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Section: Opinion
HBCUs
Prof. Abdullah on the College Scandal, Black Studies After 50, HBCUs
“Black Studies is probably the most enduring victory of the Black Power Movement,” says Dr. Melina Abdullah. “It’s part of an institution that never wanted it. And so it means that the struggle is constant, because the institution is always trying to shut us down and kick us out. But it also is kind of a way of taking resources back. An education system that was intended for, you know the sons and daughter of the wealthy—that scandal that’s plagued the country.”
April 7, 2019
African-American
Resistance Strategies for Black Graduate Students in Higher Education
Being a Black woman at a predominantly White institution (PWI), I experience simultaneously racialized and gendered encounters that leave me feeling anxious and incensed. The social justice spaces that I found in graduate school help me to navigate challenging experiences and to speak truth to power. I share this brief composition as a testament to the strategies of resistance that my peers, colleagues, faculty and I use to persist in higher education.
April 4, 2019
Students
College Admissions is a Regressive Tax on Low-Income Students
Recently, federal prosecutors charged dozens of wealthy parents with bribing college officials to ensure entry for their children into some of America’s most elite colleges and universities. As infuriating as those headlines may be, they are simply the byproduct of a college admissions industrial complex that risks cementing our social and career hierarchy based upon the accomplishments of 17-year-olds.
April 3, 2019
Opinion
An Open Letter: America’s Real Education Scandal
Dear Secretary DeVos: I was encouraged to see that in response to the current college scandal you called for all admissions to be based on merit. However, in order for that to happen, we will have to radically restructure our system of education.
April 2, 2019
Opinion
Creating Opportunities for Underrepresented Minority Students
Recent news reports have indicated that, once again, minority enrollment in New York’s eight specialized high schools was disappointing. Responding to this, New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio has called for a change in admission criteria to allow some students who do not quite make the grade on the standardized admission tests to be, nevertheless, granted admission into these eight schools. It’s little wonder why students desire such admission: these schools have historically produced some of the most successful students in New York City.
March 29, 2019
Opinion
On the Meaning of Survival
The deadliest school shooting in modern history happened before colleges and universities instituted emergency alert systems, and before the pervasiveness of social media allowed for instantaneous notifications. Many students continued to move between classes unaware of what was unfolding around them.
March 28, 2019
Students
Any Person, Any Study, but at What Cost?
In an editorial titled “An Ode to the Rich and Legacies,” a current undergraduate at my alma mater connects the aftermath of the recent college admissions scandal to the idea that despite preferential treatment wealthy students receive, they are underappreciated from their lower-income peers.
March 27, 2019
Women
Women’s History Month Special: Changing Our Approach To ‘The Change’
Coincidentally, at the beginning of March and Women’s History Month, I started going through something that billions of women over the hundreds of years of history have been through. Of course, given the long history, I knew it would happen to me eventually, but, when it did, what surprised me was that I felt so unprepared and ill-informed.
March 26, 2019
Opinion
What NCTQ Gets Wrong about Testing Teachers of Color
In February, The National Council of Teacher Quality (NCTQ) released its report, A Fair Chance: Simple Steps to Strengthen and Diversify the Teacher Workforce. The extensive report focuses on how teacher licensure exams keep many aspiring teachers out of the profession – especially aspiring teachers of color.
March 26, 2019
Students
State Restrictions Impede Developmental Education While Minority-Serving Institutions Find Success
A staggering amount of first year college students enter into institutions of higher education underprepared – research suggests 40 percent annually, and this figure is disproportionately comprised of racial minorities and low-income students. To prepare students for the academic demands of college, institutions endeavor to bridge the “knowledge” gap with developmental or remedial coursework. Recent decades have brought increased restrictions on remediation at public institutions.
March 25, 2019
Students
March Madness? It’s Not Just Basketball
March Madness — higher ed’s Springtime PR-fest known as the NCAA men’s basketball tournament — usually refers to when the spotlight catches underdogs like the University of California Irvine (UCI) Anteaters.
March 25, 2019
Opinion
First Step or First Stumble?
Michelle Alexander’s 2010 book, The New Jim Crow, captured the sobering reality that the United States now locks up more people, per incident, than any other country in the world.
March 21, 2019
Opinion
Proficiency Over Privilege
We are appalled but not surprised about the revelation of the ubiquitous celebrity admissions scandal. To clarify, the story of college acceptance abuse was steered by the privilege of wealthy individuals who sought to circumvent the traditional admissions process and fraudulently forge college entry.
March 20, 2019
Opinion
Will Whites Be Stereotyped as Corrupt Because of Felicity Huffman?
The recent bust in Boston of an organized, professionalized, high-stakes college admissions fraud operation reveals much more than the amoral conduct of the participants. The parents, who included actor Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives television fame and Oscar nominee, and William H. Macy, veteran of dozens of movies, were willing to pay into the millions of dollars for ringers to take standardized tests for their children or to gin up false evidence of athletic potential.
March 14, 2019
Opinion
A Room of One’s Own White Colleagues
Every spring, I dread putting together my annual review materials. In March, a predominantly-White room full of senior colleagues will discuss whether I meet their standard of what a good scholar, teacher and university citizen should be. I have nothing to worry about, right?
March 14, 2019
Opinion
The Myth of Meritocracy
To my high school guidance counselor, I wasn’t college material. I remember flipping through the dusty pages of the massive dictionary in the school library to find the definition of the word meritocracy: “the holding of power by people selected based on their ability.” I needed to understand why she repeated that word to me and some of my classmates to limit our options.
March 13, 2019
Opinion
Diversity and Rep. Ilhan Omar
To show my San Francisco State journalism class what diversity means instantly, I provide a visual: I draw a square on a white board. That’s the media. All White. Diversity is to see the white board obliterated with dots representing a multitude of voices.
March 11, 2019
Students
Success Comes At a Price
While the number of low-socioeconomic status (SES) and first-generation students attending graduate school is increasing, many barriers still stand between these students and their climb up the social ladder: largely the disparity between networks and opportunities when compared to their more-privileged peers. During my time in graduate school, I have learned the importance of attending professional conferences and other networking events, however, I have also learned who can afford to go to these events – and who cannot.
March 7, 2019
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