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

Section: Opinion

Students Still Willing to Work Toward Positive Change

I have taught a course called the History of American Higher Education for the past 8 years. It is my very favorite course to teach. Not only is it the course in which I feel most comfortable, but it typically has younger students – mainly master’s students – in it. I enjoy their spirit, their […]

April 3, 2011

Financial Aid Must Go Further

The importance of Pell Grant funding and other forms of need-based financial aid – including aid programs at the state and institutional levels – are well established and fiercely debated by secondary and postsecondary educators, among others, who work with students and families on a daily basis. Hence the flurry of activity, advocacy and commentary […]

March 24, 2011

Depression In College Men and Beyond

Recently, I was at a conference speaking with an acquaintance who teaches at a small liberal arts college in the Northeast. We got to catch up on many things, our families, politics, President Obama, our careers, siblings, academic life in general. For the most part, things are going well for both of us. However, in […]

March 5, 2011

What Student Affairs Professionals Can Do to Empower Students of Color

I am a faculty member, but I began my career in higher education as a student affairs administrator. My experiences working in residence halls, as a judicial affairs officer, on a programming board and in student life make me a bit different from your average faculty member. How? I appreciate the work that those in […]

February 27, 2011

A Reflection on the Need for Achievement-Minded Approaches to Diversifying STEM

I was pleased to read fellow-blogger Marybeth Gasman’s most recent piece on the misrepresentation of Blacks in American history texts and classrooms. Like Dr. Gasman, I too have pondered the portrayal of Black students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as the research approach taken by social scientists who study diverse populations in […]

February 22, 2011

The Benefits of University-Public School Partnerships

At 6:52 one Friday morning last semester, as I was on my way to a local high school to meet my Foundations of Urban Ed class for our weekly field experience, I got the following instructions from one of my students via text message: Here are your lyrics for the rap. Memorize them and don’t […]

February 20, 2011

Black History is American History

This past week, I made a guest visit (via Skype) in Professor Lori Patton Davis’ History of American Higher Education course at the University of Denver. I was asked to talk about an article that I recently wrote on stereotypes of Black college presidents. The article focuses on the origins of these stereotypes and illuminates […]

February 19, 2011

The Future of Higher Education: Non-Profit or For-Profit?

As American higher education continues its jog from public to private, a fierce battled has gripped Washington that could accelerate or slow the pace. Last year, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) issued a blistering report that found many for-profit institutions have misled students during the recruiting process, encouraged students to falsify financial aid applications […]

February 16, 2011

President Obama’s 2012 Commitment to STEM

At a time of fiscal constraint and severe cuts to numerous federal programs, President Obama’s fiscal year 2012 budget proposal confirms his commitment to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. On numerous occasions–including during last month’s State of the Union address–the president has pointed to the importance of U.S. advancements in STEM for […]

February 15, 2011

College Students Feeling Overwhelmed by Stress

For those of us who have attended college at some point in our lives, we most likely have memories, no matter how distant, of our freshman year. This was a time when we assumed that we would embark on a new journey free from certain constraints that were imposed upon us by mom and dad. […]

February 5, 2011

Adrift but Not Entirely Off Course

The New Year has seen an urgent call for accountability in higher education with the much anticipated release of Academically Adrift: Limited Learning in Higher Education, written by sociologists Richard Arum of New York University and the Social Science Research Council and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia. The book, released Tuesday and drawing […]

January 19, 2011

Martin Luther King Jr. and Love

“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.” — Martin Luther King Jr. We often remember Martin Luther King Jr. as someone who urged peace, even gave his life for it. We remember him as someone who marched with others to make vast and unparalleled […]

January 15, 2011

Thoughts About Storytelling, Slavery and the ‘N’ Word

The recent discussion of the term slave replacing the “N” word in the classic novel Huckleberry Finn has inspired me to think more critically about the teaching of racial and cultural awareness in America. Replacing the term has sparked controversy among scholars; notably, literary experts and historians who claim that changing the term is an […]

January 11, 2011

Domestic Violence Cuts Across Racial and Gender Lines

By now, most of us who follow the world of contemporary sports know that Mike Haywood was fired by the University of Pittsburgh for domestic abuse. Haywood countered that he is innocent and that the “truth will come out.” If he is, in fact, innocent of all charges, then hopefully justice will be served. However, […]

January 8, 2011

Homeless College Students: A Budding Crisis

Homeless college students. When I first read that phrase, it sounded like an oxymoron. I had to read it three times before it settled into my consciousness. But as soon as it had settled, its implications began to grow on me and cause serious alarm. Before World War II, higher education in America was primarily […]

January 5, 2011

The Mismatch Hypothesis Helps No One

A note to the reader: In this new year, diversifying the STEM fields has perhaps never been more important—for economic health, innovation, and for the health and well-being of America’s diverse communities. As the higher education community is firmly focused on college preparation and completion, we must push to keep equity at the center of […]

January 4, 2011

Has Technology Replaced Common Decency and Manners?

I was answering an email recently and thought about how far technology has taken us. In today’s need-it-right-now culture, a lot of things get done by simply pushing the send button on our computers. When did all of this actually start? Well, the age of technology is here and we are sitting right in the […]

December 22, 2010

TPFKARLH: The Professor Formerly Known as R.L. Hughes

I am protesting. I am not wearing a T-shirt. I am not adding an X to my name. I am not writing my name in all small letters or wearing a black arm band (but I wish that I had thought of all those brilliant forms of protest!). Instead, while recently listening to “Purple Rain,” […]

December 21, 2010