Search | The EDU Ledger

Welcome to The EDU Ledger.com! We’ve moved from Diverse.

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

Section: Opinion

‘The Help’: Let Them Eat Pie

My mother and I swore that we would never watch the “blockbuster” movie sensation “The Help.” My reasoning, quite frankly, had to do with my own rejection of yet another movie that portrays Blacks as a deficit, culturally “capital-less” group that needs to be “empowered,” saved, and are rescued by the “kind,” “smart,” and “important.” […]

February 26, 2012

Bereft – Whitney Elizabeth Houston, Shared Loss, and Full Circles

I love Whitney Houston. It seems like yesterday when I first heard her spine-tingling rendition of “I Will Always Love You.” I was in Bellevue, Wash., in my little used, red Mazda 626, headed to the old Group Health Credit Union. The year was 1992. As I waited at a stoplight, the song came onto […]

February 25, 2012

The Complex Simplicity of Black Male Success in College

The Center for the Study of Race and Equity in Education at the University of Pennsylvania recently released its inaugural publication. Titled “Black Male Student Success in Higher Education: A Report from the National Black Male College Achievement Study,” researchers, led by the center’s director, Dr. Shaun R. Harper, have attempted to reframe the spirited […]

February 25, 2012

On Roland Martin – Twitter is Not Your Friend

I last wrote about a CNN personality and perceived homophobia in my article, “Don Lemon’s Assumption on Black Women Challenged.” Lemon had alleged in his memoir that Black women are the primary source of prejudice against gay Black men. Ironically, it is now Lemon’s African-American male colleague Roland Martin who now faces termination for alleged […]

February 13, 2012

Red Tails: A Missed Opportunity

I went to see Red Tails with one of my students. She is a graduate of a historically Black college. Given my research and her undergraduate institution, we were excited to see the depiction of a Black college and its contributions in the film. Although we both enjoyed the movie, I was disappointed that the […]

February 12, 2012

Today’s Current College Freshmen Are More Academically Conscious

Read the following. Students are having intense study sessions taking notes in class registering for more demanding courses less likely to show up drunk or late to class The following conclusions are from a recent article written by Mary Beth Marklein in USA Today. The results are from an annual survey conducted by UCLA’s Cooperative […]

February 2, 2012

Selling Out the Truth to Thwart Affirmative Action

I admire the glorious intellectual endeavor to discover and reveal the ever-changing, ever-remaining, ever-complicated, ever-simple fountain of truth—the sociological truth, the economic truth, the biological truth, the historical truth (to name a few). But too often, too many academics sell out the truth. They sell the truth for causes, for careers, for funds, for conservatism, […]

January 26, 2012

It Just Doesn’t Add Up: Barriers to STEM Higher Education

A small flurry of conversation on Twitter and elsewhere followed a recent proposal by two university presidents that students seeking science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, degrees pay more tuition than those in other academic majors. While it’s not surprising that public college presidents — and indeed other policymaking officials — are seeking new […]

January 25, 2012

Why Ethnic Studies Courses Are Good for White Kids Too

Last week, Judge Lewis Kowal of Arizona upheld a ban on ethnic studies classes in the Tucson Unified School District. Ethnic studies generally refer to courses such as African-American studies, Asian studies, or — in the case of the Tucson Unified School District — Mexican-American studies. Courses such as these, which comprise full programs at […]

January 8, 2012

Bringing Sexy Back: The ‘Critilicious’ and Theoretical Framing

There’s a new wave in scholarship or perhaps it’s the way we have always operated. Nevertheless, it seems like we, some scholars, are looking for the next “really cool” theoretical framework. Sort of like the newest dance craze or hot new trendy outfit, everyone’s “doing it or wearing it.” Now this trendiness has come to […]

January 5, 2012

Commentary: The End of Hazing

Laws that target individuals need to be revamped with the understanding that hazing is and always has been a corporate tradition, whether or not each member of the group participates, writes history professor Ibram H. Rogers.

January 2, 2012

010312_Ibram_Rogers

Commentary: Spreading the Blame and Constructing Anew

It has been several weeks now since Robert Champion’s tragic death and like many I rationalized hazing as part of the culture of the famous Marching 100, a history professor and FAMU alumnus writes.

December 23, 2011

122211_Ibram_Rogers

Examining Notions of Social Justice Post-Doctoral Degree Completion

What happens to dreams deferred in graduate school? Inspired by the Langston Hughes’ poem “A Dream Deferred,” this question is an impetus for thinking about post-degree completion notions of social justice. Post-degree completion is emphasized to highlight the ways degree completers actualize their ideals about social justice. In other words, how many of us act out our […]

December 22, 2011

Commentary: The Study Abroad Advantage

With international exposure, students can broaden horizons and boost job prospects, contends the assistant admissions dean at Bates College.

December 19, 2011

122011_Luis_Martinez

Commentary: Community Colleges Must Lead the Way in Reshaping Higher Education in America

White House roundtable reinforces the need for urgency, innovation and collaboration, writes the president of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana.

December 15, 2011

121611_Thomas_Snyder

Examining Notions of Social Justice Post-Doctoral Degree Completion

In other words, how many of us act out our obligation to serve others in the field of education?

December 14, 2011

STEM Literacy Beyond STEM Occupations

I write with kudos to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, or GCEW, for its recent publication simply titled STEM. Beyond just another depiction of why we need more STEM graduates to strengthen our workforce (although the authors do a stellar job at breaking down this argument), the authors do something more. The […]

November 29, 2011

Sexual Violence on College Campuses

The recent shocking and horrific revelations that have emerged from the atrocious saga at Penn State University involving the schools former assistant coach Gerald “Jerry” Sandusky have sent shockwaves throughout the world of college sports and higher education in general. Thus far, the saga has claimed the jobs of longtime coach Joe “Pa” Paterno and […]

November 15, 2011