No Quick Fixes: Black and White School

Dr. Cynthia Waszak Geary and Dr. LaHoma Smith Romocki, alumnae of Hillside High School, Durham, North Carolina, have done something very unusual: collaborated on a book about their experiences decades ago as Black and White high school students during a period of court ordered desegregation. In different classes and coming from different neighborhoods, Cindy and…

Poverty: Mission Matters

Education is the central mission of higher education. It’s what we do – our core function. It is far, though, from all that we do or have to do. For those of us who work in public education, in particularly in community colleges, the pursuit of mission depends in great part on the well-being of…

Migrant Workers Rights

Dedicated to “all low-wage undocumented workers,” Scaling Migrant Worker Rights: How Advocates Collaborate and Contest State Power is special kind of academic book. It spans disciplines and is equally strong in theory and data informed by direct research. Clearly written, the book shines a light on an extremely complex economic, political, and social issue: Mexican…

Left In, Left Out

Is higher education a cause, a consequence, a public or private good, a problem or a solution? Depends, I suppose, on the axe one is keen to sharpen. Increasingly I am finding discussions about higher education to sound like arguments about health care. It’s great if you’re wealthy, OK if you have some money and…

Leadership Lessons From the Navy

Imagine leadership in the military in your mind’s eye. I would wager that most of us would come up with the many of the same images of stoic heroism, courage under fire, sacrifice, valor and loyalty. Can’t you picture the soldier staring off into the distance, probably alone, with a look of resolve? Gritted teeth…

Refugee High School

The United Nations estimates that there are more than 103 million refugees world wide today. This is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, an issue so overwhelming that it is impossible to process. What can one do? What can one’s government or community do? Who are these people? And what are our appropriate responses to…

Life on a Tightrope: Where Are The Nets?

Nicholas Kristof is an award-winning reporter for the New York Times, and husband to Sheryl WuDunn, a business executive and writer. The couple often work together and have won two Pulitzer prizes. In 2020 they wrote Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, a close look at the Oregon community that was Kristof’s childhood home. A sobering…