrollment- just 16% at the UW versus 22.
To be clear, UW and its programs define underrepresented minorities (URMs) as: individuals who self-identify as Black/African-American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander (Aisenberg, 2013). This thesis however, does not use the same description. While I acknowledge that the definition of URM changes over time, this thesis uses the term URM in reference to: individuals identifying as Black/African-American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American (American Indian). This definition does not ignore the diverse backgrounds and nations with distinctive histories, socioeconomic, and political experiences.
It does however, allow for simplicity in this narrative. By succinctly analyzing the experiences of these groups within UW, the effects of social capital on their presence in certain fields of study are easier to understand. The focus of this thesis is on graduate level marine science, specifically in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs. In an internal report from the UW Office of the Registrar, a 12 month enrollment overview for the 2014-2015 academic year calculated a student body of roughly 15,546 graduate students (UW Office of the Registrar, 2016).
Of that, underrepresented minority students comprise an ungenerous 8.7% of the population. In 2013, in the three schools of marine science at the College of the Environment (CoEnv.): Oceanography, Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, and Marine and Environmental Affairs (SMEA), URM graduate student enrollment was approximately 11. That amounts to roughly 1 graduate level URM marine science student for every 10 non-URM students, which is barely an image of diversity. Comparatively, the percentage of underrepresented minorities in Washington State, according to the 2010 census, hovers around 16.
This gap is not very large but definitely noticeable, and has 8 potentially major implications pertaining to degree persistence and completion for URM STEM graduate students. At the College of the Environment, where research spans from the forest edge to the depths of the ocean floor, the concepts of access and inclusion are deemed necessary for advancing the understanding of the environment and attaining solutions that better serve all of humanity (CoEnv, 2014). Over the last decade, SMEA in the CoEnv has consistently enrolled more URMs than the other marine science schools at UW (UW Graduate School, 2013). The number of actual URMs in its program is still low.
However, its ability to attract and retain URM students does warrant a closer examination as to how and why SMEA has been more successful at recruiting more URMs. Understanding this may be useful in improving recruitment and retention strategies for itself and the other marine science programs in CoEnv. Based on their ability to attract more URM students than the other graduate marine science programs at UW, this research explores the experiences of gradate URM students at SMEA, and how it corresponds to social capital. In conjunction with existing literature on URM students in STEM programs, the purpose of studying such strategies is two-fold: 1) to learn the dynamics of social capital in a marine science graduate school from perspectives from students, faculty, and administrator, and 2) to create a set of realistic recommendations that faculty and administrators can implement to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for URM graduate students in their programs.
One of the major themes from the 2013 Diversity Report Follow-Up (Aisenberg, 2013) was the low enrollment of URM students at the graduate level. Due to the inherent cultural differences that exist in a diverse student populace, this research explores how these cultural differences affect URM students’ ability to garner social capital. If social factors related to URM recruitment are ignored or left unaccounted for, it is likely that certain communities will be alienated. This can lead groups to feel disconnected or disengaged from the program.
That leads to the major research question that is the focus of this research.1 Major Question Given the continued diversity efforts at UW, the primary question, and emphasis of this investigation is to explore: how, and to what extent, does social capital affect URM students in the graduate programs of marine science? The Graduate School statistics suggest that current policies and/or plans to improve graduate school diversity have been largely unsuccessful (Aisenberg, 2013). This reality presents the idea that there may be underlying issues that explain the persistent dearth of URM students at the graduate level. This thesis presents the lack of social capital as one of those issues, and examines this topic by exploring it in the context of the University of Washington SMEA. Although not the focus of my research, there are two general topics of interest in aside from my primary research question: 1) the relationship between URM students and marine science, and 2) the importance of placing attention on URM students in the marine sciences.
Are there cultural barriers, such as stigmas and stereotypes, which deter URM student involvement in the marine sciences? Or is their lack of participation a result of institutional obstructions? My guess is the answer is some amalgamation of these factors. I think these in- school and outside-of school social factors affect a minority student’s sense of place in the 9 marine sciences. As students ascend the academic ladder (undergraduate student to graduate student and beyond), the continued absence of other minority students, as well as a lack of representation in faculty and administrative positions, may reinforce certain stigmas. It is possible that the affect would be a diminished ability to connect with peers, faculty, and administrators from other ethnic/racial groups.
Furthermore, by placing the spotlight on an underserved community, especially in the sciences, I believe there is potential to increase the cultural competence of faculty and administrative personnel. Having the awareness and understanding of differences within and between cultural groups is a key factor in enabling educators to be effective with students of diverse backgrounds (National Education Association, 2014).