Ethnic minority students\u27 process of community-building on a predominantly white campus

This study was undertaken to understand how ethnic minority students experience and build campus community. Interviews and observations were conducted with 23 black and hispanic freshmen during their first 6-10 weeks at a private, predominantly white university in the midwest. Constant comparative data analysis proceeded within a grounded theory framework which incorporated theoretical sampling procedures to generate categories at an increasingly abstract level. Categories were related to each other in terms of the phenomenon, causal conditions, context, intervening conditions, and consequences of actions or interactions. A grounded theory model of the process of campus community building was inductively derived from the data. The core definition of the community phenomenon described by the study participants was feeling a sense of belonging resulting from feeling cared about and feeling needed by other community members. Black males and hispanic females tended to express a stronger sense of campus community than black females or hispanic males. The data suggested the nature of relationships with peers was the primary causal condition of community building. Peer interactions were positive, negative, or mixed depending upon the context of intervening conditions and upon the strategies employed by students. Racial influences comprised an important subcategory. Many participants had experienced negative interactions with majority and minority students that detracted from their sense of community. Black females, in particular, expressed strong feelings of alienation from upperclass black female students. Intervening conditions of ethnicity, gender, background, and sense of self influenced peer interactions and thus, community building. No direct relationship was found between feeling a sense of community and retention because many minority students had a strong determination to succeed academically despite feelings of personal unhappiness and alienation. Recommendations included advising college administrators to examine ways to increase positive peer interactions within smaller communities and to direct cultural education and awareness activities towards caucasian students. Future research should explore issues of community with students from other ethnic backgrounds, including caucasian, and should involve longitudinal studies