The majority of research on Black males highlights the problems or barriers faced by this demographic due to the low retention and completion rates. A factor that is often not discussed when students enter college is their decision around initially declaring a major and its future impact on their persistence and college completion. This chapter…

In this chapter, we explore the research literature on Black college students' success and apply critical theoretical frameworks to reimagine how college student educators and administrators can promote a more holistic approach to student success. Scholars and researchers have focused on identifying how and why Black students succeed or not, and…

The Institute for Capacity Building (ICB) and the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute (FDPRI) found that there is a notable gap in institutions' readiness to drive transformative change on campus. Early lessons from the UNCF® Career Pathways Initiative (CPI) ICB and FDPRI generated insights that indicate overall institutional health is as…

A common critique of current programs and initiatives designed to address and eradicate persistent racial disparities in undergraduate STEM education is the focus on student outcomes as an indicator of project performance. This chapter will explore the existing literature on STEM reform through the lens of organizational change highlighting the…

The academic literature on public intellectuals would argue that the days of scholars playing the role of public intellectuals are long behind us, and that the role is in decline. This chapter examines the extent to which that may or may not be the case. It defines what it means to be a public intellectual, catalogues the literature related to the…

This chapter explores whether academic freedom extends to the work of academic public intellectuals through a historical analysis of landmark cases and episodes. It leads to the sobering conclusion that "professors proceed at their own risk if and when they take on the role of a public intellectual," noting that the presence of academic…

In this transitory age for public intellectuals, faculty must wisely negotiate the differences between public and private communication. The work of public intellectuals in colleges and universities raises questions about the methods used to assess the impact this work and the modes of communication with the lay public. This chapter discusses the…

What do academics think about their "responsibilities" to the public? This chapter provides a view of "the public intellectual" by examining how academics construct their relationship to the public. Drawing on in-depth interviews with physicists at universities in the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK), we…

How should we account for and assess the work of the public intellectual? This chapter unpacks approaches to the assessment of the public intellectual to broadly consider the roles and functions of the academic public intellectual, examine how their roles fit within Boyer's domains of scholarship and how institutional structures both support and…

This chapter presents the perspective of a provost on public intellectuals in higher education. It provides practical guidance through a series of questions faculty members might ask themselves about their role and approach to public intellectualism, including how to translate academic scholarship into a legible message for the general public and…

Dominant stories about public intellectualism tend to erase academics of racially minoritized and marginalized backgrounds as well as academics appointed outside of research universities. This chapter makes sense of these erasures and considers their associated costs by applying the lenses of critical race theory (CRT) and epistemic injustice.…

College and university presidents can position themselves to be a great resource for the country and the world. This chapter introduces the perspectives of two presidents of the University of Notre Dame, Father Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C. who served for 35 years (1952-1987) and was a major presence in American higher education and a classic public…

Policies on academic probation and dismissal have existed in the American higher education system for decades to maintain academic quality and encourage students to improve their performance. Research has aimed to clarify the relationship between academic probation, dismissal, and retention, yet differing results emerge. Furthermore, the…

This chapter invites higher education to reimagine accountability within a backdrop of budgeting and financing as it relates to Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). The authors call for more transparency in their pursuit of Latinx-specific funding and the implementation of race-evasive spending. Examples of how institutions, students, and funders…

Higher education scholars often investigate the policy mechanisms of external accountability, but rarely explore institutional mechanisms of internal accountability. This chapter, which reports select findings from an in-depth case study of institutional budgeting at an American public research university, examines an underexplored mechanism of…