Follow up letter to ASHE members

March 20, 2024

Dear ASHE community,

We are following up on the message we sent on February 28, 2024. Most importantly to start, every member of our ASHE community matters to us, and we acknowledge and apologize for the harm that members of our community have experienced due to recent and historical situations that we must work on as a Board and Association.

To provide context, in November 2021, in response to Dr. D-L Stewart’s presidential address, the current editors of The Review of Higher Education (RHE) asked the ASHE Ethics Committee to review allegations of anti-Blackness within ASHE, as it specifically relates to the exclusion of two presidential addresses from publication in RHE. The Ethics Committee completed their investigation and submitted their report in March 2022.

The Ethics Committee underscored that there are historical and existing structures that make it easy for Black scholars’ labor to be overlooked. In their findings, they identified nine presidential addresses between 1977 and 2018 that were not published in an issue of RHE, including two by Black scholars. In addition, they found that there were systemic issues with publishing presidential addresses. These were attributed to an unclear process for the former ASHE Presidents, Executive Directors, and the RHE Editor to follow.

In its investigation, the Ethics Committee attempted to find the missing addresses of the past presidents. Three were no longer living, but attempts were made to find the addresses in university archives; two past presidents no longer had copies of their addresses; and four past presidents were recent enough that their addresses could be included in RHE. As a result of the findings, the Committee recommended the following actions:

The Executive Director should work with the four past presidents to collect their Presidential Addresses and work with Johns Hopkins University Press to create an erratum in the issue in which their address would have ordinarily been published. Any other missing addresses that become available from university archives/special collections should also be published when available. This should also be included on the Past Presidents ASHE website.
The Executive Director, in collaboration with the Publications Committee, should amend contracts with RHE Editors to include a process for them to follow to publish Presidential Addresses; following precedent, these will typically be included in the Summer issue following the Annual Conference.
ASHE should continue to record Presidential Addresses and make them publicly available along with a transcript of each address.
The ASHE President, Ethics Committee Acting Chair, and Executive Director send an email to the ASHE membership that describes the committee’s process, findings, and actions are taken, specifically the second, third, and fourth points above. This message should also address the real concerns raised by Dr. D-L Stewart in his address as well as include updates about the evolution of The Review of Higher Education.
The Executive Director should update the appropriate websites to include missing addresses and send an email to the ASHE membership announcing the availability of the Presidential Addresses.

The ASHE Executive Committee approved these recommendations in April 2022, and as such, the Executive Director was charged with locating, publishing errata, and posting the missing presidential addresses that could be located on the ASHE website. The ASHE Board was provided with the Ethics Committee Report and accepted the vote of the Executive Committee in June 2022. After the Board meeting, the report was shared with the RHE editors and Publication Committee. Also in June 2022, the ASHE Board approved revisions to the Inclusion, Equity, and Organizational Diversity (IEOD) Policy and the IEOD committee was established. The process to publish the missing presidential addresses that was outlined in the Ethics Committee’s recommendations was shared at a full RHE Editorial Board meeting. Further, all presidential addresses since 2019 have been published in the summer issue of RHE since the current editors and Executive Director took on their respective roles.

To date, ASHE has partially addressed the first and third recommendations, and plans for completing this work (i.e., publishing the addresses and providing transcripts on the website) are being finalized. The second recommendation has been addressed and this message addresses the fourth. Regarding the fifth recommendation, two of the missing addresses are in the midst of the usual procedural copy edits and will be included on the ASHE website and announced to the membership when they are available. Two past presidents have notified the current President and Executive Director that they no longer want their written addresses published in errata in RHE and posted on the ASHE website. Their decision not to publish was in response to the harm they felt regarding how the process was handled by ASHE in moving one of their addresses toward publication, as well as broader concerns about the treatment of Black womyn in ASHE. The current president has privately apologized to each past president.

Since then, ASHE members have contacted the Board raising concerns about the processes followed in publishing the missing presidential addresses, work done by the Council on Ethnic Participation (CEP) being subsumed within the larger Association, and larger concerns about harm experienced by Black womyn in the ASHE community recently and historically. In addition, five Black womyn and one Black man have resigned from their leadership roles in ASHE.

We want to publicly acknowledge the harm that has been caused as a result of this and other situations as we simultaneously commit to working toward restorative justice. Here are the direct actions we have taken since February 14, 2024 and will continue to take:

Individual responses acknowledging concerns and reporting actions taken related to their concerns at the time of the message to all those who resigned and those emailing concerns.
Held three emergency Board meetings to develop actions to address concerns presented by members.
Board Action: Paused implementation of entity and organizational changes proposed by ASHE member workgroup (These proposals included recommendations to change Council (e.g., CEP) and other entities’ participation on the Board.).
Editors of RHE reached out to one Black womyn president, informally and formally, after learning about the aforementioned issues from an Editorial Board member who resigned. In a meeting with the full RHE Editorial Board, RHE created a task force to learn more about what occurred with the missing past presidential speeches and explore ways it may address concerns raised about epistemic violence toward Black womyn.
Board Action: Two separate processes will be initiated to inform future decisions to address recent concerns raised by ASHE members: (1) external inquiry into processes and actions taken regarding the publication of missing presidential addresses; (2) internal assessment of cultural and sociopolitical climate.
Review of the climate in ASHE regarding the treatment of Black womyn in the Association and concerns raised about CEP’s efforts being subsumed into the Association is necessary as part of an internal assessment. This may be led by the Inclusion, Equity, and Organizational Diversity Committee in possible partnership with the Ethics Committee. The climate study may also include an Organizational Readiness to Change Assessment.
Board Action: Created subcommittee to identify individual(s) to conduct a third-party inquiry into the association’s processes followed for publication of missing presidential addresses and report to the Board findings of violations of overreach and/or missteps in ASHE’s existing processes, if any. They will also recommend action items as a result of those findings, including changes to processes, policies, and bylaws.
The subcommittee will inform the Board of their recommendations for the inquiry and the Board will determine the best option for the inquiry so it can start as soon as possible.
Board Action: Charged ASHE President and Publications Chair to discuss the possibility of the current editors of RHE to assume the publication process going forward for the missing presidential addresses.
Some of the members who expressed concerns also included possible actions that could be taken to address them. The Board is grateful for these suggestions; several informed the actions already taken. Those specifically related to RHE and the ASHE conference have been shared with the current RHE editors and Conference Committee Leadership Team for their consideration as they participate in efforts to redress harm.

The Board will continue to engage in this critical work. Our actions, and any actions within the Association, should not be performative if we are to transform our climate and culture and to operationalize our values of integrity, responsibility, honesty, respect, and fairness.

If you have any questions, please reach out directly to Dr. Jeni Hart (president@ashe.ws), current president.

Respectfully,

Jeni Hart, President

Ana Martínez-Alemán, Immediate Past President

Eboni Zamani-Gallaher, President Elect

Cameron Beatty, At-Large Member

Felecia Commodore, At-Large Member

Antonio Duran, At-Large Member

Jennifer Johnson, At-Large Member

Vigor Lam, Graduate Student Member

Hannah Hyun White, Graduate Student Member

Tomika Ferguson, Inclusion, Equity, and Organizational Diversity Chair

Beth Bukoski, CAHEP Chair

Natasha Croom, CEP Chair

Christina Yao, CIHE Chair

Kevin McClure, CPPHE Chair

Heather Rowan-Kenyon, Publications Committee Chair