Class Dismissed: When Colleges Ignore Inequality and Students Pay the Price - Hardcover

by Anthony Abraham Jack (Author)

A revealing account of the entrenched inequities that harm our most vulnerable students and what colleges can do to help them excel

When the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racial unrest gripped the world, elite colleges scrambled to figure out what to do with the diversity they so fervently recruited--and disadvantaged students suffered. Class Dismissed exposes how woefully unprepared colleges were to support these students, who share their stories of how they were left to weather the storm alone and unprotected.

Drawing on the firsthand experiences of students from all walks of life at elite colleges, Anthony Abraham Jack reveals the hidden and unequal worlds students navigated before and during the pandemic closures and upon their return to campus. He shows how COVID-19 exacerbated the very inequalities that universities ignored or failed to address long before campus closures. Jack examines how students dealt with the disruptions caused by the pandemic, how they navigated social unrest, and how they grappled with problems of race both on campus and off.

A provocative and much-needed book, Class Dismissed paints an intimate and unflinchingly candid portrait of the challenges of undergraduate life for disadvantaged students even in elite schools that invest millions to diversify their student body. Moreover, Jack offers guidance on how to make students' path to graduation less treacherous--guidance colleges would be wise to follow.

Author Biography

Anthony Abraham Jack is the inaugural faculty director of the Boston University Newbury Center and associate professor of higher education leadership at the Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Teen Vogue and is the author of The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students.