Tag: Black

Alabama Ends Black-, Women-Focused Student Magazines

The University of Alabama has ended two student magazines, citing “legal obligations.”

Carmen K Sisson/iStock/Getty Images

The University of Alabama has ended publication of two student-run magazines, one focused on women and the other on Black students, in order to comply with legal obligations, officials say.

Local and student media reported that Steven Hood, the university’s vice president for student life, said that because the magazines target specific groups, they’re what the Department of Justice considers “unlawful proxies” for discrimination. Both publications received university funding.

The women’s magazine, [Alice], just celebrated its 10th anniversary last month, while Nineteen Fifty-Six, named after the year the first Black student enrolled in the university, says it was created in 2020. [Alice] managing editor Leslie Klein told Inside Higher Ed that university officials told her magazine’s editor in chief Monday that the magazines were being canceled because they’re identity-based.

“I think it is ridiculous,” Klein said. She said it seems like a decade of history is being “put down the drain.”

The university pointed to a July memo from Pam Bondi, in which the U.S. attorney general provided “non-binding best practices” to avoid “significant legal risks.” She wrote that “facially neutral criteria” that “function as proxies for protected characteristics” are illegal “if designed or applied” to intentionally advantage or disadvantage people based on race or sex.

But Bondi’s memo didn’t specifically say that a media outlet focusing on an audience it defines by race or sex is illegal. DOJ spokespeople didn’t respond to Inside Higher Ed’s questions Tuesday about whether the department considers the Alabama magazines unlawful.

Marie McMullan, student press counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said in an email that the university’s “unlawful proxy” claim is “nonsense.”

“These publications have the First Amendment right to be free of viewpoint-based discrimination, but UA is explicitly citing their viewpoints to justify killing their publications,” McMullan said. “No federal antidiscrimination law authorizes the university to silence student media it dislikes.”

Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel for the Student Press Law Center, said he knows of no other university that has used the memo to target a student publication. He said anyone is allowed to write for these magazines.

“A student publication is not a DEI program,” Hiestand said. He said the memo says “absolutely nothing about denying students the right to talk about topics that are important to them” and “I don’t know what the university is thinking here.”

“That looks a lot like viewpoint discrimination to me, which the Supreme Court has said repeatedly is off-limits,” he said.

The university didn’t provide Inside Higher Ed an interview Tuesday or answer multiple written questions. In an emailed statement, the university said the magazines’ editors and contributors “were informed of the decision to suspend the magazines effective immediately, with the Fall 2025 issue as the final issue.” It added that “staff hope to work with students to develop a new publication that features a variety of voices and perspectives to debut in the next academic year.”

“The University remains committed to supporting every member of our community and advancing our goals to welcome, serve, and help all succeed,” the university said. “In doing so, we must also comply with our legal obligations. This requires us to ensure all members of our community feel welcome to participate in programs that receive University funding from the Office of Student Media.”

This was Klein’s fourth year with [Alice]. “It really just breaks my heart,” she said.

Tionna Taite, who founded Nineteen Fifty-Six, said in a statement to The Alabama Reflector that both magazines are pivotal to the minority experience at the university.

“I am beyond disappointed in the regression UA has made since I created 1956 Magazine,” Taite said. “In 2020, UA made promises to be more diverse, inclusive and equitable. Five years later, I do not see any progress and their decision regarding both magazines confirms this.”

These magazines aren’t the first university student publications that administrators have curtailed in 2025. Purdue University said it would no longer distribute papers for The Purdue Exponent, an independent student newspaper, or allow it to use the word “Purdue” for commercial purposes. The university said it’s inconsistent with “freedom of expression, institutional neutrality and fairness to provide the services and accommodations” to “one media organization but not others.”

Indiana University also fired Director of Student Media Jim Rodenbush and canceled printing of the Indiana Daily Student newspaper before relenting and again allowing a print edition. Rodenbush remains separated from the university.

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December 3, 2025
Black, Latino, International Populations Decline at Harvard

The institution emphasized the incoming class’s geographic diversity and first-generation student population.

Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images

The share of Black, Latino and international students in this year’s incoming Harvard University class declined from last year’s freshman class, The Washington Post reported.

Black students made up 12 percent of the Class of 2029, down two percentage points from the previous year; Latino students comprise 11 percent of this year’s incoming class, compared to 16 percent last year. International student enrollment is also down, from 18 percent of last fall’s freshman class to 15 percent this year. Only eight international students deferred their admissions, despite reports that many international students were unable to arrive in the U.S. in time for fall classes due to visa issues.

Harvard emphasized the incoming class’s geographic diversity, noting that students come from all 50 states and 92 countries. It also said 20 percent of the Class of 2029 are first-generation students.

The data comes at a time when the Trump administration is attacking colleges for allegedly violating the Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action by continuing to consider race in admissions—although admissions officials argue this isn’t happening. The administration specifically targeted Harvard earlier this year, ordering the institution to “cease all preferences based on race, color, national origin, or proxies thereof” in favor of “merit-based admissions.”

Some colleges have stopped publicizing the racial makeup of their incoming classes this year, though it’s unclear if that’s related to the Trump administration’s scrutiny of admissions.

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October 24, 2025
Cellphone bans can help kids learn — but Black students are suspended more as schools make the shift

Thirty states now limit or ban cellphone use in classrooms, and teachers are noticing children paying attention to their lessons again. But it’s not clear whether this policy — unpopular with students and a headache for teachers to enforce — makes an academic difference.

If student achievement goes up after a cellphone ban, it’s tough to know if the ban was the reason. Some other change in math or reading instruction might have caused the improvement. Or maybe the state assessment became easier to pass. Imagine if politicians required all students to wear striped shirts and test scores rose. Few would really think that stripes made kids smarter.

Two researchers from the University of Rochester and RAND, a nonprofit research organization, figured out a clever way to tackle this question by taking advantage of cellphone activity data in one large school district in Florida, which in 2023 became the first state to institute school cellphone restrictions. The researchers compared schools that had high cellphone activity before the ban with those that had low cellphone usage to see if the ban made a bigger difference for schools that had high usage.

Indeed, it did.

Related: Our free weekly newsletter alerts you to what research says about schools and classrooms.

Student test scores rose a bit more in high cellphone usage schools two years after the ban compared with schools that had lower cellphone usage to start. Students were also attending school more regularly.

The policy also came with a troubling side effect. The cellphone bans led to a significant increase in student suspensions in the first year, especially among Black students. But disciplinary actions declined during the second year.

“Cellphone bans are not a silver bullet,” said David Figlio, an economist at the University of Rochester and one of the study’s co-authors. “But they seem to be helping kids. They’re attending school more, and they’re performing a bit better on tests.”

Figlio said he was “worried” about the short-term 16 percent increase in suspensions for Black students. What’s unclear from this data analysis is whether Black students were more likely to violate the new cellphone rules, or whether teachers were more likely to single out Black students for punishment. It’s also unclear from these administrative behavior records if students were first given warnings or lighter punishments before they were suspended.

The data suggest that students adjusted to the new rules. A year later, student suspensions, including those of Black students, fell back to what they had been before the cellphone ban.

“What we observe is a rocky start,” Figlio added. “There was a lot of discipline.”

The study, “The Impact of Cellphone Bans in Schools on Student Outcomes: Evidence from Florida,” is a draft working paper and has not been peer-reviewed. It was slated to be circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research on Oct. 20 and the authors shared a draft with me in advance. Figlio and his co-author Umut Özek at RAND believe it is the first study to show a causal connection between cellphone bans and learning rather than just a correlation.

The academic gains from the cellphone ban were small, less than a percentile point, on average. That’s the equivalent of moving from the 50th percentile on math and reading tests (in the middle) to the 51st percentile (still close to the middle), and this small gain did not emerge until the second year for most students. The academic benefits were strongest for middle schoolers, white students, Hispanic students and male students. The academic gains for Black students and female students were not statistically significant.

Related: Suspended for…what?

I was surprised to learn that there is data on student cellphone use in school. The authors of this study used information from Advan Research Corp., which collects and analyzes data from mobile phones around the world for business purposes, such as figuring out how many people visit a particular retail store. The researchers were able to obtain this data for schools in one Florida school district and estimate how many students were on their cellphones before and after the ban went into effect between the hours of 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.

The data showed that more than 60 percent of middle schoolers, on average, were on their phones at least once during the school day before the 2023 ban in this particular Florida district, which was not named but described as one of the 10 largest districts in the country. (Five of the nation’s 10 largest school districts are in Florida.) After the ban, that fell in half to 30 percent of middle schoolers in the first year and down to 25 percent in the second year.

Elementary school students were less likely to be on cellphones to start with and their in-school usage fell from about 25 percent of students before the ban to 15 percent after the ban. More than 45 percent of high schoolers were on their phones before the ban and that fell to about 10 percent afterwards.

Average daily smartphone visits in schools, by year and grade level

Average daily smartphone visits during regular school days (relative to teacher workdays without students) between 9am and 1pm (per 100 enrolled students) in the two months before and then after the 2023 ban took effect in one large urban Florida school district. Source: Figlio and Özek, October 2025 draft paper, figure 2C, p. 23.

Florida did not enact a complete cellphone ban in 2023, but imposed severe restrictions. Those restrictions were tightened in 2025 and that additional tightening was not studied in this paper.

Anti-cellphone policies have become increasingly popular since the pandemic, largely based on our collective adult gut hunches that kids are not learning well when they are consumed by TikTok and SnapChat.

This is perhaps a rare case in public policy, Figlio said, where the “data back up the hunches.”

Contact staff writer Jill Barshay at 212-678-3595, jillbarshay.35 on Signal, or [email protected].

This story about cellphone bans was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Proof Points and other Hechinger newsletters.

The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

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October 20, 2025
The Black Box Problem: Why Cameras Matter in the Online Classroom – Faculty Focus

It started with small talk at one of those laid-back faculty mixers—the kind designed for exchanging ideas and sparking new connections. As an online graduate psychology professor, I find these in-person moments to be, quite literally, grounding. During one conversation, a colleague chuckled and said, “Online teaching is almost too mild and peaceful sometimes. I feel like throwing in something controversial just to keep things lively!”

We all laughed, but beneath the humor was a plain truth: online learning, while valuable, convenient, and accessible, can sometimes lack the tension and spontaneity of in-person discussion and debate. My colleague’s observation wasn’t just about livening up the virtual classroom. It was also about cohesion and presence—something online classrooms most certainly lack when students keep their cameras off (Yoon & Leem, 2021; Xia et al., 2024).

Ghosts in the Machine

Faculty across various online institutions have noted the striking stillness of teaching to a grid of black boxes—no visible students, no expressions, only disembodied names suspended in silence. Research shows that when students choose to stay invisible, it’s not just the teacher who loses out—the entire class dynamic suffers (Pi et al., 2024). It’s well documented that visual presence in online learning increases engagement and social connection (Chen & Chen, 2015). The reality is that many online students are reluctant to speak up— there’s seemingly more at stake when your comment hangs in a recorded cloud that can be replayed and scrutinized. And without real-time facial feedback or the encouragement gleaned from someone else’s nod of agreement, students are more likely to retreat into passivity. In fact, more than 3 in 10 college students are less apt to participate in online discussions than their in-person peers (Chacon et al., 2023).

As I’ve learned both from teaching and parenting, the online space provides ample room for multitasking. One of my children, currently a college undergrad, “attended” a class recently while sautéing vegetables, chatting with a sibling, and tossing treats to our dog, Lemon. And no, I don’t fault her—she’s a bright, capable student. The responsibility, in this case, rests more with the instructor, who didn’t require cameras to be on and appeared resigned to teaching to what was basically an empty room.

Cameras On: A Case for Presence and Politeness

At the university where I teach online, students are expected to keep their cameras on, not because we’re attention-hungry control freaks, but because we understand how people actually learn. We know that attention is fragile, and focus is fleeting. Connection and concentration are bedrocks of meaningful and effective education (Chen & Chen, 2015).

Having cameras on isn’t just a matter of preference. It’s a matter of politeness. It’s about showing up for others, not just for yourself. Just as you’d make eye contact in a physical classroom (or anywhere, for that matter), nod in response, or lean in when someone shares a vulnerable insight, keeping your camera on says: I see you. I’m here. I’m listening.

For group discussions and breakouts, this becomes even more critical (Santacroce et al., 2025). The group dynamic depends on feedback loops—on tone, facial expression, and gestures (Santacroce et al, 2025). Without cameras, we strip these interactions of emotional nuance. Colleagues share that camera-off students are far less likely to challenge each other, less likely to support each other, and less likely to forge the kind of connections that make grad school so meaningful.

Teaching Professionals, Not Spectators

Let’s not forget—we’re teaching future professionals; in my field, that means guiding the next generation of psychotherapists and psychologists. These aren’t just students aiming to pass exams—they’re future professionals who’ll be supporting people, solving problems, and making decisions in complex, real-world situations. They must become experts at observing, interpreting, and responding thoughtfully to the world around them. For example, if they can’t learn to read a room, interpret subtle cues, or stay attentive during collaborative work, how will they respond effectively in their chosen field?

In fact, attunement— being aware of and responsive to subtle emotional cues—is fundamental to clinical work (Siegel, 1999) for my students and professional success for students in any discipline. Without practicing these skills in the classroom, students may enter the workforce without a full toolkit. It’s like learning to swim by watching videos—helpful in theory, but it doesn’t prepare you for the feel of the water.

Avalon and the Art of Connection

Recently, while playing the board game Avalon with my college-aged kids and their friends, I had a revelation. For those unfamiliar, Avalon is a game of secret identities, deception, and deduction. Players are secretly assigned roles—either loyal members of King Arthur’s court or villainous minions of Mordred. The “good” players must complete missions without being sabotaged, while the “evil” ones seek to stealthily undermine them.

It gets loud. It gets passionate. People argue, analyze, accuse, and defend. It’s part logic puzzle, part psychological combat. As I watched my kids animatedly playing this game, I imagined them trying to do so with their figurative cameras off. No gestures, no expression, no eye contact, no interaction. It would be confusing at best, and completely unenjoyable at worst.

Avalon, like the online classroom dynamics I’ve described, thrives on presence—on people being fully engaged and visible to one another in real time. Success in the game requires attention to subtle shifts in tone and confidence, keen observation of behavior, and collaboration. These skills mirror the very competencies we hope to cultivate in future clinicians.

What the Research Says: Nonverbal Speaks Volumes

The importance of nonverbal communication isn’t just anecdotal—it’s backed by research. In a seminal study, Mehrabian (1971) found that 93% of communication is nonverbal, with 55% attributed to body language and 38% to tone of voice, leaving only 7% to the actual words spoken. While these numbers have been debated, the consensus remains: nonverbal cues are crucial to understanding and connection. And more recent research highlights that body language conveys emotion, regulates interactions, and builds trust (Burgoon et al., 2021). These functions are central in the therapeutic alliance—and they begin in the classroom.

Nice Doesn’t Mean Neglect

Some instructors avoid requiring cameras because they want to be “nice.” They worry about students feeling judged, self-conscious, or overwhelmed. These concerns are real, and there are compassionate ways to address them. But we must not confuse niceness with neglect. There are many ways to support students: flexible deadlines, empathetic check-ins, diverse teaching and evaluation methods. But we can’t support what we can’t see. Connection begins with visibility. Eye contact. A wave. A smile. Greeting your student by name. These simple gestures remind students—and us—that we’re in this together.

Cameras On, Learning Up

The online classroom is not inherently sterile or mellow. It can be alive, dynamic, and even spirited. If we want to train thoughtful clinicians, if we want to foster meaningful dialogue, if we want to stir the pot in all the right ways, then let’s challenge the online black box. Let’s make the virtual space not just a platform for content, but a community, with cameras on and curiosity engaged. Connection doesn’t happen by accident—it’s built, moment by moment, face by face.

Beverly Wertheimer, PsyD, DMin, LCSW, is an adjunct professor of psychology at Pepperdine University, a child and adolescent psychotherapist specializing in cognitive and meaning-centered therapies, and a certified life coach. She was previously a TV news anchor, reporter, and bureau chief at ABC and NBC affiliates, and CNN’s Turner Entertainment.

References

Abargil, M., Schenkolewski, A., & Tishby, O. (2024). Therapists’ emotional responses and their relation to patients’ experience of attunement and responsiveness. Psychotherapy Research, 35(1), 54–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2024.2403422

Burgoon, J. K., Wang, X., Chen, X., Pentland, S. J., & Dunbar, N. E. (2021). Nonverbal behaviors “speak” relational messages of dominance, trust, and composure. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 624177. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.624177

Chacon, M., Levine, R. S., & Bintliff, A. (2023). Student perceptions: How virtual student-led talking circles promote engagement, social connectedness, and academic benefit. Active Learning in Higher Education, 25(3), 569-587. https://doi.org/10.1177/14697874231179238

Chen, H.-R., & Chen, J.-H. (2015). Design of attention-based recommendation learning mechanism in the cloud computing environment. In 2015 IEEE 15th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT) (pp. 456–457). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2015.91

Halpern J. (2003), What is clinical empathy? J Gen Intern Med.18(8):670-4. https://doi:10.1046/j.1525-1497.2003.21017.x. PMID: 12911651

Mehrabian, A. (1971). Silent messages (1st ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Pi, Z., Zhang, L., Zhao, X., & Li, X. (2024). Peers turning on cameras promotes learning in video conferencing. Computers & Education, 212, 104986. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104986

Santacroce, L., Appiah, R., Sullivan, MD., Spaniol, J., (2025) Brief social presence improves delayed memory for online lecture content. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0318149. PMID: 39879187

Siegel, D. J. (1999). The developing mind: Toward a neurobiology of interpersonal experience (1st ed., pp. 69–70). Guilford Press.

Xia, L., Wang, L., & Huang, C. (2024). Implementing a Social Presence-Based Teaching Strategy in Online Lecture Learning. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 14(9), 2580-2597. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe14090170

Yoon, P., & Leem, J. (2021). The Influence of Social Presence in Online Classes Using Virtual Conferencing: Relationships between Group Cohesion, Group Efficacy, and Academic Performance. Sustainability, 13(4), 1988. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041988

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October 17, 2025
The Black Box Problem: Why Cameras Matter in the Online Classroom – Faculty Focus

It started with small talk at one of those laid-back faculty mixers—the kind designed for exchanging ideas and sparking new connections. As an online graduate psychology professor, I find these in-person moments to be, quite literally, grounding. During one conversation, a colleague chuckled and said, “Online teaching is almost too mild and peaceful sometimes. I feel like throwing in something controversial just to keep things lively!”

We all laughed, but beneath the humor was a plain truth: online learning, while valuable, convenient, and accessible, can sometimes lack the tension and spontaneity of in-person discussion and debate. My colleague’s observation wasn’t just about livening up the virtual classroom. It was also about cohesion and presence—something online classrooms most certainly lack when students keep their cameras off (Yoon & Leem, 2021; Xia et al., 2024).

Ghosts in the Machine

Faculty across various online institutions have noted the striking stillness of teaching to a grid of black boxes—no visible students, no expressions, only disembodied names suspended in silence. Research shows that when students choose to stay invisible, it’s not just the teacher who loses out—the entire class dynamic suffers (Pi et al., 2024). It’s well documented that visual presence in online learning increases engagement and social connection (Chen & Chen, 2015). The reality is that many online students are reluctant to speak up— there’s seemingly more at stake when your comment hangs in a recorded cloud that can be replayed and scrutinized. And without real-time facial feedback or the encouragement gleaned from someone else’s nod of agreement, students are more likely to retreat into passivity. In fact, more than 3 in 10 college students are less apt to participate in online discussions than their in-person peers (Chacon et al., 2023).

As I’ve learned both from teaching and parenting, the online space provides ample room for multitasking. One of my children, currently a college undergrad, “attended” a class recently while sautéing vegetables, chatting with a sibling, and tossing treats to our dog, Lemon. And no, I don’t fault her—she’s a bright, capable student. The responsibility, in this case, rests more with the instructor, who didn’t require cameras to be on and appeared resigned to teaching to what was basically an empty room.

Cameras On: A Case for Presence and Politeness

At the university where I teach online, students are expected to keep their cameras on, not because we’re attention-hungry control freaks, but because we understand how people actually learn. We know that attention is fragile, and focus is fleeting. Connection and concentration are bedrocks of meaningful and effective education (Chen & Chen, 2015).

Having cameras on isn’t just a matter of preference. It’s a matter of politeness. It’s about showing up for others, not just for yourself. Just as you’d make eye contact in a physical classroom (or anywhere, for that matter), nod in response, or lean in when someone shares a vulnerable insight, keeping your camera on says: I see you. I’m here. I’m listening.

For group discussions and breakouts, this becomes even more critical (Santacroce et al., 2025). The group dynamic depends on feedback loops—on tone, facial expression, and gestures (Santacroce et al, 2025). Without cameras, we strip these interactions of emotional nuance. Colleagues share that camera-off students are far less likely to challenge each other, less likely to support each other, and less likely to forge the kind of connections that make grad school so meaningful.

Teaching Professionals, Not Spectators

Let’s not forget—we’re teaching future professionals; in my field, that means guiding the next generation of psychotherapists and psychologists. These aren’t just students aiming to pass exams—they’re future professionals who’ll be supporting people, solving problems, and making decisions in complex, real-world situations. They must become experts at observing, interpreting, and responding thoughtfully to the world around them. For example, if they can’t learn to read a room, interpret subtle cues, or stay attentive during collaborative work, how will they respond effectively in their chosen field?

In fact, attunement— being aware of and responsive to subtle emotional cues—is fundamental to clinical work (Siegel, 1999) for my students and professional success for students in any discipline. Without practicing these skills in the classroom, students may enter the workforce without a full toolkit. It’s like learning to swim by watching videos—helpful in theory, but it doesn’t prepare you for the feel of the water.

Avalon and the Art of Connection

Recently, while playing the board game Avalon with my college-aged kids and their friends, I had a revelation. For those unfamiliar, Avalon is a game of secret identities, deception, and deduction. Players are secretly assigned roles—either loyal members of King Arthur’s court or villainous minions of Mordred. The “good” players must complete missions without being sabotaged, while the “evil” ones seek to stealthily undermine them.

It gets loud. It gets passionate. People argue, analyze, accuse, and defend. It’s part logic puzzle, part psychological combat. As I watched my kids animatedly playing this game, I imagined them trying to do so with their figurative cameras off. No gestures, no expression, no eye contact, no interaction. It would be confusing at best, and completely unenjoyable at worst.

Avalon, like the online classroom dynamics I’ve described, thrives on presence—on people being fully engaged and visible to one another in real time. Success in the game requires attention to subtle shifts in tone and confidence, keen observation of behavior, and collaboration. These skills mirror the very competencies we hope to cultivate in future clinicians.

What the Research Says: Nonverbal Speaks Volumes

The importance of nonverbal communication isn’t just anecdotal—it’s backed by research. In a seminal study, Mehrabian (1971) found that 93% of communication is nonverbal, with 55% attributed to body language and 38% to tone of voice, leaving only 7% to the actual words spoken. While these numbers have been debated, the consensus remains: nonverbal cues are crucial to understanding and connection. And more recent research highlights that body language conveys emotion, regulates interactions, and builds trust (Burgoon et al., 2021). These functions are central in the therapeutic alliance—and they begin in the classroom.

Nice Doesn’t Mean Neglect

Some instructors avoid requiring cameras because they want to be “nice.” They worry about students feeling judged, self-conscious, or overwhelmed. These concerns are real, and there are compassionate ways to address them. But we must not confuse niceness with neglect. There are many ways to support students: flexible deadlines, empathetic check-ins, diverse teaching and evaluation methods. But we can’t support what we can’t see. Connection begins with visibility. Eye contact. A wave. A smile. Greeting your student by name. These simple gestures remind students—and us—that we’re in this together.

Cameras On, Learning Up

The online classroom is not inherently sterile or mellow. It can be alive, dynamic, and even spirited. If we want to train thoughtful clinicians, if we want to foster meaningful dialogue, if we want to stir the pot in all the right ways, then let’s challenge the online black box. Let’s make the virtual space not just a platform for content, but a community, with cameras on and curiosity engaged. Connection doesn’t happen by accident—it’s built, moment by moment, face by face.

Beverly Wertheimer, PsyD, DMin, LCSW, is an adjunct professor of psychology at Pepperdine University, a child and adolescent psychotherapist specializing in cognitive and meaning-centered therapies, and a certified life coach. She was previously a TV news anchor, reporter, and bureau chief at ABC and NBC affiliates, and CNN’s Turner Entertainment.

References

Abargil, M., Schenkolewski, A., & Tishby, O. (2024). Therapists’ emotional responses and their relation to patients’ experience of attunement and responsiveness. Psychotherapy Research, 35(1), 54–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2024.2403422

Burgoon, J. K., Wang, X., Chen, X., Pentland, S. J., & Dunbar, N. E. (2021). Nonverbal behaviors “speak” relational messages of dominance, trust, and composure. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 624177. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.624177

Chacon, M., Levine, R. S., & Bintliff, A. (2023). Student perceptions: How virtual student-led talking circles promote engagement, social connectedness, and academic benefit. Active Learning in Higher Education, 25(3), 569-587. https://doi.org/10.1177/14697874231179238

Chen, H.-R., & Chen, J.-H. (2015). Design of attention-based recommendation learning mechanism in the cloud computing environment. In 2015 IEEE 15th International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT) (pp. 456–457). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2015.91

Halpern J. (2003), What is clinical empathy? J Gen Intern Med.18(8):670-4. https://doi:10.1046/j.1525-1497.2003.21017.x. PMID: 12911651

Mehrabian, A. (1971). Silent messages (1st ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Pi, Z., Zhang, L., Zhao, X., & Li, X. (2024). Peers turning on cameras promotes learning in video conferencing. Computers & Education, 212, 104986. doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2023.104986

Santacroce, L., Appiah, R., Sullivan, MD., Spaniol, J., (2025) Brief social presence improves delayed memory for online lecture content. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0318149. PMID: 39879187

Siegel, D. J. (1999). The developing mind: Toward a neurobiology of interpersonal experience (1st ed., pp. 69–70). Guilford Press.

Xia, L., Wang, L., & Huang, C. (2024). Implementing a Social Presence-Based Teaching Strategy in Online Lecture Learning. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 14(9), 2580-2597. https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe14090170

Yoon, P., & Leem, J. (2021). The Influence of Social Presence in Online Classes Using Virtual Conferencing: Relationships between Group Cohesion, Group Efficacy, and Academic Performance. Sustainability, 13(4), 1988. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041988

Source link

October 17, 2025
The People Have Fought Back Against the President Before & Can Again w/ Prof. Corey Brettschneider (Malcolm Nance, Black Man Spy)

Higher Education Inquirer : The People Have Fought Back Against the President Before & Can Again w/ Prof. Corey Brettschneider (Malcolm Nance, Black Man Spy)

The People Have Fought Back Against the President Before & Can Again w/ Prof. Corey Brettschneider (Malcolm Nance, Black Man Spy)

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September 25, 2025
Feds Press CPS to End Black Student Initiative, Transgender Student Guidelines – The 74

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The Trump administration says it will withhold some federal funding from Chicago Public Schools over an initiative to improve outcomes for Black students and guidelines allowing transgender students to play sports and use facilities based on the gender with which they identify.

Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary of civil rights in the U.S. Department of Education, wrote the district Tuesday saying his office has found CPS violated anti-discrimination laws and will lose grant dollars through the Magnet School Assistance Program. The district, with a budget of roughly $10.2 billion, has a five-year, $15 million Magnet Schools Assistance Program grant it received last year.

The feds are demanding that the district abolish the Black Student Success Plan it unveiled in February and issue a statement saying it will require students to compete in sports or use locker rooms and bathroom facilities based on their biological sex at birth, among other demands.

However, Illinois law conflicts on both fronts, putting CPS in a difficult position. The state issued guidance in March that outlines compliance with the Illinois Human Rights Law, including that schools must allow transgender students access to facilities that correspond to their gender identity. Separately, an Illinois law passed in 2024 requires the Chicago school board to have a Black Student Achievement Committee and plan for serving Black students.

Chicago Public Schools said Wednesday in an emailed statement that it “does not comment on ongoing investigations.” Previously, its leaders have said that the Black Students Success Plan is a priority to address longstanding academic and discipline disparities that Black students face. They have vowed to forge ahead with the five-year plan in defiance of the Trump administration’s crackdown on race-based initiatives.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said earlier this year that he would take the Trump administration to court if it takes federal funding away from CPS because of the district’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. His office also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In response to a complaint from a Virginia-based conservative nonprofit earlier this year, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into the Black Student Success Plan, which sets goals to double the number of male Black teachers, reduce Black student suspensions, and teach Black history in more classrooms. Trainor said in his department’s interpretation, the initiative runs afoul of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year banning the consideration of race in college admissions by offering added support to Black students and teachers exclusively.

“This is textbook racial discrimination, and no justification proffered by CPS can overcome the patent illegality of its racially exclusionary plan,” he wrote.

The OCR also launched an investigation in March of CPS, the Illinois State Board of Education, and suburban Deerfield Public School District 109 to look into their policies on transgender students using facilities and participating in school sports. Trainor said Chicago’s Guidelines Regarding the Support of Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students violate Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education.

District officials told Chalkbeat recently that the members of a new school board Black Student Achievement Committee tasked with overseeing the plan’s rollout will be unveiled later this month.

Stacy Davis Gates, the president of the Chicago Teachers Union, issued a statement decrying the federal move to withhold funds from CPS and saying the district will stay the course.

“We will not back down,” she said in the statement. “We will not apologize. Our duty is to our students, and no amount of political bullying will shake our commitment to them.”

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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September 21, 2025
Black Student Found Hanging From Tree at Delta State

Demartravion “Trey” Reed was a 21-year-old student at the Mississippi institution.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Delta State University has been rocked by the discovery of a Black student’s body hanging from a tree in the middle of campus on Monday.

Demartravion “Trey” Reed was a 21-year-old student at the Mississippi institution. Recalling a long, painful history of lynchings, his death has spurred an outpouring of grief and anger across the country.

The Bolivar County Coroner’s Office said on Monday that a preliminary examination of Reed’s body showed no evidence of foul play, including “any lacerations, contusions, compound fractures, broken bones or injuries consistent with an assault.”

But Reed’s family members are calling for their own investigation, including an independent autopsy, and have demanded access to video footage that might reveal more details of his death.

“From the beginning, the family has been seeking transparency in this investigation,” Vanessa J. Jones, an attorney representing the family, told Inside Higher Ed. “Especially after a tragic incident like this occurs, and you’re dealing with a state that has a past history which includes a painful history of racial violence … transparency is paramount.”

The Reed family’s distrust in the handling of the student’s death was deepened when officials allowed his mother to view her son’s body from the neck up only, Jones said.

Officers also shared conflicting details of Reed’s death when they first spoke to his family, Jones said. According to Jones, the Grenada County Sheriff’s Department went to Reed’s grandfather’s home on Monday and said Reed was found dead in his dorm room “from an apparent suicide.”

Prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump has taken on the family’s case and said in a post on X that he will lead a team of civil rights leaders and organizers in “pursuing transparency for Trey’s family.”

“We cannot accept vague conclusions when so many questions remain,” he wrote. Crump described Reed as a “young man full of promise and warmth, deeply loved and respected by all who knew him.”

Lawmakers are also demanding more information.

“We’ll never have true justice for Trey, because that would mean he would still be with us—but there must be answers,” Massachusetts representative Ayanna Pressley wrote on X.

Mississippi representative Bennie G. Thompson called for a federal investigation into Reed’s death.

“It is always a tragedy when a young life is cut short,” Thompson said in a statement. “We must leave no stone unturned in the search for answers. While the details of this case are still emerging, we cannot ignore Mississippi’s painful history of lynching and racial violence against African Americans.”

Updates From the University

At a press conference Wednesday, Delta State University president Daniel J. Ennis said Reed’s loss was “devastating” and “the manner of how Trey was discovered has stirred many emotions in this community and many emotions around the state and the nation.”

Ennis reiterated the coroner’s early conclusions but said he recognized the psychological impact of Reed’s death. “This is not only about facts,” Ennis said. “It’s about emotions and it’s about feelings and the way this loss and how it was discovered affects people’s lives.”

Ennis, who is white, said he acknowledged his weakness in not being “adequate to speak to the imagery that this incident raises.”

Delta State serves roughly 2,800 students, about 40 percent of whom are Black. Ennis said the campus has been receiving threatening phone calls and messages since Reed’s death.

“I can say that my heartbreak is comprehensive, not just for Trey—although it is primarily for Trey—but for the fact that the rest of the world has an impression of Delta State that is so at odds with what I know to be this institution,” which is “the joy and the grace of people living and working together and respecting each other,” he said.

Mike Peeler, Delta State University chief of police, told the press that Reed’s body was transported to the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office for a full autopsy on Wednesday morning. Authorities expect preliminary autopsy results within 24 to 48 hours. He said DSU Police, the Cleveland Police Department, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the Bolivar County Sheriff’s Office planned to update the public on the findings after first meeting with Reed’s next of kin.

He told reporters law enforcement officials were reviewing relevant video, but he couldn’t offer any more details. Peeler also said he had no information about Reed’s family being told his death took place in his dorm room.

He emphasized during the press conference that “this is an isolated incident” and “there are currently no active threats to the campus,” which “remains a safe environment for students, faculty and staff.”

‘Heartbroken’ Students

Nonetheless, the grisly incident has frightened Black students on campus.

“Hearing that happened to another Black student, it really makes me feel unsafe,” a Delta State student, Stacie Hoskins, told WAPT16.

The nature of Reed’s death has had an emotional impact on Black students on other campuses as well; some treated it as a foregone conclusion that Reed was killed and issued statements of support to fellow students.

The Black Student Union at Illinois State University directed students to campus counseling resources, and its executive board said it was “heartbroken by the tragic loss of Trey Reed, whose life was cut short by a horrific act of violence.”

North Carolina A&T University’s NAACP chapter posted on Instagram that Reed “could have been any of us. Any Black student. Any campus.”

“Our education is under attack. Our sanity is under attack. Our very existence is under attack,” the chapter said. “We refuse to stay silent. Black lives matter. Black students matter. Always.”

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September 17, 2025
ASALH Brings Annual Conference to Atlanta Amid Attacks on Black History Education

The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) will convene its annual conference in Atlanta from September 24-28, 2025, bringing together Black leaders, academics, educators, and community members during what organizers describe as a “critical hour” for Black history and education.

TDr. Stephanie Y. Evanshe conference, themed “African Americans and Labor,” comes as educational institutions nationwide face mounting pressure over diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and as several states have enacted legislation restricting how race and racism can be discussed in classrooms.

The conference will feature several prominent voices in African American studies and social justice, including Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Dr. Edda Fields-Black and scholar-activist Dr. Ibram X. Kendi. Labor organizer Chris Smalls, who led the successful effort to form the first independent union at an Amazon warehouse in the United States through the Amazon Labor Union, will headline the Friday John Blassingame Luncheon.

Other featured speakers include historians Drs. Peniel Joseph, Maurice Hobson, Stephanie Evans, and Joe Trotter Jr., along with civil rights leaders Ambassador Andrew and Andrea Young and Rev. Jamal Bryant.

A key component of the conference programming will address current challenges facing educators and institutions seeking to teach Black history. Specialized sessions will provide guidance to librarians, teachers, and community organizers on establishing Freedom Schools and teaching Black history “in the current challenged national environment.”

Dr. Peniel JosephThe Wednesday plenary session, “The Fire Now!,” will specifically examine how budgets and policies are “Undermining Preservation of the African American Experience,” featuring experts from the National Parks Conservation Association, Trust for Public Land, and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

“Our goal is to make as many of the activities free and accessible to the public as possible,” organizers announced, with Wednesday sessions, plenaries, film festival screenings, poster sessions, and vendor exhibits offered at no charge.

Thursday’s plenary, “Towards a Theory of Liberation: The State of Black Radicalism Today,” will feature scholars Drs. Charisse Burden-Stelly, Gerald Horne, Akinyele Umoja, Joy James, and Ashley Howard examining contemporary Black liberation movements.

Friday’s session will honor the scholarship of historian Dr. Joe William Trotter Jr., a leading expert on African American labor history and urban studies.

A Saturday luncheon titled “An Unusual Emphasis on Scholarship: Carter G. Woodson, Omega Psi Phi, and the Power of Black History” will explore the legacy of ASALH’s founder and the role of Black Greek letter organizations in preserving African American history.

Registration for the ASALH Conference is open, with both free and ticketed events available. The annual gathering represents one of the premier venues for African American historical scholarship and community engagement in the United States.

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September 13, 2025
LSU’s First Black Law Dean Alleges Discrimination in Forced Departure

Alena AllenAlena Allen, who broke barriers in 2023 as the first Black person and woman to serve as dean of Louisiana State University’s Paul M. Hebert Law Center, will step down from her leadership role against her wishes, citing racial and gender discrimination.

LSU announced Allen’s departure in an internal email dated August 29, stating she would transition to a full-time faculty position at the Baton Rouge institution. However, Allen maintains she did not voluntarily resign and may pursue legal action for alleged whistleblower retaliation.

The controversy began when Allen raised concerns about financial “irregularities” she discovered in the law school’s budget—problems that predated her appointment. When she attempted to address these gaps and implement reforms, Allen alleges LSU leadership unfairly blamed her for the pre-existing issues.

“I am the first woman and the first person of color to serve as the permanent dean of the Paul M. Hebert Law Center. That fact is not incidental—it is central to what follows,” Allen wrote in her response to auditors. “I find it deeply troubling, and frankly difficult to ignore, that I appear to be held to a standard far more exacting than that applied to my white, overwhelmingly male predecessors.”

Allen’s attorney claims the LSU Board of Supervisors “engaged in systematic discrimination and retaliatory conduct” against her, arguing that her predecessors had “oversaw and entrenched the very practices” she questioned and began reforming.

Allen’s forced departure adds to a concerning pattern of Black leadership exits at LSU. The university recently lost its first Black president, Dr. William Tate, who left on June 30 to become president of Rutgers University. Several other Black administrators have also announced departures from the institution.

After Allen requested an investigation into the alleged racial and gender discrimination, university leaders informed her during a meeting that the law school would move in a “different direction” without her leadership.

Allen will continue serving as dean through the end of the spring 2026 semester while LSU conducts a national search for her replacement. Interim LSU Provost Dr. Troy Blanchard is overseeing the search process.

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September 1, 2025