Thesis advisor: Deborah Piatelli / This study contributes to the growing literature on the effectiveness of diversity and inclusion efforts in organizations. Previous studies focus on D&I efforts for full-time staff and employees. This qualitative and intersectional study examined first-generation black students in corporatized organizations that are predominantly white through interviews where they could share their experiences with organizational structures and cultures to determine the impact that it has on the performance and identity of black interns. This study assessed organizational cultures of three kinds: exclusive, transitional, and inclusive. Using these organizational cultures, the study determined the way that racism and whiteness culture affects the intern experience. The participants had various relationships with recruitment strategies, diversity discussions, navigating professional and personal networking, negotiating working identity and imposter syndrome, stereotype threat, microaggressions, and professional development. Overall, organizations are engaging in practices that alienate and suppress black student interns while encouraging assimilation. In inclusive organizations, black interns feel like they can be their authentic selves and progress more successfully because of the acceptance of their identity and their ability to share their experiences with that identity. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: . / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

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The history of the United States is rooted in differences and actions that has culminated in the current reality of culturally incompetent behaviors with a lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion prevailing in organizations and society. Through a cultural competence conceptual framework, this research highlighted an action-oriented approach for organizations seeking to engage in efforts to support and integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion. To conduct this research, I developed a cultural competence conceptual framework with eight types of initiatives derived from the scholarly literature on diversity, equity, inclusion, and cultural competence. The types of initiatives point to organizational efforts to engage in developmental and action-oriented strategies that: facilitate leadership engagement, sensitivity, and responsiveness to diversity, equity, and inclusion; specify strategic and operational goals; incorporate cultural awareness and sensitivity in policies, practices, programs, and procedures; integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion into human resource management to build a diverse and representative workforce; cultivate a supportive, inclusive, and equitable organizational culture/climate; reinforce and sustain a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion; employ sensitive and inclusive communications; and implement targeted training and professional development on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The cultural competence framework presented ways for organizations to actively engage in setting action-oriented goals targeting ingrained, systemic, and institutionalized disparities. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Despite growing racial inequality in access to selective colleges, popular beliefs abound that college admissions practices are advantaging racial minorities over White students. Because racial minorities face numerous forms of inequality prior to applying college, there are two assumptions held about college admissions. First, people assume that colleges utilize affirmative action based admission practices to help students of color gain admittance and to increase racial diversity on-campus. Second, people assume that most people, particularly Whites, are opposed to all forms of affirmative action. In my dissertation, I challenge both assumptions. I consider how college admissions practice may disadvantage students of color and contribute to racial gaps in access to selective colleges. I ask how organizational and racial processes influence which racialized factors a college considers and how the factors a college considers influence enrollments for specific racial groups. In addition, I ask how the admission factors a college considers influence public sentiment. I find that an increase in racial minority enrollments results in colleges desisting in the consideration of factors known to increase racial minority enrollments. I argue that what a college considers when making admission decisions may be a mechanism for protecting the often-invisible White culture at selective colleges. In addition, I uncover how different racialized admission factors are associated with the representation of different racial groups—indicating that because the meaning of diversity is malleable, the criteria colleges use to admit students may be associated with divergent forms of diversity. Taken together my findings challenge the idea that college admission practices always advantage racial minorities and indicate that in some instances they can disadvantage students of color. Finally, I also discover that Americans, regardless of racial identity, tend to be opposed to admission practices that are perceived to be un-meritocratic like advantaging legacy students or explicitly considering race; but they do not oppose all attempts to increase racial minority representation—indicating that there are some forms of affirmative action that may have wider support in the general public than typically acknowledged<br>

Mechanisms that favour rare species are key to the maintenance of diverse communities1–3. One of the most critical tasks for conservation of flowering plant biodiversity is to understand how plant–pollinator interactions contribute to the maintenance of rare species4–7. Here we show that niche partitioning in pollinator use and asymmetric facilitation confer fitness advantage of rarer species in a biodiversity hotspot using phylogenetic structural equation modelling that integrates plant–pollinator and interspecific pollen transfer networks with floral functional traits. Co-flowering species filtered pollinators via floral traits, and rarer species showed greater pollinator specialization leading to higher pollination-mediated male and female fitness than more abundant species. When plants shared pollinator resources, asymmetric facilitation via pollen transport dynamics benefitted the rarer species at the cost of more abundant species, serving as an alternative diversity-promoting mechanism. Our results emphasize the importance of community-wide plant–pollinator interactions that affect reproduction for biodiversity maintenance.

The plant nectar microbiome (NMB) primarily composed of fungi and bacteria can qualitatively and quantitively affect floral rewards and ultimately impact plant-pollinator interactions and plant reproductive success. Evidence suggests that changes in microenvironmental conditions across spatial gradients can induce changes in the floral nectar microbiome, leading to microbiome variation within species. Specifically, changes in biotic and abiotic conditions across an elevation gradient (i.e. pollinator community composition, temperature, UV exposure, nutrient availability) have the potential to induce variation NMB composition and abundance. However, this has been little explored. For instance, we could expect that the diversity and abundance of the NMB will decrease with elevation as the growing conditions become less favorable (e.g. lower temperatures). In this study, we evaluate spatial variation in nectar microbiome composition, diversity, and abundance in populations of Rhododendron catawbiense at high (H) and low (L) elevations separated by over 1000ft in Roan Mountain, TN. Nectar samples were collected, plated, quantified and isolated. Fungal ITS sequences were obtained from individual colonies by Sanger sequencing and directly from nectar samples by Nanopore NGS. Preliminary results suggest that elevation can affect fungal abundance and composition in the NMB. We found 10 fungal species inhabiting the nectar of R. catawbiense (H= 4; L= 9). We also observed variation in nectar yeast abundance with more than 30x as many CFUs (colony forming units) (H= 1.89 ±10.64; L=38.43 ±1.39.12) and twice as many RPKMs (reads per kilobase matched) (H= 2.8x107 ± 2.46x107; L=5.5x107 ±3.6x107) on average at the lower elevation. Interestingly, R. catawbiense NMB in the lower elevation had a broader diversity of species (Simpson Diversity Index: H= 0.52; L= 0.95), perhaps as a result of more favorable growing conditions. This trend is largely associated with higher abundance of Metschnikowiaceae yeast OTUs and lower abundance of potentially pathogenic Basidyomycete OTUs. Overall, results indicate that elevation can mediate changes in the composition and abundance of microorganisms in the NMB, which in turn can lead to differences in pollinator community composition and plant reproductive success. These results highlight the need evaluate within-species variation in NMB at large spatial scales and its potential consequences for plant reproductive success, plant-pollinator interactions and plant community dynamics. This is particularly important in the face of human-mediated environmental disturbances that can alter plant-microbe interactions.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The presented research the effect of Ely and Thomas’ (2001) three diversity perspectives—integration-and-learning, discrimination-and-fairness, and access-and-legitimacy—on perceptions of organizations as a function of their implied ideologies (i.e., multiculturalism, colorblindness, and tokenism). It was hypothesized that the organizational websites that enhance multiculturalism, such as the integration-and-learning perspective, will be perceived more favorably than websites that emphasize ideologies of colorblindness and tokenism, such as the discrimination-and-fairness and the access-and-legitimacy diversity perspectives, respectively. Additionally, expanding work by Plaut, Thomas, and Goren (2009) the study proposed that websites portraying the latter two perspectives will be perceived more negatively by Blacks than by Whites. In contrast, diversity perspectives that emphasize multiculturalism, such as the integration-and-learning diversity perspective, are hypothesized to be perceived more favorably, regardless of racial group membership. The main dependent variables of focus are the organizational outcomes of organizational attraction, organizational trust, P-O fit, and perceived justice. Findings suggest that racial group membership does not operate as a significant moderator of the relationship; however, the hypothesis that diversity perspectives would have varying relationships with diversity ideologies was partially verified.

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The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how stereotype threat impacts women and minorities within the College of Engineering. Within this study, I present a mixed-methods study that begins with an exploratory qualitative study into an sequential explanatory study. The purpose of the first study, Manuscript 1, was to identify common barriers present to women in engineering that negatively impact their motivations within engineering. During the analysis of this data, stereotype threat emerged as a common theme which lead to a literature review and subsequent explanatory study. A quantitative study, using Picho and Brown’s Social Identities and Attitudes Scale, was conducted to help pin point which groups on campus (i.e. women, men, and racial groups plus their intersections) were most impacted by stereotype threat (Manuscript 2, Chapter IV). The instrument also divides stereotype threat amongst six different constructs which allowed insight into specifically which types of stereotypes persist within engineering. Using the data collected from the 137 participants, I was able to identify that women are the most at risk for stereotype threat across 4 of the constructs in the instrument. Using the information from the SIAS instrument, I developed a focus group protocol and conducted 4 different focus groups with 8 different participants to gather data on what ways these negative stereotypes persist and interfere with women’s motivations within engineering (Manuscript 3, Chapter V). The implications of this research is then utilized to formulate proposed solutions to increase diversity and inclusivity within engineering.

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