PBA Home > Institutional Research & Analysis > Surveys > Campus Climate Survey 2006 >Most Important Group Identity

CU-Boulder Campus Climate Survey, Fall 2006

Most Important Group Identity

The climate survey includes the following question:

"Everyone is a member of many groups including but not limited to those based on age, race, gender, sexual orientation, physical abilities, socio-economic status, country of origin, major, job, and religion. However, for most people a few group memberships are usually most important.

We realize that this may be a difficult question, but considering all of your group memberships, pick one that's important to you in how you are treated or interact with others WHEN YOU ARE ON CAMPUS and type it in the box below."

Students were then asked to use the group identity reported to respond to questions assessing:

• Stereotypes encountered based on group identity
• Ratings of UCB as a place to be for you and members of your group
• Overt prejudice/discrimination encountered because of group identity

Coding Open-Ended Responses into Categories

Students' responses to the open-ended identity question were quite varied. The complete listing of students' responses is available in an Excel file. In all, 71% of students listed something that we could code. The remaining students either left the item blank (22%) or wrote in something that was unclear or off the mark (7%; e.g., "equally" group or "my close group of friends"). Click here for coded results.

The most frequently-mentioned category by undergraduate students was race/ethnicity; 13% said race/ethnicity or listed a specific ethnic/racial group (e.g., Asian-American). The next most frequently reported categories (10% each) were major (reference to a student's major or college, for example engineering, business, art) and campus academic group, such as a research laboratory, scholars program, or professionally-oriented group like the Black Law Student Association or Multicultural Engineering Program. The most frequently-mentioned categories by graduate students were race/ethnicity and major; 13% listed each of these groups as most important to their identity. Note that ethnic minority students were oversampled at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, which therefore contained a larger proportion of minority students than the population as a whole.

Graduate students' responses map to far fewer categories than do undergraduates'. Nearly half of the graduate students were classified into one of four categories: race/ethnicity, major, academic group, and foreign student status. Graduate students are much more likely than undergraduates to mention that being at their class level (i.e., a graduate student) is important in how they are treated on campus. Foreign students are overrepresented among graduate students so it is not surprising that they are more likely than undergraduates to mention their foreign status.

Undergraduates' responses are quite varied. After race/ethnicity, the most common categories are major, academic group, athletics, student organization, age, religious affiliation, and gender (females only). Very few undergraduates mention identities that relate to foreign student status, sexual orientation, disability status, or class level (i.e., freshman, sophomore, etc.).

Relationship Between Most Important Group Identity and Demographic Information

Group identity for undergraduates was crossed with various demographic characteristics of the respondents. See:

Percent of Identity Group by Various Demographics
Findings of note:

• Two-thirds of undergraduate students mentioning age or socioeconomic status as their most important identity are women.
• The great majority of students who mention Greek affiliation as their most important identity group are women (70%).
• Proportions of students mentioning athletics as their most important identity are perhaps more similar for men (60%) and women (40%) than might be expected.
• Among students who mention socioeconomic status as their most important identity group, 33% are Hispanic and 33% are white.
• 73% of the 41 students mentioning an academic group as their most important identity are students of color. Of these 41 student, just over half (21) cite  multicultural campus groups (e.g., Diverse Scholars Program, Multicultural Arts and Sciences Program, Minority Engineering Program) as their most important group identity.
• Among students who mention major as their most important identity group, 46% are seniors.

Percent of Demographic Group in Each Identity Group
Findings of note:

• Males are more than twice as likely as females to select their major as their important identity group (15% vs. 6%). This is perhaps explained by the fact that engineering students are more likely to identify with their major and are more likely to be male.
• African-American undergraduates are somewhat more likely than Hispanic/Latino or Asian-American students to mention race/ethnicity as their most important identity group. Whereas more than a third of African-American (36%) students mentioned race/ethnicity, about a quarter of Asian-American (25%) and Hispanic/Latino (22%) students do so.
• The most frequently listed identity for white undergraduates is major (20%) and for Native Americans is academic group (12%) or nontraditional age (12%).
• Compared with other racial/ethnic groups, a large proportion of African-American students select academic groups as their important identity group (30% vs. 9%-13% for other students of color and only 2% for whites)
• 7% of Hispanic students mentioned socioeconomic status as their important identity group compared to 0% of Asian-American and African-American students, 2% of Native-American students, and 3% of white students.
• Only 18% of the foreign students said their foreign student status is the most important factor in how they are treated on campus; 14% said academic groups and 5% said student organizations.  A large percentage (55%) of foreign students did not answer this question.
• 14% of seniors mentioned major as their important identity group compared to only 8% of freshmen. It would appear that major becomes more salient as students move through their academic career.

Climate Survey Items

Students were asked to respond to three sets of questions using their most important identity group as a reference. We analyzed responses for undergraduates only because graduate students' responses did not provide enough variety to see identity group differences.

In reviewing results for these items it is important to remember that they reflect perceptions and experiences from students who view membership in the group as important to how they are treated on campus. It should not be assumed that all students who belong to the group feel as these students do. For example, not all Greek (fraternity or sorority) members can be assumed to have had experiences identical to the 10 students who said being Greek is important to how they are treated on campus.

Results

As one might expect, experiences with stereotyping vary according to group membership. In particular, students who listed Greek status as most important believe that, because of their group identity, they are asked to participate in campus activities more than other students, they are under more pressure to show loyalty to their group, faculty expect especially low performance from them, they are contacted too much by campus offices and organizations, and they are more often assumed to be rich.

Students who listed race/ethnicity as their important identity group also note low performance expectations from faculty. Additionally, they report that other students assume they are poor. Occasionally they are asked what their native language is, but this is more likely to happen to students whose identity group is an academic group or a campus organization.

Among the other groups, students listing major as their important group identity say faculty expect especially high academic performance from them. This finding probably results from the over-representation of engineering majors in the group, as well as the fact that students for whom academic discipline is their most notable group membership are high academic achievers (i.e., they have relatively high cumulative GPAs); thus, the expectation may be deserved. Students who listed religious affiliation or Greek membership as their important identity group were more likely to believe that, because of their group identity, other students assume they are prejudiced; they also report that they are more often called names by other students. Students identifying with these two groups or with race/ethnicity groups believe that they are often seen by others as a "resident authority" on their particular group when issues arise in class. Nontraditional students, i.e., undergraduates who are typically older than others, more often feel isolated or left out when working on class assignments in a group, as do, to a lesser extent, students who listed race/ethnicity or religious affiliation as their important identity group.

Students for whom racial/ethnic identity is most salient in how they are treated express a less favorable view of the campus climate. This is particularly true when rating the campus climate for their identity group as a whole or for themselves as members of the group. A more favorable view of the campus climate is expressed by students for whom athletic participation, major subject of study, or gender is most salient in how they are treated.

Students are more likely to encounter overt prejudice from other students and from the Boulder community than they are from university administrators, faculty, and staff. Students who identify strongly with their Greek status, a racial/ethnic category, or their participation in athletics report the most overt prejudice from other students. Students identifying with their Greek status are also particularly likely to report overt prejudice from members of the Boulder community. This finding is not surprising given the community's focus on noise and alcohol issues in the Hill residential area where most of the Greek houses are located.

Graphs:
Because of my group identity, stereotyping
Because of my group identity, I encounter overt prejudice from...
UCB as a place to be

Last revision 12/07/07