Scholars Reveal Best Practices to Keep Black Males in Education - Higher Education

Scholars Reveal Best Practices to Keep Black Males in Education - Higher Education: Nearly 500 of the nearly 1,200 Black males who are enrolled at Ohio State University have a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 thanks to the work of Dr. James L. Moore, III and the staff at the school’s Todd Anthony Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male.

Moore, who holds the College of Education and Human Ecology Distinguished Professorship of Urban Education at Ohio State University (OSU) and currently serves as associate provost and director of the Bell Center, revealed the encouraging numbers to dozens of scholars who have gathered this week in St. Thomas for the.

While the six-year graduation rate of Black males at OSU still hovers at about 67 percent, Moore says that progress has definitely been made. “You have to know where we’ve come from,” he says matter-of-factly, often telling his students: “Your GPA is like your social security number. It sticks with you.”

In 2005, the university named the Bell Center after Todd Anthony Bell, the former OSU football player who later went on to play professionally for the Chicago Bears. It was founded to address issues in society that impact quality of life issues for Black males.

WWII-Era Japanese-American Nursing Student Advocate Honored - Higher Education

WWII-Era Japanese-American Nursing Student Advocate Honored - Higher Education: Following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, U.S. politicians, newspaper editorials and average citizens cried out for vengeance against Japanese-Americans, viewing them as a security risk. With little warning, Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast were rounded up and relocated to internment camps in the interior parts of the county. Among those facing relocation were “nisei,” U.S.-born children of Japanese immigrants, who were studying to become nurses. They were forced to leave their schools.

As hospitals suffered a severe nursing shortage as a result of the war, Henrietta Loughran, dean of the University of Colorado’s nursing college, considered the loss of the students’ rights and skills as unjust and a waste. So Loughran used connections from the University of Washington and the University of California San Francisco, as well as assistance from Colorado Gov. Ralph Carr, to quietly transfer students facing internment to CU to complete their bachelor’s degrees in nursing.

Research Scholars Take Aim at Improving Black Achievement - Higher Education

Research Scholars Take Aim at Improving Black Achievement - Higher Education: ST. THOMAS, VI — Some of the nation’s most prominent research scholars are gathering this week in St. Thomas to strategize solutions and share best practices on how to improve Black male achievement.

For the second year in a row, the three-day international colloquium has brought together researchers from various academic disciplines who are engaged in cutting-edge scholarship that focuses squarely on how to address what has become one of the nation’s most vexing problems.

“This has always been our vision,” says Dr. Jerlando F. L. Jackson, the Vilas Distinguished Professor of Higher Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the director of the Wisconsin Equity and Inclusion Laboratory—a research center that is dedicated to conducting both basic and applied research on topics of equity and inclusion in education, with a particular focus on higher education.

Thousands complain in Japan about skin blotches caused by skin-whitening creams | The Raw Story

Thousands complain in Japan about skin blotches caused by skin-whitening creams | The Raw Story: More than 15,000 people in Japan have been left with skin blotches caused by a chemical contained in popular skin-whitening creams, the maker of the products said Tuesday.

Japanese cosmetics giant Kanebo said it had received 15,192 complaints ins Japan from users of 54 products containing the whitening chemical “Rhododenol,” in what has become an escalating public relations nightmare for the company.

A third of the complaints are from people with “serious” symptoms such as at least three blotches or a single patch of discoloration 2 inches or more in diameter, the company said in a press release.

Former Hooters Waitress Claims She Was Target Of Racial Discrimination CBS Baltimore

Former Hooters Waitress Claims She Was Target Of Racial Discrimination  CBS Baltimore: BALTIMORE (WJZ) — The popular restaurant chain Hooters is accused of racial discrimination by a former employee in Baltimore. And it all centers around her hair.

Derek Valcourt has more on her complaint.

Specifically, the complaint alleges white waitresses are allowed to have highlights in their hair, but black waitresses are not.

Farryn Johnson’s blonde highlights are now at the center of a complaint filed with the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights.

“My other co-workers, they all had different colors in their hair, like red and blonde highlights. I didn’t think it would be an issue,” she said.

Black College Student Arrested For Buying A Designer Belt, Barneys & NYPD Slapped With Lawsuit

Black College Student Arrested For Buying A Designer Belt, Barneys & NYPD Slapped With Lawsuit: Barneys New York and the New York Police Department have been slapped with a lawsuit by Trayon Christian, a college student from Queens, who was arrested at the luxury department store in April.

"His only crime was being a young black man,” Michael Palillo, Christian's attorney, told The New York Post.

The Post reports that the 19-year-old was at the store buying a $350 Salvatore Ferragamo belt, but following the purchase, he was stopped by undercover officers that were allegedly called on by a Barneys sales clerk who believed the transaction was fraudulent.

The lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in Manhattan Supreme Court, states that the NYC College of Technology freshman was asked by the cops: “how a young black man such as himself could afford to purchase such an expensive belt?” He was then handcuffed taken to a local precinct.

Education Advocate Mayor Owens Dies at 77 - Higher Education

Education Advocate Mayor Owens Dies at 77 - Higher Education: NEW YORK—Mayor Owens, a New York City Democrat who served 12 terms in the U.S. House and was credited with helping to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, has died at age 77.

Owens died Monday night at NYU Langone Medical Center of renal failure and heart failure, his son Chris Owens said. The family posted on Owens’ Facebook page that “the brave heart of Congressman Major Owens stopped and he joined the ancestors.”

Owens represented a Brooklyn congressional district from 1983 to 2007.

“Today, our country mourns the loss of a devoted public servant who dedicated his life to lifting up the voices of those who too often go unheard,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “From the classroom to the halls of Congress, Congressman Owens taught all of us what it means to serve with strength, compassion, and commitment to the public good.”

New York City Comptroller John Liu said: “New York City has lost a champion who exemplified the very best of what a Congress member can be. His work in helping to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act will serve as one of his lasting legacies.”

Penn State to Offer Doctoral in African American Studies - Higher Education

Penn State to Offer Doctoral in African American Studies - Higher Education: Come next fall, Pennsylvania State University will be the twelfth university in the nation to offer a doctoral degree in African American Studies.

The university is currently soliciting applications for its inaugural dual-degree program in Black studies, which will allow students to also earn a degree in another academic discipline such as history, philosophy or English.

Penn State officials say these dual-title doctoral degree programs will ultimately help to enhance the education of their doctoral students while broadening their prospects once they graduate and enter the competitive job market.

“We’ve built this dual-title program with our partners in the Department of History to leverage the significant faculty strengths in African-American scholarship that already exist in the College of the Liberal Arts,” says Dr. Paul Taylor, an associate professor of philosophy and the head of the African American Studies program. “This gives us a model for future collaborations with other departments such as English, philosophy and art education.”

Survey Explores U.S. Diversity Awareness, Willingness to Target Racial Disparities - Higher Education

Survey Explores U.S. Diversity Awareness, Willingness to Target Racial Disparities - Higher Education: WASHINGTON – In recent years, Americans have been told that U.S. racial and ethnic diversity will be increasing to the point that by mid-century the nation will cease to have a White majority within the population.

For many, the perception of that milestone has been reached or has been nearly attained. A new survey released by the Center for American Progress (CAP) and the PolicyLink organization indicates that many Americans already believe non-Whites are the majority of the U.S. population.

With minorities currently making up 37 percent of the U.S. population, Americans on average believe that non-Whites are 49 percent of the U.S., according to the “Building an All-In Nation: A View from the American Public” survey report. Released on Tuesday, the survey notes that the tendency of respondents to overestimate the minority population demonstrates “that Americans are not in denial about the high and rising levels of diversity” in American society.

Language-Gap Study Bolsters a Push for Pre-K - NYTimes.com

Language-Gap Study Bolsters a Push for Pre-K - NYTimes.com: Nearly two decades ago, a landmark study found that by age 3, the children of wealthier professionals have heard words millions more times than those of less educated parents, giving them a distinct advantage in school and suggesting the need for increased investment in prekindergarten programs.

Now a follow-up study has found a language gap as early as 18 months, heightening the policy debate. 

The new research by Anne Fernald, a psychologist at Stanford University, which was published in Developmental Science this year, showed that at 18 months children from wealthier homes could identify pictures of simple words they knew — “dog” or “ball” — much faster than children from low-income families. By age 2, the study found, affluent children had learned 30 percent more words in the intervening months than the children from low-income homes.

Slavery As ‘Innovation’ and Other Provocative Ideas: What I Learned From Henry Louis Gates’s ‘Many Rivers to Cross’ - The Daily Beast

Even if you accept that race is a social construct, separated from biology, it’s difficult to deal with it as a creation. Humans are tribal, and it feels natural to think that humanity has always been eager to categorize on the basis of skin color.

 If there’s anything Henry Louis “Skip” Gates, Jr., accomplishes with “The Black Atlantic,” the first episode of The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross—a new documentary mini-series that begins on PBS Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET—it’s to show that this view is an illusion. That is, in addition to inaugurating a broad history of black people—“the full 500 years of American history,” he says—the beginning of the series also gives viewers a valuable crash course in the history of race as an idea that was built.

 The episode begins with three stories from early America. “The first known African in America came here with Spanish explorers in 1513,” explains Gates, as the camera sweeps over the semi-tropical landscape of modern-day Florida.

“His name was Juan Guarido. He was free, and he left his mark on the New World.” Guardio fought with the conquistador Hernán Cortés in Aztec Mexico, and traveled to California to join the Spanish search for gold. Estevanico, or “Esteban the Moor,” arrived on the continent in 1534. One of four survivors of a Spanish expedition gone wrong, he served as a “guide and translator” for his companions as they walked the landscape of today’s Texas. Esteban, however, was a slave.

NAACP Increases Efforts to Target College Students - Higher Education

NAACP Increases Efforts to Target College Students - Higher Education: WASHINGTON, D.C.—For as long as she can remember, Georgetown University junior Mikaela Ferrill has been an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Ferrill, 20, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, attended her first NAACP meeting with her mother when she was a child and eventually got active in the youth council of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization that was founded in 1909 by Dr. W.E.B Du Bois, Ida B. Wells and others.

When it was time for her to apply to college, she insisted on attending a university that had an active NAACP chapter. “I have a bias when it comes to the NAACP,” says Ferrill, who recently completed an internship in the D.C. office of the Baltimore-based organization under the direction of Hilary Shelton, a longtime NAACP staffer. “What we do and will continue to do in this country is really important.”

NAACP Names Lorraine Miller as Interim President and CEO | News | BET

NAACP Names Lorraine Miller as Interim President and CEO | News | BET: Miller, the first woman to serve as president or interim president of the civil rights organization, will succeed Benjamin Todd Jealous.

The NAACP announced Monday that it was naming Lorraine C. Miller, a member of the organization’s national board, to serve as interim president and chief executive. She will be the first woman to serve as president of the nation’s preeminent civil rights organization.

Miller comes to the position following the resignation of Benjamin Todd Jealous, who will step down in January after five years as president and chief executive.

“This is a moment of great change and great opportunity for the NAACP,” said Roslyn M. Brock, the chairman of the 104-year-old organization.

“We are excited to work with Lorraine C. Miller during this time of transition. We are confident that Lorraine will serve the association with a steady and experienced hand as we continue the search for the next president and CEO,” Brock said. 

Celia Cruz, queen of Salsa, gets Google Doodle | www.ajc.com

Celia Cruz, queen of Salsa, gets Google Doodle | www.ajc.com: Cuban-American Celia Cruz was honored with a Google Doodle on Monday, Oct. 21, 2013. Cruz is often referred to as 'la Reina de Salsa', or 'the Queen of Salsa.
She won a Grammy award in 1990 for Best Tropical Latin Performance for her song with another salsa legend Ray Barretto (Ritmo en el Corazon). Her birthday is Oct. 21, 1925; she was born in Havana, Cuba.

On July 16, 2003, Cruz died of brain cancer at her home in Florida at age 77. Her husband, Pedro Knight died in 2007. She had no children. After her death she was allowed to lie in state at Freedom Tower in Miami where more than 200,000 people paid respect.

Medical School Debt Disproportionately Affects African-American Students - US News and World Report

Medical School Debt Disproportionately Affects African-American Students - US News and World Report: African-American medical school students have significantly higher amounts of anticipated debt than students of other races and ethnicities, according to a report from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health published in the journal PLOS One on Monday.

The researchers surveyed more than 2,300 medical students enrolled in 111 accredited medical schools during the 2010-11 academic year. Overall, 62 percent of medical students said they anticipated more than $150,000 in debt upon completing medical school. But a much higher percentage of African-American students reported anticipated debt above $150,000, at 77.3, compared to white students, at 65 percent. Meanwhile, a lower rate of Hispanic or Latino and Asian students anticipated debt in excess of $150,000, at 57.2 percent and 50.2 percent respectively.

"The cost of American medical education has increased substantially over the past decade," the report says. "Given racial/ethnic inequalities in access to financial resources, it is plausible that increases in student debt burden resulting from these increases in cost may not be borne equally."

Diverse Magazine

Asian-American Band Fights To Trademark Name 'The Slants' : Code Switch : NPR

Asian-American Band Fights To Trademark Name 'The Slants' : Code Switch : NPR: The Slants, a six-member band from Portland, Ore., calls their sound "Chinatown Dance Rock" — a little bit New Order, a little bit Depeche Mode. They describe themselves as one of the first Asian-American rock bands. Their music caters to an Asian-American crowd, they've spoken at various Asian-American events, and they're proud of all of it.

But the Slants have been duking it out with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) over the past four years because of their name. The PTO refused the band's two trademark applications, saying that "slants" is a disparaging term for people of Asian descent. Now the band plans to take their case to a federal circuit court.

"They said because of our ethnicity, people automatically think of the racial slur as opposed to any other definition of the term," Simon Tam, founder and bassist of The Slants, told me. "In other words, if I was white, this wouldn't be an issue at all," Tam, who goes by "Simon Young" onstage, is of Taiwanese and Chinese descent. (The entire Slants crew is Asian-American.)

Henry Louis Gates PBS series "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross" - baltimoresun.com

Henry Louis Gates PBS series "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross" - baltimoresun.com: Can something as tragic and immoral as slavery become, if not less tragic, then noble, even righteous, in the telling? It can and it does in the capable hands of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., whose brilliant and compelling new six-part series for PBS called "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross" premieres Oct. 22.

Mr. Gates, whose previous series, "African American Lives," chronicled the heritage of some famous and notable African Americans, takes us on a new journey that begins 500 years ago. While some of the history is familiar, Mr. Gates re-tells it in a way that will sound new to many people, especially the young. What I admire most about Mr. Gates' approach in this series and the previous one is that he is not a polemicist. He doesn't dwell on blame so much as he conveys documented history, leaving it to viewers to draw their own conclusions.

What many will find shocking is that the first slave traders were Africans who, Mr. Gates says, based their prejudices on "ethnic differences" while using "brute power." In episode one, Mr. Gates takes us to Sierra Leone where "300,000 Africans were taken." It was only the beginning.

The Whitest Historically Black College In America : Code Switch : NPR

The Whitest Historically Black College In America : Code Switch : NPR: It opened in the late 19th century as the Bluefield Colored Institute, created to educate the children of black coal miners in segregated West Virginia. Although it still receives the federal funding that comes with its designation as a historically black institution, today Bluefield State College is 90 percent white. The road that separates those realities is as rocky as any story of racial transition in post-World War II America.

We went to the campus of Bluefield State to see what campus life was like at this unusual college.

The very first student we met, Antonio Bolden, or Tony as he introduced himself, looked like any other student you might see at a historically black college or university (HBCU). He's a laid-back 19-year-old, stocky with shoulder-length dreadlocks and green eyes. But at Bluefield State, Tony is an outlier for several reasons. He's a teenager; the average age of his classmates is 27. He started college right after high school; many of his classmates are working full-time jobs, raising children, or both. And of course, he's black, whereas the student body is only historically so.

Why Are the Underrepresented Minorities Underachieving in STEM? - Higher Education

Why Are the Underrepresented Minorities Underachieving in STEM? - Higher Education: Whenever Tamara L. Battle taught middle and high school students as a member of the Graduate STEM Fellows in K-12 Education program — or GK-12 — she always made it a point to talk about her previous struggles in math and science.

“I always tell students what my background is to let them know that I know what I’m talking about,” says Battle, who served as a GK-12 fellow at the Cesar Chavez Charter Schools for Public Policy in Washington, D.C. from 2006 to 2008.

“But I always tell this story about me failing my first physics class [in college], and now I’m teaching [physics],” Battle says of the time when she earned an F in physics at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in the 1990s.

Battle says the idea behind sharing her personal story was to help students at the mostly African-American and Hispanic school overcome the fear of failure in what is often unfamiliar terrain.

This map shows where the world’s 30 million slaves live. There are 60,000 in the U.S.

This map shows where the world’s 30 million slaves live. There are 60,000 in the U.S.: We think of slavery as a practice of the past, an image from Roman colonies or 18th-century American plantations, but the practice of enslaving human beings as property still exists. There are 29.8 million people living as slaves right now, according to a comprehensive new report issued by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation.

This is not some softened, by-modern-standards definition of slavery. These 30 million people are living as forced laborers, forced prostitutes, child soldiers, child brides in forced marriages and, in all ways that matter, as pieces of property, chattel in the servitude of absolute ownership. Walk Free investigated 162 countries and found slaves in every single one. But the practice is far worse in some countries than others.

The country where you are most likely to be enslaved is Mauritania. Although this vast West African nation has tried three times to outlaw slavery within its borders, it remains so common that it is nearly normal. The report estimates that four percent of Mauritania is enslaved – one out of every 25 people. (The aid group SOS Slavery, using a broader definition of slavery, estimated several years ago that as many as 20 percent of Mauritanians might be enslaved.)

University's First Black Professor's Law School Diploma Was Almost Destroyed Before Being Returned

University's First Black Professor's Law School Diploma Was Almost Destroyed Before Being Returned: COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Two rare documents from a fleeting time after the Civil War when the University of South Carolina first admitted African-American students and faculty are going on display.

A law school diploma from the university and a South Carolina law license granted in 1876 to Richard Theodore Greener, the first African-American faculty member of the university, are being unveiled at noon EDT Tuesday at the South Caroliniana Library on the school's Columbia campus.

The exhibition explores contributions blacks made in the university's history before segregation. It coincides with the university's year-long remembrance of events leading up to 1963, when the school again admitted black students in the Civil Rights era.

Authorities say both documents were saved from a Chicago home awaiting demolition in 2009. It's not known how they got there.

Interview: Director Steve McQueen And Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor On '12 Years A Slave' : NPR

Interview: Director Steve McQueen And Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor On '12 Years A Slave' : NPR: Solomon Northup was born free in early 19th-century upstate New York. He lived the life of a respected and elegant musician until 1841, when he was lured South by the promise of a lucrative stint playing his fiddle in a traveling circus.

In Washington, D.C. — in the shadow of the Capitol — Northup was drugged. When he came to, he was in chains: a slave headed for the hellish world of plantation life. Only the hope of being reunited with his beloved wife and children kept him going.

In the new film Twelve Years A Slave, British director Steve McQueen tells the largely forgotten, true story of Northup's capture, struggle and eventual freedom. McQueen is also known for provocative films like Hunger, about a hunger strike at a prison in Northern Ireland.

Just the Stats: Higher Minority Participation in Community College Support Programs - Higher Education

Just the Stats: Higher Minority Participation in Community College Support Programs - Higher Education: Community Colleges continue to evolve, and as they do they experience new struggles with accountability measures, the increase in student diversity and financial constraints. Despite these intensifying demands, community colleges continue to seek ways to bolster student retention and graduation rates.

A Matter of Degrees: Engaging Practices, Engaging Students, a report released today from the Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) provides an in-depth analysis of what is working (and not) at community colleges. The report provides key practices for college leaders who are targeting ways to improve student success (retention and graduation). With dwindling resources readily available, educational leaders can utilize this report to target educational approaches that will impact students’ experiences and their success.

CCCSE research confirmed potentially valuable elements of student success based on the quality (design and implementation) of educational practices and programs on campus, the number of students participating in the programs and the integration of programs into the lives of the students.

Kirby Kehoe And Cheyne Kehoe, Purported White Supremacists, Arrested In Arizona

Kirby Kehoe And Cheyne Kehoe, Purported White Supremacists, Arrested In Arizona: FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Two members of a notorious family that authorities say once tried to set up a whites-only nation in America were arrested this week in Arizona on federal firearms charges after a raid on a sprawling ranch where dozens of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition were seized.

Kirby Kehoe and his 37-year-old son, Cheyne, had an initial court appearance Tuesday in Flagstaff. Cheyne Kehoe's attorney declined to discuss the case, while a lawyer for Kirby Kehoe did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Authorities received a tip that Kirby Kehoe had weapons on his 40-acre property near Ash Fork, about 140 miles north of Phoenix, said Tom Mangan, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Both men have previous felony convictions and are banned from possessing firearms.

The Kehoe family has been well-known to law enforcement since the 1990s when authorities say they provided weapons to various white supremacists who committed robberies across the Midwest.

Affirmative Action and the Supreme Court Blues - Higher Education

Affirmative Action and the Supreme Court Blues - Higher Education: We often look back at American racial history and shake our heads in wonder. We degrade previous generations for their collusion or apathy regarding the forces of racism. How could so many people really believe African Americans were better off as slaves, or slavery was a positive good? How could so many people really believe separate could actually be equal? Why could they not look past the beautiful mask of rhetoric to see the ugly, nakedness of racism?

In the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court saw through the false rhetoric of separate but equal that racists used to legally discriminate for more than 50 years. The Court finally realized that the mantra—though seemingly egalitarian—had in practice racially discriminated against African Americans. The Court did not care whether the policy spoke of racial equality. The Court realized its effect was undeniably racial inequality.

On Tuesday, on the eve of the 60 year anniversary of the historic Brown decision, the U.S. Supreme Court heard Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, which if decided like the Brown case, could have far-reaching effects on racial justice in America.

Nationwide Study Affirms Income Affects Postsecondary Achievement - Higher Education

Nationwide Study Affirms Income Affects Postsecondary Achievement - Higher Education: A thread of urgency for college attainment and continuance has spread throughout higher academia, after President Obama’s 2009 charge to the United States in regaining its lead in worldwide college graduates by the year 2020.

In this collective pursuit for higher achievement by universities, educational organizations and policy makers, often left out of the fold of accountability are high schools across the country — who have been moreso tasked with the obligation of graduating students from secondary institutions with diplomas that are not viable for the demands of sustainable employment opportunities in the country.

In a recent study, “High School Benchmarks: National College Progression Rates,” released by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, high school administrators have been presented with data for their introduction into this nationwide call for action.

“We are trying to focus on the role of high schools and make sure high schools aren’t the weak link,” said Dr. Doug Shapiro, executive research director at the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, during a roundtable panel discussion held on Tuesday to highlight the report’s findings.

High Court Weighs Michigan Ban on Affirmative Action - Higher Education

High Court Weighs Michigan Ban on Affirmative Action - Higher Education: WASHINGTON — After the Supreme Court ruled a decade ago that race could be a factor in college admissions in a Michigan case, affirmative action opponents persuaded the state’s voters to outlaw any consideration of race.

Now, the high court is weighing whether that change to Michigan’s constitution is itself discriminatory.

It is a proposition that even the lawyer for civil rights groups in favor of affirmative action acknowledges a tough sell, at first glance.

“How can a provision that is designed to end discrimination in fact discriminate?” said Mark Rosenbaum of the American Civil Liberties Union. Yet that is the difficult argument Rosenbaum will make today to a court that has grown more skeptical about taking race into account in education since its Michigan decision in 2003.

A victory for Rosenbaum’s side would imperil similar voter-approved initiatives that banned affirmative action in education in California and Washington state. A few other states have adopted laws or issued executive orders to bar race-conscious admissions policies.

Schools Increase Efforts to Attract More Women to Business Programs - Higher Education

Schools Increase Efforts to Attract More Women to Business Programs - Higher Education: In the last couple of years, there has been a steady rise of women breaking the glass ceiling and assuming leadership roles of some of America’s largest corporations. In 2012, Fortune magazine announced that women CEOs set a record by taking more than 20 spots on the Fortune 500 list, including Marissa Mayer, president and CEO of Yahoo! — who took the No. 1 spot on the “40 Under 40” list this year; Indra Nooyi, chief executive officer of PepsiCo; Ginni Rometty, chair and CEO of IBM; and Ursula Burns, chair and chief executive officer of Xerox.

As more professional women continue to slowly but surely break down barriers in the traditionally male-dominated C-suite, news of their accomplishments has initiated conversations about attracting more females into the business world, particularly as it pertains to their enrollment in business schools.

“Having positive role models is inspiring for women as they consider pursuing their M.B.A.,” says Zoe Hillenmeyer, a Washington University M.B.A. grad and senior consultant at IBM. “But it’s more than just that — it is critical for helping curb unintentional bias and categorical thinking, meaning when we see more women at the top, men and women are going to experience the subtle, slow adjustment that women can lead as well as men.”

How Columbus Sailed Into U.S. History, Thanks To Italians : Code Switch : NPR

How Columbus Sailed Into U.S. History, Thanks To Italians : Code Switch : NPR: It's been 521 years since the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus "sailed the ocean blue/in fourteen hundred and ninety-two." Since then, there have been thousands of parades, speeches and statues commemorating Columbus, along with a critical rethinking of his life and legacy.

But the question remains, how did a man who never set foot on North America get a federal holiday in his name? While Columbus did arrive in the "New World" when he cast anchor in the Bahamas, he never made it to the United States.

This is in contrast to Juan Ponce de Leon (who arrived in Florida in 1513), Alonso Alvarez de Pineda (whose ships arrived in what's now known as Corpus Christi Bay in Texas in 1519) and fellow Italian Giovanni da Verrazzano, who reached New York Harbor in 1524.

So why Columbus Day? Until the mid-1700s, Christopher Columbus was not widely known among most Americans. This began to change in the late 1700s, after the United States gained independence from Britain. The name "Columbia" soon became a synonym for the United States, with the name being used for various landmarks in the newly created nation (see the District of Columbia, Columbia University and the Columbia River).

Special Report: Recruitment and Retention in Higher Ed - Higher Education

Special Report: Recruitment and Retention in Higher Ed - Higher Education: Low participation and completion rates in STEM majors among underrepresented minorities; programs that are being developed to help the college experience of students with autism; a reevaluation of the IPEDS definition of graduates; and increased recruiting efforts to attract more women into business programs.

Educators Advised to Remove Racial Bias from Disciplinary Procedures - Higher Education

Educators Advised to Remove Racial Bias from Disciplinary Procedures - Higher Education: ATLANTA — In order to end persistent racial disparities in school suspension rates, educational leaders must make a conscious effort to root out racial bias from their disciplinary procedures and pursue more non-suspension alternatives.

Those were among the key points made during “Schoolhouse Discipline” — a two-day conference held in Atlanta over the weekend and sponsored by the Southern Education Foundation.

Though Black and Latino students, particularly those with various learning-related disabilities, are routinely suspended at disproportionately higher rates — for instance, the rates were 24.3 and 12 percent for Black and Latino students, respectively, at the secondary level, versus 7.1 percent for White students — one scholar noted that some schools have been able to buck the trend.

“The main point is there are alternatives that do work, that are effective and actually have reduced the number of kids being suspended, some of which cost money and some that don’t,” said Daniel J. Losen, director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at UCLA.

Arnold Mitchem’s Vision: A Pragmatic Strategy to Protect TRIO Programs - Higher Education

Arnold Mitchem’s Vision: A Pragmatic Strategy to Protect TRIO Programs - Higher Education: In his departing address as president of the Council of Opportunity in Education at the organization’s annual conference last month, Dr. Arnold Mitchem mixed tough talk and inspirational oratory. His tough talk defined the brutal political realities confronting the federally supported TRIO college access and academic support programs for low-income students aspiring college success.

“And as I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it one last time,” Mitchem told hundreds of TRIO program administrators who were in Chicago for the conference, “you are the proxies for the poor. You identify with the poor. You care and have concern about the aspirations, the welfare and the tears of the poor.”

With federal programs, including TRIO, having been hit hard by budget sequester cuts at the time of his speech, Mitchem urged his audience to not “lose faith or hope” in their efforts to seek congressional support for their programs.

“We’ll get through this storm. There’s no question about that. TRIO is going to exist,” he said.

Court to decide if race preference bans hurt diversity

Court to decide if race preference bans hurt diversity: WASHINGTON — To hear Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette explain it, what could be wrong with a state constitutional amendment that "shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin?"

Just about everything, says Mark Rosenbaum of the American Civil Liberties Union and a host of civil rights groups. "While that makes a good bumper sticker ... it's not the truth," Rosenbaum says. "Instead of healing the nation's wounds, it's actually opening those wounds."

Those two views will play out before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, almost precisely a year after the justices heard another major case on a subject that has divided the nation — and the high court — for decades: affirmative action.

On the docket will be the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, a 2006 constitutional amendment banning the use of racial preferences in public university admissions. It may not be a close fight. Lawyers for Schuette (pronounced Shoo-tee) are likely to convince the conservative court that, as Chief Justice John Roberts put it a few years back, "the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."

Operation Streamline: Expedited Indian Removal - Higher Education

Operation Streamline: Expedited Indian Removal - Higher Education: On the left side of the courtroom, 60 to 70 short, dark-brown men and a few women are seated, handcuffed and shackled from the wrists, waist and ankles. All are silent. They take up about 20 rows, including the two corresponding to the jury box. The scene is surreal. Their chains, their color and height are very pronounced—yet, in this courtroom, are hardly noticed by the lawyers and other court officials, including the judge.

This kangaroo court called Operation Streamline is America’s modern version of Expedited Indian Removal; chase, capture, pseudo-judicial proceeding, incarceration and deport. It convenes daily at 1:30 PM in Tucson, Arizona.

Apparently, the prisoners in this second-floor federal courtroom have been instructed not to converse with each other. But the periodic clanking of their chains betrays the silence. The chains eerily communicate that something is not right here.

In contrast, in the middle of this courtroom are primarily well-dressed and well-heeled lawyers. Some attorneys sit; some stand. Many fiddle with their smartphones. Some of the attorneys are Mexican-American or Hispanic. Others are Anglos or White.

Hispanic-serving Leaders Give Hope to a New Wave of Students - Higher Education

Hispanic-serving Leaders Give Hope to a New Wave of Students - Higher Education: Recently becoming the nation’s largest minority, Hispanics are absorbing the academic limelight as Latino youth establish their dominance in college classrooms across the country.

According to Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education magazine’s 2013 report “Top 100 Schools for Hispanic Students,” more than 2.5 million Hispanics were enrolled in nonprofit institutions in 2011-2012. The U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that nearly seven out of 10 Hispanic high school graduates in 2012 enrolled in college, outnumbering that of their White counterparts. Over half of these new college-goers choose to attend Hispanic-Serving Institutions, which the Higher Education Act defines as nonprofit degree-granting institutions with full-time undergraduate enrollments of at least 25 percent Hispanic.

While these numbers illustrate a statistical breakthrough in Hispanics’ desire to become academically astute and socially progressive, the task of cultivating the necessities required to recruit, retain and promote these aspiring college graduates can largely be attributed to the dedication of those employed at Hispanic-Serving Institutions.

New Tribal College Slated to Open in California - Higher Education

New Tribal College Slated to Open in California - Higher Education: With the endorsement of more than 40 California Indian nations and organizations, a new nonprofit tribal college will open in northern California in 2014 with the aim of serving American Indian students from the state.

Last week, Marshall McKay, chairman of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation, announced plans for what is known as the California Tribal College during a statewide Indian nations conference at the California State University, Sacramento campus. While planning for the new school has been under way since 2009, McKay confirmed that tribal college development efforts are “well on [their] way to making this dream become a reality” during a keynote speech for more than 200 representatives from California Indian nations, higher education institutions, local organizations and news organizations.

“The Yocha Dehe spearheaded an initiative to establish a California Tribal College several years ago in this great state where we have the largest populations of Native Americans and not one functioning tribal college,” McKay told conference attendees.

Next year, “we will finally see California add an accredited tribal college to the list of 37 others in this country,” he added.

Colleges, Universities Initiating National Movement Against Hazing - Higher Education

Colleges, Universities Initiating National Movement Against Hazing - Higher Education: When two freshman students at Virginia State University lost their lives this summer in a river-crossing hazing initiation gone awry, it was a cruel reminder to educators, parents and students across the nation that hazing of any kind can quickly get out of control and yield unexpected and irreversible consequences.

It’s just two years shy of the tragic November 2011 death of Florida A & M University drum major Robert Champion. His death at the hands of fellow students engaged in a band unit hazing ritual brought heightened national attention to the decades-old practice that was in recent years increasingly getting out of hand.

Responding to the hazing “wake-up” call has proved to be more than a notion, say those engaged in challenging the practice.

“It’s the culture (at an institution) that has to change,” says Dr. Gina Lee-Olukoya, associate dean of students at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a founder of Hazing Prevention.Org. “A freshman signing a piece of paper (promising not to engage in hazing and to report it when he or she knows of it) doesn’t mean the culture is going to change.”

Conference Celebrates Black Doctorals - Higher Education

Conference Celebrates Black Doctorals - Higher Education: PHILADELPHIA—More than 450 conference attendees from various academic disciplines and interests converged onto Philadelphia last Thursday to participate in a two-day inaugural conference of the Black Doctoral Network Conference (BDN).

Despite the nearly 2,000 African-Americans who earn doctoral degrees in this country every year, they often go unnoticed and unrecognized even though many are engaged in cutting-edge research. According to the conference organizers, they are invisible minorities.

“Our success needs to be seen and celebrated,” says Maurice Green, a doctoral student in criminology at the City University of New York (CUNY) who organized the conference and founded the BDN in 2011. “If other Blacks don’t see us, they can’t inspire to be like us.”

A Comedy Favorite: How The 'Act Blacker' Sketch Has Evolved : Code Switch : NPR

A Comedy Favorite: How The 'Act Blacker' Sketch Has Evolved : Code Switch : NPR: It's an old, hardy comedy trope: A black person has to turn up the volume on some stereotypical behavior in order to navigate some social situation. The sketch is a self-aware take on a modern reality. Even after the era of minstrel shows ended and black actors stopped living out egregious stereotypes for white audiences, white folks still ran mainstream showbiz. If you were going to be black onstage or on camera, your image was still controlled by a largely white industry.

That's still the case, and there's a whole thread of comedy that goes to that well, poking fun at black actors being instructed "to act blacker" (whatever the hell that even means). Let's call them "Black It Up" routines. The most famous one is probably Robert Townsend's bit from Hollywood Shuffle, in which he imagines an acting school designed to prep aspiring black actors on how to land the roles most available to them. Here it is, if you haven't seen it (heads-up: salty language):

Reaching Out to Hispanic Students May Be Key for Some Colleges’ Survival - Higher Education

Reaching Out to Hispanic Students May Be Key for Some Colleges’ Survival - Higher Education: ...HSIs are two- or four-year nonprofit degree granting institutions that have an enrollment of at least 25 percent Hispanic.

Notre Dame de Namur’s Hispanic enrollment hovered around 17 percent in 2007. Today, Hispanic enrollment is 29 percent, according to a college spokesman. And that’s not all that’s grown. The college’s enrollment rose to slightly more than 2,000 in the fall of 2012.

“We have grown about 35 percent in the last five years,” says Hernan Bucheli, the college’s vice president for external affairs. “We’ve been growing pretty consistently and, for our scale, pretty significantly. The Hispanic serving strategy has played a big role in that.”

College officials and higher education experts say reaching out to Hispanic students is critical to the future of the college.

“Higher education is changing, and demographics are changing,” says Dr. Judith Greig, president of Notre Dame de Namur. “The ground is just shifting. I think institutions that don’t have some kind of edge or some kind of niche are not going to survive these changes, particularly institutions that aren’t wealthy. Those of us who are not sitting with huge endowments will have to figure out another way to make it through.”

HBCU Presidents Tread Lightly After Maryland Lawsuit Decision - Higher Education

HBCU Presidents Tread Lightly After Maryland Lawsuit Decision - Higher Education: A federal court ruling that concluded the state of Maryland has not done enough to help its Historically Black Institutions (HBIs) has put the presidents of these state-supported institutions in an awkward position.

Bowie State University, Coppin State University, Morgan State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore—all part of the 11-member University of Maryland System of public schools—were found by Judge Catharine Blake to not have done enough to alleviate the segregationist programs of the Jim Crow era by allowing for the duplication of specialized new programs at White institutions that have long existed at the Black schools.

In her 60-page ruling, Blake chastised the state and said that it “offered no evidence that it has made a serious effort to address continuing historic duplication” and pointed out that Maryland’s Black colleges have only 11 unique high-demand programs in contrast to the 122 at traditionally White institutions. The establishment of competing programs, according to Blake, has caused the program enrollment at HBIs to plummet.

Home | Latino Americans | PBS

Home | Latino Americans | PBS: LATINO AMERICANS is the first major documentary series for television to chronicle the rich and varied history and experiences of Latinos, who have helped shape North America over the last 500-plus years and have become, with more than 50 million people, the largest minority group in the U.S. The changing and yet repeating context of American history provides a backdrop for the drama of individual lives. It is a story of immigration and redemption, of anguish and celebration, of the gradual construction of a new American identity that connects and empowers millions of people today. Learn More...

Unequal Pain Relief in the Emergency Room - NYTimes.com

Unequal Pain Relief in the Emergency Room - NYTimes.com: Black and Hispanic children who go to an emergency room with stomach pain are less likely than white children to receive pain medication, a new study reports, and more likely to spend long hours in the emergency room.

The analysis, published in the October issue of Pediatrics, examined the records of 2,298 emergency room visits by people under 21, a nationally representative sample from a large survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 53 percent were white, 24 percent non-Hispanic black, 21 percent Hispanic, and the rest from other ethnic or racial groups.

Over all, 27.1 percent of white children with severe pain received analgesics, but only 15.8 percent of blacks, 18.9 percent of Hispanics and 7.1 percent of children of other races did.

Black children were about 68 percent more likely than white children to spend longer than six hours in the emergency room, although there were no statistically significant differences among races in results for any diagnostic test.

Special Issue: Hispanic Heritage Month - Higher Education

Special Issue: Hispanic Heritage Month - Higher Education: In this edition, Diverse features Carmen Wong Ulrich, industry assistant professor at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. Also included are reports on the outreach attempts to the growing population of Hispanics by colleges, especially HBCUs.

When It Comes to Health, Environment Remains a Major Factor - Higher Education

When It Comes to Health, Environment Remains a Major Factor - Higher Education: WASHINGTON — The implementation of the Affordable Care Act is an achievement Americans can be proud of. Making sure that all our brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren, have proper health insurance makes us a stronger, more prosperous nation.

Amid this important change, however, we cannot ignore the work that remains to be done, especially in communities of color. Insurance cards are not enough.

To become a society with better health — not just better health coverage — we must also look at the role “place” plays in the lives of minority communities.

Where we live, work and play is surprisingly predictive of life span. Within the city of Boston, for instance, people in some census tracts live 33 years less than those in nearby tracts. In Bernalillo County, N.M., the difference is 22 years.

Black Institutions Reach Out to Hispanic Populations; Benefit Culturally, Financially - Higher Education

Black Institutions Reach Out to Hispanic Populations; Benefit Culturally, Financially - Higher Education: As the 2013-2014 academic year began, Jackson State University in Mississippi and Southern University at Baton Rouge in Louisiana were welcoming to their campuses dozens of students from Brazil for intensive courses in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), as well as in English language skills. At both schools, the Brazilian students’ presence culminated months of planning as part of diversity initiatives put forth by the institutions. It was also a part of Brazil’s Scientific Mobility Program sponsored by the Brazilian government.

The scientific mobility program is part of the Brazilian government’s larger effort to grant 100,000 scholarships for the best students from Brazil to study abroad. The program contains an HBCU Initiative, which provides scholarships to some of its undergraduate students for study at 30 Black colleges and universities in the United States. Scholarships are given primarily to students in the STEM fields, and students participating in the program are required to return to Brazil to complete their degrees. HBCUs lobbied for inclusion in the program, which originally involved traditionally White institutions.

Diverse Conversations: Current Issues in Higher Education - Higher Education

Diverse Conversations: Current Issues in Higher Education - Higher Education: With each passing decade, colleges and universities are faced with the task of responding to the spirit of the times. Those that deal with these trends and issues proactively often receive great rewards. However, those that do not keep up with the times face an uncertain future and, in extreme cases, failure. Recently, I spoke with Dr. Helen F. Giles-Gee to discuss some of the current issues in higher education and how colleges and universities should respond to them.

Dr. Helen F. Giles-Gee began her tenure as the 22nd president of University of the Sciences in Philadelphia on July 16, 2012. A well-respected and nationally-known scholar, educator and administrator, she brings more than 30 years of experience in higher education to the campus.

Maryland in Violation of Duplicating HBCU Programs at White Institutions - Higher Education

Maryland in Violation of Duplicating HBCU Programs at White Institutions - Higher Education: A federal District court judge has ruled that the constitutional rights of students who attend four Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Maryland were violated after other state-funded institutions duplicated similar programs at nearby predominantly white institutions.

Bowie State University, Coppin State University, Morgan State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore—the state’s Black colleges—filed a lawsuit against the State of Maryland in 2006, adding that it aggressively supported “high demand programs” at White institutions while not doing enough to invest in specialized programs at the black institutions.

As a result, the programs at the Black institutions, such as Morgan State University’s MBA program, have not been as successful as the MBA programs at other white institutions.
In a 60-page ruling, Judge Catherine Blake noted that the investment in these so-called high demand programs at largely White institutions have, in fact, contributed to the Black colleges in the state being at a disadvantage and unable to effectively compete with their counterparts. Blake ruled that the investment in such programs was “comparable to, and in some cases more pronounced than, the duplication found in Mississippi” in a sweeping Supreme Court case from two decades ago.

Millions of Poor Are Left Uncovered by Health Law - NYTimes.com

Millions of Poor Are Left Uncovered by Health Law - NYTimes.com: A sweeping national effort to extend health coverage to millions of Americans will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, the very kinds of people that the program was intended to help, according to an analysis of census data by The New York Times.

Because they live in states largely controlled by Republicans that have declined to participate in a vast expansion of Medicaid, the medical insurance program for the poor, they are among the eight million Americans who are impoverished, uninsured and ineligible for help. The federal government will pay for the expansion through 2016 and no less than 90 percent of costs in later years. 

Those excluded will be stranded without insurance, stuck between people with slightly higher incomes who will qualify for federal subsidies on the new health exchanges that went live this week, and those who are poor enough to qualify for Medicaid in its current form, which has income ceilings as low as $11 a day in some states.

People shopping for insurance on the health exchanges are already discovering this bitter twist.

Studying How The Blind Perceive Race : Code Switch : NPR

Studying How The Blind Perceive Race : Code Switch : NPR: Law professor Osagie Obasogie walked into a movie theater to see "Ray," a biopic about the musician Ray Charles, and walked out with a question that would drive eight years worth of research.

"I was really struck by how Ray Charles had this really interesting understanding of race throughout his life even though he was blind throughout his early childhood," says Obasogie, who teaches at the University of California Hasting College of the Law. "I just wanted to learn more about how blind people understood race. I never had thought about it."

Obasogie started by interviewing 110 individuals who were blind since birth. His full research on the topic will be published in a book, Blinded by Sight: Seeing Race In The Eyes Of The Blind, that hits shelves in November.

British Filmmakers Shift American 'Conversation On Race' : Code Switch : NPR

British Filmmakers Shift American 'Conversation On Race' : Code Switch : NPR: Following the premiere of the film 12 Years A Slave at the Toronto International Film Festival, reporter Johanna Schneller of The Globe and Mail asked British director Steve McQueen, "Can we talk about race in North America? Are we all too careful, are we all too fearful?" McQueen bristled in response: "I don't know what kind of conversation you're talking about."

12 Years A Slave is McQueen's upcoming portrait of American slavery that opens on Oct. 18. It follows the story of Solomon Northrup, a free black man from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. Critics at Toronto immediately hailed the film as a landmark achievement — "necessary and essential," the Schindler's List of slavery films. The film is brutal, unflinching and unsentimental in its portrait of a theme that remains deeply charged for an American audience. But McQueen, who is black and has previously spoken out about Hollywood's deficit of black filmmakers, said his film is about more than America's history with race. "Of course it is about race, but at the same time it goes beyond the boundaries of that ... in a way that life always does. We always want to put ourselves into boxes or put sort of frames around things. But actually most of the time things break out of those frames," he said.

Give Them the Chance to be Young, Gifted and Black - Higher Education

Give Them the Chance to be Young, Gifted and Black - Higher Education: The chorus of people, both Black and White, who are outraged with the George Zimmerman not guilty verdict has only increased. Trayvon Martin, the African-American boy who was only 17 years old is dead, and Zimmerman is seemingly out of control. He has been stopped by police at least twice on traffic violations, and now he allegedly had a bad encounter with his wife and his father-in-law.

You would think a man in his precarious state would steer clear of law enforcement officials. But George Zimmerman seems to be courting trouble. It almost seems as though he is saying, “I gotcha and you can’t catch me now.” Seems to me that Zimmerman is playing out a “bad hand.” Others agree.

Patrick Williams, a clinical psychologist and founder of the Institute for Life Coach Training said, “He saw somebody [Zimmerman] who thought he did the community a favor, you know; like he was some hero.” Williams added, “The biggest predictor of your future is your past. I think people kind of create their reality. And I’m not sure he’s learned to make good choices.”

I have often said that if you are Black and male, when you leave the house, you may never see it again. Why? The chances of us being shot or killed are pretty high.

The Emmys Still Fail the Diversity Test - Higher Education

The Emmys Still Fail the Diversity Test - Higher Education: I don’t ever expect to see an Emmy awarded to celebrate diversity on television. It would be nice, but as a person of color, you have a better chance of recognition if you’re dead than excellent.

I didn’t see many people of color winning anything on Sunday night. It was more so a “happy to be presenting” or a “happy to be nominated” type of event.

However, there were two diversity moments worth noting—one was during the obit slide show, which reminded me of the death of Russsell Means, the American Indian Movement’s leader at Wounded Knee. I forgot that Means was also an actor, and most recently appeared in the show “Banshee” last year on Cinemax. He played the character Benjamin Longshadow.

Means was 72 when he died.

To see his face flash by for even a few seconds is more than Native Americans get on shows like the Emmys.

Though Means and his non-White co-star, Asian America actor Hoon Lee, did not have roles that would have been considered as Emmy-worthy performances, there’s still hope for a breakthrough when you see someone like Kerry Washington up for best actress in a drama for her lead role in “Scandal.”

The Miss America Pageant Has Been a Positive Representation of Young Women - Higher Education

The Miss America Pageant Has Been a Positive Representation of Young Women - Higher Education: On September 15, 24-year-old Nina Davuluri became the ninth woman of color and the first woman of Indian descent to win the Miss America pageant. Not surprisingly (or surprisingly depending on your level of cynicism), social media went into overdrive with hate filled, paranoid xenophobic comments. Some of the comments were downright disgraceful. Fortunately, the negative commentary was handily outmanned by the level of positive rhetoric and support given to Ms. Davuluri. As for the current Miss America, she handled the controversy with such grace, stating, “I have to rise above all that. I consider myself an American.”

While plenty has already been written or discussed about the racism directed toward our newly crowned Miss America, I instead want to focus on and challenge the sentiment prevalent in some quarters that the pageant is a retrograde entity detrimental to young women.

Asiana Crash Exposes 21st Century Racism on Twitter - Higher Education

Asiana Crash Exposes 21st Century Racism on Twitter - Higher Education: by Emil Guillermo

If you see the Internet as raceless, colorblind and digital, think again my friend.

It’s a breeding ground for 21st Century racism.

Witness the instances of the nearly instantaneous anti-Asian racist tweets soon after the Asiana Airlines crash this weekend.

On social media, you can see the knee-jerky reaction. It’s racism in real time. Time for bad racist comedy.


Sample:

@JKastanis13: Asian airplane crashes?!? Not a surprise cuz they can’t drive!!!

What’s this have to do with diversity and higher-ed?

Well, if you haven’t noticed, Twitter is one of the main places most of your higher-ed, and pre-higher-ed types like to do their communicating—and display their ignorance.

Who’s on Twitter: According to a 2012 Pew Survey, while Facebook still reigns supreme, Twitter outranks Pinterest, Instagram and Tumbler, with a particular appeal to adults 18-29, especially African Americans and those in urban areas.

What I found encouraging was that it wasn’t just Asian Americans calling out the racists. It was people like Elon James White, the host of the radio show and podcast “This Week in Blackness.”

Study: More Minority Students Taking SAT, Still Unprepared for College - Higher Education

Study: More Minority Students Taking SAT, Still Unprepared for College - Higher Education: The Class of 2013 had the largest percentage of minority students ever to take the SAT, but well over half of all students who took the college entrance exam failed to meet its “college and career readiness benchmark,” reveals a new report released Thursday by the College Board.

“There are those who tend to wave away the results because more diverse students are taking (the SAT),” said David Coleman, president and CEO at the College Board.

But in order for the nation to prosper, Coleman said, educators must “dramatically increase the number of students in K-12 who are prepared for college and careers.”

“We at the College Board consider this a call to action,” Coleman said of the lackluster results contained in the “2013 SAT Report on College & Career Readiness.”

“We cannot wave away the results by saying different kids are taking this exam,” he added.

The report shows that the percentage of students who scored at least 1550—a score the College Board says is associated with a B-minus or higher in college and a “high likelihood of college success”—is at 43 percent.

Minority Engineering Education Success Highlighted at National Meeting - Higher Education

Minority Engineering Education Success Highlighted at National Meeting - Higher Education: The first long-term study tracking underrepresented minority students at institutions participating in a national engineering diversity consortium found an 84.1 retention rate among those students in the consortium’s scholarship program.

This finding has come as good news to the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), Inc. whose release of its “NACME Scholars Retention and Graduation Report Cohort Years 2004 — Summer 2012” study was one of the highlights of the group’s national meeting on Tuesday in Washington.

Dr. Christopher Smith, the director of research and evaluation at NACME, Inc., told roughly 100 meeting attendees that, while additional research is needed to produce six-year graduation rates of NACME Scholars, the newly-released research represents promise for the organization’s goal that its scholars achieve an 80 percent graduation rate. He noted that the study found overall that the six-year graduation rate of underrepresented minorities (URM) is 39.3 percent at 23 NACME Partner Institutions, while the rate for non-underrepresented minority students is 60.3 percent.