Bowdoin College
PA-5: Assessing Diversity and Equity

Bowdoin College assesses student diversity and educational equity in a holistic manner throughout the students’ tenure. Considerations during the admissions process include gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geography, and first-generation status, among others. The Bowdoin Class of 2018 is composed of 32 percent students of color and 14 percent low-income students (Pell grant eligible). Bowdoin is need-blind in its admission review. Several student surveys conducted by the Office of Institutional Research, Analytics and Consulting are analyzed to understand when race and gender yield different student experiences.

In the annual survey of Bowdoin seniors, students are specifically asked about their satisfaction with the ethnic, racial, cultural and socio-economic diversity on campus and how much interaction they have with students from different backgrounds. In March 2015, the Division of Student Affairs established a working group to further promote interaction, collaboration, and learning among people of different races, ethnicities, sexualities, and economic circumstances. This group will assess and provide feedback about current programs to ensure that all students can interact, participate, and learn from one another. Other diversity and equity initiatives include establishing a new Student Center for Multicultural Life; creating a new position of Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion; and hiring a new director for the Center for Multicultural Life.

In 2010 Bowdoin’s Working Group on Faculty Diversity was transformed into a Committee on Faculty Diversity to remain in existence until the 2014-15 academic year, when the progress on diversity would be evaluated. The specific charge of the committee is to promote the hiring and retention of a diverse faculty at Bowdoin by serving as outside members on tenure-track searches, and by undertaking other activities to increase the diversity of the faculty. The Committee on Faculty Diversity assessed its progress in the current 2014-15 year and decided to extend the committee until 2019-20. The Committee has recommended professional training on inclusive recruiting and hiring practices for its members and involving them earlier in the search process.

Bowdoin reports annually on the gender, ethnicity, alumni decade representation, geographic representation, and professional background of trustees in order to foster awareness of diversity among Board members. The College also maintains the Trustee Special Committee on Multicultural Affairs and the Diversity Committee of the Alumni Council. To address public engagement, the College established a bias incident reporting online form for any campus community member to report either bias incidents or positive educational efforts or prevention events. The index of such events promotes transparency and is available to assess campus inclusion.