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Ryan A. Miller (he/him)

@drryanmiller.bsky.social
173 followers 103 following 23 posts

Higher education scholar - LGBTQ & disabled students; how colleges (un)do diversity. Professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Views are my own.

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Reposted by Ryan A. Miller (he/him)
ASHE CAHEP @ashecahep.bsky.social · 12/02/2026
Join us for our upcoming online session hosted by @ashecahep.bsky.social! 🙂 How Higher Education Programs are Navigating Policy Shifts 3/24/26, 10-11am PT Facilitator: Ryan Miller Panelists: Genie Bettencourt, Eric Felix, LJ Shelton, & Paul Bylsma Register at www.ashe.ws/events/cahep...
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Ryan A. Miller (he/him) @drryanmiller.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
Sharing my new article in Journal of Women & Minorities in Science and Engineering w/Tynsley Gilchrist, Brandon Bakka, Tricia Clayton, Maura Borrego- Toward Transgressive Capital: LGBTQ+ Engineering Students Developing Queer Cultural Capital Through Reading Groups dl.begellhouse.com/journals/005...
dl.begellhouse.com
Toward Transgressive Capital: LGBTQ+ Engineering Students Developing Queer Cultural Capital Through Reading Groups
LGBTQ+ students face hostile climates in engineering, yet few studies explore interventions that support queer student success. This interview study examines how participation in LGBTQ+ engineering reading groups helped 11 students develop queer cultural capital to navigate engineering. We demonstrate that through their development of queered forms of cultural capital including linguistic, familial, aspirational, navigational, and resistant capital, participants also developed emergent transgressive capital to move beyond boundaries and reject binaries. The reading group itself was created as a transgressive counterspace within a college of engineering and was structured to eliminate power differentials between undergraduates, graduate students and faculty. Participants rejected binaries in their use of pronouns and descriptions of their gender and sexual identities. Students credited the reading group for helping them realize there are other queer people succeeding in engineering. The reading group strengthened some participants’ queer identities, prompting them to be out to more people, including listing the group on their resume for potential employers to see. Participants were inspired by the nonbinary faculty member leading the group and the authors whose work they read. Overall, the reading group allowed students to reframe their daily realities in engineering and imagine how they might make change in the future.
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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 26/08/2025
My department is searching for two tenure-line positions to start in August 2026. Come join our growing team and make a difference in building the future! Assistant professor of higher education: apply.interfolio.com/172680 Associate/full professor of education policy: apply.interfolio.com/172632
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Ryan A. Miller (he/him) @drryanmiller.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Sharing my new article w/@crystalegarcia.bsky.social & @drantonioduran.bsky.social in the Journal of Higher Education (50 free at link). We conducted a critical discourse analysis of the arguments used in several states for/against anti-DEI legislation in '23-24. www.tandfonline.com/eprint/XRP9D...
tandfonline.com
“Copy and Paste” Practices: A Multi-Site Critical Discourse Analysis of Arguments About Anti-DEI Legislation
This manuscript presents the results of a critical discourse analysis designed to investigate how legislators and other actors leverage discursive strategies to frame the need for/impacts of state-...
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Ryan A. Miller (he/him) @drryanmiller.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
"Higher education policy in the United States is now being developed through ad hoc deals, a mode of regulation that is not only inimical to the ideal of the university as a site of critical thinking but also corrosive to the democratic order and to law itself." balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/regu...
balkin.blogspot.com
Balkinization: Regulation by Deal Comes to Higher Ed
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
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Alex Usher @alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 05/06/2025
My friend @cantb.bsky.social joins us for the penultimate pod of the season to talk about the state of American higher education 9% into the Trump Administration and how on earth Harvard got to be popular.
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Matt Krupnick @mattkrupnick.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
Big news: The Trump administration has essentially proposed shutting down tribal colleges and universities, displacing more than 20,000 students. My latest for ProPublica:
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Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 02/06/2025
I have a new article in Innovative Higher Education examining whether new college presidents improve institutions' financial health. There isn't much happening at publics, but new leaders at privates cut expenses in a meaningful way. Official link, prepub below. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
kelchenoneducation.wordpress.com
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Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Let’s Remember Why There’s a System of Federal Research Grants to Universities talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/lets-...
talkingpointsmemo.com
Let’s Remember Why There’s a System of Federal Research Grants to Universities
This is largely preaching to the choir. But it’s absent enough from...
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Inside Higher Ed @insidehighered.com · 21/05/2025
5 Questions on Open Expression in the Era of Trump Michelle Deutchman, who leads UC’s free expression center, says institutions are grappling with how to promote student expression amid the government’s crackdown on protesters. #HigherEd #EDUSky #AcademicSky bit.ly/4drRCDF
bit.ly
Free Speech Expert Discusses Open Expression and Trump
Michelle Deutchman, who leads UC’s free expression center, says institutions are grappling with how to promote student expression amid the government’s crackdown on protesters.
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Ryan A. Miller (he/him) @drryanmiller.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
New open access article w/Dr. Morgan Murray in the Journal of College and University Student Housing: "Isolation and Belonging: The Complex Reality of Black Resident Assistants." Thanks for your important research & letting me collaborate with you! Access p. 30: www.nxtbook.com/acuho-i/acuh...
nxtbook.com
journal_vol51no3
Experience our interactive, profoundly engaging digital publication!
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Dr. Ty C. McNamee @tycmcnamee.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
I can unequivocally say that MANY of the rural, poor and working-class students in my research credit TRIO to their success and continued enrollment in college. These cuts would be devastating to communities like where I come from. Write your congresspeople. www.insidehighered.com/news/student...
insidehighered.com
How Trump’s Proposed TRIO Cuts Could Hamper College Access
The Trump administration wants to eliminate the federally funded student support program. That could be devastating for low-income students and the institutions that serve them.
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Travis T. York, Ph.D. (he/they) @travisyork.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
🧪FY26 Proposed Budget: The president’s proposal would be disastrous for Americans’ health & scientific capabilities. The administration seeks to slash $18B from NIH (~40%), $3.6B from CDC (~39%), $5.2B from NSF (~57%), & AHRQ by 35% & stops future grants. @aaas.org @researchamerica.bsky.social
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UC National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement @ucfreespeech.bsky.social · 30/04/2025
Former Fellow Ryan Miller publishes new research examining bias response in higher education. Read the full article here: buff.ly/aDizjqJ #HigherEd #FreeSpeech
journals.sagepub.com
Bowing to External Pressures: How the Threat of Lawsuits Dilutes Bias Response in Higher Education - Ryan A. Miller, 2025
Bias response teams (BRTs) have proliferated in colleges and universities as administrative mechanisms to respond to hate and bias incidents on campuses. Advoca...
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Joey Fishkin @fishkin.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
University leaders need to understand: they are holding INCREDIBLY good cards. It is so rare in today's polarized era to have the support of 70+ percent of the public against the Trump admiministration on anything. Universities have that—AND winning legal arguments.
Graphic of Washington Post poll from April 18-22, 2025, showing "Majorities of Americans oppose various Trump proposals"

highlighting two lines in particular:
"Increasing the Federal Government's role in how private universities operate" - 28 percent support, 70 percent oppose
"Reducing federal funding for medical research" - 21 percent support, 77 percent oppose
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Ryan A. Miller (he/him) @drryanmiller.bsky.social · 27/04/2025
Life update: As of August 1, I will be Professor of Higher Education & Ph.D. program director at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I am grateful for the past 9 years at UNC Charlotte & excited for what lies ahead!
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Ryan A. Miller (he/him) @drryanmiller.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
“We’re all at risk of being a target, and we have two choices. We can either let that risk render us voiceless, or we can use our voices to speak out against these attacks on higher education,” Pasquerella said. www.chronicle.com/article/more...
chronicle.com
More Than 200 Higher-Ed Leaders Decry Trump Administration’s ‘Unprecedented Government Overreach’
The statement marks college presidents’ largest collective rebuke of the White House’s actions to date.
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Ryan A. Miller (he/him) @drryanmiller.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
New open access article in @aeraedresearch.bsky.social AERA Open that extends my research on bias response in higher education and illustrates how institutions retreat from educationally and legally defensible practices purely to avoid the threat of lawsuits. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Bowing to External Pressures: How the Threat of Lawsuits Dilutes Bias Response in Higher Education - Ryan A. Miller, 2025
Bias response teams (BRTs) have proliferated in colleges and universities as administrative mechanisms to respond to hate and bias incidents on campuses. Advoca...
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Ryan A. Miller (he/him) @drryanmiller.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
New publication with @drantonioduran.bsky.social & @jaudrazona.bsky.social reviewing the last 15 years of research about disabled queer & trans college students published in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Ed @apajournals.bsky.social psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...
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Ryan A. Miller (he/him) @drryanmiller.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
www.insidehighered.com/news/student...
insidehighered.com
Survey: Texas DEI Ban Negatively Impacts LGBTQ Students
As DEI bans take hold nationwide, interviews with Texas college students and employees offer some hints about what could be on the horizon for universities and students across the country.
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J. Audra | he/they @jaudrazona.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
(1/3) Publication Announcement! I am thrilled to share: "A systematic literature review on disabled queer and trans college student scholarship," co-authored with my mentors @drantonioduran.bsky.social and Dr. Ryan Miller, now available in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.
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Ryan A. Miller (he/him) @drryanmiller.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
New publication on rural adult transfer student choices- congratulations to my doc advisee Tynsley Gilchrist on the publication! 50 free e-prints at the link: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/9WDKJ...
tandfonline.com
“I’m in a Different Place in Life”: A Qualitative Study of Rural Adult Transfer Student Choices
Rural adult students’ intersectional identities inform many of their decisions about college, including the choice to transfer from a community college to a university. This qualitative study sough...
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Teddy Wilson @reportbywilson.bsky.social · 28/02/2025
The same Texas A&M University that allowed neo-Nazi Preston Wiginton to host White Nationalist Richard Spencer for speech on campus in the Memorial Student Center.
At A&M, protests, big crowds and tension over white nationalist's speech
Richard Spencer's speech at Texas A&M drew more than a thousand protesters. As he preached white nationalism, tension was high and police in riot gear tried to maintain calm.
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Adam Conover @adamconover.net · 28/02/2025
The attack on DEI shows why liberals should stop arguing about "strategic" use of language forever. DEI stands for three uncontroversial virtues that most every American accepts, and the right still turned it into a vile slur. It doesn't matter what you say - they will poison it because YOU said it.
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Dominique Baker @bakerdphd.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
A thing I was explaining to a reporter this week is there is no singular definition of a "state dei ban" because each state decided to target different functions within higher education in such a way that the actual unifying thread across the policies is segregation and censorship
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Beth Popp Berman @epopppp.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
It is really hard to watch people willfully tear down an infrastructure that allowed us to double lifespans, drastically reduce poverty, and become one of the richest countries in the world.
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Gabriel Rodríguez Lemus, Jr. @grodriguezlemus.bsky.social · 25/02/2025
Now more than ever, it is important to support Queer and Trans people. In this practice brief, we (@drantonioduran.bsky.social @drqhutchings.bsky.social) imagine the ways we can address the needs of Queer and Trans men of color, specifically in men of color programs. psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF DIVERSITY OFFICERS IN HIGHER EDUCATION 
Journal of Diversity in Higher Education 
https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000650 
Queering Men of Color Programs: Interventions to Address the Needs of Queer and Trans Men of Color 
Gabriel Rodríguez Lemus Jr.1, Quortne R. Hutchings2, and Antonio Duran3
1 Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, The University of Texas at Austin
2 Department of Counseling and Higher Education, Northern Illinois University
3 The Division for Advancing Education Policy, Practice, and Leadership, Arizona State University 
In higher education, men of color (MoC) initiatives have gained prominence as programmatic interventions designed to support the persistence of MoC. Although a promising practice, scholars and practitioners have criticized MoC initiatives for reproducing narrow conceptualizations of who is most affected by gendered, racial, and culturally mediated systems. That is, these initiatives have been the subject of critiques that they frequently reproduce heterosexism and trans oppression, erasing the needs of queer and trans MoC. This practice brief addresses this issue by attending to how MoC programs can integrate queer and trans MoC, providing recommendations like adjusting facilitator recruitment and participant selection. 
Keywords: men of color programs, Black men’s initiatives, queer and trans men of color, men and masculinities 


Chris Linder served as action editor.
Gabriel Rodríguez Lemus Jr. https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4620-666X Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Gabriel 
Rodríguez Lemus, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, The University of Texas at Austin, George I. Sánchez Building, 1912 Speedway, Austin, TX 78705, United States. Email: grodriguezlemus@utexas.edu
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AAUP @aaup.org · 22/02/2025
When we fight, we win. Judge Halts Implementation of Trump Anti-DEIA Executive Orders Nationwide The AAUP is proud to stand up & defend our campuses & communities against those attempting to squash civil rights & halt progress toward an equitable, multi-racial democracy. www.washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
The Washington Post - Breaking news and latest headlines, U.S. news, world news, and video - The Washington Post
Breaking news, live coverage, investigations, analysis, video, photos and opinions from The Washington Post. Subscribe for the latest on U.S. and international news, politics, business, technology, cl...
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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 22/02/2025
JUST IN: A judge has enjoined President Trump's effort to block federal funds from going toward grant recipients who engage in DEI practices. The judge says the orgs are likely to succeed on claims that this is viewpoint discrimination, among other issues storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
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Alex C. Lange @itsalexcl.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
I am happy to share some (unfortunately) timely work in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education about how transgender students practice resilience to get through college. psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/... Brief 🧵
This image is a screenshot of an academic article titled "Practices of Resilience Transgender Students Use in College" by Alex C. Lange, Julianna S. Hernandez, Nick Fahnders, Vigor W. H. Lam, and Lourdes V. Andrade from the School of Education, Colorado State University.

The abstract discusses the concept of resilience in college environments, particularly for transgender students. The authors highlight a shift in research from viewing resilience as an inherent trait to understanding it as a practice individuals engage in. They note that much research has examined transgender student resilience over the past decade, but there is limited knowledge on specific patterns of resilience practices among transgender students.

Using longitudinal qualitative data, the study identifies four common resilience practices among participants and three additional practices that required less resilience from students. The article concludes with implications for practice and future research.

The keywords listed are: transgender students, resilience, college students, student development, narrative analysis.
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Jeremy C. Young @jeremycyoung.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Thanks to @byjoshmoody.bsky.social @insidehighered.com for opportunity to clarify my thoughts. It's been a sector-level failure to defend higher ed against gov't censorship, not the fault of single associations/presidents. If that's changing, it's great news. www.insidehighered.com/news/governa...
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Ryan A. Miller (he/him) @drryanmiller.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
I am certain higher education institutions will eagerly comply with this - as they have otherwise (over)complied. (Friday evening sarcasm, if it wasn’t clear.)
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Ryan A. Miller (he/him) @drryanmiller.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
Opinion | Now Is Not the Time to Be Neutral "The question is: Which colleges will speak up, and for which of their values? In the face of the current attacks, cowering behind a pledge of “neutrality” is really just submission." www.chronicle.com/article/now-...
chronicle.com
Opinion | Now Is Not the Time to Be Neutral
The AAUP’s new statement recognizes that academic freedom is in peril.
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Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
DEI initiatives are still legal. Universities need to stand their ground. A Friday gift to your university's General Counsel Office - courtesy of an all star lineup of civil rights lawyers and scholars. You're going to want to read this.
app.box.com
OGC Memo re Trump DEI and SFFA 2025 02 20.pdf | Powered by Box
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Jeremy C. Young @jeremycyoung.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
An incredible piece by @garceslm.bsky.social @chronicle.com on the unconstitutionality of the Department of Ed's Dear Colleague letter on DEI. Worth a close read. www.chronicle.com/article/hitt...
chronicle.com
Hitting Pause on the ‘Dear Colleague’ Letter
The Department of Education is overstepping its bounds and infringing on constitutional rights.
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Jonathan Feingold @jpygold.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
nice post poking lots of holes in the Trump DOE's Valentines Day Dear Colleague Letter. worth a read for anyone who needs reassurance that the Trump admin lacks the power to re-write civil rights laws or end DEI in K-20 via executive fiat. educationcivilrights.com/blog/f/regul...
educationcivilrights.com
Regulation By Intimidation: OCR's Title VI Dear Colleague Letter
In a move that appears motivated more by intimidation than actual enforcement power, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights issued a Dear Colleague Letter late in the evening on Fri...
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Ida Bae Wells @nhannahjones.bsky.social · 17/02/2025
Allowing the administration to define broad swaths of history, programming and civil rights compliance as “DEI” and then regurgitating that language instead of clearly articulating what specifically is being targeted is spreading disinformation and propaganda.
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Beth Popp Berman @epopppp.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
1/ I am seeing a lot of comments on the slashing of NIH support along the lines of “universities should just spend their huge endowments.” I’m the last person to cheer on the institutional stratification rising endowments have contributed to. But let me explain why this is not a solution.
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Erin Reed @erininthemorning.com · 17/02/2025
Over 2,000 webpages containing LGBTQ+ information have been removed from federal government websites.
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Bradford Vivian @bradvivian.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
University leaders: you have access to historically large levels of expertise about law, government, and poltical affairs. It’s okay—even important—to say “This is unconstitutional.”
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Dr. Crystal E. Garcia @crystalegarcia.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
If I were in charge of #ACPA25 I would declare a state of emergency for #education and use the conference as a working meeting. This goes for any/all educational conferences forward until the attacks on higher ed stop. This is NOT business as usual and we have to stop treating it as such.
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Rachel M. Perera @rachelmarisa.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
📣 DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTERS ARE NON-BINDING GUIDANCE LETTERS. You cannot change what is considered illegal discrimination under federal law through non binding guidance.
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Chris Conzen @chrisconzen.bsky.social · 16/02/2025
“In a sweeping and unprecedented letter issued over the weekend, the Office for Civil Rights declared race-based scholarships, cultural centers and even graduation ceremonies illegal and threatened to investigate and rescind federal funding for any institution that does not comply within 14 days.”
insidehighered.com
Trump administration threatens to rescind federal funds over DEI
In a sweeping and unprecedented letter issued over the weekend, the Office for Civil Rights declared race-based scholarships, cultural centers and even graduation ceremonies illegal.
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Jeremy C. Young @jeremycyoung.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
Here's @penamerica.bsky.social's statement condemning last night's "Dear Colleague" letter from the Department of Education, threatening to withhold federal funds from educational institutions that engage in DEI programming, training, or other activities. pen.org/press-releas...
pen.org
PEN America Condemns Education Department's Threat to Defund Colleges and Universities Over DEI Programs - PEN America
PEN America Denounces Department of Education Letter That Would Ban Ideas About Race
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Cecilia Orphan @ceciliaorphan.bsky.social · 14/02/2025
I researched the failure of ideal-centered change and found that failure occurred when campuses failed to create ongoing cultural engagement with the ideal, involve naysayers, or assess the effects of the change. Perhaps lessons for the attacks on DEI? www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
tandfonline.com
How Change Unravels: The Failure of Ideal-centered Organizational Change at Regional Comprehensive Universities
This multiple-case study examined the factors promoting or impeding ideal-centered change efforts focused on reclaiming the founding civic commitments of three Regional Comprehensive Universities. ...
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