
Selective Diversity Programs in Higher Education
Research Question: How do opportunity-enhancing diversity initiatives (such as scholarships and pipeline programs) shape individuals’ future employment outcomes?
Data: Data are from an online correspondence study (also known as an audit study) and a supplemental survey experiment. The sample for the correspondent study is compiled from job listings webscraped from an online job aggregator. The sample for the survey experiment consists of an opt-in panel of hiring professionals recruited by a survey research company.
Additional data are from administrative records and associated metadata kept by the diversity program’s program office. This administrative data is supplemented by a database used primarily by university administrators, as well as other information collected from publicly available websites.
Methods: Standard statistical methods were used to analyze the data (e.g. t-tests, linear regression, etc.)
Challenges: The biggest challenge was not being able to access the physical records for the historic documents. Linking the administrative data to other public records and databases has also been time-consuming.
Findings: Results from the correspondence study suggest that employers penalize applicants with diversity scholarships when they are racialized as Black/African American, but not when they are racialized as White.