Harper Jones ’23 knew she’d enjoy the theater scene in London. An Acting major with a Musical Theater concentration, Jones was in one of the globe’s theater capitals for almost the entire spring semester on a study abroad program with Arcadia London Center and Goldsmith University. What she may not have expected, though, was to discover a passion for theatrical activism.

After attending the exhibit “Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s-Now” at Tate Britain, Jones reflected on her experience in “What Does It Mean To be Black in a White Dominated World?”, exploring how her identity as a Black woman relates to all Black people across the globe. 

“Afro-Caribbean and Black people all over the world all basically kind of live a similar struggle,” she says. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to explore that through artistic or theatrical activism in the near future to expand my exploration of identity.” 

Jones believes in the power of art and theater and how they can go much further than entertainment and alter an audience’s perception of identity and experience. 

If done properly, theatrical activism can lead an audience, even if they don’t understand the production, to leave the theater with a different mindset or perspective than they had coming in,” said Jones. “I believe that theater and art can change the world.

Jones hails from near Dallas, Texas; she decided to attend college at Arcadia after theater faculty traveled there to view a high school performance.

Jones has worked with summer enrichment programs as a mentor to Black youth in Texas, introducing every aspect of theater — acting, dancing, singing, filmmaking, stage lighting, and more — to foster creative avenues for young people to express themselves. She was bitten by the musical theater bug at an early age, and counts “Aida,” “On the Town,” and “Funny Girl” as among her favorites.

Jones hopes to graduate summa cum laude next year, intern at a theater company in Philadelphia, and continue her theatrical activism and exploration of identity.

Associate Professor of Education Dr. Augusto Macalalag received a $2 million award from the National Science Foundation to explore how STEM interdisciplinary learning impacts 7th- to 12th-grade student understanding.

While the University’s faculty are rightly renowned for their teaching abilities, they are also active scholars. Last year they did much to contribute to their disciplines, publishing papers, books, and chapters in such areas as toxicological investigations and motor vehicle fatalities, communicating with Latino patients, library science, integrating family caregivers into health care systems, the benefits of handwriting class notes, the Academia Leonardi Vinci, the artist Jay DeFeo, and bodies of water in African American fiction and film.

Arcadia’s faculty weren’t the only members of the University community to excel. Students contributed to their fields and disciplines through presentations and publications and earned accolades at various competitions.

Arcadians presented research at public health conferences and mathematics meetings, and picked up awards at forensic science and business competitions.

And the student-run public relations agency, 1853 Communications, won second place in the Students Save Lives College Challenge, organized by the Gift of Life Donor Program. 

And the University was awarded a five-year, $2.25 million Title III grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support work designed to increase student achievement, persistence, and retention.

Putting words into action, the University undertook several initiatives to create a more equitable Arcadia and a more just world. Among these was the appointment of Dr. Angela McNeil as Assistant Vice President for Access, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the first such position in the institution’s history, and the establishment of the Center for Anti-Racist Scholarship, Advocacy, and Action, an interdisciplinary academic center that brings together individuals from the University, local community, and the wider world to shape the thinking and mindset about racism across the globe.

Seeking to educate the University community on the Lenape Peoples, who first lived on the land where the campus now sits, and other Indigenous communities, Arcadia developed a Land Acknowledgement Statement to recognize the Lenape’s perseverance

Arcadia’s Office of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Prevention & Education (OSVPE) received the Outstanding Peer Educator Program Award from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA). NASPA representatives were particularly impressed with the office’s Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month programming. View award information

In efforts to advance scholarship on race, racism, and social justice in the past as well as in the contemporary world, the directors of the Center for Antiracist Scholarship, Advocacy, and Action (CASAA) at Arcadia University unveiled a new initiative—the CASAA Microgrants Program—in March 2022. As part of the institution’s investment in antiracist studies, the program provides small grant awards to support individual and collaborative research projects that expand our understanding of race and racism across the globe, consider obstacles to racial equity in modern society, and probe strategies for achieving racial justice. Grants include: 

The Compass, Arcadia’s online, all-student-curated, interdisciplinary undergraduate journal, published its ninth issue. Issue 9 contains papers that explore Mexican national identity through photography; assert how nostalgia for an idyllic, pre-industrial country lifestyle creates gentrification in rural areas; and reflect on the constitutionality of a statewide mask mandate during the COVID pandemic.

Arcadia students addressed a “hidden opponent” — mental health awareness in college and university student-athletes. Led by Jackie Skalski ’24, president of Arcadia’s chapter of The Hidden Opponent, a nonprofit organization focused on mental health awareness in student athletes, and chapter vice president Abbey Finkill ’23, the University hosted a 5K walk/run for suicide prevention on Haber Green.

Arcadia Exhibitions presented Sun & Sea as part of the 2021 Philadelphia Fringe Festival — the second venue of the U.S. tour of this celebrated opera performance. Blurring the lines between music, theater, poetry, and visual art, the work ran last fall. More information can be found at gallery.arcadia.edu/Sun&Sea.

Members of the Arcadia University community joined in “virtually” when the School of Mathematical Science of Jiangsu University in Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the joint program between the university and Arcadia.

Arcadia was offered a transformational opportunity to acquire 125 Royal Ave, the former Bishop McDevitt High School property. The four-story building totals more than 95,000 square feet, and the 18 acres of the property include athletic fields and a parking lot. With other offices and Oak Summit Apartments on Royal Avenue, the acquisition represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the University and its students to expand our campus footprint. 

Arcadia launched the Career Launchpad, creating a self-service yet customized career exploration experience for students and community members to find resources, opportunities, career advice, employer events, interview prep, labor market insights, and career guides, which are curated based on their industry interests. Users may also explore curated resources aligned with their identities, such as College2Career Scholars, International Students, LGBTQ+, Multicultural Students, and Student Workers/Work-Study.

Linda Ruth Paskell ’81, ’96MEd, adjunct professor in the School of Education, each year leads students in giving back to the community through art. Last year, in place of their usual “Art of the Syllabus” event on campus through the Artist in the Community course, Paskell and her students held three individual “site shows” to honor the work of students and their continually growing relationship with the community. 

Arcadia University elected three new members to its Board of Trustees: Nancy Glass, CEO and executive producer for Glass Entertainment Group, an award-winning television production company; Peri Wallace Higgins, president and founder of Evolve Advisors; and Aliyah Abraham, management and program analyst for the U.S. Department of Commerce and a 2017 graduate of Arcadia. Their appointments brought the total number of trustees to 21 and reflected ongoing efforts to diversify the board, includind increasing the diversity of perspectives from different life experiences.

The Chronicle of Higher Education took note of Arcadia’s efforts in its “Race on Campus” newsletter. A story quoting President Nair, Provost Jeff Rutenbeck, Ph.D., and Assistant Vice President for for Access, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Angela McNeil outlined the University’s determination not to let its Anti-Black Racism Initiatives “fall by the wayside, like other diversity plans in higher ed.” Evolving from ABRI to CABR, our work combating Anti-Black racism continues.

Following a year of progression on more than 40 Combating Anti-Black Racism (CABR) initiatives, Arcadia faculty and staff gathered several times last summer to examine curriculum, scholarship, and professional development in the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) and CABR frameworks.

Members of the University’s first Social Action and Justice Education (SAJE) Fellowship cohort graduated in May 2022.

The 2022 CABR Annual Report chronicles the 2021-22 academic year. The dozens of initiatives to Combat Anti-Black Racism (CABR), with established milestones, represent an essential and complex mix of efforts that require sustained focus, collaboration, and courage.