The Pullias Center asked the organization’s alumni to submit proposals for research projects that explore racial equity and inclusion in higher education and presented $5,000 awards to support five of these projects. The five winning projects were selected through a blind review conducted by Pullias Center faculty along with Adrianna Kezar, Director of the Pullias Center. The winners were first […]
The Pullias Center for Higher Education is proud to announce the addition of seven new researchers! First, we welcome two new postdoctoral research associates, Román Liera and James Dean Ward. Liera, a qualitative researcher who studies racial equity in student outcomes and faculty participation, works on projects that promote equity in graduate education with Julie Posselt, an assistant professor of higher education at the […]
California’s lawmakers reached an agreement on education funding last Friday, and a key part of the deal is a plan to tie the state funding community colleges receive to measures of student success. In this op-ed, Pullias research assistant James Dean Ward and Pullias co-director William G. Tierney make an urgent argument against the funding changes. ___ In his State […]
Congratulations to Pullias research assistant James Dean Ward (above, center), who successfully defended his Ph.D. dissertation on June 11, 2018! Titled “Exploring Heterogeneous Effects of Performance-Based Funding: Implications for Equity and Policy,” Ward’s dissertation studies the rising popularity in recent years of performance-based funding policies, which tie state funding for public colleges to performance goals, such as the rate at which […]
Congratulations to the four members of the USC Pullias Center of Higher Education who participated in the USC Rossier graduation ceremonies last weekend! Three Pullias research assistants — Elizabeth Holcombe, Antar A. Tichavakunda, and James Dean Ward — were among the the 334 students honored in the doctoral hooding ceremony on May 11. Tichavakunda was the recipient of the USC […]
Pullias doctoral student James Ward discusses the impact of the NYS Excelsior Scholarship and its unintended consequences of ‘free college’ on New York’s for-profit universities in the Brookings Report.
On the Huffington Post, James Dean Ward explores the Bennett Hypothesis through a comparison of for-profit and non-profit universities. Read more here.