Behind the Diversity Numbers uncovers how frequently used approaches to examine and understand race-related issues on college campuses can reinforce racism and inequality, rather than combat them. The book argues that educational leaders must look beyond quantitative metrics in order to develop institutional policies and practices that promote racial equality.
Based on nearly thirty years of data and research, this book will enhance how institutions, higher education agencies, and policy makers think about what should be done to reduce racial inequality and create diverse and equitable campuses. "Byrd's book offers an important and clear-eyed critique of quantitative data and analyses, revealing how the field's reliance on 'the numbers' exacerbates educational disparities we strive to eliminate. This is a must-read for education researchers, leaders, and policy makers, and a reminder that we must integrate multiple research methods, center narratives, and interrogate our and others' biases to fight inequity in higher education."W. Carson Byrd, Faculty Director of Diversity and Equity Research Initiatives for the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan and associate professor of sociology at the University of Louisville, examines higher education inequality with a particular focus on race and racism. He is the author of Poison in the Ivy: Race Relations and the Reproduction of Inequality on Elite College Campuses (Rutgers University Press, 2017), which explores college students' beliefs about race and racial inequality and how their social interactions during college can shape these beliefs. He is also the coeditor of Intersectionality and Higher Education: Identity and Inequality on College Campuses (Rutgers University Press, 2019), a compilation of scholarship on how students, faculty, and staff navigate unequal campuses and understand the inequality around them as they live, work, and study. His work has also appeared beyond academic journals in forums such as the Washington Post, InsideHigherEd, and the Chronicle of Higher Education, among others.