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

Section: Opinion

The Gender Imbalance on College Campuses

During the past few years, I have walked into a number of classes I’ve taught, looked around and have been startled at what I have witnessed. I am talking about the X/Y factor, or the gender ratio. Gender imbalance was striking. A number (though not all) of my classes were more than two-thirds female. […]

January 10, 2010

Cultivating A Knack For Cross-Cultural Understanding

When I was an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota in the 1990s, during the height of conservative efforts to repeal affirmative action, I often found myself the lone Indian-American attending demonstrations by minority-student groups to save it. I used to also be the only non-Black person at the Africana Student Center because it […]

January 6, 2010

Completion By Design or By Chance?

Completing college should not be synonymous with a “roll of the dice,” but too often it is. How many of us were asked during college orientation to look to the left and right of us, because only one of the three of you was going to make it to graduation? Given our national goal to […]

January 5, 2010

Princess and the Frog, Tiger and the Cablinasian, Tier One and the Good Journal: Of Fairy Tales Meta-narratives and Affirmation

In a recent newspaper article, an author claimed Disney broke barriers by presenting the first African-American princess to audiences across the globe. Ribbit! Had I too been kissed by a frog? You see, I have seen African-Americans depicted as royalty in life and in film – years ago and now. What were they talking about? […]

December 22, 2009

Policy Challenges and Opportunities for Latinos in Higher Education

In this time of reflection and preparation for the new year, I have identified seven policy challenges and opportunities for improving Latino student success. I believe they are challenges to our perspectives on higher education as well as opportunities to reconsider the lens with which we examine higher education today. 1. Heterogeneity – The Latino […]

December 21, 2009

Merging Mississippi’s Black Colleges: A Decision That Neglects History

In an effort to cut costs in Mississippi, Gov. Haley Barbour suggested merging the state’s three historically Black institutions. Let me tell you what is wrong with this recommendation. First, Barbour makes the false assumption that Black colleges are all alike and lack diversity. Recommending that the urban Jackson State merge with rural Alcorn […]

December 14, 2009

Racial and Gender Myths Surrounding College Admissions

A few weeks ago, I was listening to the radio in my car as I was on my way to one of the local coffeehouses in the college town in which I reside. My radio just happened to be tuned into a talk show discussion concerning a group of high school students (all White and […]

December 10, 2009

Whew! What a Semester!

My first semester at Lincoln was filled with ups and downs (mostly ups, fortunately), and I had to learn quickly to adjust to life at a small, relatively isolated historically Black university (HBCU). Of all the universities I’ve taught at, I think this was the most challenging first semester. For starters, I had to learn […]

December 9, 2009

Sending Conflicting Messages – Is College Possible?

Nothing travels faster than bad news. In the last two weeks, we have read negative stories about higher education in the mainstream media. For example, the 32 percent increase in educational fees at the University of California system made national news. Also widely covered is the case of a college graduate who could not pay […]

December 7, 2009

Stealing in Academe

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from a colleague at another institution that prompted me to write this blog entry about stealing in academe. The e-mail asked me to look over a syllabus that a colleague of his had “developed” for a class on historically Black colleges and universities. He wondered what I thought. As I […]

December 3, 2009

Tiger by the Tail?

I never thought I’d find myself defending Tiger Woods. But, alas, I am here. By now, we all know the details of Tiger Woods’ storied career. He has re-written the PGA record book and is the world’s highest-paid athlete. And he is Black. I mean, Cablinasian. But, I digress. Legend has it that Tiger’s black […]

December 1, 2009

Assimilation and Adaptation Needed to Improve Latino Student Success

Adapting institutions to better serve Latino students is not without criticism. Some in higher education believe Latino students should assimilate rather than have institutions adapt to meet their strengths and needs. These critics say our higher education system is the best in the world, and thus, rather than “forcing” an institution to change, students should […]

December 1, 2009

Why I’m Thankful for Theory

Recently I collaborated with a colleague on a presentation of a paper. In preparing for the presentation she was concerned about offering a theoretical discussion of our work because she thought it would alienate the audience. Her rationale for this perspective was based in her belief that presentations should be “straightforward” and that a discussion […]

November 30, 2009

‘See What Had Happened Was…’

Lincoln’s fall semester ends in early December, which means Thanksgiving is just a brief respite before the rush of the last week of classes. Over the past few days, I’ve been getting my share of e-mails from students concerned about passing my courses. When the semester began, I made my expectations clear: no excuses, no […]

November 29, 2009

Too Fat to Graduate? Lincoln University’s Fitness Requirements

News media recently reported that Lincoln University in Pennsylvania was requiring their students who have a body-mass index (BMI) over 30 to pass a physical fitness course in order to graduate. This policy, which has been in existence for a few years, is just now getting media attention and is being objected to by some […]

November 29, 2009

Understanding Identity Politics in a Classroom

When I taught at Penn State and Temple universities, my classrooms were mostly White save for a handful of Black and Brown faces. The toughest thing for me to come to grips with was the fact that I was a person of color teaching students who had rarely interacted with minority educators. Those dynamics were […]

November 18, 2009

Creating an Army of Latino College-goers

I recently attended a football game and was struck by the assertive approaches by military recruiters to engage the males in attendance. It reminded me of several focus groups we held with Latino students across the country and their comments that the military was more aggressive in recruiting them than any college. Given the national […]

November 17, 2009

Looking Forward Rather Than Backward

Last Thursday, I attended the “Unfinished Business: National Dialogue on Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the 21st Century” meeting at Morgan State University. Most of the conversation centered on the inequity that continues to exist in public higher education, especially in the Southern and border states. During the presidents’ roundtable, the speakers detailed […]

November 16, 2009