Abstract
Students attending colleges and universities across the country are more diverse than ever before, and this trend is most pronounced in California (Chronicle of Higher Education Inc. 2006). This has led to the suggestion that a basic level of multicultural competence, defined as multicultural awareness, multicultural knowledge, and multicultural skills, is required of all student affairs practitioners (Pope et al. 2004). A pioneering theorist suggests multicultural awareness is the foundational component from which multicultural knowledge and skills are developed (Pedersen 1988). The impact living on campus has on student success supports the multicultural awareness of residence hall directors as an important point of inquiry. This study described the multicultural awareness of full-time professional residence hall directors in California and included a comparison of multicultural awareness across six demographic variables. Aspects of personal and professional lives cited by residence hall directors as contributing most to their multicultural awareness were summarized. The findings of this study were compared to the multicultural attitudes of chief housing officers as reported by Howlett (2006). The study employed descriptive and ex post facto research designs. Purposive sampling was used to identify 180 residence hall directors who were invited to complete the Residence Hall Director Multicultural Attitude Survey (RHD-MAS) to measure their multicultural awareness. Residence hall directors in California were found to have high levels of multicultural awareness. Female residence hall directors and residence hall directors working in the University of California system exhibited significantly higher multicultural awareness than their counterparts. There were no significant differences in multicultural awareness when respondents were compared by years of service as a residence hall director, education, age group, or ethnicity/race. The aspects of personal and professional lives cited by residence hall directors as contributing most to their multicultural awareness were categorized into eleven themes. Finally, residence hall directors exhibited similarly high multicultural attitude scores as did chief housing officers studied by Howlett (2006). This study contributed to the knowledge of the multicultural awareness of residence hall directors serving California's colleges and universities. Implications for the university housing profession and suggestions for further research were discussed.