Over the last several weeks institutions of higher education have written statements of support in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. However, there has also been criticism lodged at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) for providing statements and establishing working groups/task forces but little changes in regards to policies and practices that impact the lives of their Black students, staff, and faculty.
Not only is there a moral imperative for change but also a financial one. Given the negative impact of COVID-19 on potential enrollment numbers in the fall and the potential push for racial justice on behalf of Black students when they return in person, it is in the interest of PWIs to implement concrete policies and practices that advance and support the Black populations on their campuses.
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.
1. Pay Black Athletes: In recent years, the NCAA has been pressured to acknowledge an obvious issue, that college athletes are not amateurs but are a part of a multi-billion-dollar industry and should be paid. This is a social justice and equity issue, particularly in the high revenue generating sports such as football and basketball. Presidents should implement policies that move beyond just proposing that third parties pay student athletes for things like using their photos in advertising or their names on the backs of jerseys. The NCAA should implement policies changes that allow students to receive profits from the revenue their institutions gain from television contracts and ticket sales.
2. Establish and Fund Black Cultural Centers: These centers are repositories of Black history and provide a safe haven and support for Black students, faculty and staff. In a time of financial strain, some institutions may think it would be best to not establish such centers, merge them with other cultural centers if they exist, or dissolve them. That would be a mistake. This is the time to increase our investment in these centers and provide them with the financial and human resources they need.
3. Support and Promote Black Faculty: Dr. Shaun Harper, executive director of the Race and Equity Center at the University of Southern California said it this way: “I care less about words and more about actions. …Institutions should hire more Black people to be deans and provosts; they should award tenure to more Black people.” One way to work towards that end is to require that all individuals serving on faculty search committees and tenure and promotion committees participate in implicit bias training. If they do not, they forfeit their opportunity to serve. Provosts and deans also should be willing to fail searches if there is no ethnic or racial diversity among the qualified final candidates for searches.
4. Fund Research on Black Issues: Given the limited funding opportunities for research in some social science and humanities fields for studying issues impacting the Black community, competitive internal grants should be developed to help faculty and students investigate solutions to advance the Black community.
