News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Life
Culture & Art
Hobbies
News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Culture & Art
Hobbies
- home
›- Cloaking Inequity By Julian Vasquez Heilig
›- Education & Personal Development
Cloaking Inequity By Julian Vasquez Heilig - Education & Personal Development
10 | Follower
2026 Best Colleges: Students Are Not Bumper Stickers – Cloaking Inequity
Every fall, new waves of university rankings hit the headlines. Media outlets trumpet which institutions rose, which fell, and which managed to hold on to coveted spots at the top. Parents share the results, institutions market them, and high school students pore over the lists as they build their application strategies. Rankings season has become…
Do Billionaires and Ultra “Successful” People Give the Worst Life Advice? – Cloaking Inequity
When billionaires step onto a stage, release a book, or tweet some glossy piece of wisdom, the world pays attention. They are the icons of achievement, the proof that extraordinary success is possible. Their words are repeated in classrooms, boardrooms, and commencement addresses. Yet, beneath the glimmering surface of motivational sound bites lies an uncomfortable…
AI Code Red: Why We Must Evolve Education – Cloaking Inequity
When I read the Poets & Quants article “We Expected More: Stanford GSB Students Call for Higher Teaching Standards,” I felt a familiar mix of agreement and urgency. Students at one of the world’s most prestigious graduate schools were speaking plainly about their disappointment. Their courses, especially the required core ones, often felt disconnected from…
Bad Bunny, the Super Bowl, and Why People are Really Nervous – Cloaking Inequity
The Super Bowl has always been more than football. It is a ritual, a spectacle, a national performance. It’s where America tells the world who it thinks it is, and who it wants to be. Which is why the announcement that Bad Bunny will host the halftime show is far more significant than a musical…
No Grace Period for Constitutional Rights! – Cloaking Inequity
One of the defining dangers of the Trump regime is its willingness to treat the Constitution as optional, something to be worked around rather than obeyed. Detaining citizens without proper due process is the clearest example of this mindset. What the government and its defenders often suggest is that these violations are minor, temporary, or…
Trump’s New “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” Isn’t American at All—It’s Chinese – Cloaking Inequity
It was not proudly announced at a press conference or rolled out in a White House event. Instead, the media uncovered that the administration had quietly asked nine universities, including Penn, Vanderbilt, MIT, Dartmouth, USC, Arizona, Brown, Texas, and Virginia, to sign on to a so-called “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.” The language…
Quantico Wasn’t a Meeting, It Was a Warning – Cloaking Inequity
History has a way of whispering warnings to us if we are willing to listen. Patterns repeat themselves across continents and decades, and those who pay attention can see when old power plays are being dusted off for new audiences. One of the clearest patterns in the authoritarian playbook throughout history is the military loyalty…
History’s Lesson for Us Today: Moments for Courage Come and Go Quickly – Cloaking Inequity
I was a history major as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, and history has taught me this: courage rarely gives advance notice. It does not arrive with a calendar appointment or a warning bell. Instead, it breaks into our lives suddenly, when the air is thick with uncertainty and the path forward feels…
The Building That’s Quietly Redefining the Future of Education – Cloaking Inequity
Do you know someone you could recommend for a department chair job? Or are you yourself interested? Come be my boss. Every campus has that one building that tells you everything about what the university values. At Western Michigan University (WMU), that building is the College of Education and Human Development (CEHD). Right at the…
The Debate about Charlie Kirk Being Taken Out of Context – Cloaking Inequity
When Charlie Kirk sparred with Cenk Uygur in front of a live audience in 2018, the clash went viral. Kirk called Uygur out in a way that electrified his supporters but immediately drew backlash from others, who argued that he had crossed into slur territory. Many in the crowd and online said they heard an…
Forget Washington DC—Democracy’s Future Lives in Our Communities – Cloaking Inequity
Last week, I had the privilege of returning to Stockton, a city that has shaped my leadership journey and continues to shape the national conversation on equity and innovation. In the span of two days, I delivered a keynote to the broader community on Friday evening and then addressed the Stockton Branch of the NAACP…
Thunderbolts is 67: “Righteousness Without Power Is Just an Opinion” – Cloaking Inequity
In Marvel’s Thunderbolts (2025), one line captured my attention immediately and echoed in my mind long after the credits roll: “Righteousness without power is just an opinion.” Spoken by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the line is said within the movie during an exchange with her assistant Mel. The context is chilling. Val, as…
Budgets Are Moral Documents: Why We Must Not Balance Them on the Backs of Students – Cloaking Inequity
Across the United States, from California to Michigan, lawmakers are debating budgets that could slash investments in public education. These debates are not confined to one state, they are national. Whether you live in a large urban center, a rural community, or a mid-sized town, chances are your local schools and universities are facing the…
X: The Lost Generation of Leaders – Cloaking Inequity
Every generation inherits a unique set of circumstances, expectations, and challenges that shape its leadership. The Silent Generation rebuilt nations and institutions after war. Baby Boomers rode a wave of postwar prosperity, social upheaval, and cultural expansion. Millennials and Gen Z are reshaping work, technology, and justice in real time. But where does that leave…
Judas in a Suit: The Body Language Never Lies – Cloaking Inequity
During my six years as provost and dean, I discovered something that no executive leadership training or strategic plan ever prepared me for. People reveal their commitment and their resistance not only through their words but through their bodies. If you wanted to know who would push forward on an initiative and who would quietly…
When Tonerheads Run the Enterprise – Cloaking Inequity
Higher education is one of the most powerful investments a person can make. Beyond the classroom, college develops critical thinking, cultivates creativity, and builds the habits of inquiry and collaboration that fuel innovation. On the financial side, the payoff has been well-documented: degree holders typically earn more over their lifetimes, experience lower unemployment, and have…
Violence and Baldwin’s Prophecy: Why Our Time Is So Perilous – Cloaking Inequity
“We are living through a very dangerous time.” James Baldwin began A Talk to Teachers with those words in October 1963, addressing a group of New York City educators just weeks after some of the most searing events of the civil rights era. That year, Medgar Evers was gunned down in his driveway by a white supremacist…
Weekend Movie Review of Highest or Lowest Film ***: Build or Destroy, The Stark Choice We Face – Cloaking Inequity
Jeffrey Wright’s character delivers a searing truth in the new Apple+ film Highest or Lowest alongside Denzel Washington: you either build or you destroy, beloved. The line is simple but devastating in its clarity. It refuses neutrality. It tells us that in life, in politics, and in community, there are only two directions. You are either contributing…
Silence, Fear, and Charlie Kirk: The Good Germans Question for America – Cloaking Inequity
Historians have long asked a haunting question about the rise of authoritarian regimes: How did the “good Germans” let it happen? How did ordinary people who loved their families, went to work each day, and saw themselves as decent and moral allow their country to descend into cruelty and authoritarinism? It is a question that…
Jimmy Kimmel Suspended: 10 Signs American Democracy Is Failing – Cloaking Inequity
When the Trump-appointed chair of the FCC publicly threatened ABC with regulatory retaliation unless it punished Jimmy Kimmel for a monologue about Charlie Kirk, the move shocked the entertainment industry and nation. Within hours, ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel Live off the air “indefinitely.” What should have been dismissed as satire became treated as sedition. Free speech groups…
Hispanic Heritage Month: Don Trump is Tilting at Windmills (Really) – Cloaking Inequity
Every September, Hispanic Heritage Month invites us to honor the cultural contributions and enduring wisdom of the Spanish-speaking world. Among the most lasting gifts is the literature of Miguel de Cervantes, whose Don Quixote, published more than four centuries ago, remains one of the most influential novels ever written. Cervantes gave us unforgettable images of imagination,…
Trump’s Higher Ed Shell Game: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul, Then Robbing Peter to Pay Peter – Cloaking Inequity
The Trump administration’s announcement of 500 million dollars in redirected funding for historically Black colleges and universities and tribal colleges was rolled out with great fanfare. The Secretary of Education called it a massive investment. The headlines were positive. Social media posts quickly celebrated it as evidence of a new commitment to people of color.…
I’m Going Back to Cali: Community and the Power of Elders and Parents – Cloaking Inequity
Is Stockton a national leader in public policy innovation? I argue they are. Stockton has long stood out in California’s public policy landscape. For example, it was the first major city in the nation to test a universal basic income program under then-Mayor Michael Tubbs, sparking national conversations about guaranteed income as a strategy to…
Thoughts in Inside Higher Ed: Provosts Are a ‘Release Valve’ – Cloaking Inequity
Every organization talks about transformation, but the leaders tasked with making it happen often face a lonely road. Change agents are frequently stuck trying to move big ideas forward with few, if any, allies—while also serving as the go-to crisis managers when things go wrong. It’s a role that demands vision, resilience, and relentless energy,…
The Uppity Minority: Caroline Turner and the Tik-Tok of Time – Cloaking Inequity
For six years I served as both provost and dean. Those titles looked impressive on paper, but the cost was clear in hindsight: inboxes overflowing, back-to-back meetings stacked on top of each other, and the unrelenting sense that no matter how much you gave there was always another fire to put out. Over time, that…
Tenure of Republican Professors at GLSU Should be Taken Away Immediately – Cloaking Inequity
I am outraged by the reckless online comments of two faculty members at Great Lakes State University (GLSU) about Charlie Kirk, and I demanding today on Cloaking Inequity that the tenure of these Republican professors at GLSU be revoked immediately. I am glad that Harold Wexler, Great Lakes State University (GLSU) president, responded to concerns…
The Right of Right and the Violence America Refuses to Name – Cloaking Inequity
“Democrats own this, 100%.” That was the declaration from Representative Nancy Mace in the hours after Charlie Kirk was assassinated on a Utah campus. When pressed by reporters about Republican accountability for other shootings, she snapped back: “Are you kidding me? Some raging leftist lunatic put a bullet through [Kirk’s] neck, and you want to…
Missing the Pattern: What Trump and Kirk’s Shooters Tell Us – Cloaking Inequity
When political violence erupts in America, we reach for easy explanations. The media wants a headline. Politicians want a talking point. Audiences want a villain that fits neatly into their worldview. So we seize on whatever detail stands out — a $15 political donation, a bullet casing scrawled with a slogan — and spin it…
From Watchlists to Cruelty: The True Legacy Charlie Kirk Left Behind – Cloaking Inequity
Charlie Kirk once declared, “I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that does a lot of damage.” It is a stunning line—not just for its cold dismissal of compassion, but for what it reveals about the worldview he helped mainstream. Empathy—the ability to recognize another’s pain, to…
When We Start Eating Our Own: Why We Must Stand United – Cloaking Inequity
Tariffs have triggered splits between the UAW and Canada’s Unifor, while former President Trump has increasingly pitted police unions and Teamsters against teachers’ unions and federal government unions. These dynamics are a textbook example of the divide-and-conquer strategy: breaking groups into smaller, more manageable pieces, addressing each piece individually, and leveraging that fragmentation to achieve…
Western Herald: Former WMU provost speaks on leadership – Cloaking Inequity
Over the past year, many of you have asked why I chose to step down as provost and what comes next. The Western Herald captured that journey with care: the moment that tested my values, the exchange program I proposed to help students and scholars displaced by war, and the larger lesson I keep returning to, failure…
Charlie Kirk Shot: No More Bullets in Our Politics, No More Blood in Our Communities – Cloaking Inequity
Today, on September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk, the ultra conservative activist and co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot in the neck while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University as part of his “American Comeback Tour” an he remains hospitalized, with no further updates yet on his condition. This is not just an attack…
Supreme Court is Colorblind in Classrooms and Color-Conscious for Cages – Cloaking Inequity
You’ve probably heard about the Supreme Court’s latest decision: being visibly Latino (and working at a car wash, speaking Spanish, etc.) can now count as a legally “relevant factors” for harassment from law enforcement. The right-wing majority on the Supreme Court LOVES to proclaim “colorblindness.” When it struck down race-conscious college admissions in Students for…
Which Joy Inspires You? – Cloaking Inequity
When we talk about justice, we often focus on resistance, sacrifice, and struggle. These are real and unavoidable parts of the story, but they are not the whole of it. There is another current that runs through liberation work, one that sustains movements and nourishes people when the fight becomes heavy. That current is joy.…
Football Kickoff: Why Being Down Is the Only Chance to Make a Comeback – Cloaking Inequity
Every September, fans across the country settle into couches, stadium seats, and sports bars with the same anticipation. The football season begins, and for the next several months we get to witness the complexity of the game: strategy, athleticism, competition, and drama. Every year there are new stars, unexpected contenders, and, of course, the inevitable…
Race Relations at a Nadir?: Obama, BLM, George Floyd and the Politics of Division – Cloaking Inequity
When UC Berkeley scholar Travis J. Bristol speaks of a “second nadir” in U.S. race relations, he invokes a chilling historical echo. The first nadir followed the end of Reconstruction—when the Ku Klux Klan rose, lynchings of Blacks was commonplace, and Plessy v. Ferguson enshrined “separate but equal” into law. Today, Bristol argues, we are…
Why Autocentric Leaders Choose Unqualified People for Key Roles – Cloaking Inequity
The upheaval at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should give us pause. The firing of Director Susan Monarez, followed by the resignation of senior medical officials, illustrates how quickly political interference can destabilize an institution built on expertise and public trust. If history is any guide, the replacements will likely fit a familiar…
Melania Trump: A Cautionary Tale of Absence? – Cloaking Inequity
If you have to explain that you are doing something, are you really doing it? If you have to insist that you are influential, but the public only sees absence, can that influence be trusted? These are the questions that define Melania Trump’s second turn as first lady. Her defenders describe her as quietly influential,…
Back to School Special: Ringing the 3-Alarm Fire Bells – Cloaking Inequity
Back-to-school season is often a time of celebration — fresh notebooks, sharpened pencils, and the promise of new beginnings. But this year feels different. Instead of quiet optimism, it feels like sirens are blaring. In our recent Power Hour — Back to School Special: Ringing the 3-Alarm Fire Bells for Education aire — we dug into the urgent…
No Confidence: The Ugly Truth About How Leaders Talk About Labor – Cloaking Inequity
I have been in enough rooms with executives and managers to know what is really said when the microphones are off and the doors are closed. I have heard leaders mock unions. I have heard workers described as lazy (e.g. faculty and staff). I have watched decision-makers joke about “screwing over” union leaders or laugh…