The valedictorian at a New Jersey high school Bryce Dershem was presenting at his graduation when his microphone cut out — just as he started to discuss his experience coming out as queer. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that the school principal then walked on stage and crumpled Dershem’s printed speech, instructing him to “read this, or nothing else.” While the district superintendent denied allegations of trying to censor the speech, Dershem says that the school had previously ordered him to remove mention of his queerness as well as his mental health struggles from the address.
Higher Ed Dive examines the struggles international students may face for the upcoming academic year, in regards to remaining perceptions of the United States as being unwelcoming and difficulties crossing borders. With visa and policy-related challenges hindering the path to return to U.S. campuses, international students may not be able to arrive prior to the semester start. In countries with increasing infection rates of coronavirus, consular offices are limiting or halting U.S. visa appointments altogether. Steven Bloom, Assistant Vice President of Government Relations at the American Council on Education, says the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant and border-restrictive policies have likely caused worry and disdain from international students, as many have also reported fearing the rise in gun violence and anti-Asian hate crimes. John Wilkerson, Indiana University’s Assistant Vice President for International Services, says, “It will take years of messaging and proof through actions for the United States to regain the shine that it lost during recent years.”
Last week, a virtual event on Anti-Asian hate and mental health was forcibly shut down when a zoom-bomber verbally attacked the webinar, screaming racial and ethnic slurs. With the increasing reports of anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic, the Steve Fund and the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity planned on co-hosting the panel “Anti-Asian Hate and Mental Health on College Campuses,” featuring expert speakers to discuss strategies on college campuses to support members of the AAPI community in academia.
In an op-ed for The Heighinger Report, Catharine Hill and Meagan Wilson, director and analyst of Ithaka S+R, write about the overdue decision to reinstate Pell Grants for incarcerated students. Still, they stress that policymakers should have greater access to information about prison education programs, suggesting that “the lack of understanding about what constitutes a quality program and how to evaluate options means that these Pell resources may not be used wisely, benefiting the providers but not the students.”
In an op-ed for The New York Times, the chairman of Hillel International’s board of governors, Matthew Bronfman, discusses how colleges can better respond and support their Jewish students during the recent wave of anti-semitic incidents. Bronfman suggests that communities have not adequately spoken out against anti-semitism and suggests some administrators and faculty are disregarding or contributing to Jewish students’ bias concerns. “University leaders must summon the moral integrity to speak out against these assaults on the diversity of viewpoints and protect vulnerable students and junior faculty members in these departments who wish to express other perspectives,” Bronfman says.