Learning Resources

Abstract: Through the inception of the Division of Strategic Analytics and Data Illumination (SADI), Kean University has cultivated a capacity for data literacy and analytics, empowering its community to employ data for evidence-based decision-making to overcome barriers to student success.
Employing optimal practices in integrated planning, SADI unified disparate offices into one cohesive data team to strategically reframe and visualize student data, identifying specific needs for continual improvement. This article underscores SADI’s initiatives in democratizing data, merging planning processes, and harnessing analytics to dismantle impediments to student success, particularly in bridging equity gaps in higher education.

Abstract: Critical Whiteness Praxis in Higher Education: Considerations for the Pursuit of Racial Justice on Campus
Edited by Zak Foste and Tenisha L. Tevis
Stylus Publishing: Sterling, VA: 2022
289 pages
ISBN: 978-1642672695

College and university administrators are increasingly called to confront the deeply entrenched racial inequities in higher education. To do so, corresponding attention must be given to historical and contemporary manifestations of whiteness in higher education and student affairs. In reviewing Critical Whiteness Praxis in Higher Education: Considerations for the Pursuit of Racial Justice on Campus, Paul A. Dale, EdD, suggests those who read the book will more fully acknowledge the impact of whiteness on organizational structure, colleagues, and students and their experience.

Abstract: Social mobility is an emerging area of focus for higher education institutions. In recent years, we have seen a proliferation of measures related to social mobility produced by publishers, scholars, think tanks, and foundations. However, it is still unclear which social mobility measures to advance, or when to intervene to improve social mobility outcomes. We rely on a century of literature from economics, sociology, and policy analysis to identify an appropriate framework to understand higher education’s contribution to social mobility. Using the metric-based planning framework, we identify areas for institutional intervention to enhance social mobility outcomes.

Abstract: The death of George Floyd in 2020 and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement have renewed the focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), particularly in higher education planning. As a result of this attention, higher education has reexamined its commitment to DEI. A student voice survey found that college students were underwhelmed by actions taken by their institutions to address DEI on campus (Inside Higher Education 2021). Institutional units across higher education require coordinated, integrated planning to meet student expectations. This article highlights the results of a study that examined professional development strategies for higher education professionals in the context of the post-George Floyd–era.

Abstract: The State Must Provide: Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal—and How to Set Them Right
by Adam Harris
Ecco, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers: New York: 2021
259 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-06-297648-2

Abstract: A global health crisis intersecting with a racial reckoning has led to a renewed commitment to reflect on complex histories and plan for more inclusive futures on many American campuses. Institutions, which benefitted from traditional hierarchies of power, are starting to grapple with histories of developing indigenous lands and the legacy of a western and able-bodied vernacular within campus design that continues to reinforce in-groups and out-groups. The authors are presently leading first-of-their-kind DEI planning initiatives; in this article they unpack how a public institution is meeting their past head-on to plan better futures.

Abstract: American industries, professional organizations, individual companies, and higher education institutions continue to struggle to attract employees from underrepresented populations. Future-forward thinking is required to ensure a multicultural workforce. The authors, a design educator at a predominantly white, Midwestern university, and a high school principal at a multicultural urban school district, developed an intentional collaboration—partnerships between secondary and postsecondary institutions—to bridge the gap. In this article, they share strategies they developed for recruiting and retaining underrepresented students through intentional planning and design of competency-based, personalized learning models.

Abstract: by Laura T. Hamilton and Kelly Nielsen
The University of Chicago Press
294 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-60540-1 (cloth)
ISBN-13:978-0-226-74745-3 (paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-74759 (e-book)

Abstract: In 2013, the article Planning for the Future: The Impact on the Public University Diversity Budget in Time of Recession reported the impact of the 2008 recession on college and university student affairs diversity unit budgets. Colleges are again faced with another economic downturn with looming budget cuts. The purpose of this article is to revisit the idea of whether primarily student affairs diversity units are hit harder than other institutional units in fiscal cuts and the potential effect that current events related to diversity programming initiatives have had on campus planning. The article explores the status of these budgets during fiscal uncertainty and the social awareness around campus-wide diversity, equity, and inclusion and its prioritization.

Abstract: This article is based on follow-up survey research from a doctoral case study that highlighted effective retention practices for low-income and/or single mothers who were students within the Women in Transition (WIT) program at Charter Oak State College. The concept of retention in this instance is an enrollment management practice aimed at maintaining a student population while aiding the institution in sustaining organizational success. Emphasis is placed on the retention concepts of social and academic integration that enabled the specific population to persist and succeed.