Civil Rights and Federal Higher Education

Nicholas Hillman is  a  professor  in  the  Department  of  Educational  Leadership  and  Policy  Analysis  at  the  University  of  Wisconsin–Madison, where he also is a faculty affiliate with the Institute for Research on  Poverty  and  the  La  Follette  School  of  Public  Affairs.  His  research focuses  on  postsecondary  finance  and  financial  aid  policy,  primarily  as they  relate  to  college  access  and  equity.  Hillman  has  testified  to  the  US House  of  Representatives  and  the  Wisconsin  State  Assembly  on  issues related to higher education accountability and finance. He teaches courses in politics of higher education, higher education finance, educational policy, and research methods. He also directs the Student Success Through Applied Research Lab, a research-practice partnership with the University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Enrollment Management.

Gary Orfield is  Distinguished  Research  Professor  of  Education, Law, Political Science and Urban Planning at the University of California, Los  Angeles,  where  he  is  also  codirector  of  the  Civil  Rights  Project  he cofounded at Harvard University in 1996. He is a political scientist whose work includes more than a dozen authored or edited books, one of which was cited by the Supreme Court in upholding affirmative action. Orfield’s work focuses on equal opportunity and civil rights and has been included in testimony in more than twenty major class action civil rights lawsuits on school segregation, housing discrimination, and other civil rights violations.  He  has  taught  at  six  universities,  including  Harvard  University and the University of Chicago, and is a member of the National Academy of Education.