Understanding UC Berkeley Students and their Experiences

Source: https://americancultures.berkeley.edu/twtt/understanding-uc-berkeley-students Parent: https://americancultures.berkeley.edu/

Student peer-to-peer is the highest level of exclusionary behavior. Large percentages of it were happening in classrooms. [We have to think about] what is the role of an instructor in managing that space and setting a tone and intervening when appropriate.

Andrew Eppig

Teaching in Troubled Times Fall 2019 Kick-off: Campus Climate at UC Berkeley

Topics

Event Description

This event was an open dialogue, supported by campus climate data from several recent surveys. Together, the speaker and attendees considered whether the survey results support their own experiences; how the data might shift expectations of relationships with students; and what resulting efforts individually and collectively could be designed to provide an equitable and fully inclusive classroom.

Event Outline

California Demographics
Berkeley Undergraduate Demographics
Race/Ethnicity
Gender
Sexuality
Socioeconomic Status (SES)
Disability
Intersections of Race and Class
Undergraduate Student Experiences
Basic Needs
Campus Climate
Sexual Violence and Sexual Harassment (SVSH)

Event Speaker

Andrew Eppig, Division of Equity and Inclusion Institutional Research Analyst

When we look at Pell students, we see they are disproportionately our minoritized students, disproportionately women, [and] disproportionality first-generation college [students].

Andrew Eppig

UC Berkeley Resources on Campus Demographics

Cal Answers

Cal Answers is an analytical tool that allows UC Berkeley staff, faculty, and students to locate centralized, integrated information from various campus systems. The tool makes data accessible to all, enabling reliable, consistent answers to critical campus questions.

Our Berkeley

Our Berkeley is a data digest that distills tens of thousands of stories playing out every day in Berkeley’s teaching, research, and public service. This data can be used to view Berkeley's student experiences and understand general demographics as well to track aspirations, improve operations, and find new ways to make a significant change.

Campus Conversations

Campus Conversations is a series of talks with Berkeley’s leaders. Each month, a campus leader will share their vision for the future with the campus community. Anyone is welcomed to attend, ask questions, and share their views.

At the inaugural event of Campus Conversations, UC Berkeley’s new Director of Undergraduate Admissions, Olufemi “Femi” Ogundele, discussed the importance of having a more diverse undergraduate student population and what efforts Admissions is taking to diversify the campus’ undergraduate student body.

Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center

The Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center (FLHBRC) is committed to providing space and opportunity for Black students and organizations to organize and engage in academic, social-cultural activities, leadership, community development and networking activities.During this event, Professor Victoria Robinson shared that FLHBRC welcomes collaboration and partnerships with faculty and campus units to help them meet these commitments.

Berkeley New Article on FLHBRC

Contact Information: Blake Simons, Assistant Director, Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center, bsimons@berkeley.edu

UC Berkeley Campus Surveys

UC Berkeley Campus Surveys is a database of surveys that have been collected and analyzed about student, staff, and faculty experiences at Cal as part of the Division of Equity & Inclusion’s Campus Climate Survey

UC Wide Data

UC Info Center

The UC Information Center provides data visualizations that will be narrative in nature and tell the UC story simply and succinctly. Data from all Universities within the UC system are displayed to help understand demographics such as fall enrollment, disaggregated admissions/enrollment/degrees, and the UC Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES)

The UC Information Center Homepage

Fall Enrollment

Disaggregated Admissions/Enrollment/Degrees

UC Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES)

2016 Graduate Well-being Survey

The Graduate Well-Being Survey is a system-wide survey used to improve the student experience and maintain strong student outcomes for UC graduate students. Institutional Research & Academic Planning administers the survey in collaboration with Research & Graduate Studies at the Office of the President, and Graduate Deans and Graduate Assembly representatives from the campuses. This survey asks questions on many aspects of student well-being, such as satisfaction with life, depression, academic success, campus climate, well-being maintenance, and social support.

Statewide Student Data

US Census

US Census Data with demographic breakdown of California.

Asian American Center for Advancing Justice

Advancing Justice-LA works to promote a better understanding of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (NHPI) communities by making data on AAs and NHPIs more accessible through research, technical assistance, and training. Advancing Justice-LA is also a Census Information Center (CIC), an official program of the U.S. Census Bureau aimed at promoting the dissemination of census data in underserved communities.

Materials from the Event

Statistics Summary

Access workshop PowerPoint presentation.

Berkeley undergraduates are diverse across multiple dimensions, and the notion of a “typical” student defies categorization.

1 in 5 students is a transfer entrant
1 in 4 is a Pell recipient or first generation college student
1 in 3 grew up in a poor or working class family
1 in 3 grew up in a poor or working class family
1 in 5 is LGBTQ+
1 in 3 has a disability
2 in 3 are students of color
For some aspects, such as race/ethnicity, they are less diverse than California as a whole

Berkeley undergraduates face many challenges while on campus

Some challenges are material such as lacking secure access to food or housing
Some challenges are interpersonal such as facing hostility from peers, harassment, and other forms of violence
Students from minoritized and marginalized groups experience these challenges at higher rates

Recommendations for Instructors

Faculty Recommendations

Recommendations

“Thinking about in classrooms, how much are you perpetuating notions of a gender binary, what are you doing around pronouns…” [00:30:30]
“Student peer to peer is the highest level of exclusionary behavior. Large percentages of it were happening in classrooms. [We have to think about] what is the role of an instructor in managing that space and setting a tone and intervening when appropriate.” 44:00
“[Regarding] sexual violence and sexual harassment, if someone discloses something to you, you are obligated to report that. What are you doing knowing students have resources and what are the resources such as Path to Care.” 46:45
“The campus climate survey there are results for every department that are shared. This is going to be happening this fall with the My Experience survey. Every Unit will get results related to their unit.” 50:00
“The Fannie Lou Hamer Center wants to be in conversation with faculty about this is where students are gathering and recording their experiences, and this is what we want to see show up in the classrooms. So it's about how we deliberately and intentionally make those connections in classroom space and gathering spaces on campus to alter and try to correct [to] get inside that campus climate.” 54:30
UGSI work as peer mentors to provide representation. 1:00:00
Talks about a survey. Marginalized students do worse than other students in class. We want to think about often a student does not perform well in your class after a first midterm, and we have interventions talking about academics, however, often, we do not talk about nonacademic struggles, and although we may not be qualified, we can point students in the right way. Look for action items of what we can do in our courses and creating an inclusive space. 55:50"
"It is important we also keep in mind the distribution of experiences. [For example] if we have black students in our class this semester, we have to [think] if black students have the experience of poverty.” 1:01:50

Statistics

“Our LGBTQ students are disproportionately URM students, disproportionately low-income students, disproportionately first-generation college students. They are not just the stereotype of the affluent white gay man. They are facing multiple marginalizations within not just across their sexual orientation and gender identity.” [00.31.40]
“One-third of students self-reported that their household income was under 50,000 dollars. One thing to note is that over a third of our students identified as having one or more disabilities. Predominantly emotional or mental health but following that its neurodevelopmental or cognitive physical disability or learning disabilities and then others. Only about a third of those students are receiving services.” [00:32:30]
“Over half of our students are not first-gen, not low-income, and did not come from a low API school.” 35:00
“When we look at chicanx/latinx students, we see that 70% of them are first-gen, 64% are pell recipients, and ⅓ of them are low API. In fact, a quarter of them are all three.” 36:10
“When we look at Asian Pacific Islanders, we see East Asian students have a lot less experiences with first-gen, low income, low API. [South East Asian and Pacific Islander students have high intersections with first-gen, low income, low API experiences.] 37:30
“43% of our undergraduates in 2018 were food insecure. Higher rates for transfer students, URM, first-gen, and pell recipients.” 41:10
“4% of our undergraduates are homeless. The highest is for our African American and transfer students. [Take into consideration] there is a lot of underreporting around this issue.” 41:50
“Useful data on campus conversations event with Femi Ogundele” 53:05