Everyday acts of systemic racism such as racial profiling, racial microaggressions and racial violence are a terrifying reality for racially and ethnically minoritized students, faculty and staff at predominately White institutions across the United States. As these occurrences continue, these institutions have attempted to address the violence and blatant racism through hiring diversity consultants, offering workshops and establishing multicultural affairs departments.

Yet, the insidious and blatant forms of racism remain intact. As Black women scholars who have been invited to serve as campus consultants around issues of racial diversity, we often grapple with this work, knowing that despite our efforts, racism and White supremacy are here to stay.

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A new study that follows 21 Black men pursuing graduate degrees in engineering explores themes of structural racism, unfair treatment, unwelcoming environments and feelings of isolation.

When Dr. Brian A. Burt, assistant professor in Iowa State University’s School of Education, was in graduate school, he noticed that African-American graduate students in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) seemed to spend a lot of time together. He wondered if this were a form of retention.

Burt also wondered what the experiences were that drove the graduate students’ need to socialize on a frequent basis. He came to realize that rather than the institution working to retain these students, these students were retaining each other.

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Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are commonly credited as the primary training grounds for African-American talent in higher education. You cannot matriculate at public HBCUs without feeling the presence of great leaders who gave wings to the aspirations of young scientists, political leaders, and civil rights advocates who changed the suffocating policies and practices of exclusion.

Today, public HBCUs continue to produce talent for the 21st century with a disproportionate number being young women. As recently reported in Women@Forbes, “Women currently earn the majority of bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees and doctoral degrees.”  The same is true for Black women.

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In a recent episode of ABC’s black-ish, the two main characters got into a heated debate familiar to many African-American parents of college-age children: Should their son go to an HBCU?

Dre, played by Anthony Anderson, pushed hard for their nerdy son, Junior, to attend Howard University. But Dre’s wife, Bow, disagreed, she said, because years of their son’s being an insufferable nerd got Junior accepted to what she considered a better option: Stanford University.

That meant he could stay closer to their home in Los Angeles, but implicit in Bow’s preference is the prestige and resources that come with a well-regarded, predominantly white institution.

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For many two-year institutions, it didn’t take a racist incident, protest or controversial guest speaker to jump-start efforts to promote more diverse and inclusive campus environments.

Many community colleges are heralded for having diverse student populations. But that perception hasn’t made them complacent, especially as many go beyond their campuses and see cultural clashes happening in their communities.

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Black students continue to be disciplined at school more often and more harshly than their white peers, often for similar infractions, according to a new report by Congress’s nonpartisan watchdog agency, which counters claims fueling the Trump administration’s efforts to re-examine discipline policies of the Obama administration.

The report, issued by the Government Accountability Office on Wednesday, is the first national governmental analysis of discipline policies since the Obama administration issued guidance in 2014 that urged schools to examine the disproportionate rates at which black students were being punished.

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Study hard, earn good grades and career success will follow.

Actually, a new study finds that this common advice given to college students isn’t true.

The grades of new college graduates who are men don’t appear to matter much in their job searches, according to a new study. And female graduates may be punished for high levels of academic achievement. The study comes at a time of growing evidence that female students are outperforming their male counterparts academically in college (after also having done so in high school).

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Tuition hikes are linked to decreased student diversity on public college campuses, according to a new paper finding the strongest effect at two-year institutions and nonselective four-year institutions.

But tuition hikes can help public colleges’ diversity — when those hikes take place at private universities in the area. Public institutions can actually see the diversity of their student bodies increase when nearby private institutions increase their tuition, researchers found.

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Black boys raised in America, even in the wealthiest families and living in some of the most well-to-do neighborhoods, still earn less in adulthood than white boys with similar backgrounds, according to a sweeping new study that traced the lives of millions of children.

White boys who grow up rich are likely to remain that way. Black boys raised at the top, however, are more likely to become poor than to stay wealthy in their own adult households.

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