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Welcome to The EDU Ledger! We’ve moved from Diverse: Issues In Higher Education.

Section: Opinion

African-American

Why College-Educated Black Women Are Threats in 2021

College-educated Black women are a threat ─ to the white American supremacy and higher education as we know it. Threats are meant to intimidate ─ to threaten is to give signs or warnings, to announce with intent or possibility, to cause to feel insecure or anxious. Threats hang and hover over, invoking fear with purpose. Threats are an indication of something impending. The threat of powerful, college-educated Black women in 2021 is looming. Warning signs ahead!

April 27, 2021

Shaking Up the Athletic Lottery

Sports has long been a fixture in American life generally and in communities of color more specifically. One could argue that there is seemingly more at stake on average for Black athletes because of the economic condition of Black communities in the United States. The cultural embeddedness of the athletic route and the sports dream in the lives of young Black men is something that is taken for granted in many cases. For the small few who make it to play in college or the pros, a glimmer of hope for the masses is given.

April 27, 2021

Diverse Jury Saw George Floyd as Human and Delivered Justice

One aspect of the Derek Chauvin verdicts in the murder of George Floyd that people fail to see is how there’s justice in diversity—if you let diversity work.

April 26, 2021

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Community Colleges

Fostering Social Justice in Higher Education

As the pace of change continues to accelerate, higher education leaders are now under constant pressure to respond to social justice issues within their campuses and surrounding communities. To my generation, education is viewed as the “great equalizer,” but this promise of equality cannot be achieved when fundamental injustice exists.

April 26, 2021

Considering the Impact of COVID-19 on Teacher Education: What Really Matters

The COVID-19 pandemic shed a harsh light on the systemic inequities in schools and communities. If we believe schools are the epicenter to dismantle racism and inequities, then we must examine our role as teacher educators to address these issues of inequality. How can we use this inflection point to positively and substantively change educator preparation?

April 23, 2021

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African-American

Creating Equitable Classroom Environments

The decision to pivot to remote learning brought its own set of challenges for countless children and families across diverse communities. Foremost, were the ongoing efforts to create, establish, and maintain a caring and equitable classroom environment with actively engaged children and their families.

April 22, 2021

Imposter Syndrome: A Buzzword with Damaging Consequences

Like many racially minoritized faculty who engage in work for equity and social justice, we are no strangers to the daily manifestations of systems of oppression and oppressive behavior in academia. Recently during one of our conversations, the topic of imposter syndrome surfaced as we both processed some of our experiences.

April 21, 2021

Faculty & Staff

Questioning Our Questions About Faculty Diversity

I was recently contacted by a news outlet to share thoughts about the lack of faculty diversity within the UC (University of California) system. This is the kind of opportunity I especially welcome because it allows me to discuss both my scholarly expertise and insights through experiences. However, on this particular occasion my excitement was soon met with other sentiments.

April 20, 2021

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Breaking the Ice for Diverse Populations On Campus

Despite universities’ efforts to recruit diverse student bodies, members of different demographic groups remain susceptible to avoiding “the other.” That situation is particularly striking at this moment on college campuses in Israel, given the groundbreaking developments in the broader Middle East region, which represent the very opposite trend.

April 19, 2021

African-American

Black Colleges and Universities: Charting a Path to Transformational

Recent, so-called “transformational” gifts to HBCUs, most notably MacKenzie Scott’s multi-million dollar beneficence to twenty-two public and private HBCUs, present huge opportunities to reimagine and reposition some extraordinary institutions. No reasonable person can deny that these gifts with no strings attached represent a significant investment in these schools as well as an affirmation of their worth. They are not, ipso facto, transformational, however. These monies have the potential to be transformational only if meaningful conversations occur among institutional leadership, governing boards and stakeholders.

April 16, 2021

Dr. Alvin J. Schexnider

The Jalen Hurts Template on How to Handle Career Storms

There are lessons from college sports that can be transferred to other areas of life, even to higher educational administrative apparatuses. Personnel moves on the football field can mirror personnel moves in departments or schools. People are put in different positions and called upon to execute different roles and assignments.

April 16, 2021

Self-Help Recommendations on How Millennial Women of Color Survive College

During this self-isolation and social distancing period, I have come to the realization that I did not fully know myself as much as I thought, and that was a notion that was frightening yet ethereal.

April 15, 2021

For Colleges and Universities, Reopening Plans Must Meet Students’ Mental Health Needs

As more people across the nation become eligible for COVID-19 vaccines, colleges and universities are evaluating the feasibility of bringing students safely back to campus. Of course, access to vaccines and healthcare, as well as protective measures like preventative testing and contact tracing are all top priorities, but administrators must also prepare to meet the mental health needs of their campuses most vulnerable students.

April 14, 2021

Engaging Academia on My Own Terms

I associated my belonging and success in academia with persisting and succeeding in the “traditional pathway” of doctoral students. While no one specifically told me, “you need to get a tenure-track position at a research institution,” I was socialized to believe that was the only goal I should aspire to.

April 14, 2021

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NCAA Forum: A Collegiate Athletics Call to Action

Sports has often been viewed as the “great equalizer” in our society, where no one sees color or race and focuses on teamwork and collectively building success. However, at the same time, throughout history and especially currently, athletes of color are being told to “Shut up and dribble” and to avoid social justice and political involvement.

April 13, 2021

Asian American Pacific Islander

Do People Really Think Harvard Admissions Discriminates Against Asians?

Harvard’s admissions process is based on a holistic sense of the applicant, not just grades and test scores. It’s a lot like other schools’ methods where grades and test scores and race are just one factor. It’s a method that has stood up to court challenges for years.

April 12, 2021

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What Does an Anti-Racist College Admissions Process Look Like?

As our country confronts how racism affects so many other aspects of our lives, college admissions has some soul searching to do as well. The reality is that the process is rife with unintentional bias, and higher education is reckoning with its history as an institution originally designed by, and for, America’s white male elite. Many widely used practices, such as requiring standardized test scores, are being reevaluated or even scrapped altogether.

April 12, 2021

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From DEI to JEDI

Is the acronym Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) outdated? After a summer of uprisings for racial justice during a global pandemic, we felt this era required us to lead with Justice and so we renamed our office at the MGH Institute of Health Professions from JEDI, transitioning from DEI, to reflect our paradigm shift in 2020.

April 9, 2021