I’m Scared that I Have Mentored My People into a Burning House

Higher Education is on fire and too many people are too comfortable being warmed by its embers to douse the flames. We have the Great Resignation and the Great Retirement happening at the same time. Higher education tuition cost is at an all-time high and the exploitation of adjunct faculty only seems to increase. While we haven’t experienced the total devastation predicted by some higher education scholars that MOOCs and other disruptive innovations were supposed to create, the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racism in the last couple of years gives oxygen for the fire to continue to burn.

While some issues impact all higher education; other challenges are becoming more acute in Republican controlled states where tenure is under attack, intimidation tactics are used to coerce faculty to not include Critical Race Theory in their instruction, and student evaluations of teaching are used improperly as a customer service tool to determine the ultimate quality of instruction. It is within that context that we teach and prepare the next generation of higher education professionals.Dr. Sydney Freeman, Jr.

During a similar time of unrest like we find ourselves in today, in 1967 Dr. Martin Luther King said these words:

"Until we commit ourselves to ensuring that the underclass is given justice and opportunity, we will continue to perpetuate the anger and violence that tears the soul of this nation. I fear I am integrating my people into a burning house."

The profundity of this statement rings true today. Not just because it addresses the character of the nation, but because it also aligns with the charred remains of the house that many faculty, staff, and administrators of color at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) call their employers. While PWIs similar to k-12 institutions have integrated, we continue to see them refuse to douse the flames of anti-Black racism and bigotry that pervades many campuses. While there are hundreds of studies that address the inhospitable campus climates for people of color at PWIs requests for systemic change continue to be ignored.

Higher Education institutions love to engage in what Drs. Brandon Wolfe and Paulette Dilworth call the diversity “Three Fs” of food, festivals, and famous people. But very few have demonstrated a commitment to what they describe as the Three Es” of education, engagement, and empowerment. Dr. King was calling for justice and opportunity that would ultimately lead to the liberation and sovereignty of all people.