Naomi Harris

Jerome Taylor attracted Black students in psychology, a field badly in need of diversification, through mentoring, workshops, and collaboration.

Donald Green takes over in the wake of an uproar on campus over an attempt to lay off 17 faculty members. With new leadership, some professors are hopeful for change.

As colleges and universities face demands to address racial inequities, there’s one stark gap at nearly every campus in the region.

The union that represents the faculty argued that the layoff notices in February “appeared to target members of minority groups, including women of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.”

Across the country, students have pressed for change. As their leadership roles put them in contact with university administrators, they also bear the burden of trying to reform the very institutions they feel have failed to hear them for years.

At the city's universities, the response of students and instructors is both community-oriented and deeply personal.

The university works to tackle health disparities, exacerbated by COVID-19, by providing screenings and other services to people where they live.

“I was told at an early age that education was the key. It was the ticket," one said. "But no one informed me how to do that so that I was not paralyzed.”