Office of the Dean

The University of Maryland College of Education Dean’s Lecture Series provides a forum for faculty, staff, students, alumni and community members to engage with academic leaders and scholars from across the country. The series brings experts from a variety of fields to the University to share their experiences and insights, fostering meaningful dialogue around the grand challenges we face in education and society. The series is an integral part of the College's efforts to promote learning, development, wellbeing, equity, and social justice.

The Dean's Lecture Series is organized with the generous support of the Chuck and Nancy Clarvit Family.

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

with Anthony Abraham Jack, faculty director of the Boston University Newbury Center and 
associate professor of higher education leadership at Boston University
 

Thursday, October 23, 2025
4:30-7 p.m.
4:30-5:15 p.m.: Networking Reception, Colony Ballroom
5:30-7 p.m.: Lecture, Colony Ballroom  

Adele Stamp Student Union
3972 Campus Drive
College Park, MD 20742

RSVP by Oct. 15

Class Dismissed: When Colleges Ignore Inequality and Students Pay the Price
Colleges and universities are accepting a wider range of students than ever before. But when racial unrest and a global health crisis gripped the world, schools scrambled to figure out the needs of their new student body—and disadvantaged students paid the price. In this talk, Anthony Abraham Jack, author of The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students” and “Class Dismissed: When Colleges Ignore Inequality and Students Pay the Price,” explores why colleges were so unprepared to support their most vulnerable students, and more importantly, how we can move forward.

Drawing on his rigorous reporting to give real-life examples of students, such as lower-income students whose valuable work experience is often overlooked on resumes, he challenges the myth of the “college bubble” by illustrating how lower-income students bring the inequalities of their neighborhoods right onto campus. His critical analysis offers a clear path to creating a fairer educational system. Through simple but strategic steps—like revamping how we review resumes or offering learning opportunities outside of the classroom—we can ensure a more equitable experience for disadvantaged students.

Jack’s eye-opening talk makes one thing clear: creating an inclusive workforce begins with transforming our colleges. Now is the time to overhaul our education systems and pave the way for a better future for all students.

About Anthony Abraham Jack 
Anthony Abraham Jack is the inaugural faculty director of the Boston University Newbury Center and associate professor of higher education leadership at Boston University.

His research documents the overlooked diversity among lower-income undergraduates: the Doubly Disadvantaged­—those who enter college from local, typically distressed public high schools—and Privileged Poor­—those who do so from boarding, day and preparatory high schools. His scholarship has appeared in the Common Reader, Du Bois Review, Social Problems, Sociological Forum and Sociology of Education, and he has earned awards from the American Sociological Association, American Educational Studies Association, Association for the Study of Higher Education, Association of American Publishers, Eastern Sociological Society, and the Society for the Study of Social Problems. Jack held fellowships from the Ford Foundation and the National Science Foundation and was a 2015 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellow. In 2016, the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan named him an Emerging Diversity Scholar. In May 2020, Muhlenberg College awarded him an honorary doctorate for his work in transforming higher education.

Learn More About Anthony Abraham Jack

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