The University of New Mexico (UNM) has announced a $110,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The funding is intended for a yearlong study on how universities use intersectionality in data collection to understand complex inequalities in higher education and other policy areas. The research, co-led by Dr. Nancy López of UNM, Dr. Yasmiyn Irizarry from the University of Texas-Austin, and Dr. Edward Vargas from Arizona State University, seeks to examine the concurrent impact of race, gender, and class as categories of experience.
The project titled "Climate for Latino Students: Employing Intersectionality for Understanding Latino Student Success in Higher Education," aims to establish a comprehensive standard for universities to track and understand the complex social statuses of students, including race, gender, class, and ethnicity simultaneously. According to a press release by UNM, the study views Latino ethnicity as a cultural heritage rather than a race. It underscores the importance of adopting a both-and approach to measure race that takes into account self-identification and external perceptions.
López highlighted the necessity of an intersectional approach in understanding student demographics. She stated: "You don’t know who you are serving unless you are intersectional. You have no idea. To say that we’ve improved in Hispanic graduation rates without telling me how that breaks down with race, gender, ethnicity, and first-generation college students, I have no idea whose rate has improved." López also noted that New Mexico could reintroduce legislation requiring data collection on parental education levels from preschool through graduate school. "This data would help us illuminate where there are inequities that consider the simultaneity of race, gender and class and help attract funding and resources that will help us advance our ethical obligation to serve all students in our state," she added.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provides funding globally to tackle poverty, disease, and inequality. This significant funding initiative makes up over 90% of the foundation's charitable contributions. It supports entrepreneurs, companies, and organizations that aim to harness the power of private enterprise for positive impact, as stated on the About webpage provided by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
