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J. Brian Charles

Senior Reporter

What I Cover

I cover the intersection of race and higher education. My coverage examines the challenges colleges face as the country becomes more diverse and higher education wrestles with how to recruit, retain, and graduate more students of color. I write about the role of diversity, equity, and inclusion offices on college campuses, and the political fight over those offices’ existence and role in higher education.

My coverage aims to explore how race and the politics of race will shape higher education in the next few years. I am also curious about the changing demographics of the country and how it will shape the future of colleges.

My Background

Before coming to The Chronicle, I helped start a Black-led alternative weekly, the Baltimore Beat. Before that, I covered gun violence in communities of color for The Trace. I was also a staff writer for Governing Magazine, where I produced a four-part series on local governments’ role in segregation. My work has appeared in The Guardian, Playboy, Slate, Baltimore Magazine, and New York magazine.

Connect

Email: brian.charles@chronicle.com
X @J. Brian Charles

Recent Stories

A Knee-Jerk Reaction
By Katherine Mangan, J. Brian Charles January 30, 2025
More than 800 colleges are eligible for $1 billion in annual federal funding based on their student body’s racial composition. Activists want Congress to redirect the funds or courts to intervene.
Finances
By J. Brian Charles November 19, 2024
Its sports season has been canceled, faculty and staff have gone unpaid, and accreditors are lurking.
Campus Activism
By J. Brian Charles November 12, 2024
After antiwar protests spread across campuses last spring, federal officials privately told college officials to go above and beyond what antidiscrimination laws require, a free-speech group alleges.
Accessibility and selectivity
By J. Brian Charles November 6, 2024
The 99 colleges, once stereotyped as subpar, are having a moment. Can they sustain the momentum while still fulfilling their mission?
Dismantling Diversity Efforts
By J. Brian Charles November 4, 2024
Figuring out what student-retention efforts are legal or illegal under a new anti-DEI law set to go into effect next year is harder than it looks.
Karen Curls and Lyle Gibson go to great lengths, literally, to teach the history of civil rights.
Reckoning With History
By J. Brian Charles September 12, 2024
A 2021 law requires some colleges to repair the harm caused by their enslavement of Black Americans. Few students have benefited so far.
'Negative Results'
By J. Brian Charles August 28, 2024
After relations soured, a consultant accused a college’s administration of “prioritizing whiteness.” The president’s attempt to hide the leaked document made things worse.
A New Era in Admissions
By J. Brian Charles August 21, 2024
Asian students will now compose almost half the freshman class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. White enrollment was not affected.
A Bogus Pledge
By J. Brian Charles August 7, 2024
University administrators, eager for a historic donation, ignored several warning signs, according to a new report.