The second installment of Colgate’s spring Presidential Speaker Series featured a Q&A session led by Vice President and Chief of Staff to the President L. Hazel Jack with Eddie R. Cole, professor of education and history at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom.
A higher education historian, Cole delves into how university histories can inform present-day issues in education, and he examines the complex relationships between institutions and their communities.
Growing up in a predominantly Black community an hour away from the University of Alabama, Cole witnessed firsthand the differing perspectives between universities and their surrounding communities regarding the institution’s legacy. This experience sparked his interest in the social histories of universities. “We have to remember that different communities from different backgrounds also have narratives and histories of campuses as well,” Cole says.
Cole explored such stories in depth when he visited the archives of close to 30 college campuses across the country while conducting research for his book. At the University of Chicago, he was surprised to learn what a significant role a university can have in physically shaping its neighborhoods and cities.
However, not all relationships between institutions and their communities are the same. With rising skepticism of the value of higher education, Cole acknowledges there is merit to criticisms that some colleges appear removed from everyday life and people. Still, he cautions against making sweeping generalizations about all institutions — there are over 4,000 degree-granting institutions in the country, each with its own unique history and role in its community. Cole points to tribal colleges and Historically Black Colleges and Universities as examples of institutions that are positively engaged with their communities.
“Whenever you see a headline that talks about higher education, you should stop and think, ‘Whose higher education is this story really about? Is it about all American higher education or a very thin subset of institutions that tend to have a megaphone and speak on behalf of all colleges and universities?’” Cole says.
Regardless of institution type, Cole urges all university leadership to connect with the people in their communities and step outside the physical confines of their campuses. “What if the leaders of a university met at a coffee shop as opposed to the president’s conference room? What if academic departments and faculty did?”
In addition to fostering active engagement with the community, Cole concluded by encouraging leaders to regularly revisit their institution’s history to inform the legacy they are actively crafting.
“If you have recurring conversations about the history of the place, you have a better handle and touch on the place that you’re leading and the history that you’re creating in this moment,” Cole says.