Photo: Joe Martinez

Nearly a year into the uprising against police brutality and systemic racism, it’s harder than ever for police departments to recruit and retain officers, particularly those of color. Nationwide, fewer people are applying for the job, and more experienced cops are retiring or quitting in droves. 

Tyrese Davis, 22, wants to change the way people see police. Davis, who is Black, hopes to be that change as part of the inaugural class of Lincoln University’s police academy. It is the country's first police academy based at a historically Black college or university.

After receiving a 10-year prison sentence for drug trafficking, Stanley Andrisse was told by the prosecutor that he had no hope for change. But change happened nonetheless—and it came in the form of education.

Now an endocrinologist scientist and assistant professor of physiology at Howard University, Andrisse joins other academics and activists who are fighting barriers that prevent formerly incarcerated people from entering the sciences. The work requires dismantling forces that tell students they’re not cut out for science, bolstering STEM education within prisons and eliminating embedded racial biases, and removing obstacles that block students from continuing their education after incarceration. 

Illustration: The Chronicle

With students eager to get back on campus this fall and college leaders eager to have them, most institutions will try to provide an experience that’s something close to normal. It won’t look quite like it did before the COVID-19 pandemic, however.

Masking will likely remain the norm at most campuses at least through the end of 2021. Where possible, students will live in less densely populated dorms. And many classes and activities will stay at least partly online. But whatever else colleges do right, if students, faculty, and staff members aren’t vaccinated in high enough numbers, institutions’ plans may crumble.