Supporting Diverse Students and Faculty in Higher Education Through Multicultural Organizational Development

For decades, students and faculty from racial, ethnic, and linguistic (REL) minority backgrounds have encountered numerous barriers to success in graduate psychology programs and their larger college/university settings. To date, much of the research on improving supports for these individuals has focused on withinprogram strategies specifically, with minimal literature emphasizing the integration of program and universitywide strategies. This article describes principles of multicultural organizational development (MOD) as well as Cox's (1991) conceptualization of the multicultural organization. In particular, it focuses on 3 of Cox's 6 dimensions of MOD most directly related to reconciling cultural differences in organizations, namely: (a) acculturation; (b) cultural bias; and (c) intergroup conflict. Recommendations for supporting diverse students and faculty are organized along these 3 dimensions. Implications and directions for future research on supporting REL minority students and faculty in higher education settings are discussed.