Perceptions of Inequality Among PhD Students

Although students of color have increased their participation in graduate programs in sociology, they remain underrepresented when compared to the pool of minority baccalaureates (34.6%).  How sociology departments encourage and manage racial-ethnic diversity among graduate students is an important albeit understudied question.  Reid and Radhakrishnan assert that “different individuals can—and do—experience the same school in dramatically different ways on the basis of race” (2003: 264).  Student’s perceptions of diversity and the departmental climate impact their enrollment decisions, their academic and social lives, and their satisfaction with their educational programs (Hurtado, Milem, Clayton-Pederson, and Allen 1996).  Peer acceptance and co-advising are integral parts of graduate student socialization (Lovitts 2004) but can be impaired if faculty are perceived to “unfairly” favor students based on race-ethnicity, class, gender, or sexuality.  

This paper reports on findings from a national survey study conducted with a diverse sample of Sociology graduate students on their attitudes toward the value of diversity, perceived quality of faculty mentoring, graduate program satisfaction, and perceptions of discriminatory unfairness in their departments (n = 685). Using a critical race theory perspective, we compare the attitudes and perceptions of three racial/ethnic groups: White, African American, and Latina/o students.  We find that faculty and departmental diversity is significantly more important in the enrollment decisions of minority students compared to White students.  For all graduate students, satisfaction is significantly predicted by increased mentoring; in addition white student satisfaction is also predicted by perceived respect from faculty. Latinas/os are less satisfied with their graduate program than other students and report lower levels of faculty mentorship and professional guidance than other groups. Finally, White students and racial-ethnic minority students tend to perceive that the “other group” enjoys discriminatory “advantages,” which is negatively associated with program satisfaction.  Our data points to the need for departments to implement support systems that provide affirmation through curricular transformation and faculty mentorship to students who may feel stigmatized as racial-ethnic “tokens” and to White students who may feel unfairly disadvantaged by shifts in admissions and re-allocation of increasingly scarce resources.