With the high enrollment numbers we see today, it isn't unusual to see a wide variety of students coming to college. Financial aid offers opportunities for students of lower socioeconomic status (SES) to join the ranks of what used to be a luxury only the upper-middle to upper class could afford. Women, students of color, adult learners, LGTBQIA+, disabled students, and students of all religions and classes could intermingle on one campus. As student affairs professionals, it is our job to make sure that these students have the same experience as the students with a lot more privilege - the same opportunities, the same safe spaces, the same enjoyable experiences, and the same places to grow and learn. If we are not prepared to step foot onto the path that is social justice, then we simply aren't prepared to work with college students.

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ACPA/NASPA (2015) define the Social Justice and Inclusion

 competency as "both a process and a goal that includes the

knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to create learning

environments that foster equitable participation of all groups

and seeks to address issues of oppression, privilege, and

power" (p. 30).

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That said, social justice is more than making sure there is a

place on campus for LGBTQIA+ students to gather and bond.

It's more than making sure there is a multicultural office on

campus. We have to make sure that these spaces are not only

safe for LGBTQIA+ and multicultural students - we have to

make sure they can also be educational to those students

who fall outside of those identities. Social justice is a journey

with no destination. By ensuring that we teach students about

privilege and the role it plays, we have an opportunity to

continue the social justice movement and one day we may

find that some of these inclusion issues are no longer issues. 

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It isn't that easy, though. Due to things like Harro's Cycle of

Socialization, there's a pretty good chance that some students

may not be aware of the privileges that they hold. There's

even a chance that a student of a certain identity is prejudiced

against others of their identity because of the privilege that

runs through society. Through educational programs, student

affairs professionals have an opportunity to make sure that

students are broken out of the Cycle and can instead begin

to help us break others out.

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To the right, there is a model of the Cycle developed by 

Harro. It starts at about 10 o'clock, or the upper left, and 

moves in a clockwise direction. At about 7 o'clock, or the

lower left, there is an arrow pointing out of the cycle. It is here that we want to catch our students and educate them and help them change what they've been socialized to believe.

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Before we can do that, though, we must make sure that we are breaking out of that cycle. As professionals, we need to recognize the effects of privilege, and how our own privileges play a role in how we interact with the world around us. I myself have a fair few privileges. I am able-bodied, I am white, I am educated, and I come from a middle class family. I also present as a heterosexual person, giving me a kind of pseudo-privilege. Unfortunately, I also identify outside of the gender binary and present in a feminine manner, and I have an invisible disability. For a very long time, I either didn't know about or didn't believe in the idea of privilege. Privilege didn't really make much sense to me. I always thought "Maybe they just aren't working hard enough!" Little did I know the kind of harm I was causing to others with these beliefs. I even would put down other women and victim-blame survivors of sexual assault - "Well, maybe she should have dressed more conservatively!" I'm very glad that I was fortunate enough to get a serious wake-up call. Privilege does exist. By refusing to recognize it, I was oppressing those of disadvantaged identities. 

 

This past fall, I worked as the Graduate Intern at Lesley University in the Office of Student Activities. While the OSA at Lesley handles a lot of large projects, one of the biggest of them all is the CommonLYNX retreat. Each year, a staff made up of students leads discussion on the topics of stereotypes, privilege, identities and intersectionality. A weekend spent out in the woods, away from campus and everyday life, helps students better focus on the task at hand and the information presented to them. As the Graduate Intern, I had the opportunity to assist in a lot of the retreat planning. Nearly 40 first-time retreat participants attended the retreat this year, held November 4-6, 2016. The staff of 15 (including a student Director and Assistant Director) was made up of students who had attended the retreat as participants, and some as previous staff as well.

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In addition, I filled in when one of the student staff members had to take a leave of absence. I led a small group of six students in discussion on topics such as privilege, gender identity, disability, and race, among others. I also co-presented with a student on the topics of Stereotypes and Privilege (slides below).

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I also had the opportunity to facilitate dialogue after having retreat participants go through the Archie Bunker's Neighborhood activity. In this activity, students had different symbols on their name tags that served as indicators to certain parts of their identity (race, ability, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, etc.). Retreat staff served as "employees" working in areas such as education, the bank, the hiring office, and police. Students had to try and fill out a form showing they completed their education, got a job, etc. The students were split into three groups based on class (though they were unaware of that split) and tasked to "build up" their neighborhood - building a school, a hospital, etc. as well as each completing their education and getting jobs. Naturally, the "upper class" students completed everything, while the "middle class" and "lower class" had relatively poor outcomes.

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It seems that, historically, social justice advocacy was not something found in student affairs (Schuh, Jones and Harper, 2011). When reflecting on the history of our field, I am inclined to believe that there were still those out there who advocated for social justice, but their actions did not have a name. Now, social justice is considered a competency. That isn't enough - we can't simply pat ourselves on the back and say "job well done!" and assume that's the end. Social justice is a journey with no end destination. There is no Point B, no finish line - at least not one visible in the foreseeable future. We must work to advocate for others until we stand on a level playing field.

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References

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• ACPA/NASPA. (2015). Professional Competency Areas for Student Affairs Educators.

• [Harro's Cycle of Socialization]. (2015, March 06). Retrieved April 16, 2017, from http://depts.washington.edu/geograph/diversity/

• Schuh, J. H., Jones, S. R. & Harper, S. R. (2011). Student services: A handbook for the profession. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

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