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

Section: Opinion

Considering the Impact of COVID-19 on Teacher Education: What Really Matters

The COVID-19 pandemic shed a harsh light on the systemic inequities in schools and communities. If we believe schools are the epicenter to dismantle racism and inequities, then we must examine our role as teacher educators to address these issues of inequality. How can we use this inflection point to positively and substantively change educator preparation?

April 23, 2021

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African-American

Creating Equitable Classroom Environments

The decision to pivot to remote learning brought its own set of challenges for countless children and families across diverse communities. Foremost, were the ongoing efforts to create, establish, and maintain a caring and equitable classroom environment with actively engaged children and their families.

April 22, 2021

Imposter Syndrome: A Buzzword with Damaging Consequences

Like many racially minoritized faculty who engage in work for equity and social justice, we are no strangers to the daily manifestations of systems of oppression and oppressive behavior in academia. Recently during one of our conversations, the topic of imposter syndrome surfaced as we both processed some of our experiences.

April 21, 2021

Faculty & Staff

Questioning Our Questions About Faculty Diversity

I was recently contacted by a news outlet to share thoughts about the lack of faculty diversity within the UC (University of California) system. This is the kind of opportunity I especially welcome because it allows me to discuss both my scholarly expertise and insights through experiences. However, on this particular occasion my excitement was soon met with other sentiments.

April 20, 2021

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Breaking the Ice for Diverse Populations On Campus

Despite universities’ efforts to recruit diverse student bodies, members of different demographic groups remain susceptible to avoiding “the other.” That situation is particularly striking at this moment on college campuses in Israel, given the groundbreaking developments in the broader Middle East region, which represent the very opposite trend.

April 19, 2021

African-American

Black Colleges and Universities: Charting a Path to Transformational

Recent, so-called “transformational” gifts to HBCUs, most notably MacKenzie Scott’s multi-million dollar beneficence to twenty-two public and private HBCUs, present huge opportunities to reimagine and reposition some extraordinary institutions. No reasonable person can deny that these gifts with no strings attached represent a significant investment in these schools as well as an affirmation of their worth. They are not, ipso facto, transformational, however. These monies have the potential to be transformational only if meaningful conversations occur among institutional leadership, governing boards and stakeholders.

April 16, 2021

Dr. Alvin J. Schexnider

The Jalen Hurts Template on How to Handle Career Storms

There are lessons from college sports that can be transferred to other areas of life, even to higher educational administrative apparatuses. Personnel moves on the football field can mirror personnel moves in departments or schools. People are put in different positions and called upon to execute different roles and assignments.

April 16, 2021

Self-Help Recommendations on How Millennial Women of Color Survive College

During this self-isolation and social distancing period, I have come to the realization that I did not fully know myself as much as I thought, and that was a notion that was frightening yet ethereal.

April 15, 2021

For Colleges and Universities, Reopening Plans Must Meet Students’ Mental Health Needs

As more people across the nation become eligible for COVID-19 vaccines, colleges and universities are evaluating the feasibility of bringing students safely back to campus. Of course, access to vaccines and healthcare, as well as protective measures like preventative testing and contact tracing are all top priorities, but administrators must also prepare to meet the mental health needs of their campuses most vulnerable students.

April 14, 2021

Engaging Academia on My Own Terms

I associated my belonging and success in academia with persisting and succeeding in the “traditional pathway” of doctoral students. While no one specifically told me, “you need to get a tenure-track position at a research institution,” I was socialized to believe that was the only goal I should aspire to.

April 14, 2021

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NCAA Forum: A Collegiate Athletics Call to Action

Sports has often been viewed as the “great equalizer” in our society, where no one sees color or race and focuses on teamwork and collectively building success. However, at the same time, throughout history and especially currently, athletes of color are being told to “Shut up and dribble” and to avoid social justice and political involvement.

April 13, 2021

Asian American Pacific Islander

Do People Really Think Harvard Admissions Discriminates Against Asians?

Harvard’s admissions process is based on a holistic sense of the applicant, not just grades and test scores. It’s a lot like other schools’ methods where grades and test scores and race are just one factor. It’s a method that has stood up to court challenges for years.

April 12, 2021

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What Does an Anti-Racist College Admissions Process Look Like?

As our country confronts how racism affects so many other aspects of our lives, college admissions has some soul searching to do as well. The reality is that the process is rife with unintentional bias, and higher education is reckoning with its history as an institution originally designed by, and for, America’s white male elite. Many widely used practices, such as requiring standardized test scores, are being reevaluated or even scrapped altogether.

April 12, 2021

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From DEI to JEDI

Is the acronym Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) outdated? After a summer of uprisings for racial justice during a global pandemic, we felt this era required us to lead with Justice and so we renamed our office at the MGH Institute of Health Professions from JEDI, transitioning from DEI, to reflect our paradigm shift in 2020.

April 9, 2021

More Than an Athlete: Pivoting to a New Paradigm

Student-athletes all have some level of investment in their particular sport. This investment can come in the form of effort, time, emotions, money, hopes, and dreams. Perhaps the most impactful investment that they make is the investment of their identity. This is the level of which one’s view of their self is defined as being an athlete in their sport. How one defines themselves and how others define them makes up their identity.

April 7, 2021

Asian American Pacific Islander

There Is No Such Thing as Asian Privilege

My mom let me know that she recently purchased a walking stick for when she and my father walk our dog. While they are entering an older stage in their lives, they are still in good health and have no issues walking. They bought the walking stick for the sole purpose of having something to defend themselves with in the case they are attacked. Though she didn’t say it explicitly, she is afraid that she might also become a victim of anti-Asian violence.

April 6, 2021

Making Equity Everyone’s Work

From effectively educating students online, to sponsoring research to help cure and prevent COVID, to confronting racism and anti-Blackness, to countering the effects of misinformation and conspiratorial thinking, colleges and universities must lead the way in finding solutions for the most pressing problems of our day.

March 31, 2021

Are Your Institution’s Diversity and Equity Efforts Cosmetic or Courageous?

The hardest and most needed changes will require courage. It will require some degree of risk. It will require upsetting the status quo. It will require fearless advocacy on behalf of students even if it means that it may cause some level of institutional discomfort. Unprecedented change requires unprecedented action at the time when windows of opportunity are made available.

March 30, 2021