Students of color should apply to advise

By James Carter     2/23/16 6:16pm

When I got my O-Week book, I was thrilled. It was the summer of 2013 and I couldn’t be more excited to be going to Rice. I tore the package open, read the letter from my O-Week coordinators and proceeded to flip through the book. As I got further into it, I realized my goal was no longer to learn about O-Week, Brown and Rice generally; rather, I was on a manhunt. Not for anyone I knew or even my own advisors, but for someone who looked like me.

There were photos of black students seemingly enjoying Rice. However, when I looked to the people charged with acclimating me to Rice and only two of 48 were black (both co-advisors) and neither were men, I was immediately skeptical of my O-Week experience. Questions flooded my mind about how advisors were selected, what it means that so few black students were in these leadership positions, what it must mean about their Rice experience broadly, and most importantly and frightening: Had I made a mistake in choosing Rice?

Fast-forward to December 2014 when I was asked in my coordinator interview why I wanted to coordinate. I cited various reasons, but the most important to me was to increase representation. I spoke passionately about the importance of seeing people who look like you succeed, lead and be role models, though at the time I had no idea what it meant to actually select advisors and make a “successful” team.

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In reviewing advisor applications, I was happy to see we had a sizable number of Latino and Asian applicants, but saddened to see only four black applicants in a pool of 48. Even more frustrating was that only two of our 150-plus co-advisor applicants were black, and neither ultimately ended up at Brown. I began wondering exactly why students of color, specifically black students, weren’t applying to advise. I learned from conversations with friends and peers that black students who don’t see representation tend to not apply, and those who apply but aren’t chosen become discouraged and don’t re-apply in the future. These feelings and actions are further bolstered by already prevalent feelings of exclusion and isolation black students report feeling in their residential colleges year after year.

I realized as a coordinator the issue isn’t just those who evaluate the application pool — coordinators are far from perfect and extremely biased — but also that the application pool itself doesn’t reflect Rice or Rice’s ideal of how advising teams should look. So here is part one of my plea: To students who felt the advising team didn’t properly mirror the diversity we aspire to at Rice, APPLY, APPLY, APPLY! If you don’t try to change the status quo, don’t complain about the way things are. Ask people you know who have advised what the interview process looks like, what you should do and say, and what makes a successful advisor. I have yet to meet a coordinator who didn’t want a diverse team, but in order to make them we need diverse applicants!

Which leads me to my part two of my plea: To Coordinators who want their O-Week to be as representative and fulfilling for as many students as possible, seek out, cultivate and select diverse applicants. My work in recruiting and talent acquisition this year has taught me people want to be wanted. Sure, that’s common sense, but actively cultivating candidates increases the likelihood they want to be at your college.

A lot of these points are easier said than done. I’m asking a subset of students to put themselves out there and be vulnerable to rejection, and asking coordinators to think and work even more judiciously than they are already asked to — but isn’t this what O-Week is about? Creating a culture where new students feel welcome and informed about the academic and social aspects of Rice? Where students can feel comfortable entering an unknown environment led by people they connect with on various levels? Acclimating new students to what it means to be an Owl? If not, maybe there’s no point in writing this piece. But if there is, I hope my pleas are heard and considered.

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