The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3 - 72

C. Daryl Healea * Patrick J. Hale

drop of the MCOD template. In the case of
the focus groups, for instance, the researchers
asked questions of members that pertained
to the 10 areas of intervention recommended
in the MCOD template. The researchers later
employed a comparative method of analysis.
Specifically, each researcher exchanged notes
regarding all three forms of data collection

. . . recruiting a diverse staff of
RAs was related to the degree
to which the department
focused on diversity issues in
its mission and practices.

(participant observation, document analysis,
and focus groups), which helped the researchers to find patterns and to identify overarching themes.

LIMITATIONS
This study is limited in scope and method. The
RA recruitment process at only one institution was investigated, and the results cannot
necessarily be generalized. Additionally, we
have been active participants in managing the
RA recruitment process that we studied. The
benefit to our position as participants included
greater range of access; however, there was
always a risk that we were too involved in the
findings. Lastly, this study is narrowly focused
on race and ethnicity alone in student diversity

due to the limited data in our collection. We
acknowledge that other forms of diversity are
valuable and believe attention must be devoted
to such forms in future research.

FINDINGS
Our analysis of the data generated four core
themes: evidence of some RA recruitment
gaps, the departmental focus on diversity,
larger institution-wide forces, and the influence of professional staff.

RA Recruitment Gaps
Documentary evidence pointed to some RA
recruitment gaps with underrepresented students. As shown in Table 1, three reference
points were used in the statistics that tracked
percentages of underrepresented students.
The first reference point noted the percentage of underrepresented students in the pool
of undergraduate registrants and referred to
the demographic makeup of undergraduate,
first-year students who, after being admitted,
went on to register for classes at the start of an
academic year. Generally, this population has
approximated 16,000 students annually. The
second reference point noted the percentage of
underrepresented students in the RA applicant
pool and referred to the demographic makeup
of all students (undergraduate students and
graduate students) who applied for an RA
position during an annual RA recruitment
season. The pool generally approximated 350
students annually and did not include current
RAs who re-applied to return to their positions.
The third reference point noted the percentage
of underrepresented students in RA hired staff
and referred to the demographic makeup of all
students (undergraduates and graduates, as
well as new applicants and returning RAs) who

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The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 3

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