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Section: Opinion

Leadership & Policy

‘Dramatic Change Will Require Leadership.’ A Message to the Next Generation of Leaders

This summer we have all been living and learning through an unprecedented crisis: literally the greatest disruption to daily life in the United States since at least World War II, a rapid economic collapse that is approaching and may exceed the scale of the Great Depression, deeply inequitable impacts from the crisis mapped into pre-existing inequalities of race and class, and a death count conservatively estimated at more than 500,000 and rising.

July 7, 2020

African-American

The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Revisited in ‘The Sword and The Shield’

As the nation witnesses around-the-clock Black Lives Matter protests, Dr. Peniel E. Joseph’s ‘The Sword and The Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.’ could not have been published at a more apropos time.

July 6, 2020

African-American

Proposing a Concept of the Black Tax to Understand the Experiences of Blacks in America

The protests occurring in many cities in America to call attention to the systemic racism in society has provoked us to critically reflect on our experiences as Black men in this country. This cathartic process has led us to believe that as African Americans we are involuntarily mandated to pay a “Black tax.” This term is not new. In fact, it has been primarily associated with a family member who has advanced to a high socioeconomic status and who provides monetary support to other family members. Some have used this term to underscore the ways in which discrimination has impacted the financial standing of African Americans. Our conceptualization of the Black tax differs from the ways it has been used previously.

July 6, 2020

With Every Breath, We Move Forward: Addressing Policing Reforms

In the aftermath of the George Floyd senseless murder by several Minneapolis police officers, protests have erupted in numerous cities both nationally and internationally. What could be different this time as compared to prior protests is that the movement to curb and check police power has reached an inflection point and change is coming. Based on our deep involvement and roles within the local Houston community, we offer suggestions and proposals that are applicable to any police department.

July 3, 2020

How “Different” Will Post-COVID Higher Education Be, Especially for “At-Risk” Students?

How are institutions preparing to deal with access to technology issues? While I can imagine many institutions providing students with laptops, students may encounter barriers to accessing reliable internet or even power for their devices. For residential campuses specifically who will have many students stay home, how do you ensure that your low-income students have access to adequate working space to learn and study?

July 1, 2020

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Asian American Pacific Islander

Stare Down the White Gaze: Demystifying the “Model Minority” Stereotype

“You brought the virus here.” These words were thrown at me on a street corner as I walked my dog, soon after the stay-at-home order was issued. Before I realized that these words were meant for me, the man who uttered them already moved on.

June 30, 2020

How and Where We Exit: Seven Propositions on Black Positionalities in the Pandemics Era

The world has tried to recalibrate after the seismic shift that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacted on key aspects of everyday life, as we once knew it. For certain populations, this shift has been coupled with a cataclysmic jolt. For Black people globally, and specifically for African-Americans in the United States, the battle has been at best—formidable. While the Black gaze focused on the destruction and devastation that COVID-19 was exacting, it was the concomitant spread of a second pandemic, racism, which proved to be just as, if not even more virulent for the Black community.

June 30, 2020

African-American

Do You Hear Me? Language of the Unheard

With protests and outrage sweeping through our nation, we must channel our frustrations into actionable policies and reform. Riots are never a coherent or moral response to injustice. We each have a role to play in the fight against systemic racism, but it is important that we remain unified in our resolve.

June 29, 2020

10 Concrete Policy Changes PWIs Can Enact to Show Black Lives Matter

As senior leaders prepare for the fall semester, I would like to provide 10 concrete policies and practices that could positively impact the institutional climates for their Black populations.

June 25, 2020

African-American

The Peculiar Tenure Denial of Dr. Paul Harris

Just as activists flooded cities across the nation chanting “Black Lives Matter” to express anger, outrage and dismay over the devaluing of Black bodies at the hands of White police and vigilantes, we must also collectively remind institutions of higher learning that “Black Scholars Matter” too.

June 23, 2020

African-American

Protest, Vote and Join that Committee

As our nation comes off weeks of massive protests, many of us are looking for those actionable next steps towards racial equality. For everyone hoping to carry momentum forward to effect change: join a committee.

June 23, 2020

African-American

Our HBCUs Need Additional Congressional Support

As we approach June 30th, a date that marks the end of the annual or biennial fiscal years for forty-six of the nation’s fifty states, governors and state legislatures are being forced to make some extremely tough decisions in order to balance their budgets. If past precedent serves as any guide, we can readily anticipate that higher education will be forced to endure an outsized portion of those cuts and, as a consequence, our largely tuition-dependent, public HBCUs will, inevitably, suffer an even greater hardship from those state funding cuts than better-resourced flagship institutions.

June 22, 2020

Harry-L-Williams

African-American

Our Children are Watching: Teachers, What are Your Non-Verbal Messages Saying to Our Black Students?

Due to racial injustices – profiling in society and in schools – Black caregivers are obligated to train our children to be hyper-observant of their surroundings, and strangers and foes when driving, walking, playing, shopping, dining… in all situations. The COVID-19 pandemic has been a physical reprieve from deficit thinking and alienation in a brick-and-mortar setting, but not visually during online teaching where visuals dominate.

June 21, 2020

Stepping Away from The Brink: COVID-19 Pushed

COVID-19 has exacerbated and accelerated for many colleges and universities the challenges they already faced – rising cost, declining enrollment, not enough financial resources to support the operational structure, and a competitive market – to name a few.

June 21, 2020

Roueche Center Forum: Are We Really Serious About Diversity, Equity and Inclusion?

While I believe that most faculty members and leaders, no matter their race or ethnicity, value diversity and are committed to the concepts of equity and inclusion — and may even have specific goals to improve diversity — progress is stalled. Actions do not seem to match rhetoric. The question is, are we in higher education truly sincere in what we say about the value of diversity, equity and inclusion?

June 19, 2020

COVID and George Floyd: The CDC and Colleges Must See Institutional Racism as National Disease

Education, business, politics, COVID and the economy cannot continue to be discussed as separate entities. A common nexus unites all of them in an apparatus so strong and forceful, that we, an American culture, are loathe to accept its reality: That nexus is a new form of White nationalism that is permeating the structures and thoughts of society more and more.

June 18, 2020

Faculty & Staff

Racism in Higher Education: Why HBCUs Are a Safe Choice in 2020

Colleges and universities across the nation are scrambling to address the Black Lives Matter protests resulting from the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless other Black Americans killed by law enforcement. Many of these institutional reactions have appeared as statements of support for the Black community, but have failed to come with actions to address systemic racism or police brutality on or near campuses. These failures strengthen the resolve of HBCUs as important sites for Black student support and safety.

June 17, 2020

On Social Justice, Black Lives Matter and the Power of Prayer

As a Black Man in America I pray that God Bless the “Black Lives Matter” movement for its continued critical advocacy and activism for social justice; and to publicly disassociate from factions that promote and further perpetuate fear, violence and destruction linked with Blackness.

June 17, 2020

BryantAlexander