Men of Color Need More Than One Mentor: New Findings Point to Why Multiple Relationships Matter

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Rudd, J. (2026). You belong here: Opportunities for success through mentorship for men of color. About Campus, Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/10864822261430723

Men of color (MOC) face documented structural barriers to belonging and success in higher education, from lowered faculty expectations to limited access to culturally affirming support networks. Rudd (2026) opens with a straightforward premise: when designed intentionally, mentoring programs can create genuine pathways to success for men of color (MOC) in higher education. Drawing on both personal experience and existing scholarship, the author makes the case that MOC are underserved by generic support structures and that mentoring can be genuinely transformative.

Rudd draws on personal experience as a mentor of a formal peer mentoring program for MOC, and supported by published research. Rudd draws on his time as an upper-class mentor in the Rites of Passage program, a structured initiative specifically designed for MOC, to illustrate what intentional mentoring looks like in practice.

MOC benefit most from having multiple mentors — both formal and informal — who share their racial and ethnic backgrounds and understand the particular pressures they face on campus. Rudd notes that in one study, only 7 of 23 MOC interviewed could identify a campus champion or ally (Huerta et al., 2021). The message is clear: representation and intentionality in mentoring are the difference between students persisting and leaving.

Rudd argues that giving MOC structured space to process their experiences builds self-awareness, celebrates strengths, and reframes challenges. Assessment, he argues, is equally essential: it keeps programs honest, responsive, and able to demonstrate impact to stakeholders.

Programs should center MOC identity from the start, invest in mentor training that builds cultural awareness, and use mixed-method assessment to stay responsive to students’ actual needs rather than assumed ones.

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