Onboarding and staying: Experiences of faculty of color at a Midwestern Community College

The underrepresentation of faculty of color may be a symptom of cultural dissonance, unneutral policies, the prevalence of microaggression, and the lack of commitment. It is important to assess the effectiveness of the diversity initiatives related to the recruitment and retention of faculty of color. This research took place at a public medium-size, nonresidential community college in a rural area of the Midwest region (Carnegie Classification, 2016). This research was designed to explore how the perception of climate factors have influenced retention strategies for faculty of color. The researcher invited faculty members to participate in interviews, who had self-disclosed as a member of one of the following groups: African American, Latino(a), Native American, and Asian American. Under a critical race framework, the researcher conducted a qualitative study involving the 3-phase critical race–grounded theory methodology, which included retrieving and analyzing transcripts from interviews to yield explanations grounded in the data. These data was used to make recommendations for initiatives to embody future diversity-related policies.