The practice of a university president, dean, or other university leader issuing a statement in response to a high-profile current event, policy, or phenomenon is business as usual for higher education. Recently, university leaders have received perhaps an unprecedented amount of scrutiny and consequences for statements in response to external…

Land acknowledgments are one step that educators and institutions can take to begin realigning their relationship with Indigenous peoples. However, many fear doing more harm than good when taking the first step of doing a land acknowledgment. In this paper an instructor who overcame such hesitation and an Indigenous faculty member share a six item…

Communication is the most powerful tool we have to challenge the plague of invisibility impacting our Indigenous communities. As we continue to challenge the diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives touted by our institutions, we need to move beyond mission statements to "motion" (i.e., action required for meaningful transformation…

While schools' official vision statements--statements school leaders write telling their own deep vision for what they want their school to be--generally aren't empowering, they could be. A well-crafted vision statement is a powerful tool because it articulates the promise a leader and school staff make to students and provides focus. Drawing on…

Contemporary events, including the recent Presidential campaign, have demonstrated the symbolic and political significance of language in our society and culture. Language is a primary tool for "naming the world" and defining our desires roles - as subjects and ojects - in the environments we inhabit. Yet, as often as language is a means…

This essay is an empirical account of English language use, across three continents, in 40 Tuning and analogous discipline-based statements of desired demonstrated competences and learning outcomes in higher education. It is primarily concerned with lexical and semantic matters, takes the perspective of the student as the primary reader and…

Making the shift from the medical model of disability to the social model requires postsecondary disabilities offices to carefully examine and revise policies and procedures to reflect this paradigm shift, which gives them the credibility to work toward such change on the campus level. The process followed by one university is covered in-depth, as…