Discourses by university presidents in the wake of racialized incidents continues to be a pressing issue for higher education. Presidential rhetoric can harm those who experience racialized incidents, such as Black students. Using critical discourse analysis, we examined the variations of discourse that a president uses to respond to racialized incidents. Explicitly, as issues of anti-blackness continue to be prevalent within colleges and universities, we sought to highlight how the president’s discourse reinforces anti-blackness narratives perpetuating systemic racism. We center Critical Race Theory and BlackCrit to name how university presidents wrestle with acknowledging anti-blackness. Through a Black liberatory fantasy stance, we offer a framework to engage in radical hope that reimagines what presidential rhetoric should look like, including how university presidents, administrators, and other campus leaders should respond to racialized incidents in meaningful ways that support Black communities and establish equitable policies and practices.

In recent years, critical race theory (CRT) has become as a catchphrase for race, identity, and diversity, resulting in legislation across states through which lawmakers have labeled it as divisive. Despite the misalignment of CRT rhetoric with the richness of the theory in understanding inequity through race and racism, faculty still face threats and are challenged on their expertise in various academic settings because of this social context. The counterstories of faculty who employ CRT can aid in making meaning of the discursive strategies within anti-CRT legislation, as they have first-hand knowledge of the effects of anti-CRT rhetoric. Therefore, through this paper we sought to contextualize the discourse within anti-CRT legislation through the lens of faculty who utilize the theory in their teaching and research. Using van Dijk's (2016) sociocognitive approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA), we examine the interplay between discourse, society, and cognition within 66 anti-CRT legal documents across 42 states. We then used faculty counterstories as context to evaluate the contrast of their racialized realities against the educational values presented in anti-CRT legislation. In our findings, our participants elaborated on misrepresentations of CRT that are rooted in racial ignorance and backlash to racial progress. They also critiqued legislation as a means to erase critical perspectives from the curriculum, resulting in self-censorship the requires individuals to form strategies of resistance. Our work offers implications for policy and practice that challenge organizations to critically examine racialized discourse, as anti-CRT legislation serves as the catalyst for threats to critical thought.

Purpose Legislators continue to label Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other race-based concepts as divisive. Nevertheless, CRT, at its core, is committed to radical transformation and addressing issues of race and racism to understand how People of Color are oppressed. Through rhetoric and legislative bans, this current anti-CRT movement uses race-neutral policies and practices to limit and eliminate CRT scholars, especially faculty members, from teaching and researching critical pedagogies and other race-based topics.Design/methodology/approach Through semi-structured interviews using Critical Race Methodology (CRM), the authors sought to understand how 40 faculty members challenged the dominant narratives presented by administrators through their responses to CRT bans. Additionally, this work aimed to examine how administrators’ responses complicate how faculty make sense of CRT bans.Findings Findings describe three major themes: (1) how administrators failed to respond to CRT bans, which to faculty indicated their desire to present a neutral stance as the middle ground between faculty and legislators; (2) the type of rhetoric administrators engaged in exemplified authoritarian approaches that upheld status quo narratives about diversity, exposing their inability to stand against oppressive dominant narratives; and (3) institutional leaders’ refusal to address the true threats that faculty members faced reinforced the racialized harm that individuals engaging in CRT work must navigate individually.Originality/value This study is one of the few that provide empirical data on this current anti-CRT movement, including problematizing the CRT bans, and how it affects campus constituents such as faculty members.

The anti-critical race theory movement has caused educators strife and fear nationally. In these current socio-political times, faculty are navigating unprecedented experiences of racism as they teach and research critical race theory. Through our work, we examined 40 faculty experiences challenging legislation at a national, state, and institutional level. We present recommendations for practice and policy that resist the surveillance experienced during this socio-political backlash.

This study explored the dual identity of Hispanic-serving research institutions (HSRIs) by highlighting how employees at four HSRIs perceived how both Hispanic-Serving Institutions and research-intensive statuses are reflected in the organization. Using the theory of racialized organizations (Ray, 2019), findings revealed how racialization occurs when research prestige becomes the dominant status, and certain individuals take on additional labor. Participants discussed ways that servingness can bridge the statuses by providing research opportunities for underrepresented populations.

Program directors at community colleges must navigate institutional rhetoric to effectively support Men of Color. This study considers how administrators often exhibit a non-performative commitment to diversity, in that stated commitment might not equate to action. Utilizing a framework grounded in critical race theory and cognitive frames regarding diversity, deficit, and equity, the authors of the study interviewed directors of men of color programs to explore their administrators' commitments to support the work. They also explored the ways that diversity rhetoric affected the success of their programs. Findings revealed that rhetoric often took the place of tangible action, that diversity rhetoric might contradict directors' experiences, and that directors regularly acted as commodities to do the work of diversity with little support. Through this research, the authors offer several implications related to the need for more explicit institution-wide practices that center on equity-mindedness and move past generic frames about diversity.

The categorization of predominantly white institutions (PWIs) and minority serving institutions (MSIs) affects the distribution of resources, privileges, and inequities in higher education. As PWIs increasingly tout having “majority-minority” student bodies and take on enrollment-based MSI statuses due to demographic shifts, it remains unclear how these institutions will disrupt the dominant ideologies of privilege and whiteness that have been pervasive throughout their history in order to create positive campus environments for people of color. Using Ray’s ( American Sociological Review, 84 (1), 26–53, 2019 ) theory of racialized organizations as a sociological framework to test these dynamics, we aimed to interrogate the organizational identity of PWIs transitioning to MSI. Through a comparative content analysis of existing PWI and MSI literature, we established the dominant features of each institution type and provided implications of the power dynamics as PWIs increasingly take on MSI characteristics. Given that enrollment-based MSIs gain eligibility to apply for federal grant funding, regardless of intentions to better serve students of color, the ways that PWIs are privileged throughout the literature have implications for institutional actors, policymakers, and scholars alike.

Undocumented college students in the United States encounter a number of structural barriers to postsecondary education success, including disparate in-state resident tuition (ISRT) policies across the country. Texas, the first state to establish ISRT benefits for undocumented college students, has been a site of tension respective to this issue over the last 20 years. In fact, there have been eight legislative attempts to repeal the state’s affirmative ISRT policy. In order to investigate this ongoing ISRT debate in Texas, we used critical discourse analysis methods to analyze the implicit and explicit messages communicated in the policy and surrounding policy discourse. Our conceptual framework, grounded in three constructs of critical whiteness studies including ontological expansiveness, color evasiveness, and individualization, allowed us to uncover whiteness as a pernicious undergirding force within this policy discourse.

The higher education community often views international students through a homogenous lens. To challenge the cultural norms set by the dominant group, researchers need to explore how these norms affect international teaching assistants (ITAs). The following questions guided the current study: (a) How do ITAs construct intersecting identities of teacher and learner that reflect the presence of dominant cultural norms within a predominantly White institution? (b) What strategies do ITAs use to navigate cultural and linguistic power dynamics within a predominantly White institution as they seek to establish authority? We conducted a case study through an intersectionality framework. Findings revealed participants’ marginalization, authority, and strategies to overcome oppression. We offer recommendations about power dynamics that require increased institutional support.

Aim/Purpose: The following questions guided this study: 1) What are the major types of four-year graduation policies and plans being implemented by public four-year colleges and universities? 2) What explicit and implicit messages do leaders convey in constructing four-year graduation policies and plans? 3) What messages might four-year graduation policies and plans send to minoritized student populations? Background: Four-year graduation is a common goal across public institutions; to this end, university leaders often construct a four-year graduation policy or pledge. Scholars have not systematically examined the discourse within these policies to uncover the underlying structural barriers that may hinder minoritized students from achieving this goal. A one-size-fits all approach in policy can inadvertently promote a discourse of individual success or failure. Methodology: In order to view policy as discourse and explore the tensions within the narrative of timely graduation, the authors utilized critical discourse analysis to explore the discourse within four-year graduation plans across 19 public, four-year universities. Contribution: Institutional leaders often attempted to create mutually responsible commitments with students, but our reading of four-year graduation plans suggests that the majority of leaders created a uniform narrative, failing to acknowledge and make provisions for disproportionate impacts on minoritized populations. Findings: Utilizing seven building tasks, we provided descriptive categories of four-year graduation initiatives, followed by interpretation and evaluation of the messaging conveyed by institutional leaders in constructing policies. Findings revealed that many universities often place expectations on students with varying levels of corresponding resources or without the needs of minoritized student populations in mind. Recommendations for Practitioners: The authors offer recommendations about ways that university leaders through policy creation can acknowledge the structural barriers that affect students’ pathways to completion. Recommendation for Researchers: Because of the underlying acceptance behind the problem that drives graduation policy (i.e., students should graduate in four years), a critical approach allows scholars to examine the text of policies in ways that might illuminate the viewpoints that leaders fail to consider. Impact on Society: Four-year graduation initiatives should move beyond inspiring rhetoric to tackle the true structural barriers (e.g. unavailable courses, weak advising, developmental courses as stumbling blocks) for which institutional leaders as the creators of policy should be held accountable. Future Research: Additional studies focusing on the rhetoric of student success initiatives can reveal language centered on dominant ways of knowing.

Community College Men of Color Initiatives (CCMCIs) are increasingly popular strategies utilized to promote retention and completion among Men of Color (MOC). CCMCI directors offer a unique positionality in understanding how their identities, institutional contexts, and power dynamics affect their design of programs and participating students. Using a critical phenomenological approach, the authors of this study explore the lived experiences of CCMCI directors in conceptualizing, implementing, and assessing these initiatives.

Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) increasingly provide educational opportunities for underrepresented groups such as Latinx students; however, their categorization as minority-serving institutions is a function of their enrollment data rather than an explicit commitment to serving specific cultural needs. The authors of this study add to the literature on HSIs by further recognizing the need for community colleges to delve further into the different experiences of Latino males based on the intersection of race and gender. This study as part of the Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color explored how HSI community college might express a commitment to serving Latino males through the design and implementation of programming. The authors utilized a framework including concepts of HSI organizational identity, norms of racism in higher education, and gendered racism to conceptualize a Latino male-serving organizational identity. Findings revealed that colleges should go beyond Latino male outcomes to create a culture of commitment embedded throughout the college and not just isolated to men of color programming. This research has implications for the significant role that HSI community colleges can take in becoming leaders in serving Latino males through a purposeful and intentional commitment.

On the basis of histories of exclusion of people of color, race neutrality is often the dominant rhetoric at predominantly White institutions. In asserting the goal of diversity, institutions often provide rhetoric on the inclusion of differences while masking the existence of social inequities and racist practices lived by students of color. The author of this study used case study methodology to operationalize the multidimensional model of racial identity and to create opportunities for Black student leaders to reflect on the situational and stable components of their racial beliefs. Through observations within traditional White organizations as well as Black student organizations, Black student leaders provided counternarratives that evidenced the situational component of racial salience within their interactions. Findings reveal dominant student organizations as White property rights and challenge institutional members to engage in critical reflections on the prevalence of racist ideologies amid diversity rhetoric that intends to keep such norms hidden.

Background Recent incidents of racism at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) have gained increased national attention. The backlash to individuals speaking out against racialized practices is often masked through discourse that dismisses the adverse effects of racism. Because university administrators often center their responses to incidents of racism on upholding free speech, scholars should analyze the ways that administrators’ responses might reinforce the existence of such racist behaviors and affect marginalized students. Purpose and Research Questions Rather than placing the burden on students to disrupt institutionalized racism, the author critically analyzed the discourse administrators utilized in their responses to understand the role of power in language. The following research questions informed the study: (a) what are the various characteristics of the discourse of university administrators as they respond to incidents of racism? and (b) how do university administrators’ responses to racism support or disrupt larger patterns of social power and privilege? Research Design The author utilized critical discourse analysis (CDA) to deconstruct relationships between the speech patterns of university presidents and larger Discourses about social power. Through a process of description, interpretation, and explanation, the author sought to reveal the underlying ideologies that go beyond surface-level discourse about free speech. Data Collection and Analysis Based on the context of increased police brutality and student protests on college campuses, the author reviewed data on recent incidents of racism at PWIs. The three final cases chosen for analysis represented varying approaches utilized by administrators to respond to racist incidents. Through multiple phases of coding, the author interpreted relationships between textual patterns to reveal a larger narrative about administrative accountability. Findings Each university president utilized a different approach to campus racism. The major discourse patterns represented were (a) a direct reproach of individuals as accountable for racism; (b) an indirect and theoretical approach to the reality of racism; and (c) a denial of or diversion from racism through authority. Conclusions and Recommendations Across the cases, administrators utilized speech that either downplayed the existence of racism or defined it through privilege or colorblind ideology. With the last incident resulting in the firing of the president, the analysis revealed ways that presidents can utilize emotional speech without substantial action. In order to be more responsive to marginalized communities, administrators need to intentionally engage with marginalized groups who are often silenced because their beliefs do not fit the standard of the dominant norm.

Career choice theory traditionally defines career selection as a choice, not a competition; however, desirable limited-access majors often have selective admission processes. For transfer students who come from open-access community colleges, the competition can be an unanticipated obstacle. In this qualitative study, we found that among transfer students who were denied admission to their desired limited-access major those who had more knowledge about their desired careers were able to reassess and find viable academic pathways when faced with obstacles. Transfer students with very limited career knowledge found it difficult to consider other options. Further, we concluded that institutional admissions and advising practices are critical to facilitating students' negotiation of obstacles.

Universities increasingly call upon employees to educate campus community members on diversity, yet the experiences of these educators are rarely addressed. Via scholarly personal narratives, a team of diversity educators at a predominantly White research university shared their experiences facilitating diversity trainings while attempting to maintain self-care, including their processes of (a) navigating resistance through intersectional identities, (b) proving legitimacy as diversity educators, (c) experiencing burnout, and (d) validating and supporting each as other cofacilitators.

This manuscript provides a nuanced understanding of the heterogeneity of faculty and staff of color activism in the context of a racialized and racist university structure. Through the deployment of Critical Race Theory, and the couching of activism within a foundational white supremacist history of higher education, the authors are then able to repair discord between students who often see faculty and staff of color as complacent within their institutions. These critiques often do not take into consideration how racism constricts faculty and staff of color action and also comes with classist assumptions via an insinuation that all faculty and staff of color can risk loss of job as a result of activism. Moreover, an intersectional lens is not always considered in activism literature. At the same time, the authors argued that faculty and staff of color, particularly those who identify as Black, must be allowed to act in untempered ways as their livelihoods quite literally depend on changing a broader racist system.

Student activism has been rekindled the mid-2010s. Incidents at universities nationwide specifically focused on racism and police violence-totaled 61 protests out of 160 incidents of student activism during this time (Johnston, 2014). A vivid example of protest occurred at the University of Missouri, where the Concerned Student 1950 movement culminated with the resignation of the president and system chancellor (Eligon & Perez-Pena, 2015). Some scholars have pointed to the #BlackLivesMatter movement as a galvanizing force mobilizing Black students, especially, to demand systemic changes how predominantly White institutions (PWIs) address systemic racism on and surrounding campuses (Wilson, 2015).Black students particular have challenged PWIs' historically race neutral ideologies, noting that these ideologies and discourses continue to mask the unequal distribution of power institutions and society (Gusa, 2010; Patel, 2015). Furthermore, anti-racist discourse absolves predominantly White universities of any responsibility substantively altering institutional policies and decision-making, effectively leaving the burden of racism to people of (Hamer & Lang, 2015, p. 898).As scholars support the liberatory approach that Black students have engaged via activism, it is important to contextualize their attempts the current era. This includes a move away from narrowly definitions of activism (Ellis-Williams, 2007), the role of realized consequences affecting individual and collective action (Evans & Moore, 2015), and the heterogeneity of organizational involvement students of color use to represent a social justice lens (Harper & Quaye, 2007; Museus, 2008). Since defining resistance to social inequity is complex (including individual, collective, and institutional levels; Hollander & Einwohner, 2004), and the resistance of current youth is often compared to past generations, the authors sought to center the study on the experiential knowledge of students entrenched the work themselves. The experiential knowledge of people of color is legitimate, appropriate, and critical to understanding, analyzing, and teaching about racial subordination (Solorzano & Yosso, 2016, p. 129). Therefore, the purpose of the study was to explore the perceptions of Black student leaders at a southern PWI, who are immersed affecting campus climate and inspiring multiple forms of resistance, challenge inequality individually as well as through mobilization of the Black student community. The following questions guided the study:* How do Black collegians utilize their engagement and activism efforts within a PWI to reduce campus inequalities?* How do Black collegians seek to influence exclusionary campus climate practices and policies that perpetuate discrimination and barriers to increased diversity?The authors sought to center the complexity of Black student leadership through the worldview of individuals who were dedicated to fighting the constraints of social racism representations tied to larger collective social movements, and by doing so, provide a more holistic understanding of the heterogeneity of Black student leadership.Relevant LiteratureDefining Activism and its Role Higher EducationHistorically, students have been an integral catalyst for change higher education, calling attention to institutional and societal power structures that reinforce inequity. Activism encompasses a variety of behaviors and efforts to address various social, economic, and political issues; it can be depicted as the strategic action individuals enact to contest injustice and provide alternative solutions, dialogues, and possible pathways to change (Hamrick, 1998; Kezar, 2010; Ropers-Huilman, Carwile, & Barnett, 2005). At the core of student activism lies the ideal of resistance to some form of oppression. In contextualizing student resistance to various power structures, Boren (2001) stated, in combating those forces, they are actuality resisting aggression and suppression (p. …