(2013). Critical Mass Revisited: Learning Lessons from Research on Diversity in STEM Fields. Educational Researcher, v42 n3 p176-178 Apr. Numerous legal scholars and social scientists have highlighted the ways in which research has informed judicial decision making. Because, in part, of convincing empirical research presented in several landmark cases (e.g., "Grutter v. Bollinger," 2003; "Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1," 2007), the consideration of race in educational policies has been deemed permissible, albeit in limited, narrowly tailored ways. "Grutter" also represented an affirmation of the importance of research for social scientists whose work provided empirical evidence of the educational benefits of diversity and the importance of a "critical mass" of underrepresented students, which served as a basis for the Court's decision. Although the Court upheld the University of Michigan Law School's admissions policy in "Grutter," the opinion of the Court also stated the expectation that race would no longer need to be considered… [Direct]
(2011). The Greatness Agenda. Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, v28 n20 p10-13 Nov. For Dr. Freeman Hrabowski III, nothing beats the view from the top of the world that he helped shape during the past 20 years. Even on a day when storm clouds hover, the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, or UMBC, humbly acknowledges that his academic kingdom looks mighty good. He has been key in shaping the university into a STEM success story. Stephanie Bell-Rose, head of TIAACREF, said Dr. Hrabowski's leadership at UMBC and commitment to underrepresented groups in science and engineering have had a powerful impact on both the Maryland system and on higher education as a whole…. [Direct]
(2010). Confronting the Categories: Equitable Admissions without Apartheid Race Classification. South African Journal of Higher Education, v24 n2 p244-257. South Africa's government requires information on apartheid race classification to implement and monitor racial redress. This has sparked resistance to race classification as a criterion for redress in higher education admissions. I argue that (1) jettisoning apartheid race categories now in favour of either class or "merit" would set back the few gains made toward redress; (2) against common sense uses of "race" and against the erasure of "race" through class reductionism; and (3) for developing and testing new indicators for "race" and class disadvantage with a view to eventually replacing apartheid race categories. I offer a critical-race-standpoint as an alternative conceptual orientation and method for transformative admissions committed to racial redress that is socially just. I conclude that admissions criteria should encompass the lived realities of inequality and be informed by a conception of humanism as critique. This requires… [Direct]
(2012). Desegregating Teachers: Contesting the Meaning of Equality of Educational Opportunity in the South Post "Brown". History of Schools and Schooling. Volume 57. Peter Lang New York This book explores the battle to desegregate public school teachers in the South. It also considers the implications of linking racially balanced school faculties to equal educational opportunities for African American students. This book demonstrates that the legal struggle to desegregate teachers and other school personnel is critical to understanding the politics of school desegregation in the South and perhaps elsewhere. Its premise is that the status of educators–far from being at the margins of the desegregation story–was central in shaping the desegregation process and outcomes. This is important today as student populations became largely resegregated. To capture the dynamics of faculty desegregation at the district level, this book explores the process in two distinct southern metropolitan areas: Jackson, Mississippi and Tampa, Florida. This is an important book for researchers, professors, and pre-service teachers…. [Direct]
(2012). Mission and Identity: The Role of Faculty. Journal of Catholic Higher Education, v31 n2 p169-179 Sum. Although Catholic universities face a number of challenges in an increasingly unsettled economy, the situation also provides significant opportunities for Catholic universities to highlight the central importance of their Catholic identity in order both to recover their deepest commitments and to realize an advantage in an increasingly competitive market. The most fundamental requirement in responding to this opportunity is a renewed focus on the role of faculty reflected in new approaches to recruitment and hiring for mission, and in the development of new faculty development programs that provide sustained opportunities for faculty to explore the implications of the Catholic university's commitment to the unity of knowledge and the ultimate complementarity of faith and reason. These commitments will require a new institutional resolve but offer very significant rewards. (Contains 9 footnotes.)… [Direct]
(2011). Taking Stock. Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, v28 n18 p14-15 Oct. During the past 10 years, Cornell University has made significant strides in recruiting underrepresented minorities and women in its faculty ranks, but a new internal study at the university is revealing that its success is a mixed bag. The number of minority faculty has grown about 52 percent, and the number of female faculty members has increased more than 38 percent in the last decade, according to a 2008 report by Dr. Robert Harris Jr., the former vice provost for diversity and faculty development. Meanwhile Dr. Zellman Warhaft was commissioned by the university provost to conduct follow-up study on Cornell's diversity recruitment. So far, Warhaft concludes that women and minorities still think that the campus climate is less favorable to them, based on initial feedback from e-mail surveys and in-person interviews. However, overall, women perceive the environment at Cornell to be more favorable to them than do underrepresented minorities, says Warhaft. Warhaft adds that Cornell… [Direct]
(2011). The Trouble with Diversifying the Faculty. Liberal Education, v97 n1 p14-19 Win. The widespread sense that faculties at US colleges and universities need to be more diverse is tied to the sense that the students at US colleges and universities have become more diverse, which indeed they have. The increase in diversity in higher education over the last forty years has been matched by an increase in wealth. Thus the question about who should be on the faculty is a question about who should teach the rich kids, and although no one has argued that professors should be both as diverse as their students and as rich, the incomes of the teachers have, in fact, risen. The general rule of American upper-class life is that inequality is not a problem except when it comes to race and sex; the application of that rule to American colleges and universities is the call for faculty diversity. (Contains 4 notes.)… [Direct]
(2012). Authority in Engineering Education. American Journal of Engineering Education, v3 n2 p123-136. Authority as a philosophical concept is defined both in general and as it applies to engineering education. Authority is shown to be a good and necessary part of social structures, in contrast to some cultural trends that regard it as an unnecessary and outmoded evil. Technical, educational, and organizational authority in their normal functions in engineering education are described, and challenges to these types of authority in the form of laws, accreditation changes, and the rise of the discipline of engineering education research are detailed. The principle of subsidiarity (basically, devolution of authority to the lowest feasible level) is applied to the issue of authority in engineering education organizations…. [PDF]
(2016). Professional Leadership Practices and Diversity Issues in the U.S. Higher Education System: A Research Synthesis. Education, v136 n4 p405-412 Sum. This paper examines the effects of negligence toward diversity issues on campus racial climate, describes how exclusionary practices affect minority students' (i.e., Asian American, Hispanic, Black, and Native American) educational experiences, and addresses faculty issues relevant to diversity. In addition, the paper identifies the factors that prevent, hinder, and promote the careers of faculty of color. Finally, two leadership frameworks that enable educational leaders to transform their organizational culture and diversify the racial and ethnic makeup of their institutional character are proposed…. [Direct]
(2011). Authentic Engagement for Promoting a College-Going Culture. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, v15 n4 p101-118 Dec. The United States has lost ground internationally as a leader in educational attainment. Personal empowerment, national economic progress, and democratic ideals are enhanced through education, yet inequalities persist in the educational attainment of certain groups, such as low-income families or underrepresented minorities. Because the evolving economic landscape increasingly demands a diverse, highly trained, and well-educated labor force to fill the kinds of jobs required of the information age, the United States cannot afford to let large portions of its population languish educationally. Higher education outreach efforts to engage communities and promote the broad embrace of a college-going culture are seen as vital to achieving increased educational attainment. (Contains 2 tables.)… [PDF]
(2011). Redefining Diversity: Political Responses to the Post-PICS Environment. Peabody Journal of Education, v86 n5 p529-552. This article examines the federal and local political response to the "Parents Involved" decision. At the federal level, developments suggest a reaction to "Parents Involved" that, since President Obama has taken office, has been largely supportive of voluntary efforts to promote racial diversity. The administration has also been seeking to enforce more traditional race-based civil rights cases. Locally, even though reactions to the decision are as varied as the districts themselves, three broad categories of political responses emerge from our review of post-"Parents Involved" student assignment policies. They are the adoption of multifactor student assignment plans, the adoption of class-based (e.g., race-neutral) student assignments, and the elimination of efforts to pursue diversity. This article is particularly interested in examining the first two categories of responses. In doing so, we argue that some school districts are pursuing a redefined… [Direct]
(2012). When Policy Opportunity Is Not Enough: College Access and Enrollment Patterns among Texas Percent Plan Eligible Students. Journal of Applied Research on Children, v3 n2 Article 9. In 1998, Texas initiated a bold new statewide university admission policy aimed at increasing college access for traditionally underserved students in the state. House Bill 588 (known as the Texas Top 10 Percent Plan (TTPP)) guaranteed automatic admission to the college or university of their choice for all top performing students in Texas public high schools. Fourteen years after the plan's implementation, we see great strides and complexities in understanding student outcomes as a result of the percent plan. However, the legal controversy over the percent plan both in Texas and other states incorporating similar yet distinctly motivated alternative admissions plans continues to play out from institutional decision boards to the highest court in the nation. This study seeks to add to that discussion by exploring two questions. Descriptively, what are the admission and enrollment patterns within racial/ethnic groups of percent plan eligible students, over time, for Texas elite,… [PDF]
(2012). Examining the Influence of Campus Diversity Experiences and Color-Blind Racial Ideology on Students' Social Justice Attitudes. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, v49 n2 p119-136 May. This study examined the relationships between color-blind racial ideology (CBRI) and social justice attitudes among a racially diverse sample of first-year college students (N = 431). Results indicated that CBRI scores partially mediated the relation between participation in campus diversity experiences and social justice attitudes for Black, Latino, and White students differentially by racial group. CBRI scores accounted for 34% to 47% of this association. Implications for student affairs research and practice are discussed. (Contains 3 tables and 2 figures.)… [Direct]
(2010). Race as Seriality: A Response to David Benatar and Zimitri Erasmus. South African Journal of Higher Education, v24 n2 p313-317. In this article I draw on the Sarte's notion of \seriality\ as theorized in his book \Dialectic of Reason\ and as interpreted by Iris Marion Young. I argue that seriality can be used to escape the false essentialism and identity politics of race as a category for admissions to universities. A series is a social collective whose members are unified passively by the objects around which their action is oriented, while a group is a collective where members recognize themselves and others pursuing the same goal (often leading to identity politics). Race as a series designates structural relations to material objects produced by prior history and material necessities of past practices, but disconnected from a racial identity. (Contains 2 notes.)… [Direct]
(2012). On University of Texas' Flagship Campus, Soul-Searching over Diversity. Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. The author reports on a Supreme Court case that is echoing across the University of Texas at Austin, and for some students, it is personal. Not long after the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Abigail Fisher's case against the University of Texas at Austin, a lighthearted joke made the rounds at the Warfield Center for African and African-American Studies here on the flagship campus. At its core was a high-energy fifth-year student from Houston named Tedra Jacobs. Ms. Jacobs, an administrative assistant at the center, was admitted in 2008 as part of the freshman class Ms. Fisher had sought to join. Neither Ms. Jacobs nor Ms. Fisher graduated in the top 10 percent of her high-school class, a status that would have entitled her to admission under Texas law. So both were considered for admission under the university's "holistic review" policy, which includes race and ethnicity among many factors in weighing applications. Ms. Jacobs, the daughter of a single black mother and a… [Direct]