Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar Lucia Orellana-Damacela Nelson Portillo Jean M. Rowan Chelsea Andrews-Guillen The authors would like to acknowledge Fabricio Balcazar and Chiara Sabina for their comments on an earlier draft and Fred Bryant for his assistance on the statistical analysis. Yolanda Suarez-Balcazar is associate professor, Department of Occupational Therapy, College of Applied Health Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago. Lucia Orellana-Damacela, Nelson Portillo, and Chelsea Andrews-Guillen are graduate stu- dents in the Department of Pyschology at Loyola University Chicago. Jean M. Rowan was an undergraduate student at Loyola. This study was conducted when the first author was at Loyola with support from the Loyola Office of Research Support. All correspon- dence should be sent to the first author at ysuarez@iuc.edu. The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 74, No. 4 (July/August 2003) Copyright © 2003 by The Ohio State University Incidents of ethnic and racial discrimination are still prevalent in American universities (Chang, 2000; Pettigrew, 1998). Many campuses are struggling with racial tensions among students from diverse race groups. African American students, in particular, are more likely than Caucasians to be the target of some form of direct, personal racism (Ancis, Sedlacek, & Mohr, 2000; Fisher & Hartmann, 1995; Gossett, Cuyjet, & Cockriel, 1998). These types of incidents include dif- ferential treatment and stereotyping by fellow students, faculty mem- bers, campus police, teaching assistants, administrators, and staff. African American students have perceived more interracial tensions on campus, have reported significantly less satisfaction with the institution, and have also reported that faculty members often assess their academic performance more negatively than they do for Caucasian students (Ancis, et al., 2000; Coleman, Jussim, & Isaac, 1991). Relevant to this study is the assessment of specific situations in which college students experience differential treatment. Because students’ perceptions and attributions may also account for experiencing differen- Experiences of Differential Treatment Among College Students of Color