<p>Students from lower socioeconomic status and historically racially minoritized groups are less likely to go to college; if they go, they are less likely to graduate. Part of the reason is due to money and access to educational opportunities. We contend that another reason is because these institutions, created by and for White elites, have left everyone else feeling like outsiders—socially, culturally, and spatially. In the current review, we focus on the spatial dimension. We draw from human geography, urban planning, architecture, and related fields, and propose that the university campus is a territorial, surveilled, and symbolic space, in ways that leave marginalized students feeling like trespassers on campus. We then review existing evidence and offer new evidence that the physical setting of university life—the university campus—can make marginalized students feel out of place. We conclude that if universities are serious about their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and in their mission to be the engine of economic mobility, they must change, in part, by reimagining physical spaces.</p>

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Critiquing and Reimagining Belonging in Public Spaces in Higher Education

  • Diane-Jo Bart-Plange,
  • Kyshia Henderson,
  • Kelly Hoffman,
  • Sophie Trawalter

摘要

Students from lower socioeconomic status and historically racially minoritized groups are less likely to go to college; if they go, they are less likely to graduate. Part of the reason is due to money and access to educational opportunities. We contend that another reason is because these institutions, created by and for White elites, have left everyone else feeling like outsiders—socially, culturally, and spatially. In the current review, we focus on the spatial dimension. We draw from human geography, urban planning, architecture, and related fields, and propose that the university campus is a territorial, surveilled, and symbolic space, in ways that leave marginalized students feeling like trespassers on campus. We then review existing evidence and offer new evidence that the physical setting of university life—the university campus—can make marginalized students feel out of place. We conclude that if universities are serious about their commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and in their mission to be the engine of economic mobility, they must change, in part, by reimagining physical spaces.