Digests (Page 9)

| How the student debt crisis falls hardest on black Americans | The question of student debt leaves Americans caught between a hammer and an anvil: Taking on that debt is a crucial tool by which students (and, by extension, their families) gain access to higher education. But at the same time, that debt is a threat to students’ future financial prospects. What the Roosevelt team teases out is that, thanks to the racial wealth gap — both the historical circumstances that birthed it, and its ongoing economic consequences — that paradox is worse for black students and their familiesContinue Reading

| International | Academic freedom, institutional autonomy and democracy | Higher education can only fulfil its mission if it enjoys academic freedom and institutional autonomy…While concern about the state of academic freedom and institutional autonomy is near universal, the most salient issues vary between countries and continents. For example, the focus in the United States is largely on academic freedom and its relationship to the right to free speech on campus, most recently prompted by the alt-right movement. In Europe, the focus has so far largely been institutional autonomy.Continue Reading

‘A Culture of Sexual Harassment’ | [Marybeth Gasman, the Judy and Howard Berkowitz Professor of Higher Education in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania,] is alleged to have made repeated references to her body and sex life, and those of staff and students — often people of color — at work and in running center group texts. Several former center assistants described Gasman as “fetishizing” some of her Latinx and black staff and students, such as by rubbing men’s arms and chests and asking a man and a woman to compare butt sizes and repeatedly encouraging them to hook up.Continue Reading