Perceptions of Diversity Among Current and Former Students and Faculty in Three Graduate Programs

This study compared the perceptions of diversity among current graduate students, former graduate students, and current faculty in three graduate programs. Sense of belonging, universality, openness to experience, diversity experiences, and perceptions of diversity were examined. Participants included 64 current students, 30 former students, and 15 faculty members in Old Dominion University's M.S. and Ph.D. programs in psychology and the Virginia Consortium Program's Psy.D. program. Solicited by either email or postal mail, participants completed an online survey that assessed demographic details and the variables of interest. After addressing data issues, Pearson's r examined the relationships among the dependent variables. ANOVAs assessed whether there were group differences, as well as differences by program (M.S., Ph.D., and Psy.D.). on perceptions of diversity, diversity experiences, and universality. A MANOVA was used to examine group and program differences in sense of belonging. Standard multiple regression assessed whether, for current students, universality was predicted by openness and sense of belonging; whether, for all participants, perceptions of diversity were predicted by diversity experiences, openness to experience, and universality; and for current and former students, whether perceptions of diversity were predicted by diversity experiences, openness to experience, universality, and sense of belonging. Overall, the hypothesis that the dependent variables of interest would be correlated for all participants was mainly supported. Interestingly, few differences were found for the different groups, although former students tended to recall more positive perceptions of diversity and a greater sense of belonging than current students. Some of the lack of differences may be attributable to sample sizes issues. From the planned multiple regressions, it was found that openness was a significant predictor of universality and that sense of belonging significantly contributed to perceptions of diversity. Two post hoc multiple regressions revealed that for current and former students, faculty support was a significant predictor of perceptions of diversity and that for current students, social desirability was also a significant predictor. A major limitation of this research was that little demographic information was solicited from participants. Future research should examine outcomes of specific efforts to improve perceptions of diversity and sense of belonging.