Rhae-Ann Booker, PhD Michelle Loyd-Paige, PhD Calvin College Grand Rapids, MI

1. How I Got Over: Critical Moments for Women of Color at a Christian College2010 International Forum on Christian Higher Education Rhae-Ann Booker, PhD Michelle Loyd-Paige, PhD Calvin College Grand Rapids, MI

2. The few women of color who manage to enter the halls of academe as students, faculty, or administrators quickly discover an entrenched and finely tuned system of gendered and raced privilege, power, and exclusionary practices. Learning to navigate the multi-tiered academic systems of oppression and pass survival strategies along to other women of color is both a rite of passage and a badge of honor for academic women of color. - Pat Washington

3. Overview • Women of Color in Higher Ed Administration • Defining Critical Moments • Our Story • Rhae-Ann’s and Michelle’s journey to a Christian College • Special Stressors Faced By Non-Majority Faculty, Administrators, and Staff • Critical Breakthroughs: Coping, Surviving, and Thriving • What We Wished We Had Known

4. Women of Color in Higher Education “Women of color in academic administration are a recent phenomenon due to their double oppression as women and people of color. Their small numbers are intimately tied to American history, legal restrictions, and traditional customs. Legislation, court orders, and executive orders have greatly increased the number of minorities in higher education, although they are still substantially underrepresented in the academy. Women Ph.D.s—and to a lesser extent, administrators—are growing as a proportion of all Ph.D.s, but there will be required the continued removal of burdens of sexism, lower salaries, and career impediments to achieve parity for women in general, and women of color in particular, in academic administration.”Reginald Wilson,  American Council on Education, USA

5. Women of Color in Higher Education • 28% of Chief Academic Officers are women (35% are white women and 3% are women of color). • Among all senior administrators 38% are white women and 7% are women of color. • 23% of college presidents are women, with 19 % of all female presidents being women of color. Statistics from AAC&U Report, A Measure of Equity: Women's Progress in Higher Education , January 2009

6. Defining Critical Moments • Critical Events are key events in the academic experiences of nontraditional or historically underrepresented people on majority campuses (Students and Employees). • Critical Momentsare those times when such underrepresented people perceive that their difference sets them apart and presents challenges to their future academic success. • Working through Critical Moments is key to academic success if one chooses to remain at a majority campus; however, not everyone chooses or has the option or has the support to remain.

7. Rhae-Ann Booker Calvin College graduate PhD from Western Michigan Director of Pre-College Programs 18 years employee of Calvin “With few African- Americans on staff, having longevity at Calvin seemed like a non-sensible expectation. Longevity was never a consideration.” Michelle Loyd-Paige Calvin College graduate PhD from Purdue Dean for Multicultural Affairs 25 years employee of Calvin “20 years ago,if someone would have told me that I would become a tenured faculty member at Calvin and still be at Calvin after 20 years, I would have laughed and said, ‘impossible!’” Our Story … a Calvin Experience

8. “All new faculty members typically experience, to some degree, the stressors discussed above. But if you are a white woman, U.S. minority, or international minority taking on your first professional position in a predominantly European-American and male department or campus, then you have to cope with one or more of the following additional stressors. These have been termed cultural, racial, gender, or class taxesthat are exacted from non-traditional faculty fulfilling the role of pioneer, outsider, and token.” Moody, J. 2004. Faculty Diversity: Problems and Solutions

9. Special Stressors Faced by Non-Majority • The extra taxes borne by those from colonized groups • Internalizing feelings of inadequacy • Being seen as an “affirmative action” hire • Finding a chilly climate within the department • Being given too little or too much attention • Having scholarship undervalued • Experiencing acute sting of negative incidents • Managing excessive committee assignments • Managing excessive student demands • Handling inappropriate behavior • Overcoming isolation

10. Critical BreakthroughsCoping, Surviving, and Thriving • Do a reality check on your skills; celebrate what you do well & improve & expand skill set where needed; find your niche. • Develop a plan to influence transformation. • Develop & maintain allies on campus; network beyond campus. • Develop & maintain safe spaces. • Set boundaries; value your time, get your work done. • Some days it’s okay not to be the diversity champion.

11. Things I Wish I Had KnownCoping, Surviving, and Thriving (Women at Calvin input) • Develop your own caretaking and standards of success. • Pick your battles, know what you will go to the mat for. • Compromise, with the long-term end-goal in mind while living individually with integrity, is sometimes a good thing. • Relationships matter – find ones that keep you sane. • Life is short and full of pain, but also grace. • We need opportunities to celebrate and be silly. • It is okay to show the full range of emotions, including anger, but not to the point of “loss of agency.” • You must develop a public demeanor. • Remind yourself of what it is that truly brings God glory.

12. Closing Thoughts As more women of color pursue higher education, we can only hope that an increasing number of them will stay on to build life-long careers in the academy. If this hope is to be realized, we must do all we can to eliminate the barriers that confront aspiring women of color academicians or cause women of color, in general, to bypass the academy altogether.

13. Recommended Reading Rochelle Garner, CONTESTING THE TERRAIN OF THE IVORY TOWER: SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN WOMEN IN THE ACADEMY. New York: Routledge, 2004. Conchita Y. Battle & Chontrese M. Doswell, eds., BUILDING BRIDGES FOR WOMEN OF COLOR IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR SUCCESS. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2004. Theodorea Regina Berry & Nathalie D. Mizelle, eds., FROM OPPRESSION TO GRACE: WOMEN OF COLOR AND THEIR DILEMMAS WITHIN THE ACADEMY. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, 2006.