Responding to Campus Racism - Analyzing Student Activism and Institutional Responses

Aug 25, 2026

Scholarship on student activism explains how protests, demonstrations, and hunger strikes can pressure higher education institutions toward progress and stronger accountability. Yet cyclical demands—especially those voiced by Student-Activists of Color about campus racism—reveal deeper institutional complexity. This comparative study examines responses from senior administrators, faculty, and governing boards at two public higher education institutions between 2015 and 2018, analyzing alignment with students’ concerns. Using the Institutional Response Framework, critical race and black feminist traditions, document collection, archives, and interviews, findings map patterns across control, demand, and institutionalized racism.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages306

Reading Time12 h 51 min

AccessFree to download

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Problem

Purpose of the Study

Research Questions

Scope of Study

Driving Motivation

Significance

CHAPTER TWO: (RE)FRAMING THE NARRATIVE OF STUDENT ACTIVISM

Background and Current Context

Key Terms

Student Activism

UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Responding to Campus Racism: Analyzing Student Activism and Institutional Responses Permalink [https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7j10b4kn](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7j10b4kn) Author Cho, Katherine Soojin Publication Date 2020 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation [eScholarship.org](eScholarship.org) Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Responding to Campus Racism: Analyzing Student Activism and Institutional Responses A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Education by Katherine Soojin Cho © Copyright by Katherine Soojin Cho 2020 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Responding to Campus Racism: Analyzing Student Activism and Institutional Responses by Katherine Soojin Cho Doctor of Philosophy in Education University of California, Los Angeles, 2020 Professor Sylvia Hurtado, Chair Scholarship on student activism describes how protests, demonstrations, and hunger strikes push higher education institutions towards progress and increased institutional accountability. However, cyclical demands, particularly from Student-Activists of Color regarding campus racism, suggest more complexity at the institutional level. In comparing the responses of two public higher education institutions from 2015 to 2018, this study explored the responses by senior-level administrators, faculty, and governing boards to determine how they align with students’concerns. Their multiple perspectives, competing demands, and layered dynamics complicate what are considered to be the institutional responses and how they are perceived by Student-Activists of Color. Situating student activism through the Institutional Response Framework, this comparative case study employs document collection, archives, and interviews. Moreover, in the traditions of Critical Race Theory and Black Feminism, these responses are contextualized within the sociopolitical histories of each campus to further illuminate the roles of incrementalism, reputation, and trust. Through critical discourse analysis and thematic analysis, I map these patterns, tactics, and considerations onto three dimensions of the Institutional Response Framework: control, demand, and institutionalized racism. Findings reveal how responses minimize students’concerns, criminalize activism, co-opt initiatives, and only “claim diversity” through empty dialogues. Yet, responses also result in educational initiatives, new curricula, changes in institutional policies, and strategic ways to“protect” students. The decision-making rationales regarding morality, the university’s “best interests,” and peer group comparisons reflect the larger narratives of embedded whiteness, racism, anti-Blackness, and neoliberalism within higher education. The subtle and sometimes stark differences between these perceptions and responses demonstrate the positional pressuresand competing goals of each of these groups, while still inching towards institutional improvement. The functionality of the Institutional Response Framework and mapping these differences serve as an analytical tool to inform actionable practices. The study’s intersection of organizational theory and Critical Race Theory provides a unique interrogation of how racism and color-evasiveness materialize at the institutional level. Lastly, the research design offers an alternate methodological praxis that places under scrutiny an underexplored participant: the institution and its racialized dynamics. The dissertation of Katherine Soojin Cho is approved. Mitchell J. Chang Valerie J. Matsumoto Cecilia Rios-Aguilar Daniel G. Solórzano Sylvia Hurtado, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2020 DEDICATION To the generations who fought knowing that the futures dreamed would not become realities in their li

FAQs

What does the dissertation examine about campus racism and student activism?

It compares how senior administrators, faculty, and governing boards responded to concerns raised by student activism focused on campus racism between 2015 and 2018.

Which analytical framework guides the study?

The study uses the Institutional Response Framework and maps responses across dimensions of control, demand, and institutionalized racism.

How does the research approach interpret institutional responses?

Responses are contextualized through Critical Race Theory and Black Feminism and analyzed using critical discourse analysis and thematic analysis grounded in each campus’s sociopolitical history.

Aug 25, 2026

Upload by Olivia Brown