ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the hidden curriculum and explores the relationship between this curriculum and student culture. One of the most striking elements of the hidden curriculum at Urban College relates to faculty race and gender. Unlike most tertiary level institutions, students at Urban College cannot receive institutional rewards if they do not use time in a manner defined as appropriate by the college. The attendance policy is in large part an institutional response to elements of student culture, specifically those regarding time and its appropriate use. Student lived culture at Urban College strengthens the collectivity and reinforces aspects of a collective black experience, ultimately reproducing and deepening class/race antagonisms that lie at the very heart of American society. That the student culture serves to maintain and strengthen the black collectivity becomes clearer from an examination of student response to black faculty in the academic areas.
