dr. sheena howard, an associate professor of communications at rider university, and she is with us today. thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. >> why was this project an important one for you? why did you undertake this subject matter? >> i think a couple of things. one, i went to an historically black university for my phd program, and so that really opened up a whole new world to me, as far as educational experience and being around, you know, people of color in that way. previous to that, i had spent my time at predominantly white kind of shaped how i thought about race. and as a young black professor at a predominantly white school now, i really started to think about some of the institutional practices that shape our experiences and our notions around race. >> and, you know, what are some of those institutional practices, and would you describe them as being racist? >> i would describe them as structural racism. things like the number of faculty of color at the university, the abysmal number of administrators who are of color. even when we look at core curriculum, i think