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

Section: Opinion

Mismatched or Undermatched?

A few years ago, opponents of affirmative action claimed admitting students of color into institutions that were too challenging for them was setting these students up for failure. This “mismatch” theory explained why students of color were more likely to drop out without completing a degree. However, a new study has raised a more intriguing […]

November 2, 2009

Diary of a Mad Black Professor: A Critical Race Therapy Moment

I have been told the first step in getting over a problem is admitting that one has a problem. I made it to the first step because I can admit I am angry. No, heck no, I take that back; I am mad. I know people don’t get mad, only animals get mad. Even my […]

November 1, 2009

HBCUs, Student Protest and Lincoln University’s Library

“Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.” —Martin Luther King Jr. A week ago, I attended the History of Education Society annual meeting in Philadelphia. On the program were four or five different papers about HBCUs and their historic traditions of […]

November 1, 2009

A People on the Precipice?

The recent news of the savage gang rape of a fifteen year-old girl in Richmond, California broke my heart. Again. I have thought of little else since hearing the gruesome details of the child’s ordeal, as others stood by-watching, cheering, filming, or partaking – for over two and ½ hours. For the second time in […]

October 28, 2009

A People on the Precipice?

The recent news of the savage gang rape of a 15-year-old girl in Richmond, Calif., broke my heart. Again. I have thought of little else since hearing the gruesome details of the child’s ordeal, as others stood by-watching, cheering, filming, or partaking – for over two and ½ hours. For the second time in recent […]

October 28, 2009

Professor, Academic Adviser, Personal Counselor

One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced since coming to Lincoln has been the added task of advising students. Many large universities have full-time advisers available within departments while others have advisers who stick with a student for the duration of their college careers. Not so at Lincoln, where the professor is also adviser. When […]

October 27, 2009

Perfectionism: Just Stop It!

The best piece of advice received in my academic career thus far was given to me by Dr. Wayne Urban, an historian and professor at the University of Alabama. During my first year as a faculty member, I walked into his office and asked, “Wayne, how do you write so much excellent scholarship, how […]

October 26, 2009

Cultivating Cultural Curiosity

I took Monday off to celebrate Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. This was the first time in my teaching career that there wasn’t a campus community that observed Diwali, which has different meanings for followers of Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Buddhism. Diwali is celebrated according to the lunar calendar. It dates to centuries B.C. […]

October 22, 2009

The House Rules

Morehouse College has laid down the law. And not a moment too soon… As has been widely reported in many of the major national news outlets, the storied all-male private college, known as “Harvard of the South,” has issued a sweeping dress code for all of its 2,700 students. In case you haven’t seen it, […]

October 20, 2009

How about a Career in Fundraising for Students of Color?

Editor’s note: This blog post was co-authored by Nelson Bowman III. From time to time, I like to write with others and this week my friend Nelson Bowman III, director of development at Prairie View A & M University, had some good ideas — so we decided to write about them together. Both […]

October 19, 2009

Matching Aspirations With Values

In a report released October 7 by the Pew Hispanic Center, nearly 90 percent of Latino young adults said a college education is important for success in life. However, only about 50 percent of respondents said they planned to get a college degree. What can we take away from the findings of this representative […]

October 15, 2009

Raising Tough Questions About Enrollment Diversity

I recently delivered a keynote speech at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s 2009 Diversity Forum during which I afflicted the comfortable on the question of “excellence vs. diversity” in college and university admissions. At that speech, I encouraged a generally receptive campus community to think broadly about the declining number of Black students enrolling in colleges […]

October 15, 2009

Too Much Venom Aimed at Black Men

Last month at the MTV Video Music Awards, Kanye West ambushed the stage and grabbed the microphone from singer Taylor Swift during her acceptance speech for winning Best Female Video. West then launched into a contradictory rant congratulating while disparaging Swift, arguing that Best Female Video nominee Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” was “one of the best […]

October 14, 2009

Unlocking the Learning Potential

“I like you but I can’t pass you.” I’ve said something along that line to a number of students over the years and it’s been especially tough for me to say to students I am fond of. One of the things that I’ve had to deal with over the past five years has been separating […]

October 14, 2009

The Obama White House: Mired in Distraction

Why does President Barack Obama’s White House continue to be mired in distraction? Since the president took office there has been Gates Gate; the international snub in Copenhagen, Denmark, after the president flew there overnight to make a bid for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Olympics; the call for New York Gov. David Patterson […]

October 13, 2009

Giving Back is a Matter of Surviving and Thriving for HBCUs

As I was perusing the Facebook statuses of some of my “friends” today, I came across one who posted the following: “Did you attend an HBCU? If you had a great time and appreciate all that your HBCU did to make you who you are today, then put your money where your mouth is and […]

October 12, 2009

Making My Mark

One of the most important things I learned as a journalist was to compel the reader to follow my story. One of the toughest tasks I face is to make you, the reader, care about this blog. I guess I should get to the point: I’m kind of unique. During this academic year, I will […]

October 5, 2009

No More Excuses

Leaders at institutional, local and national levels are looking for effective practices to accelerate college degree completion in the United States. Given the growth and youth of the Latino population, identifying practices with evidence of effectiveness in increasing Latinos’ educational achievement in college will be useful. However, before the creation of the Examples of Excelencia […]

October 5, 2009