ASHE Announces the formation of a new Institute on Equity Research Methods and Critical Policy Analysis

ASHE Institute on Equity Research Methods and Critical Policy Analysis
Lansing, MI – December 12, 2007

– ASHE is pleased to announce the formation of a new Institute on Equity Research Methods and Critical Policy Analysis. The institute will be a collaborative effort among the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, The Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California, the Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance at the University of Houston Law Center, and ASHE. The Ford Foundation is providing a one-year planning grant to establish the institute with the possibility of bestowing support for an additional five years.
The ASHE Institute on Equity Research Methods and Critical Policy Analysis is being created because of the historical and current inequalities that exist in higher education for minority populations. Specifically, the institute is targeting inequalities that exist for African Americans, Latina/os, Native Americans and Native Hawaiians. The institute was born out of the ASHE Equity Task Force led by Estela Mara Bensimon from the University of Southern California. As she states, “the current body of empirical and policy oriented knowledge contains a major weakness: it tends to ignore race, ethnicity, and language altogether or to interpret differences in educational outcomes to characteristics of minorities that set them apart, e.g., “high risk” or “underprepared.” The impetus for the creation of this institute is to ask the “race” question critically and knowledgeably.”
The institute will focus on addressing three urgent needs: (1) to support greater inclusion through the development of a core group of minority scholars with the knowledge and research methods to study questions of racial and ethnic equity in higher education; (2) to transform the agendas of higher education policy centers and give greater visibility to the needs and interests of minority communities; and (3) to develop greater recognition of minority experts in higher education and expand the network of minority scholars who are called on to shape policy agendas. Issues and events in higher education currently being discussed such as race-linked barriers to achievement and race conscious admissions are exemplary of the types of concerns that this institute will address.
Michael Olivas from the University of Houston Law Center states that “there is a tremendous need for training and support for junior faculty. The demands upon them for meeting the requirements for teaching and scholarship have increased, and the pressures for entrepreneurial grantsmanship and service are nothing short of extraordinary. These programs will provide the academic village that it takes to raise a contributing scholar and productive faculty member. In addition, there is a pressing need for minority voices to add to the discourse concerning higher education issues. In a small way, these efforts should help shape these developments.”
Sylvia Hurtado from the University of California at Los Angeles added that, “within recent years, ASHE has seen a steady increase of minority scholars and we would like to keep supporting their development as scholars. The Institute helps to acquaint them with publishing in the best journals and guides them to see other ways at studying equity in higher education.”
For more information on the Institute, contact the following individuals either by e-mail or phone: Dr. Estela Mara Bensimon at bensimon@usc.edu or(213) 740-5969, Sylvia Hurtado at Sylvia.hurtado@gmail.com or (213) 740-5969, Michael Olivas at MOlivas@uh.edu or (713) 743-2100.