The teacher workforce does not look much like the adult population or the students they serve. Across the country, only 21% of teachers are from historically disadvantaged racial groups compared to 35% of working-age adults and 49% of students. Simple math suggests that the diversity gap between students and teachers will only close when teachers…

Since the post-George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter/Antifa riots of last summer, the left has become increasingly insistent about the need to "do more" to eliminate what it sees as "systemic racism"--a demand that implicitly, and often explicitly, rejects as woefully inadequate the results of what is by now almost fifty…

This study had a dual focus. First, the study sought to understand the impact of policy on praxis. This was achieved through a Critical Policy Analysis of Assembly Bill 705 (AB705), a California law that attempts to reduce the number of non-credit courses required to earn required courses in college composition and mathematics. Second, the study…

This project explores the experiences of two Black women on the tenure track at a predominantly white university in California. Inspired by Lorgia García Peña's Community as Rebellion: A Syllabus for Surviving Academia as a Woman of Color, the authors engage in a duoethnographic journey, reflecting on their resilience and resistance in academia.…

As improving equity becomes prioritized in higher education, Offices of Institutional Research (OIRs) find themselves in a central position to identify and address educational inequities faced by racially minoritized students. However, their potential to serve as a catalyst for organizational change has yet to be fulfilled. In this study, we…

California is at a crossroads. The state continues to battle a global pandemic, disproportionately affecting Black, Latinx, Asian, and Native American students. Meanwhile, communities of color are leading a movement to force the state's leaders to acknowledge the persistence of racism. However, rhetoric is not enough. On nearly every indicator,…

The California State University's Graduation Initiative 2025 has strengthened and renewed campuses' commitment toward supporting students on their educational journey to ensure they meet their ultimate goal of graduation. Of equal importance is the elimination of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic equity gaps in graduation completion, especially for…

If the state of California finds the funds, the Cal Grant Reform Act--as enacted in the 2022 Budget Act--is to be implemented in 2024 to support hundreds of thousands of Californians in affording, accessing, and succeeding in higher education. Instead, the state has proposed adding more funding to the less equitable Middle Class Scholarship (MCS)…

Centered on superiority over a certain group or individual, discrimination becomes predominant in prestigious institutions that pride themselves on exclusivity. Collegiate honors programs tend to deepen this practice by creating highly elite spaces accessible only to a select few. This rigidity can lead to an underrepresentation of historically…

While current higher education literature stresses the importance of equity, diversity, and inclusivity, these imperatives have been mainly absent from conversations related to boards of higher education. In this paper, the authors present a historical overview of the demographic landscape of trustee boards from inception to the present. Using…

Higher education is widely recognized as a catalyst for upward mobility and a societal benefit, yet this acknowledgment often overlooks the unique challenges faced by low-income single mothers of color (LISMC). Despite the University of California (UC) system's status as a leading public research institution, it provides limited support for LISMC…

The pandemic created daunting challenges for higher education. The federal government provided California Community Colleges billions of dollars in aid for students and institutions. How did they use these funds? How well did their pandemic recovery activities and investments help reengage students? What will institutions do when the money runs…

The 2010 and 2020 U.S. Census confirmed the overall U.S. population is growing and diversifying. These trends, however, are not matched in higher education enrollment. The disparities are even more pronounced for STEM doctoral education. In response to these inequalities, higher education institutions have responded with a variety of solutions,…

Research on community engaged learning (CEL) courses predominantly focuses on the learning experiences of white students or quality of student-community partner relationship(s). Scholarship accounting for the learning experiences of minoritized students describes negative learning experiences wherein students' learning goals are subordinated to…

ePortfolios are considered the eleventh high-impact practice (HIP) by the AAC&U (now the American Association of Colleges and Universities). They have been widely implemented in the humanities but remain underutilized in STEM fields. The benefits of engaged learning, metacognitive awareness, and professional identity development in those…