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Colleges and universities across the nation are grappling with issues related to diversity and inclusion on their campuses. This case study approaches diversity and inclusion efforts on college campuses from a student perspective. It outlines a grassroots initiative, developed by students and supported by student-athletes, that illustrates the powerful voice students can have in shaping institutional culture. This case study describes the success of We Are One Team, the 2017 recipient of the NCAA’s Award for Diversity and Inclusion, the Association’s highest award for institutional efforts for diversity and inclusion in intercollegiate athletics. Informed by institutional theory, the case study provides students with action steps toward promoting diversity and inclusion through sport and explains how We Are One Team succeeded at driving inclusive excellence on campus.

In an increasingly diverse sports industry, inclusive excellence becomes an important axiom to engage a variety of stakeholders. This case study outlines the development of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Social Media Campaign launched by the NCAA’s Minority Opportunities and Interest Committee in partnership with the national Student-Athlete Advisory Committees. The goals of this campaign were to provide the more than 500,000 student-athletes in the NCAA with a platform to create a dialogue on diversity and inclusion on their campuses as well as to communicate the benefit of inclusive environments to the student-athlete experience. By outlining the steps from the campaign idea to its implementation, this case study provides students with the ability to (a) understand a major sport organization’s planning process for a national social media campaign focused on diversity and inclusion, (b) analyze current diversity trends in the sports industry using the NCAA as an example, (c) trace the NCAA membership’s engagement with the campaign, and (d) determine to which extent a campaign such as this one can serve as a starting point for anchoring inclusive excellence in the fabric of intercollegiate athletics departments.

The goal of this study was to extend the contemporary athlete activism literature by (a) exploring athlete activism beyond a strictly North American context and (b) examining how athlete activism at an organizational/institutional level (i.e., sport organization) may be framed differently than activist efforts at an individual level (i.e., athlete). By examining two examples of activism in German soccer, we show that the framing of both athlete-enacted and organization-enacted examples of activism highlighted the importance of speaking up when human rights are violated, called for the display of solidarity, and discussed the broader political implications for such protests. Additionally, framing of both examples of activism included voices of criticism regarding the sport organizations governing global sport. As calls for accountability of sport organizations suppressing athlete expression are becoming increasingly common in global sport, this study adds to a shifting focus of activism research targeting the sport institutions that often perpetuate the various injustices individual athletes call attention to.

The emergence of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) professionals (i.e., staff with DEI-specific responsibilities) is a fairly recent phenomenon, and research to date has rarely examined the experiences of these DEI administrators despite the fact they are often solely charged with driving DEI within and beyond their department. Utilizing Ahmed’s diversity work framework, this study draws from semistructured interviews with 23 athletic administrators to identify barriers to efforts for driving DEI action in the context of intercollegiate athletics. Five higher-order themes were identified in the data, representing barriers to effective DEI work: (a) structural barriers, (b) cultural barriers, (c) conceptual barriers, (d) emotional barriers, and (e) social/relational barriers. Findings indicate that DEI athletics professionals perceive barriers on multiple levels, from personal levels (emotional and social/relational barriers) to those of a systemic nature (structural, cultural, and conceptual barriers). Limitations, directions for future research, and implications for praxis are discussed.

Matters related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have taken center stage in intercollegiate athletics in response to renewed momentum of the Black Lives Matter movement after the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery (to name a few) in 2020. Following the trend, athletics diversity and inclusion officer positions have been developed to implement DEI programming and strategy in athletics on respective campuses. However, while research on DEI programming at historically White institutions is well established, inquiries on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are rare. To fill this gap in the literature on strategic DEI efforts, the present study aims to analyze the current landscape of DEI work at HBCUs. Drawing from racialized organization theory, we argue that the contemporary conceptualization of DEI hinders the perceptual need for DEI programming at HBCUs. Thus, the monolithic approach of DEI programming cannot remain the pragmatic solution to inequitable experiences in NCAA athletics, specifically at HBCUs. Considerations include budgetary allocations, professional development, and the overall athlete experience.

The goal of this study was to examine how athletes holding privileged racial identities understand their whiteness as they engage in racial justice activism. Drawing from 12 semistructured interviews with white collegiate athletes who have engaged in activism for racial justice, we identified four higher order themes which we situate within a broader discussion of how each theme either reinforces or disrupts racial power: articulations of (a) racial consciousness, (b) white privilege, (c) white empathy, and (d) white accountability. While the white accountability theme has the potential to disrupt racial power due to its relying on rigorous self-critique, the remaining themes pointed to limited understandings of the systemic nature of racism, which can thus inadvertently (re)produce white supremacy even when engaging in activism for racial justice. Limitations, implications, and future directions for research are discussed to empower more white athletes to reflect critically on whiteness and facilitate systemic change.