Varying Viewpoints

In this episode, we continue our discussion with the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions’ (CMSI) new partner, Student Veterans of America (SVA). In this discussion, Marybeth Gasman, CMSI and Proctor Institute Executive Director and Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair in Education, spoke with Jared Lyon, SVA President and CEO. During their conversation, Jared provides intimate insight into the student veteran experience on college campuses, specifically at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). The conversation addresses SVA’s mission to foster veteran inclusivity, veteran representation, and leadership for active student veterans and alumni. Jared emphasizes SVA’s various services, strong alumni network, professional opportunities, and the strength of a powerful student veteran collective at MSIs. Along with their CMSI partnership, SVA is focused on diversifying the organization to accurately reflect the broad spectrum of active duty service members.

In this episode, we invited Chris Span, historian, Chief of Staff, and Associate Chancellor for Administration and PreK-12 Initiatives at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, to join us. Chris emphasizes the power of using our history as a strategic tool to dismantle racism by educating our family members, our students, friends, and colleagues of past events. Additionally, Chris delves into how the Black Lives Matter movement echoes the same fight as the Civil Rights Movement, but generations later. We often see history repeating itself, which means that little has changed. To combat this, Chris touches on the importance of emphasizing history in our K-12 and postsecondary education curricula to nurture the next generation of leaders and community members and create meaningful, long lasting social change.

In this episode, Naomi Simmons-Thorne and Latrice Johnson, two of our 2021 John Smartt Summer Scholars, invited Jonathan Wesley, Senior Director of Diversity and Inclusion in Academics at Southern New Hampshire University. Jonathan is an interdisciplinary practitioner, artist, academic, and activist with huge dreams of leading inclusive and safe communities for LGBTQIA+ students. He shares his experience migrating from New Jersey to pursue his education in the south and talks about his research on the LGBTQIA+ community, intersectionality, religion, education, and sociology. Jonathan further discusses the importance of having inclusive institutional leaders who advocate for LGBTQIA+ issues, the importance of community building amongst faculty, and discusses the importance of HBCUs having cabinet-level positions that focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Overall, while highlighting recent developments and innovations related to LGBTQIA+ communities at HBCUs, this episode explores the contributions HBCUs should make to LGBTQIA+ student affairs using a “cultural wealth” perspective.

In this episode, Deja Joi Brewster, Program Coordinator at Student Veterans of America (SVA), invited Siobhan Norris, Associate Vice Chancellor of Military Affairs at Fayetteville State University (FSU), veteran, mentor, and SVA advocate, to talk about the significance of student veteran support on college campuses. The interview highlights FSU, an Historically Black University based in North Carolina, and its robust and innovative degree programs rooted in the liberal arts tradition. Siobhan talks about FSU, which is recognized as a Purple Heart Institution, and shares the institution’s rich military history. As FSU is home to over 1,700 military connected students that make up 30% of its student population, Siobhan discusses how the institution has strove to meet the educational, career, and personal aspirations of its students from military backgrounds so that they are equipped with practical knowledge to serve their communities as enlightened citizens and globally astute leaders.

In this episode, we invited Tina Fletcher and Trina Fletcher to join in a conversation about Black women in the academy. Tina is a Ph.D. Candidate in Education Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. Trina is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Education at Florida International University. The twins, who grew up in a small town in Arkansas, share the lessons learned on their academic journeys as well as anecdotes about the supportive influences they had throughout their lives. This interview illuminates the importance of encouraging Black women to pursue Ph.Ds and the factors institutions must consider to retain emerging Black women scholars. Tina and Trina share the need for institutions to have more Black women Ph.D. representation. Both scholars also share tips for Black women interested in earning a Ph.D.

In this episode, we are celebrating a new partnership between the Proctor Institute and the Student Veterans of America (SVA). We spoke with Program Coordinator at SVA, Deja Joi Brewster, about SVA’s mission, her experience working with student veterans, and the resources that are available to all student veterans, specifically those at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). Joi highlights the many chapters and policy achievements of SVA and the student veterans already on MSI campuses that have the power to orchestrate tangible change with the help of SVA.

In this episode, Ariadna Manzo and Alex Reyes, two of our 2021 John Smartt Summer Scholars, invited Monte Randall, president of The College of the Muscogee Nation (CMN) and one of our MSI Aspiring Leaders, to discuss the graduation and retention efforts that CMN has engaged in to support their Native American/Indigenous student population. The goal of this episode is for higher education professionals to gain awareness of the support they can offer to student success efforts of Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). Monte spoke about the trauma and experiences that Native populations face and how that impacts their approach to learning. He also shared the hindrances TCUs encounter as they try to support their students and how higher education stakeholders can help support graduation and retention efforts for Indigenous students.

In this episode, Bianca Neal, Visiting Scholar at the Proctor Institute, hosted an interview with Laura Castañeda, an award-winning professor of professional practice in the USC Annenberg School of Journalism. Before joining USC Annenberg, she taught at Temple University and worked as a staff writer, editor and columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, and The Associated Press in San Francisco, New York, and Mexico. In an effort to inform and equip the younger generation of Latinas navigating through academia, Laura talks about her progressive interest in journalism studies and how it shaped her adventurous career path. She also discusses how important it is to create a network and find a group of people who will always be there for you.

In this episode, Bianca Neal, Visiting Scholar at the Proctor Institute, hosted an interview with Gloria Martinez, Professor in the Department of Sociology at Texas State University. Having mentored over 30 undergraduate and graduate students, she is also the Director for Center for Diversity and Gender Studies and the inaugural Director of Latina/o Studies minor at the institution. In an effort to amplify the voices of Latinas in the professoriate, Gloria talks about her experience growing up in a small, rural village in Pine Canyon, California, where school was a bit more isolated than others. She shares how much of an impact her mother had on her educational upbringing, and talks about how much she looked up to her professors as role models, who encouraged her to go further in higher education and to obtain a Ph.D.

In this episode, we invited Thomas Hudson, President of Jackson State University (JSU), to join us. As only the second alumnus of JSU to become president, President Hudson stepped into the role in early 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was ramping up. President Hudson speaks to Proctor Institute Executive Director Marybeth Gasman about his journey toward becoming president of Jackson State, what leading during COVID looks like, and what his future goals are for the institution.