Senior student affairs officers, campus community, and diversity: A qualitative inquiry into six institutions

Colleges and universities have a social responsibility to help prepare the country's future workforce and leaders. All colleges and universities operate within a campus environment. Student affairs divisions exist on literally every campus in the country. Little is known about how the SSAO impact the development of the campus environment especially in terms of campus climate and culture. This study reports on how, by looking for discernible patterns across several higher education institution types---urban community college, rural community college, rural research university, religious-affiliated college, and metropolitan university, SSAOs impact the development of their campus environments, particularly as they relate to campus communities that are conducive to diverse students.; The researcher used Katz's Model for Developing Culturally Diverse Organizations to examine to what extent the institution's environment was conducive to diversity and what role, if any, SSAOs in the study played in creating the current campus environment of their institutions. The models assesses where an organization falls on a continuum between monocultural or multicultural based on the characteristics and dynamics of the organization. The organizations exhibiting passive attitudes toward diversity on the monocultural end and are labeled Exclusionary for those with extreme barriers to diversity and Symbolic Difference for the not as extreme. Organizations fairing moderate on the continuum are labeled as Affirmative Action because they typically seek to fulfill quotas and/or take initial steps to being more inclusive. For those organizations that are more advanced in diversity efforts, they fall on the multicultural end of the continuum as either U.S. Focus or Global and tend to have adopted an attitude that places value in diversity.; This study provides an in-depth look into the administrative role of the Senior Student Affairs Officer and his/her impact on creating a campus culture. This bit of knowledge can serve as an aid to others in the field of student affairs as they explore ways in which to move their campuses to multicultural accepting institutions. Additionally, this study adds to the body of research generated knowledge about the role of the SSAO in creating community.