This Issue: Moving Forward
As the Pullias Center's esteemed faculty member, Dr. John Slaughter, put so succinctly in a recent speech, "At this critical moment in our nation’s history, we need more than words that renounce racism and anti-blackness, we need actions to abolish racism and anti-blackness."

Every overreach of authority and misuse of privilege, and every act of injustice, moves us back as a country. They also raise the importance of coming together to resist those abuses of power and champion racial justice— in our thoughts, our interactions, our laws, and the enforcement of those laws. The Pullias Center is working with intention to deepen our contributions to this work: through supportive student mentoring, through our research, and by urging policymakers and practitioners to put to use our collective results.

To that end, our guest editor this month is Dr. Julie Posselt, USC Rossier associate professor of higher education and Pullias Center faculty member. Rooted in sociological and organizational theory, her research program examines institutionalized inequalities in higher education and organizational efforts aimed at reducing inequities and encouraging diversity. She focuses on graduate education, STEM fields, and elite undergraduate institutions where longstanding practices and cultural norms are being negotiated to better identify talent and educate students in a changing society.

This issue of our newsletter brings news of a new book by Dr. Posselt, a look at C-CIDE's recent kickoff event, a report on campus policing, case studies of recent Delphi Award-winning strategies to support non-tenure-track faculty. and Pullias Center alumus Carlos Galan also shares the latest reflection on our 25th anniversary.
Julie Posselt, Theresa Hernandez, Deborah Southern, and Steve Desir from the Pullias Center and Fatima Alleyne from University of California, Berkeley, share their collective perspective on a year that continues to defy description. 
 
Unprecedented. Extraordinary. Challenging. Difficult. Unusual. Our emails remind us daily that these times are like none other. 2020 gets an asterisk, and we are only half way through. 
 
The COVID-19 pandemic arrived as many graduate programs were already re-thinking admissions criteria and processes. While equity concerns have helped propel a movement away from the GRE, accelerated by COVID-19, how we treat grades has for the most part gone relatively unquestioned.
 
Both how we assign grades and make sense of them in admissions deserve a closer look, especially this year. In leading two NSF- funded initiatives (IGEN and C-CIDE) working to advance equity and inclusion in graduate education, we are attuned in particular to the ways that typical admissions practices reproduce inequities for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color...

A recent event for California Consortium for Inclusive Doctoral Education (C-CIDE) created an opportunity for teams from six campuses to learn from each other how to change current admission policies and practices to address racial and gender inequalities in STEM PhD programs.

C-CIDE, a National Science Foundation-funded network of doctoral-granting universities and member departments, aims to improve how graduate programs in California admit and educate the next generation of scientists and engineers. There is presently almost no infrastructure for faculty to learn the skills and knowledge required to effectively select and serve students, especially students from minoritized backgrounds...
In a new book, Dr. Julie Posselt calls on academia to recognize and reward both expertise and the work of cultural translation that equity requires. Cultural translators, Posselt found, draw upon the language and sensibilities of a culture to improve understanding across boundaries-- disciplinary, gender, racial, and more. Equity in Science: Representation, Culture, and the Dynamics of Change in Graduate Education synthesizes patterns among existing equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts in the fields of astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, and psychology. She argues that understanding how field-specific cultures in STEM disciplines develop is a crucial step in making real change.
Louisiana State University and Northcentral University detail the paths they took to improve working conditions and professional development for adjunct faculty on their campuses in two new case studies titled “Inclusive Faculty Development at Louisiana State University” and “Supporting Adjuncts from a Distance:

Adjuncts as Subject Matter Experts & Valued Members of the Northcentral University Community,” these new publications highlight the recent successful efforts these campuses have made to significantly improve their faculty policies and culture. The new publications, available for free download from the Pullias Center’s website, were written by the Pullias Center in collaboration with the featured campuses.
A new report written by Pullias Center researchers tackles the institutionalization of policing in higher education campus safety and management. By providing administrators with important perspectives, key takeaways, reflective questions, and specific recommendations, Campus Policing: A Guide for Higher Education Leaders acts as a guide for higher education leaders looking to proactively respond to issues of policing and racism on university campuses.

Due to the recent calls for the defunding of police, university administrators can no longer passively maintain campus police departments without seriously taking into consideration campus constituents’ feedback. However, there are few resources to guide higher education leaders as they redevelop policies and practices. 
Carlos A. Galan, Academic Advisor at Yours in Soccer Foundation and a former colleague of the Pullias Center for Higher Education, reflects on the Center’s 25th Anniversary in this eighth of a series of essays marking the occasion.

It is not easy to put into words what the Pullias Center for Higher Education means to me. While the Pullias Center has been in existence for 25 years, it has had a lifetime impact in the world of higher education as well as in my personal life. The former needs no explanation. The Pullias Center is a renowned research hub filled with faculty, students (both undergraduate and graduate), and staff committed to addressing and advancing access and equity in higher education. The Pullias Center’s impact on my personal life, however, bears some explanation.

I was introduced to the Pullias Center in 2009, at the time still known as the Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis (CHEPA). I was 17 years old—a timid high school student with little or no knowledge about the college application process or the world of higher education in general. My college counselor had summoned me to the college center where someone aw. I was told, was waiting for me. I showed my hall pass to Mr. Kim, my high school counselor, who introduced me to Dr. Tierney, the Pullias Center’s Director at that time. Wearing a yellow rain jacket, Dr. Tierney was sitting near one of the five computers available at my high school's college center. In a soft and calm voice, he invited me to have a seat. I was shaking, not because of the cold rain we had gotten earlier in the day, but because I was nervous. I thought that I had gotten in trouble...
Quick Takes
from the Pullias Center
Recommended Media
Suggestions from Dr. Posselt and her team for your reading list

The November issue will be guest-edited by
Pullias Center Director Adrianna Kezar