It wasn’t too long ago on July 1when Dr. Walter Kimbrough or “Hip Hop Prez” took over as the 7th President of Dillard University. Previously Dr. Kimbrough was one of the youngest college presidents in the nation serving as President of Philander Smith College, a small, private historically black college in Little Rock.
Kimbrough has gotten students excited by staying connected with them through his top ranked twitter account, cited in 2010 by Bachelorsdegree.com as one of 25 college presidents to follow on Twitter. (@HipHopPrez) Kimbrough’s account has over 4,000 followers that already consist of many current Dillard students, faculty and staff as well as incoming freshman. Dr. Kimbrough prefers to have direct communication with the Dillard family.
“I really like to meet with the people who work on a campus so one of my practices is the schedule time for anyone to share thoughts about the university, as well as give me a chance to get to know the people.”
“I think if I can talk to 50% then I will have a really good picture of Dillard. “
Well, so far so good for the 7th President. According to his blog hiphopprez.blogspot.com over 10 percent of faculty and staff had already signed up for a time to meet with Dr. Kimbrough by his first day so it may be pretty safe to say that this number may have increased since.
In addition, “Hip Hop Prez” has already given a speech to participants in Dillard’s pre-engineering summer program that is designed to increase the number of minorities and women entering mathematics, science and engineering professions.
Dr. Kimbrough has maintained active memberships in several higher education organizations, including the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, Association of Fraternity Advisors, and Brothers of the Academy. He presently serves as chair of the archives, history, and public information committee of the United Negro College Fund, and is a past member of the board of directors. He is the author of the book Black Greek 101: The Culture, Customs and Challenges of Black Fraternities and Sororities. After five months, the book was an Essence magazine top 10 best seller, and is currently in its tenth printing. In 2010, he made the coveted Ebony Magazine Power list of the 100 doers and influencers in the African American community, joining the likes of President and Mrs. Obama, Jay-Z, Richard Parsons, Tyler Perry, Debra Lee, Michael Jordan, and Tom Joyner.
