HESA Alum Jeremy Morris (M.S.Ed.’07) is running for a seat on the Indiana University Board of Trustees. His platform includes making  IU more affordable for students, decreasing student loan debt for IU graduates, and  redeveloping IU’s strategy and approach to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion. Currently, Jeremy serves as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. He is also an Adjunct Law Professor at IU McKinney School of Law teaching subjects in criminal law. You can find out more about his platform and how to support at his campaign website. 

This year the graduating master’s class wrote Op-Ed’s focused on topics within higher education. Each student presented the op-ed to the class for discussion throughout the semester. At the conclusion of the semester the class identified 2 Op-Ed’s to be part of the May HESA Highlights. We are delighted to share the following two pieces:

Considerations in Decolonizing Biological Sciences in Higher Education
By: Jessica Hoopengardner

The First Amendment within the Classroom: Is Academic Freedom Still Relevant?
By: Jaelyn Millon

Dr. Jim Hoppe (M.S.Ed. ‘89) has been named a 2021 NASPA Pillar of the Profession. This award honors members of the profession who are individuals of sustained professional distinction in the higher education field, have served in leadership roles in NASPA, are being recognized or remembered by colleagues, friends, students, or student organizations for extraordinary service, and have made significant lifetime contributions to the higher education field. Dr. Hoppe currently serves as the Vice President and Dean for Campus Life at Emerson College. He has over 30 years of experience in student affairs and higher education. Dr. Hoppe has passionately served students at selective and private institutions while remaining focused on creating pathways for access to education. He is a strong advocate for LGBTQ rights both on campus and within his community.

Dr. Shaun Harper (M.S.Ed.’00, Ph.D.’03) was elected into the National Academy of Education. The National Academy of Education is an honorary society consisting of U.S. members and international associates who are elected on the basis of outstanding scholarship related to education. He is currently a Provost Professor in the Rossier School of Education and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. He also is the founder and executive director of the USC Race and Equity Center, and editor-at-large of TIME magazine.

HESA Assistant Professor, Dr. Cindy Ann Kilgo was elected Chair-Elect of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Queer Studies Special Interest Group (SIG). They will serve as Chair-Elect for one year, followed by two years as Chair of the SIG. The AERA Queer Studies SIG is committed to fostering empirical, interpretive, and critical educational research relating to queer issues, and to network individuals and organizations conducting or supporting such research.

Current HESA Masters student and Student Personnel Association President, Johnnie Allen Jr. received the Inaugural Neal-Marshall Legacy Award. The award recognizes students that have been outstanding inside and outside the classroom while also supporting the Indiana University Bloomington Neal-Marshall Black Cultural Center. As an IUB undergraduate and current Master’s student, Mr. Allen has contributed to the NMBCC as a Student Programming Office Intern, Mentor/Facilitator for the Neal-Marshall Freshman Leadership Academy, and is a strong advocate for other Black Students on the IUB campus.

Dr. Megan Covington (Ph.D. '21), recently began a position as a Research Associate for the United Negro College Fund’s (UNCF) Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute. At UNCF, Dr. Covington is responsible for designing and executing research methods that support the larger research agenda at UNCF. Currently, Dr. Covington works primarily with a research series called the HBCU Effect, which seeks to understand, validate and promote the success of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to develop a counter narrative that fully illustrates their value and competitiveness.

Dr. Sacha Sharp (Ph.D. ‘20) has received the American Educational Research Association (AERA)  Division J Dissertation of the Year Award and the AERA Research on Women in Education SIG Outstanding Dissertation Award for their dissertation “A Dramaturgical Analysis of Black Women Graduate Students' Social Media Use as a Space for Reclamation, Resistance, and Healing.” Dr. Sharp is currently an Assistant Professor at Indiana University School of Medicine. They are also working on a grant funded initiative where they are creating and studying a virtual community developed for Black and Latinx Women in medicine.

HESA Doctoral Students Seonmi Jin & Kriti Gopal received the Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) award for their proposed project about exploring the challenges of applying High Impact Practices (HIP) in online learning environments and how online learning environments can be designed to promote HIP by interviewing graduate student teachers at IU. The GPSG research award is offered through a competitive process for graduate and professional students at Indiana University-Bloomington.

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) recently released a series of data-informed stories “Engagement Insights” to share findings from the 2020 survey.  The four installments feature results about timely topics in higher education, including high-impact practices (HIPs) and the interpersonal dimension of advising using data from our updated Academic Advising Topical Module. The Trust Gap Among College Students examines a special data collection on notions of trust—a fundamental factor that permeates student life and decision-making. The first story in the series explored students’ sense of belonging, drawing on three items added to the core NSSE survey in 2020. Findings are complemented by a public Tableau dashboard to query the data by student characteristics.  Each story also highlights inspiring accounts from 16 colleges and universities (including IU Bloomington) about their use of results on the topics of advising, HIPs, and sense of belonging, and improved educational practice.