Category Archives: Education

Authors R-Z, Education, Trends 2024: Divisive World

Israel and Free Speech on America’s Campuses – by Elwood Watson

December 5, 2023 Elwood Watson Leave a comment

VIEW FROM BEYOND THE TRIBE

Debates over free speech have deeply immersed themselves into the fabric of our culture over the past few years. Wild and sharp finger-pointing has gone in both directions.

A Cornell University junior accused of posting violently threatening statements against Jewish people on campus was held without bail. While we take some measure of relief in knowing that the alleged author of the vile anti-Semitic posts that threatened our Jewish community is in custody, it was disturbing to learn that he was a Cornell student, Cornell President Martha E. Pollack said in a message to the university community.

On college campuses, pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian student groups are weighing in online and in person, with many of their statements and protests provoking strong reactions from the other side.

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Academic Articles, ADR Advisors, Education

End of Affirmative Action? A Tale of Two Stories – by Dr. Carlos Cortés

August 8, 2023 Dr. Carlos E. Cortés Leave a comment

Keynote Address for Constitutional Law:
The End of Affirmative Action
Part of the Signature DIAlogue Webinar Series of the
Los Angeles County Department of Human Resources

Thank you for the opportunity of reflecting on Affirmative Action, particularly the two recent Supreme Court decisions that struck down the admissions policies of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. I’ll approach this topic as both an 89-year-old retired history professor and a half-century diversity consultant/public lecturer who actually witnessed the birth of affirmative action.

The six-decade affirmative action journey involves two intersecting stories: a vision story and a systems story. Both are rooted in the civil rights movement and were launched officially by President John F. Kennedy’s March 6, 1961, Executive Order 10925.

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Education

Exceptional Students: A Journey of Challenges and Growth – by Zen Benefiel

August 1, 2023 Zen Benefiel Leave a comment

The Corporate Odyssey:
A Journey of Challenges and Recognition

My life’s odyssey has been shaped by a commitment to empowering exceptional students and a pursuit of excellence. It all began with a brilliant mind and an engaging attitude, leading to a successful ‘corporate’ career as a production control coordinator for an aerospace company. Managing a significant commercial spares desk and overseeing millions in monthly deliverables, I excelled and gained recognition. However, my suggestion to introduce interpersonal skills classes was met with resistance, leading to my eventual outcast from the corporate circle.

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Academic Articles, Authors A-H, Education, Trends 2023

Increased Youth Engagement and Educational Productivity – by Ainesh Dey

January 2, 2023 Ainesh Dey Leave a comment

Abstract

“Education is a passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those, who prepare for it today”, as proclaimed by eminent civil rights activist, Malcolm X, bears a deeper intellectual connotation. It brings out the very holistic foundation of education as an instrument of social awareness and development, with a subtle mention of its contemporary beneficiaries, “the Youth”. Yes, it is the young people who through their rational interpretation of core educational principles, harness the progressive socio-political development of the world.

The recent phenomenon of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent shift to the digital mode of learning, have accentuated the need for increased efforts towards larger educational accessibility, quality and affordability, central to the role of global development in complete coherence with the recently initiated in the “Education for All” under the broader purview of the “Millennium Development Goals”, laid out by the United Nations, thereby demanding more nuanced responsibility of the young blood in spearheading a meaningful atmosphere of social inclusion , cohesion and stability.

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ADR Advisors, Authors A-H, Education, Trends 2023

EHLI: Inclusive or Elitism – by Dr. Deborah Ashton

January 2, 2023 Dr. Deborah Ashton Leave a comment

Stanford University’s Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative (EHLI)

Stanford University in December of 2022 issued the Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative (EHLI) to eliminate potentially harmful terms used in the United States within the technology community. Most of the recommendations are trying to avoid trivializing people’s experiences and avoid devaluing others. Other recommendations, from this reader’s experience, are a stretch and assume that we are not able to distinguish the context in which a word or phrase is used.

The EHLI is a courageous and noble endeavor. I would also argue it is US-centric, Anglophilia, and elitist! And may or may not be transferrable to the larger society.

The following is a sampling of the terms/phrases in the EHLI’s thirteen pages of terms and my reaction to them.

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Education, Inclusion

Expanding DEI in Advertising & PR Education

April 1, 2022 Tombras Leave a comment

Landmark Project with Innovative Curriculum, Facilities, and Increase in Faculty Will Transform the Next Generation of Advertising and PR Professionals

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, (UT) and Knoxville-based advertising agency Tombras have partnered to create a first-of-its-kind landmark program and investment plan to modernize and expand advertising and public relations education.

Key goals for the newly named Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations, which will be housed in UT’s College of Communication and Information, are to double the number of Black, Indigenous, and people of color entering those industries after graduating from UT and to help make advertising and public relations industry demographics more representative of state and national populations.

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Authors A-H, Education

Diversity and Speech No. 28: Teaching Diversity across Generations at Harvard – by Carlos E. Cortés and Joseph Zolner

March 3, 2022 Carlos Cortes, Joseph Zolner Leave a comment

A Co-Authored Interview

Carlos: Joe, it’s been more than two decades since we started working together at the Harvard Summer Institutes for Higher Education. Lots of continuities, but also lots of changes.

Joe: Yes, I first attended your sessions on diversity in higher education in the late 1990’s.

Carlos: Even through I’d been doing diversity workshops for a couple of decades, using the Harvard case study method was a brand new experience.

Joe: The Harvard Graduate School of Education’s summer programs have a distinctive leadership development structure. Very immersive, retreat-like experiences for cohorts of a hundred or so higher education administrators. I recall framing your early sessions as “diversity and community.”

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Authors A-H, Education

Diversity and Speech No. 27: Training Future Psychologists Using the Lens of History – by Carlos E. Cortés, Marjorie Graham-Howard

January 31, 2022 Carlos Cortes, Marjorie Graham-Howard Leave a comment

A Co-Authored Interview

Carlos: Marjorie, as a historian, I was blown away by the richness of your class syllabus. How did you come up with the idea of using history to ground a clinical psychology course?

Marjorie: I was a history major in college, so I have always loved it. I remember when I first discovered that history is not just facts about wars and dead people, but was an interpretation of past events. Then I began to learn that most history was controlled by those with power and privilege, which meant there were those whose voices were silenced or never heard from. I knew it would be important for therapists. Once I began teaching at Azusa Pacific University, I found that students were often overwhelmed when working with older adults and clients from a different historical era. They did not know their history, which became a barrier to providing effective treatment. We decided to add a class to close this gap.

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American Diversity Report