Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

Over half of Asian students and nearly 40% of white students earn a college degree within eight years of high school graduation, while less than 20% of low-income, Black, or Latinx students reach the same milestone. For adult learners, who make up a significant portion of the student population, the challenges are distinct.

Equity

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JANUARY 26, 2025

Student Affairs and Higher Education, Indiana State University; Ph.D., Briscoe was called in as an expert on the safety of Black students on college campuses and the increasing number of hate crimes committed on campuses. Early on, Briscoe saw herself as a student leader. Business Marketing, Albany State University; MBA.,

Mentoring

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JANUARY 7, 2025

The San Diego Foundation (SDF) announced a $4 million commitment to support local high school students facing homelessness, in foster care, or learning English prepare for college success. The initiative comes as recent data shows significant graduation disparities among vulnerable student populations in San Diego County.

Tutoring

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JUNE 17, 2025

Mary’s College of Maryland’s seventh president and the first Black woman to hold the title, is reflecting on 11 years of service, feeling pride in her commitment to equity and the college’s continued growth. Students will come and students will go. Tuajuanda Jordan, St. We were just tired of the rhetoric.” It took perseverance.

Equity

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JUNE 9, 2025

Throughout his career, Garcia has remained steadfast in his commitment to equity in higher education—a passion that has defined his professional journey and transformed the landscape of Colorado’s educational institutions. “My Garcia’s career path has been anything but conventional. Another challenge is adapting to changing demographics.

Leadership

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

DECEMBER 16, 2024

Social media has become a battlefield of ideas, a forum for activism, and, increasingly, a source of stress for students of color. Todays heightened scrutiny of social and racial justice initiatives adds to the challenges Black students face in navigating both online spaces and higher education.

Success

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

A new study from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies reveals that Black student parents at community colleges face significant barriers in accessing critical childcare support, potentially hindering their educational progress and economic mobility.

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

While higher education is a path to opportunity — many underrepresented, minoritized students face systemic barriers that make their graduate-level academic experience feel like an uphill challenge. Representation can also be a challenge as a student moves further toward becoming a scholar. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Mentoring

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

OCTOBER 27, 2024

Originally established to exclude certain populations of students, legacy admissions provides a significant boost to children of ultrawealthy families who apply to elite institutions. Legacy admissions has an even more corrosive influence: It widens equity gaps in higher education.

Higher education

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

MAY 21, 2025

introduced legislation Wednesday that would make public colleges and universities tuition-free for approximately 95% of American students, in what supporters call the most significant higher education investment in six decades. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) Jayapal highlighted the legislation's focus on addressing educational inequity.

Higher education

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 29, 2025

Michigan officials celebrated a milestone in college access this week as 50 students received nearly $1 million in awards through the state's innovative "Ticket to Tuition" giveaway, a program designed to incentivize FAFSA completion among first-time filers. From left: Ryan Fewins-Bliss, Michigan College Access Network;Dr.

FAFSA

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 30, 2025

Community colleges across the nation are grappling with how to integrate artificial intelligence into their operations and curricula as students increasingly use AI tools while faculty and administrators lag behind in adoption, according to a new report from Achieving the Dream.

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JANUARY 21, 2025

Yet the humanity of formerly incarcerated Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab students is too often marginalized, even overlooked, in campus programs addressing issues like food and housing insecurity. That is largely because these justice-impacted students are often invisible to educators, their identities simply erased.

Humanities

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 29, 2025

Michigan officials celebrated a milestone in college access this week as 50 students received nearly $1 million in awards through the state's innovative "Ticket to Tuition" giveaway, a program designed to incentivize FAFSA completion among first-time filers. From left: Ryan Fewins-Bliss, Michigan College Access Network;Dr.

FAFSA

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

DECEMBER 2, 2024

Since witnessing this, Gavin has spent his career working towards reducing inequities for historically marginalized students. Delta’s Guiding Pillars: Equity and Completion Led by Gavin, the Delta faculty and staff are focused on two key pillars: equity and completion. We serve a very diverse area. Do our policies align?

Mentoring

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

AUGUST 8, 2025

The initiative represents a significant shift toward equity-focused admissions practices that prioritize accessibility over traditional application barriers. The program targets students who complete their junior year with a weighted GPA of 2.8 When our entire education community works together like this, students win.

Higher education

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

MAY 15, 2025

From the heart of tradition and the fire of resistance, a new wave of graduate programs in higher education administration is emergingbold, equity-centered, and unapologetically Black. Faculty are not just instructorsthey are mentors, guides, and co-conspirators in the work of equity and justice. We are investing in faculty.

Education

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

NOVEMBER 4, 2024

In the fall of 2018, I was a student organizer for affirmative action and one of eight alumni who took the federal witness stand in the lawsuit Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), Inc. Students and alumni fought to voice the importance of race-conscious policies, campus diversity, and solidarity among communities of color.

Students

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

APRIL 16, 2025

Smothers In a powerful response to growing challenges facing Black students and institutions, Virginia Union University (VUU) recently convened over 250 educational leaders for an urgent national summit addressing the state of Black education in America. We are not simply preparing students to succeed in systems as they are, he said.

Education

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 1, 2025

Tyson Brown Dr. Tyson Brown, professor of sociology and associate professor in medicine at Duke University, has been named director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University, effective July 1, according to Duke Today. Brown succeeds Dr. William A. Sandy”) Darity Jr., the Cook Center’s founding director.

Equity

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 1, 2025

"Registered Apprenticeship programs are one of the most promising, yet underused, models for student success and workforce development," the report states. They are mission-aligned, equity-driven, and transformative." Power to enter industries that have historically excluded students of color.

Career counseling

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

MARCH 27, 2025

The report, "Pathways to Opportunity: Examining Students' Academic and Economic Outcomes at HBCUs, TCUs, and MSIs," found that these institutions consistently outperform non-minority serving institutions in awarding degrees to their target populations and providing pathways to economic success for underrepresented students.

Student success

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

APRIL 20, 2025

From the rise of anti-DEI rhetoric to the elimination of critical educator preparation grants and the erosion of support for education research at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the pattern is clear: dismantle the very systems designed to ensure equity and opportunity in education. But they cannot thrive without public investment.

Education

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JANUARY 23, 2025

Khan is a licensed occupational therapist specializing in womens health, with over 13 years of experience addressing critical gaps in rehabilitation and healthcare equity for women. She says that she aims to help students recognize how power, equity, and inclusion shape healthcare outcomes.

Therapist

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

1, to qualify as a California Black-Serving institution (BSI), an institution must enroll 1,500 Black students, or 10% of the total student population must be Black. A very predictable, persistent, and pervasive gap in achievement [for Black students] exists, said Bush.

Grant

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

APRIL 7, 2025

When Breeden first arrived on campus, she was searching for a sense of belonging and found that and more as she navigated toward a calling to transform student affairs, advance equity, and reimagine the relationship between universities and Black communities.

Higher education

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

FEBRUARY 5, 2025

Positions such as data scientists, medical and health service managers, physician assistants, and epidemiologists highlight the immense potential need for students entering these fields. Similarly, Hispanic students earned 12% of STEM bachelors degrees, despite comprising 15% of all bachelors degree recipients (Pew Research Center).

Student success

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

DECEMBER 8, 2024

This fundamental change reversed thinking about the equal protection clause under the 14th Amendment and galvanized states to reconsider their stance on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). In a perfect world, governing boards and leadership demographics would mirror the student population (Higgs, 2014). Dr. Margaretta B.

Inclusion

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

MARCH 13, 2025

California's community colleges find themselves caught in a 60-year-old funding constraint that increasingly hampers their ability to serve todays students, according to a new report from the Community College League of California. In 1961, college students were predominantly white, traditional-age students who attended full-time.

Student success

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

APRIL 6, 2025

Chavous, currently vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer at the University of Michigan, brings more than 25 years of experience as a scholar, researcher, and academic administrator to the position. Chavous will become its new executive director, effective August 11, 2025, replacing Dr. Felice J.

Educational research

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

APRIL 17, 2025

The rural college earned the $700,000 top prize by demonstrating exceptional student outcomes, particularly in graduation rates and economic mobility for graduates. The college has achieved these results while serving many lower-income students, showing how intentional support systems can close equity gaps in higher education.

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 16, 2025

As the voice of more than 1,000 community colleges nationwide, AACC advocates for institutions that provide educational access to over 10 million diverse students. Her personal background aligns with the demographic profile of many community college students, who often come from families where higher education access has been limited.

Community college

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JUNE 30, 2025

The TRIO programs assist and empower students from disadvantaged backgrounds, especially low-income, first-generation college attendees, and those with disabilities. TRIO programs not only support students but also invest in staff, cultivating leadership and scholarship among those who walk the same paths as our students.

First generation

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JANUARY 30, 2025

During his leadership, WMU set all-time records for online programs, graduation rates, and student retention. The university also gained national recognition for its work in advancing equitable outcomes for historically marginalized students, as reported in Diverse last October.

University

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JANUARY 15, 2025

Kyung Kate Hyun, an associate professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), and deputy director of The Center for Transportation, Equity, Decisions, and Dollars at the U.S. Department of Transportations University Transportation Center.

Access

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

OCTOBER 28, 2024

United Negro College Fund (UNCF) recognized Maryland Governor Wes Moore for his support of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and for being a champion for educational equity. Dr. Michael Lomax, president and CEO of United Negro College Fund (UNCF), presents award to Maryland Governor Wes Moore.

Equity

Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

JULY 9, 2025

Department of Education to immediately finalize the Civil Rights Data Collection for the 2025-26 school year, warning that delays could jeopardize a critical federal tool for monitoring educational equity.

Educational research