How can higher education better serve low income, first generation, and/or students of color?

In this coffee break conversation, Drs. Bedelia Richards, Anthony Abraham Jack, Elizabeth M. Lee, and Carson Byrd engage in a discussion about the impact of COVID-19 on colleges and college students. The abrupt shutdown of college campuses in the spring exposed both existing inequities and a failure of leadership on many campuses to think more critically about the impact such policies would have on many of their students, including those who are food or housing insecure, or who do not have physically or psychologically safe home environments. National discourse on Black Lives Matter and racial justice, refreshed this summer by massive protests after the murders of George Floyd and other Black Americans, has combined with the impact of the pandemic to create possibilities for higher education to shift to an antiracist framework in its policies and practices. Will this moment be enough to spark real change and progress in higher education? Watch or listen to find out what our scholars had to say.