Background | Overview | Researcher | Current Status | Funding
Background
The push for racial equity in higher education has increased over the past decade, but oftentimes, many universities and colleges are so decentralized and have such complex governing systems that this imperative does not include influences from the most powerful decision-making body within higher education – boards of trustees. However, the time for change is now as university boards must be held accountable for timely, relevant, consistent, and demonstrable action related to issues of race.
Project Overview and Goals
This project aims to create a guidebook that will delineate digestible background information and tangible takeaways that will help board members better recognize and understand their explicit and implicit roles in worsening, improving, or maintaining how campuses address racial equity. Lead researcher, Raquel Rall, uses a literature review at the intersection of racial equity and governance to create a general “guidebook” outlining what board members need to know about racial (in)equity, and how centering equity is essential to their decision-making roles.
Researcher
PhD, University of Southern California, Urban Education Policy, 2014
Assistant Professor of Higher Education, University of California, Riverside
Final Report
Getting the Boards Involved: Challenges and Opportunities for Equity at the Highest Level of University Governance
Raquel M. Rall
Pullias Center for Higher Education (2021)
This report provides research and practical advice on how boards of trustees can influence diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and policies. The report argues that boards must be strategically woven into the conversation in order to guide intentional changes to policies, practices, procedures, behaviors, and attitudes towards racial equity.
This is one of five reports generated from research funded by the inaugural Pullias Center Equity Alumni Awards created to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Pullias Center.
Categories: Racial Equity, Alumni Equity Award, Policymaking, Guides
equity alumni award policymaking racial equity
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Funding
This project was selected as one of five recipients of the Pullias Center Equity Alumni Award in October 2020 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Pullias Center. Each of the five projects features an alumna or alumnus of the Pullias Center exploring a different facet of systemic racism that directly impacts Black, indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) access to education, specifically postsecondary education.