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

Section: Opinion

Mis-Prioritization of Diversity Leading to Cuts

More than 200 students, faculty and staff gathered at the University of Maine’s Fogler Library to publicize their opposition to the cuts. Dr. Ray Pelletier, chairman of the department of modern languages and classics, said the anticipated cuts that may curtail his department were not well thought out. “I don’t think they understand the harm […]

April 8, 2010

Leading by Example

This past week, I participated in a two-day summit on STEM diversity at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In addition to the host campus, the meeting included representatives from 14 other highly selective research institutions, including Harvard, Stanford, Georgia Tech, UC Berkeley, and UT Austin. MIT convened these campuses to openly discuss respective challenges […]

April 6, 2010

William & Mary: Larger Financial Steps Needed to Atone for Slavery

The College of William & Mary recently announced the formation of a panel to study how the college’s history is tangled with African-American history. This announcement follows a resolution the college adopted last spring, acknowledging it owned slaves and exploited slave labor from 1693 until the Civil War and discriminated against African-Americans during the Jim […]

April 4, 2010

Using Good Customer Service in the Higher Education Marketplace

I have often said that people don’t want to know how much you know until they know how much you care. Students today have more choices than ever before on what to do when they graduate from high school. If their choice is college, then what will they and their parents be looking for before […]

April 1, 2010

Faculty & Staff

STEM Careers and 21st Century Academic Racism

This week, I came across a study that found that a significant number of women and AALANAs (African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans) were discouraged from pursuing their STEM careers. In “Facts of Science Education XIV,” the research firm Campos surveyed 1,226 women and AALANA members of the American Chemical Society—particularly chemists and chemical engineers […]

March 25, 2010

Helping Lincoln Students Find Opportunities

Over the past few months, I’ve had almost two dozen students come to my office expressing concern about their future. Some are graduating seniors who now see the error of not having an internship in their fields of choice. Others are underclassmen who read the news and see the bleak prospects for employment in the […]

March 24, 2010

Competition Has Its Place

According to a 2005 U.S. Government Accountability Office report, there are just over 200 STEM education programs funded by 13 federal civilian agencies. The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health support roughly half and cover approximately $2 billion of a $2.8 billion total programmatic investment. While much of this funding is […]

March 23, 2010

Stopping Hate Before it Starts

On March 20, as U.S. Rep. John Lewis walked to a meeting on Capitol Hill, Tea Party protestors hurled racial slurs at him. They also yelled homophobic comments at and spat on U.S. Rep. Barney Frank. These cruel actions toward two people who have endured much discrimination brought tears to my eyes. Of course I […]

March 21, 2010

The Promised Conversation on Race and Identity

It’s been exactly two years since then-Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama gave his speech on race at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. After all, who better to facilitate these discussions than a person whose polycultural heritage made him an inspiration to millions of people, particularly those who were grappling with their own identity issues. […]

March 18, 2010

The Racial Politics of Miss America

I remember the date, September 17, 1983. I was in high school. I had just gotten off work at the local grocery store in my hometown. Many teenagers had weekend jobs during these years. I was no exception. It was almost midnight. I had just gotten home and turned on the television. My parents were […]

March 18, 2010

New Proposed Education Law Better, But Glaring Problem Remains

A general consensus in the education community is rare, but it appears that the vast majority of educators are rallying around the idea of trashing the No Child Left Behind law. I am one of the many educators who are thrilled about the prospects of trashing the trash, but my excitement tempered when I […]

March 17, 2010

A Black College Philanthropist That Exemplifies the Very Essence of Philanthropy

A few years ago, I edited a book titled Uplifting a People: African American Philanthropy and Education. In the book, I argued that the existing definition of philanthropy should be expanded, especially as it relates to African-Americans. For too long, our traditional notions of philanthropy have included only wealthy, White men and their financial contributions. […]

March 14, 2010

Maintaining Respect in the Classroom

Over the last two weeks, I’ve been dealing with increasingly disruptive students in my classroom. Last fall, I kept the disruptions to a minimum, but this semester, they have occurred more frequently. Students texting (even though I have banned electronic devices in my class), talking loudly among each other and leaving the class during […]

March 9, 2010

Repulsive Fallout from the Destruction of the UC Black Student Body

I am interested to see what comes out of the wave of odious incidents that hit University of California campuses last month. African-American students at UC San Diego were offended when they learned about an off-campus “Compton Cookout” party” and later that a noose and KKK-style hood were placed on campus. UC Davis students […]

March 8, 2010

Repulsive Fallout from the Destruction of the UC Black Student Body

I am interested to see what comes out of the wave of odious incidents that hit University of California campuses last month. African-American students at UC San Diego were offended when they learned about an off-campus “Compton Cookout” party” and later that a noose and KKK-style hood were placed on campus. UC Davis students […]

March 7, 2010

Who’s Really at the Top?

According to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, under-represented minority women make up nearly 15 percent of the nation’s populace 15-24 years of age – a substantial proportion of the pre-college and college-going population. Yet, the National Science Foundation reports under-represented minority women earned just 10 percent of all STEM baccalaureate degrees granted in 2006. These numbers […]

March 7, 2010

A Painful Separation

When I arrived at Lincoln last fall, some of the veteran faculty mentioned that the English and Mass Communications Department would split into two separate departments. On Monday, we came one step closer to that separation when the department voted unanimously to recommend such a move. This was no small decision, either. The mass communications […]

March 3, 2010

From Minority to AALANA, What’s in a Name?

About three years ago, I stopped referring to people of African, Latino, Asian, and Native American descent as minorities. I dropped the word “minority” from my spoken vocabulary for some of the same reasons many African-Americans buried Negro in the 1960s and instead started calling themselves Black or Afro-American. (Ironically, more than 50,000 people wrote […]

March 1, 2010