Jordan Matsudaira already has a job in the U.S. Department of Education, as a deputy under secretary. Now, he's adding a second title as the first-ever chief economist for the department.

In this interview, Matsudaira talks about his expanded scope of responsibility to bring more economic data and analysis to higher-education policy decisions.

University of North Texas is one of several campuses nationwide, including Loyola University Maryland and the University of California at San Diego, where "white accountability groups" have served as safe spaces of sorts for people to broach issues that sometimes trip them up in mixed-race groups.

While some might question how much even well-intentioned white people speaking among themselves can address racial inequity, the idea is that the groups are a first step—a place to commit to concrete action to fight racism.