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

Section: Opinion

How Higher Education Should Receive STEM Students

The current national emphasis on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and careers has prompted the critical examination of pre-college preparation and undergraduate and graduate student retention in these fields. Included in this inquiry is the important assessment of STEM teaching and learning at the elementary, secondary, and baccalaureate levels. In April of this […]

September 27, 2010

Doctorates in the Dance Cipher

While at the University of Colorado-Boulder recently, I crossed paths with perhaps the most unexpected recipient of an honorary doctorate in all of last academic year. At its 144th commencement ceremony this spring, Bates College in Maine recognized the creative genius of pioneering hip-hop dance choreographer Rennie Harris and awarded him an honorary doctoral degree. […]

September 21, 2010

New Rainbow of Islamic Knowledge and Religious Diversity: Zaytuna College

There are more than 500 colleges and universities in the United States that pledge an affiliation to the Christian churches. There are at least nine Buddhist colleges and universities, and three Jewish institutions of higher education. There is at least one Hindu institution, Hindu University of America in Orlando. Zaytuna College in Berkeley, Calif., founded […]

September 16, 2010

HBCUs and Real World Employment

President Obama declared this week Historically Black College and University Week. Along with this declaration came a three-day conference focused on Black colleges—their contributions to society as well as the challenges they face in the coming decades. The program was quite different than in years past, with a focus on graduation and retention, online degree […]

September 15, 2010

Act Da Fool: Strange Fruit Meet High Fashion

I have just finished watching, for the umpteenth time, the short film Act Da Fool, by critically acclaimed independent filmmaker Harmony Korine. With each viewing, I am more flabbergasted. Set in a Nashville housing project, as well as a school for the blind—and “a school for kleptomaniacs”—the film is apparently the centerpiece for Proenza Schouler’s […]

September 14, 2010

Promoting Racial and Cultural Awareness in the Classroom: Creating a Plan for Evaluation

“The specter of color is apparent even when it goes unmentioned, and it is all too often the unseen force that influences public policy as well as private relationships. There is nothing more remarkable than the ingenuity that the various demarcations of the color line reflect. If only the same creative energy could be used […]

September 14, 2010

Styling at HBCUs is Most Appropriate

When I was a student at an HBCU in the South, I don’t remember there being a dress requirement. However I do recall receiving a letter from the school telling me what to bring. Among other things, they told me to bring a suit, a tie and a shirt. When I read this along with […]

September 13, 2010

The Season of Racial Discontent

For anyone who thought the election of Barack Obama ushered in an era of post-racial harmony, several events that have transpired over the past few months should assuage any doubts of such a notion. Here are a few of the incidents: Shirley Sherrod, a 62-year-old Black woman with a long history of civil rights activism, […]

September 9, 2010

Dangerous Liaisons: Christie, Colored Friend of Tiffany

The 2003 International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education article, Tiffany, Friend of People of Color: White Investments in Antiracism, by Dr. Audrey Thompson is a powerful scholarly article on whiteness and the problematic nature of keeping Whiteness at the center of antiracism. It is one of those must-read pieces that all critical race scholars […]

September 6, 2010

The Need for a National Goal

Last week I spoke with a columnist from Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education about my research, commentary, and overall interest in the advancement of underserved students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. She offered a series of questions, several of which I’ve been asked before: Why is it important to increase the number […]

September 2, 2010

Biased Book: An Oxymoron?

Brooklyn College is currently hovering under a small, but growing cloud of criticism for requiring its incoming freshmen to read a “polemical” book that “inculcates” students with a particular political perspective. Students have already read Brooklyn College English Professor Moustafa Bayoumi’s How Does It Feel To Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America. […]

September 1, 2010

Spelman College: A Model for Engaging Alumnae (and Alumni)

In 2010, Spelman College celebrated its highest alumnae giving numbers in the institution’s history — 39 percent. This figure is up from 31 percent in 2009. A giving percentage at this level is the envy of colleges and universities across the country regardless of their institution’s racial history. In order to reach 39 percent, Spelman […]

August 26, 2010

Of Ebonics, the DEA, and the Department of Education

Apparently, the federal government is finally recognizing Ebonics as a viable language. Indeed, the Justice Department’s Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has put out a call for Ebonics interpreters to work in its Southeastern regional office in Atlanta. Specifically, the DEA is seeking the assistance of nine linguists fluent in Ebonics to “monitor, translate and transcribe” […]

August 24, 2010

A Pleasant Research Tour of Multiple HBCUs

Over the last few weeks, I have had the pleasure of visiting several historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). I conducted research for a book on the Black Campus Movement, the late 1960s/early 1970s Black student struggle to diversify and make higher education relevant. I gathered a wealth of materials for my study and relished […]

August 23, 2010

STEM Diversity Without Borders

In terms of postsecondary degree completion, the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) landscape largely resembles American higher education on the whole. Despite more low-income students and underrepresented minorities seeking and completing STEM degrees, there remains great inequity between these groups and the country’s majority middle- and upper-income populations. In addition to racial/ethnic and socioeconomic […]

August 19, 2010

Fisk University: An American Treasure Worth Supporting

I admit that I have a special place for Fisk University in my heart. It is the first historically Black institution I ever visited. The campus is quaint, pretty, and jam-packed with African-American history and treasures. My dissertation, and first book, pertained to Fisk University President Charles S. Johnson and his ability to raise money […]

August 15, 2010

Ongoing Debates Continue to Plague Black Studies

A recent article written by Howard University student Aleesa Mann that appeared on the website The Root looked at the dilemmas facing Black studies programs and departments at historically Black colleges and universities. The perennial issues, such as reluctant institutional commitment, chronic lack of funding, apprehensive students and perceptions of unhinged radicalism among faculty and […]

August 12, 2010

Community College is Just the Beginning

As an active participant in the national dialogue on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) higher education, I often attend meetings alongside college and university STEM faculty, all of whom have a vested interest in diversifying the STEM pipeline at their respective institutions and across the country. Although often enlightened on diversity theory and practice, […]

August 4, 2010