Higher education's legacy of colonialism

As various academic disciplines continue to examine their histories and the bias that exists in what they advance in teaching and scholarship, the institution of higher education, itself, must be examined. That appears to be the premise of Professor Leigh Patel in No study without struggle. Simply reading the review by Scott Jaschik caused me to pause. As Patel is quoted in this interview, "Reckoning with unsavory histories that continue to rumble in the present isn't easy, but it's far more tenable than selling higher education as an experience, wallpapering publicly available histories of how wealth and property (were accumulated) since the start."

Reckoning includes several key points for higher education to begin to correct its past. Steve Mintz recommends; publicly acknowledge history, address wrong doings, validate and affirm the importance of equity, rectify the harm that has been done, and look forward. Mintz reviewed Ewell's On Making Music Theory and Making Music More Welcome for Everyone, highlighting ways that the Western cannon of classical music includes colonialist images and unexamined views of world cultures.

Serving the underserved is a frequent call for action in higher education. And, access and success for students cannot be addressed without honesty and a broad discussion among educators. Tuition waivers for Native American students is one example of acknowledging and addressing the impact of colonization in the U.S.A. Addressing a conference of higher education executives on policy questions, Shaun Harper said, "'Avoidance is the primary way we deal with the issues of race' in many workplaces and other settings,... and it is often left to employees of color to raise the issues."

The depth of systemic racism is addressed in Adam Harris' book, The State Must Provide. The point made in this book is that HBCUs have been underfunded and under supported from the beginning. The historic pattern of underfunding was detailed in a brief by the Hunt Institute at Duke University. Minority serving institutions had fewer resources in the beginning and have not added to their resources over the years. Harris proposes that wealthy institutions now partner with HBCUs to begin to counterbalance the privilege they have unfairly gained.

Unfortunately, the unevenness of support for various types of institutions isn't only long-standing but was accelerated as public support for higher education declined from the mid-20th century. Any hope that improved educational access will create a more even playing field for all talented young people is thwarted by the fact that elite institutions have largely been responsible for perpetuating social and economic hierarchy and the differences in how they serve students is dramatically different. Evan Mandery's Poison Ivy: How Elite Colleges Divide Us asserts the same critique. A class action suit filed against 16 private schools alleges that they are "gatekeepers to the American Dream" and that "Defendants' misconduct is therefore particularly egregious because it has narrowed a critical pathway to upward mobility."

Realizing the impact of elite recruitment strategies, the National Education Equity Lab initiated partnerships with elite institutions to more effectively reach underserved populations. Individual institutions such as Amherst College have begun to do their part by eliminating legacy admissions to reverse the advantage held by applicants with a family connection. Citing its history of racial injustice, Yale University's Divinity School designated a portion of its endowment to provide "social justice" scholarships. Harvard established a $100 million fund to redress its ties slavery. The financial advantage of endowment portfolios among elite institutions calls for accountability through innovation and opening access to prospective students of lesser economic means.

The idea of selectivity in admissions and financial aid requires examination and a dramatic shift in practice away from a zero-sum competition in enrolling a select and presumably gifted few. Touting selective admission relies on a reputational model that results in institutions being highly sought after, which then also translates to perceptual hierarchies of who belongs once students are enrolled. Having been associated with institutions that claimed high selectivity, the examples of how students of "superior intellectual ability" were treated are numerous. And, the fact that these students were superior only be virtue of the opportunities they received was abundantly clear.

The topic of colonialism in the legacy of the U.S.A. is relevant to international educators for at least three reasons.

• Much of the literature studied in higher education throughout the world originated from Western (i.e. U.S.A. and European) institutions.
• Branch campuses/programs are particularly likely to carry Western ideas into other cultural/national settings.
• Colonialism was perpetrated by Western countries but vestiges of colonialism are everywhere and often embedded in policy or narrative that sustains the perspective of the original colonizers.

Recognizing the imbalances of North and South collaboration in academia is an essential place to start if the goal is decolonization. Collaboration (meaning co-labor) is at the center of the African Urbanism Humanities Lab proposal to end "hit and run" scholarship that benefits the North while exploiting the South. Lab members suggest that "Collaboration has the capacity to change the questions people ask and the answers they come to. It has the power to change the ways in which research is read and infused into the world. And it can serve as a vital tool for social mobility and social change."

A fascinating example of widely read literature that reinforces the necessity of critical examination is Mark Twain. Twain's work, ranging from Huckleberry Finn to Pudd'nhead Wilson, represent both reinforcement and a challenge to notions of race of his time. Colonialist expansion across the U.S.A. exploited race in order to achieve its objective and Twain was early to recognize it.

A central part of the problem of undoing the legacy of colonialism in Western thought and literature is what gets published as science. A call to action for social justice to be more purposefully recognized and incorporated in academic publishing could help to rectify the imbalance but central to achieving it is institutions' nurturing BIPOC faculty. However, correcting generations of scientific inquiry and literature is a substantial challenge. The process of reconsidering history, and especially the ebb and flow of human emancipation and liberation, includes placing U.S.A. history in the broader context of world history.

With debate raging about critical race theory and its role in the academy, it's obvious that someone's privileged assumptions have been challenged. Like any personally held psychological trick we play with ourselves, it's often the nagging thought in the back of our minds that is most troubling. The nagging question in my mind is how have I, and other well-meaning colleagues over time, perpetuated a colonialist view that has perpetuated the inequities with which we continue to struggle so deeply.