Adrianna Kezar: Let’s All Get Into Some Good Trouble

Adrianna Kezar is a Dean’ s Professor of Leadership, Wilbur-Kieffer Professor of Higher Education at the Rossier School of Education, and the current Director of the Pullias Center for Higher Education.

Welcome back for what will likely be one of the more challenging fall semesters in higher education! Campuses are working out plans to open in-person, to convert to online-only, or are exploring hybrid options, yet I am aware that we have an even greater challenge to focus on. Our country would not be facing such horrific outcomes from the pandemic if we had leadership at the national level and a coordinated effort across the country, nor would we have such a divided country where racism is regularly articulated by the President and encouraged among his followers. We must focus on getting students, faculty, and staff as well as our local communities out to vote! Probably the most important work that we can do this fall is to encourage voter registration. Our country needs new leadership and we have an opportunity to contribute to such a change if we all focus our efforts on this important activity.

In awareness of John Lewis’ passing, I am reminded of the importance of the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2019 that sits stalled in the Senate after having been passed by Congress. John Lewis worked tirelessly to bring the original bill of 1965 into passage as well as to put together the most recent effort in 2019 to regain voter rights that have been stripped in recent years.  This is making it challenging for communities of color, in particular, to vote. He feared the demise of our democracy and if we can regain a democratic majority in the Senate – this legislation is likely to pass. Many have suggested that the suppression of voting among low income and communities of color was partially responsible for the election of Donald Trump.   Continued voter suppression harms our country, particularly in the interests of minorities.

We also want to let you know about our ongoing support and efforts to realize racial equity in higher education. The Black Lives Matter movement was propelled into a new phase in late May demanding justice for racial violence against black men and women at the hands of white police officers. The national protests continue to be inspirational for all of us. Some of you may have seen that we issued a solidarity statement as the events were unfolding, and while all of our resources emphasize racial equity, we created a new section of our website that highlights some of our most important work in this area.

In addition to our ongoing work, we have committed to two new projects. First, building on the center’s work related to policing on campus, we are developing a policy brief related to the relationship of policing to institutional racism and campus climate as well as future directions for campus policing. Second, we will be starting up a blog series highlighting black scholars in higher education called Higher Ed Conversations in Black. We hope to engage our community in these conversations. 

Finally, we are hosting the Pullias Lecture on September 15th, which will also focus on racial equity and healing. The Black Lives Matter movement will continue to guide our work and we will do all that we can to ameliorate anti-blackness and develop and support anti-racist policies. We will also amplify the work of others aimed at the same goals. One of our efforts to do that is support for our alumni doing work on racial equity. We recently released a request for proposal to support our alumni in racial equity projects. 

We must continue this racial equity work in full force! One of the best ways we can support this work in the fall is to get people out to vote. In the spirit of John Lewis, let’s all get into some good trouble this fall.