45th Pullias Lecture to Navigate Higher Education’s Challenging DEI Environment with Panel of Distinguished Speakers

Prestigious Lecture to be held on Thursday, March 28 at California Science Center in Los Angeles

Top diversity, equity and inclusion scholars in higher education will come together to discuss the current challenging environment in higher education and offer their historical and policy insights into this issue at the 45th Pullias Lecture, set for Thursday, March 28 at 11am. The event will be held at the California Science Center in Los Angeles.

“Understanding and Navigating an Increasingly Hostile DEI Environment in Higher Education” is the focus of this year’s Lecture. Moderated by Rossier School of Education Dean Pedro Noguera, the panel features Eddie Cole, Associate Professor of Education and History, UCLA; Liliana Garces, Professor of Community College Leadership, University of Texas, Austin; and Royel Johnson, Associate Professor of Higher Education, USC Rossier School of Education and a member of the Pullias Center faculty.

The recent attacks from the judiciary with the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action and the legislative attacks through Critical Race Theory bans, restrictions on DEI training, and calls for dismantling DEI offices, have left DEI champions and advocates in a challenging situation. Campus leaders fear that funding will be cut and their actions to support equity will be penalized.  Many are preemptively making changes to avoid scrutiny from legislators.  How can and should campus leaders move forward in this constrained environment that has emerged? And most importantly, how can we turn the current tide so that DEI efforts are not vulnerable to elimination?

The Pullias Center, a research center focused on advancing equity in higher education, offers a number of resources practitioners and administrators can access to address these questions, including our Shared Equity Leadership library of reports, as well as this op-ed by Pullias Center Director Adrianna Kezar in a recent issue of Diverse Issues in Higher Education.

Registration for the Pullias Lecture, which is open to the public and includes lunch, will begin in early February, 2024.