Higher Education

OU professor part of Biden ‘hate’ workshop

July 12, 2024

Ray Carter

Kaleb Briscoe, an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education, was featured at a workshop on “hate and bias-related incidents” hosted by the Biden White House on May 29 and 30.

A release issued by OU said Briscoe discussed “racialized incidents” and “the growing rate of hate crimes on college campuses in recent years” at the event.

According to her biography on the OU website, Briscoe’s research “problematizes oppressed and marginalized populations within higher education through critical theoretical frameworks and qualitative methodological approaches.”

“Through her scholarship on campus racial climate and hate crimes, she seeks to disrupt whiteness and white supremacy on predominantly white campuses,” the OU website states. “Her research shapes administrators, specifically university presidents’ responses to race and racism, by challenging their use of anti-blackness and non-performative rhetoric.”

Briscoe is the author of research articles that include “Student Affairs Professionals’ Experiences with Campus Racial Climate at Predominantly White Institutions” and “The Commodification of Men of Color Initiatives: Community Colleges Directors’ Experiences with Non-performative Commitment.” Her scholarly presentations include “Whiteness, here, Whiteness everywhere: How Student Affairs Professionals Experience Whiteness at Predominantly White Institutions,” “Against All Odds: Black Women Doctoral Students’ Experiences,” and “Exploring Latino Engineering Students’ Ethnic Identity.”

Briscoe’s national professional conference presentations include “Approaching FSL Practice with a Critical Race Perspective” and “Studying Higher Education/Student Affairs in the Trump/DeVos Era.”

The hate-and-bias workshop was organized by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, National Security Council, and the Domestic Policy Council. Briscoe said the Biden White House event “really gave you a big-picture understanding of what is happening nationally surrounding procedures and policies of hate crimes.”

Briscoe is an assistant professor of adult and higher education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, which is part of the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education at the University of Oklahoma.

The website for the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education, which trains future K-12 teachers, states that the school’s goal is to “become a part of a community of learners who engage in transformative scholarship with and in communities to advance justice and promote human dignity.”

This year, the OU Board of Regents voted to increase student tuition for the fourth year in a row. That comes on top of, and compounds, the school’s longstanding trend of significant tuition increases.

In August 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported that some public universities “have been on an unfettered spending spree” with the bill “passed” on to students. The paper identified OU as one of the worst offenders.

“The University of Oklahoma hit students with some of the biggest tuition increases, while spending millions on projects including acquiring and renovating a 32,000-square-foot Italian monastery for its study-abroad program,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

Between 2002 and 2022, the Journal found that enrollment at OU increased 15 percent, but tuition increased by 36 percent even after adjusting for inflation. And once student fees were included, the combined rate of growth was even more dramatic.

“At the University of Oklahoma, per-student tuition and fees rose 166%, the most of any flagship,” the Journal reported. “The school also borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars to perform building upgrades and erect new dormitories.”

Polling done from June 3 to 23 by Gallup found that just 36 percent of U.S. adults now say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in higher education. In 2015, the share of adults expressing that view was 57 percent.

“Of Americans who lack confidence in higher education, 41% mention colleges being ‘too liberal,’ trying to ‘indoctrinate’ or ‘brainwash’ students, or not allowing students to think for themselves as reasons for their opinions,” Gallup reported. “Nearly the same percentage, 37%, are critical of higher education for not teaching relevant skills, for college degrees not meaning much, or for graduates not being able to find employment. Twenty-eight percent mention cost concerns, such as the price of a college education or high student debt levels.”

Photo credit: University of Oklahoma. For more stories about higher education in Oklahoma, visit AimHigherOK.com.