Barriers to Change: A Collective Case Study of Four Universities’ Efforts to Advance Faculty Diversity and Inclusion

This collective case study documents four research universities’ efforts to advance faculty diversity and inclusion on their campuses. Informed by the campus racial climate framework, our research team offers identifies two broad categories of barriers, including structural barriers and active barriers. Structural barriers included institutional history, organizational silos, and a sedimented culture of decentralization whereas active barriers revolved around activist, governing bodies, skeptical faculty, and administrators and faculty refusal to engage in diversity efforts at all. We conclude by discussing the unique implications of each type of barrier and the utility of distinguishing between structural and active barriers. Finally, we consider how our findings connect to, complicate, and extend the established literature on organizational change and the campus racial climate framework.