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

Section: Opinion

Asian American Pacific Islander

Fitting In Doesn’t Fix Discrimination

I have been studying the internment of Japanese Americans ever since I have been a professor. Yet I have had the most important insight, personally as an Asian American albeit not Japanese originally, only recently. To explain why the mass incarceration during World War II of 120,000 individuals on the basis of heritage, two-thirds of them native-born citizens of this nation, was wrong requires pointing out that the people who are most offended about the violation of civil rights are those who subscribe in the ideals of the United States.

June 27, 2019

The Future of Research and Practice about MSIs

Today, there are more than 700 Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) designated by the federal government that represent 14 percent of all degree granting institutions of higher education. These institutions enroll nearly 30 percent of all undergraduates in the U.S. and carry the heavy load of ensuring the success of a student population that is majority Pell Eligible and students of color, two populations that are often overlooked.

June 26, 2019

DeShawn Preston

Faculty & Staff

If You Want to Diversify the Professoriate, Don’t Scare Us Away

If life as a tenure-track professor is so miserable, then why do you continue? As a doctoral candidate working on my dissertation while preparing for the faculty market, I have sought out thought pieces, attended early-career faculty programs, and paid special attention to what academics are saying on Twitter about life on the tenure-track. Does it get better after tenure?

June 25, 2019

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Faculty & Staff

Let’s Retire Ageism in Academe

Now in the middle-child position between scores of retiring senior colleagues and recently hired junior faculty members, I mourn the unintentional ways we may be complicit in higher education’s growing problem with ageism.

June 24, 2019

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African-American

Prejudice ‘Strikes’ Again: Corporal Punishment is Hitting Black Students the Most

As Black scholars who have succeeded in spite of educational inequities that existed when we were students and still exist now, we are acutely aware of injustices in school settings from personal experiences as former P-12 students and current Black scholars working to also advocate for family members, friends, and those who seek our guidance and assistance. We recognize that their experiences as African-Americans mirror our own from earlier decades.

June 23, 2019

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Why Does Harvard Have a Police Force?

In April and May, student protesters at Johns Hopkins University engaged in a civil protest against the establishment of a police department on their campus. As the university moved towards rolling out the police force, they quashed the students’ protest with the help of the Baltimore Police Department. While Johns Hopkins may have won the battle against the student protestors, the students’ activism has opened the door for other students around the country to attempt to preempt the establishment of police forces at their own universities.

June 19, 2019

Michael Arjun Banerjee feat

How Do We Persuade People About Casual Racism and Sexism?

As a teacher of advocacy, I wonder what is the most effective means of persuading people they should not engage in offensive speech and objectionable expression. I mean that sincerely, not rhetorically: what will prompt people to choose not to use racial slurs or sexist images, not because they felt coerced but from a change of heart? For me, the issue is not whether they possess the right to utter the word or display the picture — for I would not hesitate to support them against censorship. The issue is whether it is right to do so.

June 18, 2019

FrankWufeatured

What if Western Illinois’ Jack Thomas Were White or Asian?

As a lonely adjunct, a Filipino American teaching at a state school, I am but a wee voice in higher ed. But what if I were Jack Thomas at Western Illinois University, the school’s very first Black president?

June 17, 2019

NCAA’s Discriminatory APR Scores

A few weeks ago, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) released their annual Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores for each Division I team. While the annual announcement of these scores typically generates headlines that APR scores are improving, these headlines are disturbingly misleading.

June 16, 2019

Divulging into Systematic Oppression

An entire month of teachings on systematic oppression have unfolded right before our eyes; many will miss its intended lesson, however. If you have not heard about the recent plot to remove the first African-American president at Western Illinois University, Dr. Jack Thomas, by the incumbent Board of Trustees, listen closely.

June 13, 2019

Adriel A. Hilton feat

Ignoring Race and Privilege: How The College Board’s SAT Adversity Score Missed the Mark

Adverse experiences and social privilege are both life circumstances that can alter a test-taker’s score on standardized tests. However, the College Board, with their recent announcement of an “adversity score,” highlighted the disadvantages of adversity, while ignoring the advantages of privilege. In doing so, the College Board treats adversity as a handicap to be accommodated, while missing an opportunity to address a myriad of noncognitive factors that make SAT scores either lower or higher than they should be for different racial and ethnic groups, and socio-economic statuses.

June 11, 2019

Not Enough Black Males Qualified to Work in Higher Education – Cliché?

For years, there has been continuous conversation surrounding the scarcity of Black male professionals working in higher education. Often the narrative related to the cause of the shortage refers to the low number of Black males who attain a college degree.

June 10, 2019

jonelle knox feat

Leadership Must Possess Soul

During the 1970s, the concept of “soul” was on full display. Perhaps at the most basic level, “soul” pertained to a gracefully elegant, even rhythmic way of life that exhibited a confident cultural swagger manifested in various ways by Blacks.

June 6, 2019

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The ‘Weaker Sex’? #FACTS

As my last blog post, I want to leave you with a challenge – a challenge that, in the spirit of this blog, is at the intersection of diversity, education and health, and, I believe that, if accepted, can help initiate change we are sorely in need of today. The challenge is based on a question that I have asked myself on and off throughout my life. This question has been on my mind more and more recently as a result of the political and social climate in the US and my work focused on women’s health. The question?“Who is the ‘weaker sex?’”

June 5, 2019

‘Discrimination’ and Discrimination

At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, discrimination is out in the open — and it’s fine. When you arrive, the sign above the lobby counter indicates that anybody named “Isabella” may enter without charge. I’d never seen anything like it.

June 4, 2019

FrankWufeatured

Leave Ready, to Pivot: A Researcher’s Reflection on Purpose Beyond the Professoriate

“Leave Ready” is a campaign by Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) for its students centered on the notion of readiness. Signs and graphics, at one point, populated the campus with pictures of students and successful alumni with the slogan “Leave Ready.”

June 3, 2019

Dr. Nadrea R. Njoku

An Adjunct’s Thoughts on Shrinking College Enrollments and the State of Diversity

On the final week of Asian American history month, I was invited to speak to the Filipino American history class of Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez, a professor and the chair of the Asian American Studies department at UC Davis and a founder of the Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies.But what I found noteworthy is what I experienced as I walked through campus. I just could not believe the number of Asian Americans at UC Davis.The place seemed to be exploding with diversity.

June 3, 2019

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College is a Place of Self-Discovery And Reinvention

Thankfully, in America we are not required to have it all figured out by age 17. Our 17-year-old inclinations and test scores do not have to determine our subsequent years. We live in a land of second chances. Students, enrolled in community colleges to elite universities, are encouraged to rediscover and reinvent themselves. That is, to search for what’s “worth wanting.”

June 2, 2019

Christopher Young