Book Launch: The Walls Around Opportunity, by UCLA Professor Gary Orfield

480 Charles E Young Drive East,Los Angeles CA 90024

13 September, 2022

Description

Join us for a roundtable discussion and reception celebrating the launch of UCLA Professor Gary Orfield's contribution to the Our Compelling Interest series, The Walls Around Opportunity: The Failure of Colorblind Policy for Higher Education. Roundtable: 2:30 - 4:00 P.M. Reception: 4:00 - 5:00 P.M. The roundtable discussion will be livestreamed (more info to come). ASL interpretors will be on site as well. About the speakers: Nancy Cantor - Chancellor, Rutgers University–Newark Audrey Dow - Sr. Vice President, Campaign for College Opportunity Stella M. Flores - Assoc. Professor, University of Texas at Austin and Director, Research & Strategy for the Education Research Center Earl Lewis - University of Michigan, Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor, Director/Founder, Center for Social Solutions Gary Orfield - UCLA Distinguished Research Professor and Co Director, Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles About the book: For many young people, racial inequality puts them at a disadvantage from early childhood. The Walls around Opportunity argues that colorblind policies have made college inaccessible to a large share of students of color, and reveals how policies that acknowledge racial inequalities and set racial equality goals can succeed where colorblindness has failed. Gary Orfield paints a troubling portrait of American higher education, explaining how profound racial gaps imbedded in virtually every stage of our children’s lives pose a major threat to communities of color and the nation. Drawing on a wealth of new data and featuring commentaries by Stella Flores and James Anderson, this timely and urgent book shows how colorblind policies serve only to raise the walls of segregation higher, and proposes real solutions that can make higher education available to all. This event is co-sponsored by UCLA School of Education and Information Studies and the UCLA Civil Rights Project. About the series: At a time when society is swiftly transforming, the Our Compelling Interests book series lays out the premise that for a democracy to thrive, diversity is critical. This series launched in the fall of 2016 under the leadership and editing of Dr. Earl Lewis and Dr. Nancy Cantor. With support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Our Compelling Interests is one of the key projects housed at the University of Michigan's Center for Social Solutions. Future volumes have been commissioned on educational testing, crime and incarceration, art and creativity, and education and social mobility. With the aid of a steering committee, additional publications are being conceived.