The University of California: Creating, Nurturing, and Maintaining Academic Quality in a Public University Setting by C. Judson King

Until December 2015, the University of California maintained $25 million of indirect investments in three major private prison corporations and almost no one knew. The UC is now the first U.S. public university system to sell its shares in private prisons, however it was activism that propelled the victory. Black students from the Afrikan Black Coalition, a statewide Black youth organization, used research from Enlace and strategic planning to demand private prison divestment. This personal reflection on the path toward prison abolition examines some of the strengths and resurgence of Black student organizing in the era of #BlackLivesMatter.

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Affirmative action, critical mass, and a predictive model of undergraduate student body demographics

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0250266 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (5) ◽

pp. e0250266

Author(s):

Daniel P. Maes ◽

Julia Tucher ◽

Chad M. Topaz

Keyword(s):

Affirmative Action ◽

Undergraduate Student ◽

Critical Mass ◽

Public University ◽

University Of California ◽

Student Body ◽

Modeling Framework ◽

University Campuses ◽

Definition Of ◽

The University

Black and Latinx students are underrepresented on most public university campuses. At the same time, affirmative action policies are controversial and legally fraught. The Supreme Court has ruled that affirmative action should help a minoritized group achieve a critical mass of representation. While the idea of critical mass is frequently invoked in law and in policy, the term remains ill-defined and hence difficult to operationalize. Motivated by these challenges, we build a mathematical model to forecast undergraduate student body racial/ethnic demographics on public university campuses. Our model takes the form of a Markov chain that tracks students through application, admission, matriculation, retention, and graduation. Using publicly available data, we calibrate our model for two different campuses within the University of California system, test it for accuracy, and make a 10-year prediction. We also propose a coarse definition of critical mass and use our model to assess progress towards it at the University of California-Berkeley. If no policy changes are made over the next decade, we predict that the Latinx population on campus will move towards critical mass but not achieve it, and that the Black student population will decrease, moving further below critical mass. Because affirmative action is banned in California and in nine other states, it is worthwhile to consider alternative policies for diversifying a campus, including targeted recruitment and retention efforts. Our modeling framework provides a setting in which to test the efficacy of affirmative action and of these alternative policies.

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Intervention Strategies and Lessons Learned From a Student-Led Initiative to Support Lactating Women in the University Setting

Health Promotion Practice ◽

10.1177/15248399211004283 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 152483992110042

Author(s):

Emily Bell ◽

Cristina Hunter ◽

Trista Benitez ◽

Jasmine Uysal ◽

Carey Walovich ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Infant Health ◽

Public University ◽

Lessons Learned ◽

Return To School ◽

Lactating Women ◽

Student Mothers ◽

Breastfeeding Education ◽

Mothers Of Color ◽

The University ◽

University Setting

The benefits of breastfeeding for mother and baby are strongly supported by research. However, lactating parents who return to school or work soon after delivery face many barriers to continued breastfeeding. This article presents a student-led initiative to support lactation at a large public university that emerged from advocacy efforts of student mothers of color. The socioecological model was used as a framework to understand and address the multifaceted influences on breastfeeding practices. Project activities included providing breastfeeding education to lactating parents and their partners, measuring availability and accessibility of lactation spaces, improving lactation spaces, connecting university stakeholders, and strengthening university lactation policies. The project achieved the following outcomes: formation of a stakeholder group with members across campus departments, improvement in accessibility and appropriateness of lactation spaces, provision of breastfeeding services through workshops and one-on-one appointments with lactation educators, and creation and dissemination of an online toolkit outlining parents’ lactation rights and support available on campus. Comprehensive lactation support at universities is essential to enhance educational and professional equity for women and to promote postpartum and infant health. Throughout the project implementation, the team learned many lessons that can help guide similar university initiatives.

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Affirmative action, critical mass, and a predictive model of undergraduate student body demographics

10.31235/osf.io/kg3aq ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel P. Maes ◽

Julia Tucher ◽

Chad M. Topaz

Keyword(s):

Affirmative Action ◽

Undergraduate Student ◽

Critical Mass ◽

Public University ◽

University Of California ◽

Student Body ◽

Modeling Framework ◽

University Campuses ◽

Definition Of ◽

The University

Black and Latinx students are underrepresented on most public university campuses. At the same time, affirmative action policies are controversial and legally fraught. The Supreme Court has ruled that affirmative action should help a minoritized group achieve a critical mass of representation. While the idea of critical mass is frequently invoked in law and in policy, the term remains ill-defined and hence difficult to operationalize. Motivated by these challenges, we build a mathematical model to forecast undergraduate student body racial/ethnic demographics on public university campuses. Our model takes the form of a Markov chain that tracks students through application, admission, matriculation, retention, and graduation. Using publicly available data, we calibrate our model for two different campuses within the University of California system, test it for accuracy, and make a 10-year prediction. We also propose a definition of critical mass and use our model to assess progress towards it at the University of California-Berkeley. If no policy changes are made over the next decade, we predict that the Latinx population on campus will move towards critical mass but not achieve it, and that the Black student population will decrease, moving further below critical mass. Because affirmative action is banned in California and in nine other states, it is worthwhile to consider alternative policies for diversifying a campus, including targeted recruitment and retention efforts. Our modeling framework provides a setting in which to test the efficacy of affirmative action and of these alternative policies.

Download Full-text