Still Here and Thriving: BIPOC Reflections on Growing Into Mid-Level Roles

Moderator: James Kato

Panelists: Larissa Charnsangavej, Kristian Dawson, and Vic Sanchez

Session Description: Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) professionals face a number of challenges navigating the workplace and finding strategies to thrive, and UC Berkeley is no exception. While UC Berkeley has made some recent strides with increasing BIPOC hires in senior university leadership, Cal Answers data indicates that the number of BIPOC staff has largely remained level (i.e. shared about the same campus percentage) from 2008-2021 (Cal Answers). Anecdotally, BIPOC staff repeat a narrative that their colleagues of color do not stay employed at Berkeley over time, which points to a specific problem when compared against dashboard data: that while the university by and large does an effective job hiring staff of color, many BIPOC newcomers to Berkeley–especially newer professionals–do not stay.

Employee retention is strongly correlated with high levels of affective commitment (Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky, 2002), affective commitment being defined as the “strength of an individual's sense of belonging and identification with an organization” (Acikgoz, Sumer, & Sumer, 2016). While some campus efforts aim to address the larger campus culture for staff of color, this session will speak to individual lived experiences and what specifically drives some BIPOC staff to stay.

This panel, consisting of student services professionals who have served 6-8 years in positions of increasing responsibility at UC Berkeley, will discuss the challenges (and rewards) of navigating intersecting identities as a professional in higher education, and more importantly, why and how the panelists have been able to find success at UC Berkeley. Panelists will speak to changing roles and expectations as they’ve advanced into mid-level positions, crucial relationships and partnerships they developed, and personal strategies they’ve employed in navigating their professional careers at UC Berkeley.

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