Esters’ portfolio, which includes overseeing the APLU’s Commission on Access, Diversity and Excellence, means working with both Black land-grants and the membership’s Hispanic-serving institutions. Serving as senior adviser to the president of historically Black Dillard University in New Orleans before coming to the APLU, Esters says his first year on the job has entailed reaching out but not always getting the collegial hand of some of the major HBCU policy and advocacy organizations that also count his 1890 institutions among their membership.
When it comes to ensuring the success and future of the nation’s HBCUs, “leadership and collaboration” are sorely needed, especially “on issues of relevance to all of our institutions,” says Esters.
This week, Esters meets in Denver with the APLU’s Commission on Access, Diversity and Excellence to lay the groundwork for a policy agenda that will tackle diversity in the professoriate, the underrepresentation of low-income and minority males in higher education, and the impact of the nation’s economic downtown on low-income and minority students.
