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

Section: Opinion

Sharing My World

In my short time at Lincoln, I’ve sought counsel from veteran faculty whose insights have helped shape my perspectives as an educator. But one of the most important things I’ve done is make friends with fellow junior faculty, most of whom are around my age. Having colleagues who can identify with my growing pains has […]

February 9, 2010

Black Hollywood’s Historical Complexity

As I reviewed the 2009 Oscar nominations, I noticed the substantial number of Black nominees. Gabourey Sidibe, Mo’Nique, Lee Daniels and Morgan Freeman were nominated for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director and Best Actor, respectively. Each of them were nominated for diverse roles ranging from an overweight physically, sexually and emotionally abused ghetto […]

February 8, 2010

For-profit Institutions and What Public Institutions Can Learn in Reaching Out to Latinos

For-profit institutions of higher education are viewed with disdain by many in higher education. I find them intriguing. Tracking the growing enrollment patterns of Latinos in higher education, it is also obvious that Latinos are more open to the opportunities presented by these institutions than other groups. As a policy analyst, I was very aware […]

February 4, 2010

For-profit Institutions and What Public Institutions Can Learn in Reaching Out to Latinos

For-profit institutions of higher education are viewed with disdain by many in higher education. I find them intriguing. Tracking the growing enrollment patterns of Latinos in higher education, it is also obvious that Latinos are more open to the opportunities presented by these institutions than other groups. As a policy analyst, I was very aware […]

February 4, 2010

Having a Voice and Getting a Stage on Which To Use It

Every week I meet with students about their academic interests, their future, and their vision. This past week, I met with a young man, about 25 years old, who is pursuing a master’s degree in education. He told me that he wants to be famous – wants to get on TV, radio, and be in […]

February 2, 2010

Celebrating Blackness at an HBCU

When people think of Lincoln University, among the first things that come to mind is its storied past and the alumni, such as Thurgood Marshall, Langston Hughes and Kwame Nkrumah, who have made a significant impact in the struggle for human rights. One of the ironies of being at Lincoln is that it does not […]

February 2, 2010

Celebrating Blackness at an HBCU

When people think of Lincoln University, among the first things that come to mind is its storied past and the alumni, such as Thurgood Marshall, Langston Hughes and Kwame Nkrumah, who have made a significant impact in the struggle for human rights. One of the ironies of being at Lincoln is that it does not […]

February 2, 2010

Diversity in the Professoriate: When are We Going to Get Serious?!

Often I hear faculty colleagues at my institution and across the nation talking about the need to diversify the professoriate. People say, “I wish we could find more applicants of color” or “It would be great to have more faculty of color here” or “I wonder how other institutions recruit faculty of color” or my […]

January 27, 2010

No Tolerance for Tardiness

In the five-plus years I have been an educator, I have always been a stickler for attendance. I always jot down my absent and tardy students and enforce grade deductions at the end of the semester. Part of the reason I’m so tenacious when it comes to holding students accountable is because of my experience […]

January 25, 2010

Translating the Rules of the Game

Over the so-called semester “break,” I cruised through two books that had been on my “to-read” list for a while: Gerald Graff’s Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind (Yale University Press) and Rebecca D. Cox’s The College Fear Factor: How Students and Professors Misunderstand One Another (Harvard University Press). As […]

January 24, 2010

Putting Priorities and Expectations in Perspective

How do you prioritize higher education when you are struggling to survive and provide for your own family? The recent devastation in Haiti is a vivid reminder for me of this reality. In Haiti, as in many impoverished Latin American countries, survival is the priority, not college. We can pontificate all we want about […]

January 21, 2010

Race and Representation

I don’t think I’ve given YouTube and some of the other web video portals their just due as pedagogical tools. However, my class this week focuses on the representations of African-Americans in the media over the past 100 years. I showed my students a clip of failed “American Idol” contestant Larry Platt’s “Pants on the […]

January 20, 2010

Endangered Species: Male Students of Color in Higher Education

Editor’s note: This blog post was co-authored by Dr. Luis Ponjuan. There is growing concern among educators, researchers, and many local communities over the educational plight of male students of color. Postsecondary enrollment patterns over the past two decades highlight a disturbing trend that traditional college-aged males compared to their female peers are less likely to […]

January 19, 2010

King’s message of hope keeps us together

I couldn’t help but think of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the news broke last night and into the morning about the earthquake in Haiti. The odds are stacked up against this country, yet with prayer and help from others it will survive. The pictures suggest ruin, yet the determination of the people will […]

January 14, 2010

Using Hip-hop as a Teaching Tool

I was recently approached by a friend of mine at Lincoln about suggesting ways that the university could better incorporate hip-hop into its mass communications program. Though some Lincoln professors have tried to use hip-hop as a teaching tool in the classroom, the university has kept a safe distance from hip-hop, particularly the commercial rap […]

January 13, 2010

The Hegemon and Hawaii: Teaching History through the Law

I teach a course called, “United States in the Pacific Islands,” in which students learn about American historical involvement in the Pacific structured by strategic interests in the region that constitute neocolonial hegemony including economic, military and cultural power. It is a rare thing for students anywhere in the United States to learn about the […]

January 12, 2010

In the Heights of Higher Education

For the new year, I finally went to see the musical “In the Heights” in New York. “In the Heights” won the 2008 Tony Award for best musical and its storyline focuses on Latinos and college-going. The story revolves around a small community in Washington Heights, N.Y., where various Latinos all live in harmony. One […]

January 12, 2010

Like It or Not, America Has Played the Race Card Again

Why do I allege that America has played the race card? Because Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s private musings about race have now come out of the closet. Reid said what many Americans think: President Barack Obama is light skinned and has no “Negro dialect” unless he wants to. Reid is spot on. If […]

January 11, 2010