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Section: Opinion

Who Will Be the Educational Architects After COVID-19?

COVID-19 sent shock waves around the nation as residents throughout the United States braced for the fallout of this pandemic. To date close to hundreds upon thousands of Americans in all fifty states have contracted the virus. Worse, lives have been shattered by the untimely deaths of loved ones suddenly stricken with failed respiratory systems. Similarly, once gainfully employed workers are now economically distressed. That is to say, some 22 million Americans have applied for unemployment insurance. Overall, the nation’s system of going about our normal daily lives has forever changed. Yet when we emerge from the shadows of what will be historically categorized as a dark moment in time for the entire world, how will everyday people go about rebuilding facets of their lives?

April 30, 2020

Learning How to Learn: Why Faculty Should Re-Think Learning Objectives as They Approach Final Exams

If colleges and universities are truly ‘student-centric’ then we should be re-thinking our course learning objectives during these final weeks of the semester. We must recognize that classes may not be the most important thing in our student’s lives during this pandemic.

April 29, 2020

How Do HBCU Student-Athletes Manage Academic, Social, and Athletic Experiences During Coronavirus Quarantine?

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the inequitable experiences that many HBCU student-athletes encounter. Although some HBCU student-athletes are able to maintain a quality of life that is conducive to academic, social, and athletic development, what can be done to assist student-athletes who are dealing with unfavorable circumstances?

April 28, 2020

African-American

Asian Americans are Not the “Model Minority”

Asian Americans are wrongly assumed to be doing well, uniformly and virtually without exception. The stereotype, dubbed “the model minority myth,” has been debunked again and again, but it persists in ideological claims that Asian Americans demonstrate racial discrimination has been eliminated and hard work is all it takes to do well.

April 27, 2020

The Biggest Takeaways About My Students Amid COVID-19 Transition

Often the focus is to hear about what students have learned from their professors in their classes. Nowadays, I find myself in a reverse role, as I have found myself learning from my students since this COVID-19 transition.

April 27, 2020

To Help Narrow Achievement Gaps During and After COVID-19, Families Must Promote Rigor and Relevance at Home

Who knows how long schools will be closed, but every day counts when it comes to addressing academic achievement gaps. Every day, I am so very concerned about Black students falling further behind their White counterparts. This angst increases during the summer when achievement disparities increase drastically. While those with the fiscal means and educational clout are pushing their children forward, far too often, Black children are falling backwards or behind. The reality is that gaps can be and are gulfs, sucking in our Black children.

April 26, 2020

Disruption and Digital Generational Literacy: Are You Ready?

Recently, I gave the Keynote Address at the Her Future Global Summit with some of the most influential leaders from across the globe. One of the major questions addressed was, “How do we understand digital inclusion across generations and leverage multigenerational inputs in the COVID-19 era?”

April 24, 2020

Maintaining Hope Despite the Uncertain Ending of My Doctoral Journey

As I come to terms with our current reality under the COVID-19 pandemic, I can’t shake the feelings of uncertainty. Beyond the academic job market being very competitive, the looming economic impact this crisis will have in higher education makes it seem like this is the worst time to be seeking a job, especially on the tenure track.

April 23, 2020

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Supporting Foster Care Youth in College

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (2018), approximately 50% of the 443,000 youth in the foster care system are children of color.

April 23, 2020

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Dear Class of 2020, Five Messages to Frame Your Future (E-Commencement Speech)

The world we assumed would welcome graduates with open arms has changed in ways we could have never imagined or adequately prepared for.

April 21, 2020

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Racists Can Be Nice — But Dangerous

I have a hypothesis about bigotry. My colleagues in the civil rights movement might not like it. I share this conjecture, because I believe it should influence our advocacy against discrimination. My commitment remains the same, but my strategy has changed.

April 20, 2020

African-American

Diversity in the DACA Numbers—Undocumented Whites

For the first time, someone thought it would be a good idea to do an official count of undocumented students in higher ed. And yes, it confirms what we know more or less, there’s a lot of them, about 450,000, two percent of all students in post-secondary education, according to the The New American Economy and the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, which collaborated on the survey using Census data.

April 19, 2020

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Resilience in the Midst of a Crisis Response

The COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the need for HBCUs to build on their shared history of resilience to create new ways of educating students, develop new business relationships, and generate new sources of revenue.

April 19, 2020

Why Society Will Need Liberal Arts Graduates

The global pandemic has disrupted all of higher education, but perhaps no sector in it more than liberal arts colleges. Our bread-and-butter is close personalized interaction between faculty mentors and students. We provide students with a holistic living-learning environment that Covid-19 and remote learning has abruptly upended.

April 16, 2020

African-American

How TMCF is Responding to COVID-19

There is little question that higher education in general, and our historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in particular, have been greatly impacted by COVID-19, the likes of which we have not seen in our lifetime.

April 15, 2020

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You Are Worthy of Your Dreams

“You are worthy of your dreams.” This is my unchanging message to my students as their president, never more important than during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

April 14, 2020

20/20 Vision in the Wake of a Crisis

Lately I have wondered – if I could have predicted COVID-19 three or four years ago – how I would have prepared differently for a public health pandemic as the president of a private, church-related HBCU.

April 11, 2020

Black Boys Cry Too: Let Them Be Free to Express Healthy Emotions

Distorted and misguided views about who is permitted to be sensitive, empathetic, and demonstrative about being in pain of any kind must not be part of raising Black boys. Studies indicate that Black males seldom and/or are the least likely to seek and ask for formal and informal help, such as counseling. Their pain festers and can implode in such forms as anger and rage. Health issues ensue (e.g., high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity), along with shorter life spans.

April 9, 2020