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Abstract
The study investigates experiences of Black and White doctoral students at a predominantly White research institution to determine if differences in doctoral student socialization, satisfaction with doctoral study, and commitment to degree completion exist based on the students' race or gender. The study found that race and gender do impact socialization, satisfaction level, and commitment to degree completion. More specifically, Black doctoral women in the study appeared to be affected more by race than were the Black men, White men and women. Based on these findings, the investigator offers some suggestions for administrators who wish to address some of the issues raised by the participants in this document.
Introduction
As graduate program officers intensify their recruitment of minorities and women, graduate school deans, department heads, and faculty members more frequently confront issues beyond academic ones. The issue of race and education that drove parts of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s has not disappeared even though the doors to select colleges and universities have opened to students of color and women. Battles for educational equity are not violent, as they were thirty years ago. Twenty-first century educational warfare consists of quiet battles, but just as intense for many Black students and women who pursue doctoral degrees in predominantly White colleges and universities. This study examines some of these struggles for educational equity.
Most students in doctoral degree programs in select colleges and universities are White (The Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac, 1992,1993, 1994,1995, and 1999). Although the numbers of Black students have increased, Black students are still very much in the minority in doctoral programs. This lack of diversity among doctoral students is a concern to administrators, faculty members, and policy makers alike, for future university professors will come from these doctoral programs. In order to increase the pool of minority graduate faculty members, specifically Blacks, from which colleges and universities can hire, opportunities must be provided for Black students (both men and women) and women of all races to participate and succeed at the doctoral level (Berg & Ferber, 1983; Blackwell, 1987; Brown, 1988, 1992; Chamberlain, 1988; Solmon, 1976; and Wilkerson, 1987).
This study has investigated the experiences of Black male and female doctoral students as well as those...