Minority Serving Institutions Initiative Coffee Chat Series

Traditional partnerships are often happenstance in nature—forming when collaborators are required for grant funding and ending quickly when funding ends. Forming strategic partnerships instead builds on shared goals, mission alignment, and nurturing of relationships that lead to sustainability. This session will review the steps to help build sustainable partnerships, and focus in particular on the role of mid-level leaders. Tapping into the social capital of champions on campus provides increased opportunities to connect with others and build thriving partnerships.

Pamela Eddy's Bio:

Pamela Eddy is a professor of higher education in Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership at William & Mary. Her research interests include community college leadership and development, organizational change and educational partnerships, gender roles in higher education, and faculty development.

Professor Eddy serves as a consultant for campuses, system offices, and on funded grants regarding strategies to support community college student success and to support leadership development. Eddy has authored six books and edited six others. Her most recent book, with Betty Kirby, is titled Leading for Tomorrow: A Primer for Succeeding in Higher Education Leadership (2020). Eddy is the editor-in-chief for New Directions for Community Colleges, and serves on the editorial boards for Community College Journal of Research and Practice, Community College Enterprise, and Innovative Higher Education. She received the 2006 emerging scholar award and the 2013 senior scholar award from the Council for the Study of Community Colleges. In 2021, Professor Eddy was recognized with a 2021 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Additionally, Eddy received the 2011 Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence at William & Mary. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Dublin, Ireland in 2009 and continues her research on partnerships there.

Eddy received her Ph.D. from Michigan State University, her M.S. from Cornell University, and her B.S. in economics from Allegheny College.

Session Abstract:

With conversations about increasing the compositional diversity of graduate students and faculty at all institutions of higher education, Minority Serving Institutions are often considered as potential partners. In this session participants will learn about Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) as potential partners. With 569 colleges and universities now eligible for the HSI designation, there are many things to consider as HSIs are extremely diverse by size, type, and location. Gina Ann Garcia will talk about the changing demographics at HSIs and the progress (or lack of progress) towards racial equity and justice within HSIs.

Dr. Garcia's Bio:

Gina Ann Garcia is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research centers on issues of equity and justice in higher education with an emphasis on understanding how Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) embrace and enact an organizational identity for serving minoritized populations. She also seeks to understand the experiences of administrators, faculty, and staff within HSIs and the outcomes and experiences of students attending these institutions. Finally, her research looks at the ways that race and racism have shaped the experiences of minoritized groups in higher education.

She has made numerous presentations at national conferences and co-authored multiple publications in top journals. She was awarded a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2016 and a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2017. She is the author of Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Opportunities for Colleges & Universities, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, for which she won the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Book of the Year Award in 2020. She recently edited the book Hispanic-Serving Institutions in Practice: Defining “Servingness” at HSIs, published by Information Age Publishing.

She graduated from California State University, Northridge with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, the University of Maryland, College Park with a master’s degree in college student personnel, and the University of California, Los Angeles with a Ph.D. in higher education and organizational change. She is the scholar mother of two boys, Jovan (age 11) and Jaren (age 8).

Session Abstract:

There is abundant empirical evidence locating higher education policy and organizations as sites that (re)produce persistent racial inequities. These inequities are (re)created, in no small part, by the racialization of institutions that serve the greatest proportion of racially minoritized students—specifically, MSIs. As a category of racialized organization, contemporary theory predicts that MSIs would routinely suffer from lesser access to resources and agency, and would face more restrictive regulation and accountability (Ray, 2019; McCambly & Colyvas, forthcoming). Indeed, we can see these patterns routinely enacted across multiple mechanisms of public policy, even in the face of myriad DEI initiatives. But what types of actions can leaders or collectives take that diminish the relative advantages of white-serving institutions over MSIs? And how can we tell these actions apart from organizational claims to equity that simply produce more of the same?

In this talk, Dr. McCambly will engage with the community in conversation, sharing a construct she’s developing—racialized change work—to refer to the purposive action that actors take to build new, equitable organizational arrangements or tear down old, inequitable ones. McCambly will present examples and testable propositions for how racialized change work can spread (engagement), stick (institutionalization), and what effects it may have on producing equitable outcomes (impact).

Heather McCambly's Bio:

Heather McCambly is a mixed-methods, interdisciplinary scholar of higher education. She also studies the role of organizations in (re)producing systemic, racial inequalities. She draws on a range of analytic and interpretive methods to study the influence of aspiring change agents on institutionalized racial inequities in higher education policy. Constructs central to her work include racialized organizations, institutional persistence and change, racial frames, political development and racial backlash, and organizational sensemaking.

McCambly's current research asks: 1) What is and what could be the role of private philanthropy and public grantmaking in effecting racially just policy change in U.S. postsecondary education? and 2) Under what conditions do equity agendas address racialized inequalities rather than operating as new labels for old practices?

As a first-generation college student, a community college graduate, and a multi-ethnic Latina, she is personally invested in generating clearer explanations for how, despite years of equity interventions, students of color continue to have limited access to life-affirming postsecondary experiences.

Session Abstract

Drawing from findings from a national study involving four HBCUs of different sizes, designations, and mission statements and 80 students, this presentation will discuss the importance of looking at the within-group differences among Black students at HBCUs. Findings that will center this presentation emerged from a larger qualitative study that sought to understand how the political climate encouraged Black students to apply and attend HBCUs. In alignment with the inductive approach of qualitative research, one of the themes that emerged from this study underscored how the HBCU environment facilitated Black students learning about the diversity within the Black community. Conversely, findings also indicated how differences among Black students on HBCU campuses led to exclusion, isolation, and cultural alienation for some students. This presentation will conclude with implications for practice and research for HBCUs and possibly MSIs in general.    

Robert T. Palmer's Bio

Robert T. Palmer is chair and professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies in the School of Education at Howard University. He is also a faculty affiliate for the Center of Minority Serving Institutions (CMSI) at Rutgers University. His research examines issues of access, equity, retention, persistence, and the college experience of racial and ethnic minorities, particularly within the context of historically Black colleges and universities. Palmer’s work has been published in leading journals in higher education, such as The Journal of College Student Development, Teachers College Record, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of Negro Education, College Student Affairs Journal, Journal of College Student Retention, The Negro Educational Review, and Journal of Black Studies, among others. Since earning his Ph.D. in 2007, Palmer has authored/co-authored well over 150 academic publications. Some of his books include Racial and Ethnic Minority Students’ Success in STEM Education; Black Men in College: Implications for HBCUs and Beyond; Black Graduate Education at HBCUs: Trends, Experiences, and Outcome; Fostering Success of Ethnic and Racial Minorities in STEM: The Role of Minority Serving Institution; Community Colleges and STEM: Examining Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minorities; STEM Models of Success: Programs, Policies, and Practices; Black Male Collegians: Increasing Access, Retention, and Resistance in Higher Education; Understanding HIV and STI Prevention for College Students; Black Men in Higher Education: A Guide to Ensuring Success; Exploring Diversity at Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Implications for Policy and Practice; Hispanic Serving Institutions: Their Origins, and Present, and Future Challenges; The African American Students’ Guide to STEM Career; Black Men in the Academy: Stories of Resiliency, Inspiration, and Success; and Graduate Education at HBCUs: The Student Perspective. Palmer has been the recipient of the American College Personnel Association’s (ACPA) Standing Committee for Men’s Outstanding Research Award; ACPA’s Emerging Scholar Award; the Carlos J. Vallejo Award of Emerging Scholarship from AERA; ASHE’s Mildred García Junior Exemplary Scholarship Award; an Emerging Scholar Recognition from Diverse Issues in Higher Education; and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.  

Abstract:

To all who yearn to hear it, contrary to what it may look (and feel) like at times: YOU BELONG HERE. Sense of belonging is a basic human need, fundamentally important to our existence. Yet, the academy is comprised of racist, sexist, classist, homophobic, and other oppressive forces (e.g., policies, practices) that compound and conspire in the alienation, degradation, and marginalization of people of color, especially those who identify as "Black/African American" or those who learn, study, or work at historically "Black colleges" and universities (HBCUs). Without intervention, these forces threaten the safety, well-being, and commitment of Black folx in the academy, which can compromise their sense of belonging and leave them feeling like outsiders, imposters, targets, and tokens, to name a few. In this talk, Dr. Strayhorn will address this issue bearing witness to 'racialized fear' from the vantage of his current research studies (i.e., survey and interview), as well as his experience 'being Black' serving as chief academic officer at one of the nation's 101 HBCUs amid COVID-19, #BlackLivesMatter, and shameful bomb threats.

Don't miss this dynamic coffee conversation with scholar, author, DEI expert, and influencer, Dr. Terrell Strayhorn, professor of higher education at Illinois State University. Strayhorn is one of the leading authorities on sense of belonging in learning and work spaces. Come to learn; leave ready to act!

Dr. Strayhorn's Bio:

Dr. Terrell Lamont Strayhorn is one of the most prolific and influential contemporary scholars in the fields of higher education, urban education, and the academic study of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). Named one of the country's "Top Diversity Scholars" by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education and a "Bridge-Builder" between academic and student affairs by ACPA's Commission, Strayhorn has authored 11 books, including College Students' Sense of Belonging (2nd ed, 2019), and over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and nationally-circulated reports. His research has been cited, endorsed, or funded by the most premiere sociopolitical agencies in the world including Lumina Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, National Science Foundation, and European Association of Institutional Research (EAIR), among others. A respected thought-leader and highly-sought speaker, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Huffington Post, and Diverse often quote his perspectives and research findings. He has advised hundreds of university presidents, school leaders, and corporations on ways to boost belonging, achieve DEIB targets, and improve organizational health. Dr. Strayhorn is professor of higher education at Illinois State University and has served in a number of significant faculty and academic leadership roles at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, The Ohio State University, LeMoyne-Owen College, and Virginia Union University (VUU). He is a diversity scholar-in-residence at Harrisburg College, faculty affiliate at Rutgers' Center for Minority Serving Institutions, and inaugural director of the VUU Center for the Study of HBCUs. He earned his bachelor's in music and religious studies from the University of Virginia (UVA), master's in education policy from UVA, and Ph.D. in education from Virginia Tech. He is a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.