Intergroup Dialogue at Colgate University: Student Outcomes and Effects

In order to study the effects and outcomes of intergroup dialogue (IGD) on Colgate students, qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data. Interviews with 16 Colgate students (two were graduates who currently work at Colgate) were conducted along with data from a post-test survey that was administered to students enrolled in the two Intergroup Dialogue courses. Scales were created using questions and data from the post-test survey to analyze and examine the means of students' answers and the Cronbach Alpha scores. This project used a comparative study as well to examine how levels of exposure to intergroup dialogue pedagogy impacted and effected students. For the comparative study a sample of students was collected from 2 non-IGD diversity courses, 2 partial IGD courses and 2 full IGD courses. Five students were interviewed for the non-IGD courses as well as full IGD courses and six for the courses that used partial IGD. In regards to gender, 13 females were interviewed and 3 males. These methods were used to answer the following questions: 1) what effect does participation in intergroup dialogue have on students attending a liberal arts college? 2) What is the process through which exposure to intergroup dialogue pedagogy leads to these changes in student outcomes? This study solely collected data from Colgate University. This project covers Colgate’s racial climate, past literature, past applicable theories as well as the creation of a new theory, data and methods, quantitative and qualitative results as well a discussion and conclusion section.