According to reports, Howard University will likely not join the Colonial Athletic Association, instead seeking to remain with its Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Learn more in the story from staff at DC Sports King below.
Howard University’s Steve Settle III shoots the ball. Photo Credit: Sam Thomas/Journal Star/USA Today Network
In what could be described as a huge upset in college sports realignment, Howard University has decided not to leave the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) for the Colonial Athletic Association.
According to FCS insider Daniel Steenkamer, Howard recently informed the CAA that the school will not join the conference at this time.
Howard expressed interest in leaving the MEAC for the CAA recently. Conversations led to Howard verbally committing to pursue membership with the CAA, according to Steenkamer. The Bison would have joined the CAA during the start of the 2023-24 academic year.
However, in the end, Howard opted to pass on the opportunity.
Howard’s decision is considered a huge win for the MEAC, at least in the short-term. The historically Black athletic conference has been decimated by departures in recent years.
Five schools have left the conference since 2019. Howard’s biggest rival, Hampton, left the conference in 2019 to join the Big South. Savannah State returned to Division II the same year.
Last year, Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman left for the SWAC. Meanwhile, North Carolina A&T joined Hampton in the Big South.
Howard would’ve been part of a bigger expansion plan in the CAA. Hampton will join the CAA in July while North Carolina A&T will follow in every sport except football and bowling. A&T’s football team will join the conference in 2023. Additionally, Stony Brook will become a full-member of the CAA along with Monmouth.
Howard remains one of three founding members of the MEAC to never leave the league. MEAC’s other members include Delaware State, South Carolina State, Coppin State, UMES, Morgan State, Norfolk State and North Carolina Central.
The role of Lincoln University in its Missouri community has many asking questions about its recruiting practices. Learn more in the story by Sara Weissman at Inside Higher Education below.
Photo Credit: Lincoln University in Missouri
Differences in opinion about the current role and future prospects of Lincoln University in Missouri raise bigger questions about the HBCU’s historical identity and public image.
When John Moseley, the president of Lincoln University, recently discussed his vision of the Missouri institution with a local newspaper, he described the college as having dual identities. He noted that it’s a historically Black university, founded by Black soldiers who fought in the Civil War, that draws Black students from a handful of major metropolitan areas around the country. He also described it as a “regional” university rooted in central Missouri, a predominantly white area, which has led to a student body that is about 40 percent white.
The description of Lincoln as a “regional” institution with a double role rubbed Sherman Bonds, the president of the Lincoln University National Alumni Association, the wrong way and chafed against his own perception of his alma mater. He wrote an essay in response titled “A Framework for Collective Dialogue,” voicing concern about the president’s emphasis on recruiting students from the region and arguing that it minimized the university’s legacy as a historically Black university and its broad national appeal.
“The tone of the narrative was perplexing,” Bonds wrote in the essay this month. “It presented the African American ‘space’ as a renegotiable platform that could be reduced to the status of a regional college, which diminishes the institution’s national and international prominence.” Bond called the comparison to a regional college “an insult.”
He said he got positive feedback on the essay from fellow alumni via email and on social media. But he fears his commentary may have been misunderstood by local media after an article in the News Tribune implied he and Moseley don’t “see eye to eye” on the university’s identity. He doesn’t consider himself to be at odds with the president, but he believes they have a difference in perspective. While he sees nothing wrong with the university continuing to enroll large percentages of local white students, he disagrees with the notion that drawing these students gives Lincoln a second mission or identity.
“It doesn’t affect the identity of the institution,” he said. “You recruit from wherever you want to recruit from and whoever you get to come … The institution is a historical Black college and university founded by the 62nd and 65th Colored Infantries. That doesn’t change. It’s a Black university—and you’re welcome to come.”
For his part, Moseley believes Lincoln’s diversity does create dual identities that can co-exist.
“There are those, primarily from the metro areas, who choose Lincoln because we are an HBCU and they’re looking for the traditional HBCU experience, which I have a vast amount of appreciation for,” Moseley, who is white, said in an interview. “But for us, there’s also a number of commuter students from all races that attend the institution because of our value, our affordability, the quality of education that they receive and the fact that it is close to their home, so it comes at even greater cost savings for the student.”
Bonds says the marketing of the university should focus on its history as one of the oldest HBCUs in the country and its national reputation, an approach he believes naturally “encompasses the region” but doesn’t characterize the university as a central Missouri–serving institution.
“To suggest we need to lift up the region as an identity crisis is, to me, unnecessary,” he said.
Rhonda Chalfant, chair of the education committee of the Missouri NAACP and vice president of the Sedalia chapter, said the state’s and region’s fraught racial history, especially in terms of educational opportunities, is a relevant backdrop of the current discussions about Lincoln.
She noted that prior to desegregation, school districts were either required to have a Black school if there were at least 20 Black children in the district or to bus the students to the nearest Black school. In practice, educational opportunities for Black children varied widely depending on where they lived, she said.
“Some towns were willing to provide elementary education but not high school education,” she said. “Some towns were willing to provide vocational education but nothing else to their Black students. Some towns simply didn’t provide education at all.”
Meanwhile, Black students had to fight for admission to universities in the state. For example, a Black prospective student sued the University of Missouri to attend its law school in the 1930s. He ultimately won his case in the U.S. Supreme Court but disappeared shortly after and is believed to have been killed.
“There’s this long history of racism on the part of the white schools and the white colleges,” said Chalfant, who is white. “And Lincoln University filled a large gap there by … being designed to cater to African Americans.”
The identity of HBCUs is a perennial point of debate among HBCU administrators, scholars, alumni and students, as well as those outside the bubble of Black colleges. As the student populations at these institutions grow more racially and ethnically diverse, more questions are being raised about the legacy and future of the institutions.
Non-Black students made up 24 percent of enrollment at HBCUs in 2020, compared to 15 percent in 1976, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. The book A Primer on Minority-Serving Institutions (Routledge, 2019) notes that about a quarter of HBCU faculty members are white. High-profile hires of white administrators at HBCUs have also caused tensions on campuses and led to difficult conversations about whether the institution’s public image matches its historic mission to serve Black students.
Robert Palmer, professor and chair of educational leadership and policy studies at Howard University, an HBCU in Washington, D.C., said the “bifurcated mission” at Lincoln touches on larger questions about identity at HBCUs that are attracting high numbers of non-Black students.
HBCUs experienced a jump in Black enrollment after the killing of George Floyd triggered nationwide protests and increased focus on social inequities and racial injustice. Black students turned to these institutions for a sense of safety and community. But many of the institutions were experiencing enrollment declines prior to that incident, prompting some HBCU leaders to recruit non-Black students, Palmer said. He noted that more HBCUs now feature photos of non-Black students on their websites and in their marketing materials.
HBCUs “have never excluded students from other racial and ethnic groups, but they were founded with the intent of providing education, access and support for Black students, and that’s still the primary mission,” he said. “I think there are a lot of stakeholders who are Black who would fear that when the institution becomes increasingly racially, ethnically diverse, what does that mean for the institution? Does it mean that the safe space that Black folks have known at an HBCU will dissipate, will become diluted? I think there’s a lot of concern and fear when those racial dynamics are kind of played out. It’s kind of like, well, whose territory is this?”
Palmer noted that when white administrators are hired to lead HBCUs, it can heighten concernsamong Black students and alumni. But regardless of who’s at the helm, he believes these are discussions HBCUs should be having on their campuses as they diversify.
“How do we still maintain that mission of being an HBCU, because that is important, but being inclusive of all students?” he said. “Those are really sensitive and delicate conversations.”
White students sometimes choose HBCUs over predominantly white institutions “for reasons of access, affordability, and specific program offerings that their local PWI [predominantly white institution] might not have,” Andrew T. Arroyo, assistant vice provost for academic programs and associate professor of educational leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University, wrote in an email. Arroyo, who is white, previously taught at two HBCUs, Norfolk State University and Hampton University, and has conducted research on the presence of white students and faculty at HBCUs.
He noted that, unlike other kinds of minority-serving institutions, HBCU status doesn’t depend on percentages of Black students. It’s a historic federal designation, which means “history and tradition are crucial” to these institutions, and they’re also a limited resource. More of them can’t be created.
“For that reason, it is understandable why some stakeholders and advocates would push strenuously for the highest percentage of Black enrollment possible, and to hold on to history and tradition,” he said. “At the same time, it is also understandable why HBCU stakeholders would want to enlarge their tent. HBCUs are a gift. They tend to offer a distinctive educational experience, and passing more students of all races and backgrounds through their halls will both improve their bottom line and, more importantly, improve society.”
From Moseley’s perspective, explicitly recruiting from the surrounding region is a practical and fiscally prudent response to more than a decade of enrollment declines. The university had 3,975 students at its peak in 1994; it had just 1,854 students as of spring 2022. From 1960 to 2017, the student body was majority white, in part because of the closure of Jefferson City Community College in 1960, Moseley said. Jefferson City, where Lincoln is located, is 75 percent white, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“When you look at enrollment, if we did not have local students, the university wouldn’t have enough students to exist. So then, the soldiers’ dream dies out completely,” he said, referring to the university’s founders.
He believes the university needs to openly recruit commuter students, who are mostly going to be white, and said other HBCUs in rural parts of the country are likely in similar positions. For example, West Virginia State University is a historically Black institution with a student population that was more than 72 percent white in fall 2020, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. Bluefield State College, also an HBCU in West Virginia, reported about 77 percent of students were white in fall 2021.
Darius Watson, former chair of the Faculty Senate and interim dean of admissions and enrollment at Lincoln, said there’s a “friction” between “the HBCU concept when it was originally formed versus the environment that HBCUs need to operate in today.”
“It’s a business model that was designed for a closed market,” he said. “When HBCUs were created, African Americans didn’t have other options.” Lincoln and other HBCUs are asking themselves, “How do you promote a singular identity within a market system that requires you to engage and recruit beyond that identity?”
He said well-known HBCUs, such as Howard University and Spelman College, may not need to reach beyond Black communities to stay economically viable, “but at institutions like this one, economic survival requires that we engage market opportunities beyond those that we were originally built for,” he said. “It’s a dilemma a century in the making—more than a century.”
Watson said he regularly hears from alumni concerned about the racial composition of the student body.
“I believe it’s just a matter of finding a common middle ground and understanding how we maintain and promote our legacy and our role within the African American community while ultimately recognizing that we’re going to serve the population of Missouri and beyond,” he said. “It’s going to take some deftness to craft a narrative that makes all of your potential groups happy, or at least content.”
Moseley also recognizes that his presence as a white president, a rarity in the HBCU world, likely amplifies people’s worries that the institution is shifting away from its mission. He wants to reassure students and alumni that recruiting locally, and describing Lincoln as having a regional identity, “doesn’t change the fact that we’re a historically Black college,” he said. “That doesn’t change the fact that students looking for that experience are provided that experience.”
He believes students of all backgrounds can benefit from the hallmarks of an HBCU education, including a “sense of family” and a “sense of obligation that when a student arrives on your campus, you have to help them achieve their education, because it’s not only going to change their life, but it’s going to change the lives of generations after them.”
Chalfant, of the NAACP, worries that the changing demographics at Lincoln could affect the pedagogy and curricula taught at the institution, especially in history classes.
“If Lincoln is 40 percent white, the balance has shifted, and many of the teachers will begin catering to the white students, and they’ll shift the way in which they teach and the focus of their education, and I see that as problematic,” she said. “White students tend to be very upset when racism is pointed out in history classes. I can foresee teachers being told to downplay certain aspects of history as to not offend the white students. I hope that doesn’t happen, but I can foresee that it probably will.”
Moseley said embracing a regional focus doesn’t mean neglecting the institution’s past.
“It’s my expectation that every student that attends our institution learns and understands why this institution was ever created,” he added. “Its initial mission was to provide an education for free African Americans who were former slaves.
“We celebrate Black excellence,” he added. “We want our students of color to know this is a space where they can feel comfortable being themselves … We don’t shy away from that one bit.”
Several HBCU students were on the receiving end of an initiative to clear students debt for NAACP youth leaders. Learn more in the story by Wendy Medina at Black Enterprise below.
Photo credit: NAACP
On Friday Pharrell Williams announced to five NAACP youth leaders that he would be covering the entirety of their student loan debt, shares the NAACP.
The surprise left the young leaders speechless during an NAACP panel surrounding the Black student debt crisis at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington D.C.
According to WJLA, the recipients are Damarius Davis, an alumnus of North Carolina A&T; Channing Hill, a senior at Howard University; Robyn Hughes, a junior at Southern University; Jamie Turner, an alumnus of Norfolk State University; and Devan Vilfrard, a senior at Florida A&M University.“
Pharrell forever changed their lives. This was a powerful moment. Now just imagine if President Biden made this a reality for all student debt holders in America,” said the panel organizer Wisdom Cole, NAACP National Director of Youth and College.
He continued, “Student debt continues to disproportionately plague the Black community and crush opportunities for so many Black people. It is time to reduce the racial wealth gap, it is time for President Biden to fulfill his promise.”
Right after @Pharrell surprised young NAACP leaders by paying off ALL their student debt, someone asked “what are you going to do now?”
One student tearfully responded, “I’m going to law school.”
This is what it’s about—unlocking opportunities for those historically oppressed.
The Biden administration issued another extension on the pause for student loan repayment at the beginning of April, the most recent extension deadline on Aug. 31, 2022; meaning billing will restart in September.
While the president has established he will not cancel $50,000 of student loans, he is expected to come to a resolution around loan forgiveness by the end of summer.
“I am not considering $50,000 debt reduction,” Biden said in April. “But I’m in the process of taking a hard look at whether or not there are going to — there will be additional debt forgiveness, and I’ll have an answer on that in the next couple of weeks.”
Pharrell’s Something In the Water Festival started just hours after the NAACP panel there in D.C. and is set to come to a close tonight. The Juneteenth weekend festival made its return after a two-year hiatus due to COVID, featuring Anderson .Paak, SZA, Usher, Tyler, the Creator, and Pusha-T, among others.
Each year, thousands of HBCU seniors earn their diplomas and begin an exciting journey of life as an HBCU graduate. However, while it may be easy to know the field they want to work in, it’s always so easy figuring out where. Thankfully, a new list compiled by LinkedIn is highlighting cities with the greatest potential for entry-level talent success. As a key indicator, the data looked at the population of Historically Black Colleges and Universities/Hispanic-Serving Institutions that those cities have. Look below to see if your dream city made the list!
Nationwide Ranking: #1 fastest growing location for entry-level jobs nationwide Top Industries: Technology and Information, IT Services and IT Consulting, Real Estate, Computers and Electronics Manufacturing, Transportation Equipment Manufacturing
2. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC (6 HBCUs – 11 overall in NC)
Photo Credit: Moving.com
Nationwide Ranking: #3 fastest growing location for entry-level jobs nationwide Top Industries: Technology and Information, IT Services and IT Consulting, Chemical Manufacturing, Real Estate, Research Services
3. Charlotte, NC (3 HBCUs – 11 overall in NC)
Photo Credit: Select Registry
Nationwide Ranking: #4 fastest growing location for entry-level jobs nationwide Top Industries: [Technology and Information, IT Services and IT Consulting, Real Estate, Food and Beverage Services, Insurance
4. Nashville, TN (4 HBCUs in Nashville – 7 overall in TN)
Photo Source: Destguides.com
Nationwide Ranking: #7 fastest growing location for entry-level jobs nationwide Top Industries: Real Estate, IT Services and IT Consulting, Technology and Information, Food and Beverage Services, Medical Practices
5. San Diego, CA – (4 HSIs – 109 overall in CA)
Photo Source: Visit The USA
Nationwide Ranking: #8 fastest growing location for entry-level jobs nationwide Top Industries: Technology and Information, Research Services, IT Services and IT Consulting, Transportation Equipment Manufacturing, Military and International Affairs
6. Chicago, IL (1 HBCU & 9 HSIs)
Photo Source: Real Movers
Nationwide Ranking: #16 fastest growing location for entry-level jobs nationwide Top Industries: IT Services and IT Consulting, Technology and Information, Real Estate, Food and Beverage Services, Advertising Services
Nationwide Ranking: #18 fastest growing location for entry-level jobs nationwide Top Industries: IT Services and IT Consulting, Real Estate, Technology and Information, Transportation Equipment Manufacturing, Insurance
8. Atlanta, GA (6 HBCUs – 10 overall in GA)
Photo Source: Tetra Images/Getty Images
Nationwide Ranking: #24 fastest growing location for entry-level jobs nationwide Top Industries: IT Services and IT Consulting, Real Estate, Technology and Information, Food and Beverage Services, Transportation Equipment Manufacturing
Nationwide Ranking: #25 fastest growing location for entry-level jobs nationwide Top Industries: Real Estate, Oil and Gas, IT Services and IT Consulting, Technology and Information, Medical Practices
10. Orlando, FL (4 HSIs – 10 overall in FL & 4 HBCUs in FL)
Photo Source: World Atlas
Nationwide Ranking: #26 fastest growing location for entry-level jobs nationwide Top Industries: Real Estate, Technology and Information, IT Services and IT Consulting, Transportation Equipment Manufacturing, Hospitality
45 high schools from across the Carolinas are taking part in this year’s STEM Academy at South Carolina State University.
There were about 45 high schools from both North and South Carolina took part in the JROTC program at South Carolina State University that is funded by the U.S. Army.
“This is the first time that we’ve ever conducted a JROTC Stem Camp in the state of South Carolina,” said James Davis.
The students arrived to campus on Sunday. Davis is a commandant for the junior ROTC STEM camp at South Carolina State University.
They learned about mechanical engineering, chemistry, nuclear/physics, cybersecurity, and computer science. They are also being given drone training. The cadets will also go on field trips to The Citadel and North Charleston Sewer District.
“This is very important that we introduce our students to these different programs so that they can learn about all these different options to them after they graduate,” said Davis.
Cadet Lucas East says his aspirations of studying mechatronics is what drew him to participating in the program. He was one of 267 cadets who attended the program and has an interest in learning how to build and wire things.
“I believe that mechatronics will allow me to see the best of both of those worlds and it’ll allow me to have fun no matter what I do. It’ll also allow me to pursue multiple career fields whether in mechanical engineering or electric engineering,” said East.
Each STEM group is given the challenge of presenting a final project to their peers.
“All of our students here are having a spectacular time learning from learning from each other, from the instructors, and the university has been very supportive and we look forward to continuing to do this over the years,” said Davis.
The porch is a central feature of NCCU’s planned 24/7 Collaborative Learning & Research Center. EVOKE Studio
N.C. Central University plans to open a center for students on the northern edge of campus next school year, its artful design meant to serve as a gateway to campus — the first glimpse of the HBCU for many coming off the highway.
The building, which will cost over $3.5 million, was designed by the Durham firm Evoke Studio Architecture.
“It is a 24/7 facility that’s open to students,” architect Brittany Eaker Kirkland told members of Durham’s Historic Preservation Commission on Tuesday.
The heart of the 24/7 Collaborative Learning and Research Center, as it’s being called, is the large shaded porch beneath the dramatic canopy roof.
“This blurring of indoor and outdoor space harkens back to the welcoming and inclusive front porches of the residences adjacent to the center,” the architecture firm wrote to the Durham City-County Planning Department.
North Carolina Central University’s 24/7 Collaborative Learning & Research Center was designed by Durham-based EVOKE Studio Architecture. EVOKE Studio
The space will be open at all hours for students to study and gather. It’s being built with Eagle colors with red brick and dark gray metal trim.
It will be located on the northwest corner of Fayetteville and Lawson streets, the opposite side of campus from the vast $55 million student center finished in December.
Because it sits in the Fayetteville Street Historic District, the Historic Preservation Commission had to weigh its merit. The board unanimously voted in its favor Tuesday.
“It’s not a massive structure. It is a single-story structure,” Eaker Kirkland said of the 4,900-square-foot building. “We’re not trying to max out and create a building that is out of scale with the neighborhood in that way.”
The 24/7 Collaborative Learning & Research Center will be located at the northwest corner of Fayetteville and Lawson streets on the North Carolina Central University Campus. Durham City-County Planning Department
The project will bring nearby residents some flooding relief, as it includes plans to replace the water main and upgrade the line extending down Lawson Street.
“There are a lot of existing flooding issues in this area and that was a recurrent theme in our neighborhood meetings,” Eaker Kirkland said. “All the adjacent residences that had any kind of slope or basement level, they would flood every time it would rain.”
Tad DeBerry, who sits on the Historic Preservation Commission and voted for the project, said it was a shame two historic single-family homes once on the site were torn down.
“It is a pattern of the university to remove historic elements of its community from the historic district to build new structures,” DeBerry said. “The continuing disregard by the university using state funds to degrade the historic district is sad.”
NCCU is spending $3 million to build a 24/7 Collaborative Learning & Research Center, expected to open in fall 2023. EVOKE Studio Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article262526982.html#storylink=cpy
University spokesman Stephen Fusi said the design concept was careful to mix traditional characteristics of the neighborhood in with more modern elements.
“NCCU looks at maintaining the character of the campus and serving the needs of 21st century students while welcoming the surrounding community,“ Fusi told The News & Observer.
The university has worked with Evoke before, including on an award-winning redesign of the school’s television studio.
“We look for designers who are invested in the Durham community. Evoke Studio Architecture is a local Durham firm and the concepts they presented demonstrated an understanding of the history and purpose of the structures in the university’s neighborhood,” Fusi said.
The Board of Trustees approved the design last April, and later agreed to up the budget to $3,555,000 from the $3 million initially planned.
Next, the project must be submitted to the state for construction code review. Crews are expected to get to work in September. The end of 2023 is targeted for completion.
Florida Memorial University‘s hard work and sacrifice has paid off with a restored accreditation! Learn more in the story by Jimena Tavel at the Miami Herald below.
Students celebrate during the Spring 2022 commencement ceremony at Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens on Saturday, May 14, 2022. (Photo Credit: Pedro Porta
After eliminating 16 programs, cutting back staff and reorganizing with a focus on the future, Florida Memorial University announced Thursday its accreditation agency had restored it to good standing.
Last summer, the agency had placed it on probation, leading many to worry about the future of the Miami Gardens school, South Florida’s only historically Black university or college (HBCU).
“I am wonderful today,” said Jacqueline Hill, FMU’s provost and executive vice president. “With the great news we just received, I’m absolutely excited.”
The university will soon announce plans to celebrate this milestone in its history, which traces to 1879, said Sharee Gilbert, FMU’s director of communications and marketing.
While on probation, FMU risked losing its accreditation, which serves as national recognition that it’s a reputable institution and is a requisite to qualifying for government funds.
FMU was put on probation because it didn’t comply with all of the standards required by its accreditation agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). The problems were rooted in financial difficulties due to a drop in enrollment. FMU has boosted its enrollment slightly.
In 2012, student enrollment peaked at 1,878 and had declined every year since to a low of 915 in 2021. In the 2022 school year, enrollment rose slightly to 963 students.
To stabilize its finances, FMU reduced by 10% the salaries of more than 80 employees who make $60,000 or above, discontinued 16 undergraduate degree programs and eliminated 15 faculty positions.
Hill said that by being in good standing, FMU is in compliance with all SACSCOC standards.
“This lifts a burden. It’s an opportunity for growth,” Hill said. “Now we can continue on as an institution; we can increase the momentum in our enrollment and expand our academic programming.”
SACSCOC notified FMU President Jaffus Hardrick of the change in status Thursday.
Prior to that official sign-off, five top administrators — Hill; Hardrick; William C. McCormick Jr., the chairman of the FMU Board of Trustees; Rodney Sobelson, FMU’s CFO; and Adrienne Cooper, FMU’s vice provost for institutional research and effectiveness — traveled to Tampa on Tuesday to answer questions before the SACSCOC Board of Trustees for about 40 minutes, Hill said.
About 77 administrators and academics from other colleges and universities in Southern states sit on the SACSCOC board, which reviewed a report produced earlier this year by a four-person SACSCOC committee.
In March, that committee reviewed a 263-page report submitted by FMU regarding its progress on addressing the four key issues that had landed the school on probation: core requirement 4.1b (governing board characteristics); standard 13.3 (financial responsibility); standard 13.4 (control of finances); and standard 13.6 (federal and state responsibilities).
In April, the committee visited FMU to interview administrators, tour the facilities and review additional documents.
Beloved Dillard University vice president David Page is leaving after years of service. Learn more in the release by Eddie Francis.
Photo Credit: Sabree Hill/Dillard University
Dillard has definitely been home to David Page. While Page did not attend Dillard, he is a Bleu Devil at heart, leaving 16 combined years of service to move on to the next stage of his career. His first stint on Gentilly Boulevard was from 1998 to 2005 as the associate director of financial aid. Page returned in 2013 to take the seat of vice president of enrollment management, a role that he feels has allowed him to make substantive change to the University’s recruitment, admission and enrollment services.
During Page’s tenure, the academic profile of admitted students increased. The average GPA for high school students coming to Dillard increased from 2.79 to 3.37 and is trending towards 3.43. The average ACT score for admitted students increased from 18.25 to 20.9 and is trending towards 23.3 for fall 2022. Page also increased merit-based aid to help more students invest in earning their Dillard degrees, a move that made Dillard competitive with its peers in scholarship awards. As a result, applications increased by 51% and the number of admitted students by 29%. Page also revitalized the Evening and Weekend Studies Program to provide non-traditional students access to a Dillard education. As a result, since 2016, 139 adults have enrolled or returned to Dillard to earn their degrees.
“I have enjoyed my time at Dillard. On both occasions I have grown professionally and personally,” Page said. “The relationships built, especially those within enrollment management, will always remind me of how special Dillard is. Moreover, I met my wife here and we were married in Lawless Chapel, so there will always be a connection to Dillard for me.”
Page made significant infrastructure and operational improvements. Prior to his arrival, all enrollment-related communication was driven manually, taking up a considerable amount of manpower. As a solution, Dillard installed and launched its first customer relationship management system allowing the University to communicate with students more efficiently and competitively. He spearheaded partnerships with Anthology and EAB to elevate Dillard’s practices to industry standards. The Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships implemented operational improvements that reduced the University’s Title IV audit findings from 12 to zero. Page also led the efforts to partner with Trellis Company to provide additional complimentary services for our students related to financial literacy, default prevention, and automated communication services related to persistence.
In addition and in an effort to provide additional avenues for students to achieve their degree as well as meet the demands of our ever changing population, Page established the partnership with Acadeum. Since its inception, and by the end of the summer months 1,025 courses will be completed by Dillard students.
Page’s next chapter is with Blue Icon Advisors, NASFAA Consulting, as a senior consultant.
Poetry flowed through an HBCU thanks to a history making poet-laureate. Learn more in the story from Donna Thornton at The Gadsden Times.
Ashley M. Jones made history in 2021 when she was named Poet Laureate of Alabama — the first Black poet to hold the title since its creation in 1931 and, at the age of 31, the youngest to carry the designation.
And Jones made an impression in Gadsden this week, reading from her works at Gadsden State Community College at a midday gathering, and later at Jake’s Music Room.
Jones is a creative writing instructor at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. She’s one of six women authors who’ve received a Rona Jaffe Writers Foundation Award, taking the honor in 2015.
She received the Silver Medal in the Independent Publishers Book Awards, the Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry, a Literature Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize, and the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award.
Ashley Jones, poet laureate of Alabama, reads from her works on Wednesday at a midday gathering at Gadsden State Community College. (Photo Credit: The Gadsden Times)
Jones was a finalist for the Ruth Lily Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship in 2020, and her latest collection, “REPARATIONS NOW!,” was on the longlist for the 2022 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry.
She published two earlier volumes of poetry: “Magic City Gospel” ( Hub City Press) and “dark // thing” (Pleiades Press).
The Gadsden Public Library partnered with Gadsden State’s Cardinal Arts Journal to bring Jones to Gadsden.
Jones’ poetry addresses many topics, from family relationships to police shootings, with evocative imagery and clarity in the ideas she expresses.
In poems she read Tuesday at Gadsden State, her words combined the universal themes — her loving relationships with her mother and her father — and the specific. She wrote of the confidence her mother instilled in her as a Black woman; of her father’s work in his garden — a garden and labor that he owned and used to feed his family, not that of a master or landlord.
“She brought me baby and Barbie dolls that shared my skin, brown beauties who smiled back at me …” she wrote in the poem about her mother.
Jones explained that her mother would only allow her to get dolls “that looked like us,” because when her mother was young, the only dolls she had were hand-me-downs from an employer’s white children.
Her poem for her father, “Photosynthesis,” tells of her father teaching her how to prepare soil for seed, the infant bud and “how the dark could nurse it till it broke its green arms out to reach the sun…”
At least 12 people have held the title of poet laureate of Alabama since 1931, when Samuel Minturn Peck became the first. It was established as an unpaid position to help promote creativity and the arts across the state.
Five women have held the title before Jones, but hers is the youngest and the first African American voice to be heard from this platform.
Jones joked with the group at Gadsden State that she had a list of “husbands,” and the second was Sammy Davis Jr., before reading her poem “What the Glass Eye Saw.” The poem gives a view of the segregated world that even a star like Davis saw in early days of his career.
Ashley Jones, poet laureate of Alabama, signs copies of her works on Wednesday during a midday gathering at Gadsden State Community College. (Photo Credit: Donna Thornton/The Gadsden Times)
Some of her poems look at other historical figures, such as Harriet Tubman and Sally Hemmings (the latter inspired after hearing a throwaway reference to Hemmings in the musical “Hamilton”).
Other poems look at the present, and modern relationships.
In “Stephon Don’t You Moan, or To Protect and To Serve,” she writes of the police shooting of Stephon Clark in Sacramento in 2018:
“is there a police protocol for grace,
for the moment between show us your hands and shoot? that night,
policeman, servant of the gun, did you give space
for a man’s innocence to bloom? despite
the loaded weight of your finger on the trigger,
despite how the night
painted that man bigger,
made him a giant with a fireball in his hands? despite the loud explosion of your fright?”
Another poem’s title says it all: “For the Men Who Made Sure I Knew They Didn’t Love Me.” Its tone goes from playful to poignant from one line to the next.
“No one asked you for kisses so wet I had to towel down after
For kisses so stolen I had to call the police
For kisses so sweet I almost believed them.”
Jones’ three collections are available at book stores and online.
A recent high school graduate with Spelman College dreams is looking to free herself of the shackles that a ticket has had on her life. Learn more in the story by Jennifer Smith Richards at the Chicago Tribune and Jodi S. Cohen at Propublica.
Amara Harris, shown at her Naperville home, delayed plans to enroll in on-campus classes at Spelman College so she could fight a theft ticket issued to her while she was attending Naperville North High School. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
From the moment Amara Harris was accused of stealing another student’s AirPods at Naperville North High School, she has insisted that it was a mix-up, not a theft.
She told a school dean that she thought the AirPods were her own, having picked them up a few days earlier in the school’s learning commons, where she said she thought she had left her own set. Her mother repeatedly told officers that her daughter hadn’t stolen the wireless earbuds, records show.
Still, the school resource officer wrote Amara a ticket in 2019 for violating a municipal ordinance against theft. Paying a fine would have made the matter go away, but Amara says she won’t admit to something she didn’t do. For two and a half years, she has repeatedly gone to court to assert her innocence, even delaying her plans to attend on-campus classes at her dream school, Spelman College.
Now, in a rare and dramatic example of the impact of school ticketing, the case is headed for a jury trial, with the next court date on Tuesday. As Naperville continues to prosecute the case, Amara and her mother have racked up far more in legal bills than the city’s highest fine would have cost them.
“I am innocent. I am fighting because I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” said Amara, now 19. “Why would I say I’m innocent to everyone but then I lie in court and say I’m guilty? It doesn’t make sense to me.”
This spring, in the investigation “The Price Kids Pay,” ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune exposed the widespread practice of school officials and local police working together to ticket Illinois students for misbehavior at school, resulting in fines that can cost hundreds of dollars. Reporters documented about 12,000 tickets issued for possession of vaping devices and cannabis, disorderly conduct, truancy and other violations from August 2018 through June 2021.
Ticketing students for their behavior in school skirts a state law that bans schools from disciplining students with monetary fines. Immediately after the report was published, state officials including Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the state schools superintendent said they intended to put a stop to the practice.
The superintendent, Carmen Ayala, chided schools for outsourcing discipline to police and urged them to stop. The Illinois attorney general’s office, concerned that school ticketing was violating the civil rights of students of color, launched an investigation into a large suburban high school district and said it might investigate others.
But none of the state officials addressed how to deal with pending cases of students who, like Amara, had already been ticketed.
“The governor says he wants this to stop, he wants this to end,” said Amara’s mother, Marla Baker. “We are in the middle of it.”
Amara’s family, like so many others, was thrown into a system that uses a lower standard of proof than a criminal court. People ticketed for ordinance violations can be held responsible if the allegation is deemed more likely to be true than not, and the ticket itself is considered evidence. At every turn, the system and the officials in it encourage families to admit liability and pay a fine. And most do.
During a year of reporting on student ticketing that included attending more than 50 days of hearings, Tribune and ProPublica reporters met dozens of students and parents who paid fines even though they believed police didn’t need to be involved in the first place. Some were initially inclined to fight the citations but eventually gave up, worn down by the process.
The ticket issued to Amara Harris in 2019 at Naperville North High School. (Redactions added by ProPublica)
Amara’s case demonstrates the extraordinary effort it can take to argue against a ticket in a system built for assembly-line justice. Hers is the first case the Tribune and ProPublica have encountered that could go before a jury; Naperville officials said the city hasn’t had a jury trial for an ordinance violation in at least a decade.
The ticket is a civil matter, so there’s no threat of jail time. But Amara said she is committed to clearing her name.
To Amara and her mother, the ticket — and the city’s commitment to prosecuting it — is another example of people in power discriminating against Black children. Only about 120 of the roughly 2,700 students at Naperville North are Black, and Baker has spoken out in the past about what she sees as racism and bias in the city’s schools.
A Naperville city spokesperson, responding on behalf of the city and its police department, said “the City categorically denies that race in any way played a factor in this case.”
Spokesperson Linda LaCloche declined to answer specific questions about the police investigation because Amara’s case is pending. The spokesperson attributed the case’s slow progress to court closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Amara’s change in attorneys and court scheduling issues, among other reasons.
The officer who wrote the ticket, Juan Leon, declined to discuss the case but said it was “unbelievable” that it was still pending. He blamed Baker for dragging it out.
A Naperville Community Unit School District 203 spokesperson distanced the district from the case, saying: “Naperville 203 does not ticket students.” Spokesperson Alex Mayster said school officials rely on school resource officers, who work for the city’s police department, when a disciplinary matter may involve a law being broken. State schools chief Ayala has said schools that take this approach are “abdicating their responsibility.”
Amara’s family so far has paid at least $2,000 in lawyer fees to fight the case, Baker said. She and Amara stopped working with their most recent attorney in part because of the cost of going to trial and his recommendation that they accept a plea deal.
If there’s a trial, Amara may have to defend herself. Still, she said, she is not going to quit and allow the ticket to blemish her hard-earned school record. She made the honor roll at Naperville North, participated in school activities including cheerleading and the step team, served as an aide in the classroom and for the school deans and, in 2020, graduated from high school ahead of schedule. She said she has interned at the Brookfield Zoo and hopes to become a veterinarian.
“They are taking away all of my accomplishments that I have worked hard for and substituting it with an accident that happened,” she said. “To define me as a person — that is not who I am.”
The AirPods investigation began in November 2019, when a school dean told the school police officer he had received a voicemail from a father who said his daughter’s AirPods had been stolen. Two of the school’s deans then began gathering information, according to the Naperville police report that summarizes how the school and police handled the incident.
Amara became part of the investigation, the report states, when the girl whose AirPods had gone missing reported something she had been told by a friend. During class, the friend saw Amara’s name pop up on her own laptop connected to AirPods that she thought belonged to the girl, the report says. The friend informed the girl, who then went to the school administration.
That same day, Dean Jim Konrad went to Amara’s classroom to speak with her. According to the police report, Amara told the dean she had purchased AirPods months earlier and handed Konrad the ones in her possession. They turned out to match the serial number provided by the other student.
“Amara stated that she did not know how this happened, and told him she thought they were hers,” the police report stated, recounting the conversation between the dean and Amara, then a 17-year-old junior.
The report said nothing more about Amara’s explanation for having the other girl’s AirPods.
“They never talked to me, never asked me what happened,” Amara said in an interview with ProPublica and the Tribune. But what she’d tell them is simple, she said: “I would tell them I found them in the exact location where I thought I misplaced them.”
Baker said she showed a receipt to school administrators and later to police to prove that Amara owned a set of AirPods and to show that Amara had reason to believe the ones she picked up were hers. Amara said using the other girl’s AirPods was seamless and there was no indication they belonged to someone else.
The police report makes no mention of the receipt.
After speaking with Amara, the dean went back to the police officer. The two of them agreed to call Amara’s mother, but before that happened, a fire alarm went off at the school. Amara, meanwhile, called Baker on her own. According to the police report, Baker came to the school and “started to yell” that school officials had “interrogated” Amara. She then left with Amara.
The school resource officer then called the father of the girl whose AirPods were missing. He told the officer he was glad his daughter had her AirPods back but he wanted Amara charged with theft, according to the police report. The officer said he explained “the different possible consequences toward Amara.”
Amara Harris applies makeup while getting ready for her graduation from the College of DuPage last month at her home in Naperville. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
School officials didn’t discipline Amara, she and her mother said, but the police continued to pursue the matter. Two weeks later Baker met with the school resource officer and a sergeant at the police station. Baker brought the former police chief of Aurora, who is retired but acts as a liaison between police and Black community members in the Chicago area. Amara was not present.
At that meeting, the Naperville school resource officer explained that he was issuing Amara a city ordinance citation for theft. According to the police report and the former police chief, Baker insisted “there was no theft” and would not accept the ticket. The officer wrote “Refused” on the signature line for the defendant when Baker declined to sign the citation.
“Something just wasn’t right,” said William Powell, the former Aurora police chief, who now works with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. “When her daughter was accused of taking these AirPods, they wanted to jump on her daughter right away and press charges.”
Powell said he was troubled that the police wouldn’t explain why they believed it was theft and not a mix-up. He said he thought the police were dismissive and acted like the ticket was not a big deal.
“They said, ‘She’s not being charged, she’s being ticketed,’” he said. “It doesn’t make any difference — she’s still in the system. I felt that it might not have been investigated thoroughly.”
When racist incidents in Naperville schools caught the nation’s attention a few years ago — one student was accused of posting an online ad with a photo of a Black student that said “slave for sale” — Baker spoke out.
At a community meeting and to reporters, she described how her son had been bullied in middle school, with classmates using slurs and sending him photos of a noose and of the Ku Klux Klan.
When Amara was ticketed for theft soon after that community forum, Amara and her mother felt like it was another injustice.
“We moved to Naperville for a better education, not to be marginalized where (if) she has a situation, she is sent all the way to court,” said Baker, who moved in 2016 with her family from Carbondale in southern Illinois.
A calendar marked with the words “Court Date” is seen in Amara Harris’ room at home. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
A Naperville Community Unit School District 203 spokesperson said the district has worked to address concerns raised in 2019 about systemic racial inequities, including by adopting an equity resolution that commits to ending racial injustice, offering districtwide implicit bias training and examining hiring and requirement practices.
For “The Price Kids Pay,” the Tribune and ProPublica were able to identify racial disparities in school-based ticketing in some districts. But that type of analysis wasn’t possible for Naperville because ticket records obtained from the city’s police department didn’t indicate the race of the young people cited.
To fight Amara’s ticket, Baker hired a lawyer and also reached out to representatives from the NAACP and other advocacy groups. She started an online petition. She appealed to members of the Naperville City Council and to the mayor in an email urging them to dismiss the citation.
“Let her move on with her life and finally be able to attend college in person,” she wrote in March. “Let her move on from this false allegation that should have stayed as a simple school disciplinary issue.”
But the city’s prosecution of Amara continued. To make it easier to appear in DuPage County court, Amara has been taking her Spelman classes online, delaying a move to Atlanta. To pay her legal fees, she dipped into money she had saved for school as well as paychecks from a recent job.
Earlier this year, a second lawyer representing Amara negotiated a potential plea agreement in which the city would dismiss the case if Amara paid a $100 fine plus $100 court costs. She would also have to concede that if she went to trial, the city would present a case and it was possible that she could be found guilty.
Amara wouldn’t agree to that deal and requested a jury trial. Her mother was angry. She wanted the lawyer to fight for a full vindication and felt that the plea deal would have undercut their pursuit of justice. The lawyer withdrew from the case.
Marla Baker, right, helps her daughter Amara get ready for her graduation from the College of DuPage last month. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
“I just can’t tell my daughter to plead to something you didn’t do,” Baker said. She also acknowledges that it’s hard to know at this point what would feel like a win in Amara’s case. “I feel like no matter what, even if they dismiss it and we walk away from it, she still lost.”
When reporters asked Naperville officials about Amara’s case, city spokesperson LaCloche suggested the matter could have been resolved without a ticket. She said the decision to issue the citation was made by police after they “initially considered addressing this matter via an informal out-of-court resolution.”
Baker and Amara said police never indicated there was an alternative to a ticket and they were shocked to hear what the city told reporters. Powell, the former police chief, said no other option was mentioned in the meeting he attended.
“If you didn’t want to give the ticket, what parent would be like, ‘No, no, no — give me the ticket’?” Baker said. “If that was always the case, you still have the power to do so now. That is ridiculous to me.”
The father of the student who reported her AirPods missing in 2019 said he did not realize the case was still going on. He declined to comment further, saying he didn’t want anything to do with it.
After lawmakers said in April that they planned to take action on police ticketing at school in response to “The Price Kids Pay,” Baker renewed her efforts to get authorities to help them. She contacted a state senator and the Illinois State Board of Education. A board employee last week told Baker that she couldn’t help because the case isn’t under school jurisdiction any longer — it’s a court matter. She encouraged Baker to email the state superintendent.
Amara and her mother also reached out to ProPublica and the Tribune through a form asking students and parents to contact reporters about their experiences.
Throughout the case, Amara has remained focused on her academic goals. In addition to taking online classes at Spelman, she also enrolled at a local community college. By May 20, she had earned enough credits for an associate degree in science from the College of DuPage.
Marla Baker hugs her daughter Amara Harris after watching her graduate from the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn last month. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
On graduation day, Amara put her green gown on over a white flowered outfit and fitted her cap over her long braids. Baker made a point of saying that she didn’t want Amara to think about court on that day.
“I want you to enjoy this, I really do. I want you to block everything else out,” Baker said when she and Amara went outside to take photos. “I hope this will encourage you to keep going, and you’re halfway there already.”
But the ticket still looms. On a whiteboard in her bedroom, Amara marks the court dates alongside her work schedule.
She and her mother say they desperately need the case to end before summer’s over so Amara can head to Spelman. “Somebody’s going to come to help us,” Baker said.
Bowie State University has selected its next coach for its women’s volleyball program. Learn more in the BSU release below.
Edric Poitier has been named the head coach of the Bowie State women’s volleyball program, Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics and Recreation Clyde Doughty, Jr. announced Thursday morning. Poitier comes to Bowie State after spending the past season as the head coach at a private high school in Jacksonville, Fla., where he guided the program to a 19-7 overall record and a quarterfinal appearance in the Florida State District Championship.
“After an intensive search it is with great excitement that Coach Edric Poitier has accepted the position as the next head volleyball coach for Bowie State University,” said Doughty, Jr. “Coach Poitier brings a wealth of experience in the field of volleyball. He is a CIAA veteran and wholly understands what it takes to manage a quality program that will be competitive in the CIAA and NCAA.”
Prior to his high school tenure, Poitier did a one-year stint at Florida State College at Jacksonville in 2019, before serving as the head coach at Savannah State from 2016-2018; Bluefield State College (2013-2016) and Winston-Salem State (2010-2012).
“I would like to express sincere gratitude to VP for Athletics, Mr. Doughty, Jr. and President Dr. Breaux for the opportunity to lead the program at this time in its development,” said Poitier. “I look forward to trying to make the program a viable one within the conference.”
With over 23 years of experience coaching at the collegiate level, one of the most appealing factors about Poitier was that he is no stranger to the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) Conference. Poitier’s record of accomplishments emphasized on rebuilding programs as he started his head-coaching career with St. Augustine’s College (now St. Augustine University), posting a 113-34 record in five seasons at the helm. In his first year, he went 14-13 overall, including a 14-6 mark in conference play. The next four seasons (2000-2003), Poitier recorded 20-plus wins and a conference championship in each season. Poitier went 23-6, including a 19-2 mark in conference play, a conference title and CIAA Coach of the Year in 2000, followed up with a 22-7 overall record, including a perfect 21-0 conference record and CIAA Championship, first round appearance in the NCAA Regionals in 2001.
Poitier guided the Lady Falcons to a 29-3 overall record and 21-0 mark in CIAA action to go along with the program’s third-straight CIAA title while advancing to the second round of the NCAA Regionals in 2002. In his last season at the helm, St. Augustine’s posted a 25-5 overall record extending its win-streak to 63-straight wins over CIAA opponents (21-0), a CIAA championship and the 2003 CIAA Coach of the Year award. Overall,his five-year stint with the Lady Falcons, he compiled a 115-35 overall record and a 99-8 record. He is a three-time CIAA Coach of the Year and is still the only CIAA coach to ever win an NCAA Tournament First Round match.
The Nassau, Bahamas native coached the Bahamas National Women’s Team for nine years from 1992-99 and led the team to two gold medals and three silver medals at the Regional Caribbean Volleyball Championships and was the assistant coach from 1989-92. Poitier played on the Bahamas Men’s National Team as a setter for 13 years from 1979-92 and won the bronze medal at Commonwealth Volleyball Championship in London in 1981.
Poitier is a 2003 graduate of Saint Augustine’s College with a degree in Criminal Justice. He is married and the father of three children.
The Bowie State women’s volleyball program is slated to begin the 2022 campaign on Sept. 6 at Delaware State.
Kentucky State University is seeking to get position itself on the right track, and has locked in four candidates to be the next leader. Learn more in the story from at Monica Kast at the Lexington Herald-Leader below.
Kentucky State University in Frankfort (Photo Credit: Silas Walker)
Kentucky State University has named four candidates, all with leadership experience in higher education, for the position of interim president, the university announced Wednesday afternoon.
The candidates are James A. Anderson, Everette J. Freeman, Patricia Lofton Hardaway and Ronald A. Johnson. All four have previously worked in higher education administration at historically Black colleges and universities.
Gerald Patton, chair of the KSU board of regents, said the board expects to make a selection later this month, according to a release from KSU.
Earlier this year, under House Bill 250, KSU halted its ongoing search for the next president and was instructed to name an interim president to serve until next year. The bill also gave the university $23 million to address its budget shortfall, with measures in place to create a management improvement plan and financial accountability for KSU. Another bill, Senate Bill 265, nearly completely replaced KSU’s board of regents.
Clara Ross Stamps has been the acting president of KSU since last summer, when former president M. Christopher Brown II resigned amid concerns about the university’s finances and multiple lawsuits filed against the university.
JAMES A. ANDERSON
Anderson is the former chancellor of Fayetteville State University, an HBCU in North Carolina, and was also a professor of psychology at that university. He is a trustee for Bennett College, and has experience as a vice president and associate provost at the State University of New York and at Texas A&M University, according to his candidate biography. He has held positions as a dean and professor at several other universities, and was a member of the Villanova University board of trustees for 10 years.
He has a bachelor’s degree from Villanova University and Ph.D. from Cornell University.
EVERETTE J. FREEMAN
Freeman is the former president of the Community College of Denver and former president of Albany State University, an HBCU in Georgia. He has held several other administration positions in higher education, including as a senior vice president, provost and dean, and has a background in human resources. He is a former member of the University of Phoenix Board of Trustees.
He has a bachelor’s degree from Antioch University, a master’s degree from the University of Illinois, and an Ed.D. from Rutger’s University. He also has a certificate from the Institute for Educational Leadership at Harvard University and a certificate in economics from Fircroft College.
PATRICIA LOFTON HARDAWAY
Hardaway is an attorney and the former president of Wilberforce University, a private HBCU in Ohio. She has also held the positions of interim president, provost and vice president of academic affairs at Wilberforce University, as well as serving on its board of trustees.
She has also worked as an attorney on employment litigation in multiple states, and as a consultant for several colleges and universities.
She has a bachelor’s degree from Wilberforce University, a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh and a J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
RONALD A. JOHNSON
Johnson is the former president of Clark Atlanta University, a private HBCU in Atlanta. While at Clark Atlanta University, he helped found and chair the Development Committee of the HBCU Executive Leadership Institute, which helps prepare future leaders of historically Black institutions. He is also a former member of the President’s Advisory Board of the White House Initiative on HBCU.
He has a bachelor’s degree and MBA from Adelphi University, as well as a master’s degree and Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Howard University Dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts Phylicia Rashad has won another Tony Award! Learn more in the release from Howard’s The Dig below.
Photo Credit: Howard University
Howard University would like to congratulate Phylicia Rashad, dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts, who won the Tony Award for best featured actress in a play for her performance in “Skeleton Crew,” which was also nominated for best new play.
Founded by theater producer and director Brock Pemberton and named after actress, producer and theater director, Antoinette “Tony” Perry, the Tony Awards recognize excellence in live Broadway theater. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in Midtown Manhattan, New York.
“On behalf of the entire Howard University community, I’d like to offer Dean Rashad congratulations on winning yet another Tony Award,” said Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick, president of Howard University. “She has had an exemplary career and continues to pursue and attain the highest levels of excellence in all that she does. Dean Rashad’s example will continue to inspire her students in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts to set high ambitions for what they can achieve and the good they can do with their talents.”
In the show, Rashad portrayed Faye, a factory worker who has been at the same plant for 29 years and is facing a significant bump in her pension after 30 years.
In the 2022 Tony Awards First Impressions room, Dean Rashad advised young actors to “lean into your craft, seek and find good teachers, and find your own way.”
In 2004, Rashad became the first Black actress to win a Tony for best actress in a play for her role as Lena Younger in a revival of “A Raisin in the Sun.” (She later reprised her role in a 2008 TV adaptation, for which she won an NAACP Image Award.)
Florida’s First Independent Institution of Higher Learning and First HBCU Will Offer Online Master of Arts in Education Policy & Advocacy Beginning Fall 2022
Last week Edward Waters University (EWU) received formal notification from its accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), authorizing the university to offer a new graduate master’s degree (M.A.) in Education Policy and Advocacy. As such, the university plans to begin enrolling students in this exciting new graduate academic degree program beginning this coming August in fall 2022. Given the dynamic shifts in global policies and pedagogical frameworks throughout both the K-12 and higher educational sectors both locally and nationally, EWU is confident that this new program will fill a particularly growing need for trained educational policy makers and influencers who will shape the present and future of American education.
In particular, the new graduate M.A. in Education Policy and Advocacy (MEPA) is a 100% online 36 credit-hour degree program that can be completed in as little as twelve months. Completion of the all-new MEPA program will help fortify and empower intergenerational leaders for positions of responsibility as K-12 administrative policy influencers, higher education administrators & professionals, as well as leaders in educational non-profit and for-profit sectors.
“As a second generation educator, I am pleased to advance the development of this new interdisciplinary degree at Edward Waters University as a deliberate step in our strategic focus on producing of minority thought leaders, national advocates and committed public servants who are intellectually prepared to employ culturally relevant strategies that address contemporary issues in communities around the world”, said Edward Waters University’s inaugural Dean of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of Education, Dr. Walter T. Tillman Jr.
Traditionally, fields of education have held a strong interest amongst EWU students and the university has in past years produced remarkably effective and impactful educators throughout the state of Florida and beyond. Accordingly, the university’s faculty and administration resolved to develop this new market relevant stand-alone graduate degree program in education policy and advocacy to further expand EWU’s academic profile and meet student demand while simultaneously supporting future enrollment growth.
“The transformation and ascendancy of Edward Waters University continues with the promulgation and subsequent approval by SACSCOC of our second graduate degree program—the Masters of Education Policy and Advocacy—in just the last year,” said Dr. A. Zachary Faison, Jr., EWU president and CEO.
“We are excited and brimming with anticipation concerning this new cutting-edge graduate degree program of study that will produce strong educational policy making advocates that serve and support the needs of our nation’s primary, secondary, and college/university students,” President Faison said.
The Master of Arts in Education Policy and Advocacy (MEPA) will utilize an interdisciplinary and culturally relevant approach to prepare educational advocates and non-educational leaders as change agents for leadership in sundry contexts. Traditional and contemporary theory, technology and experiential learning are collectively employed to give students pursuing the Education Policy and Advocacy degree a holistic and innovative perspective.
“Introducing this new program contributes to EWU’s goal of enhancing the university’s academic profile by comprehensively inaugurating a competitive 21st century curriculum into our institution,” Dr. Donna H. Oliver, the Provost of EWU as well as the Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs added. “Given EWU’s past longstanding presence in education as a program of study, I as a career educator am excited to see our institution now reclaim its space as a continuing producer of high-quality educational professionals,” Provost Oliver said.
Vanderbilt University’s latest history-maker is a Jackson State University alumna! Learn more in the Jackson State University JSU release below.
Jackson State University alumna Carcia Carson solidified herself in history by becoming the first Black woman to receive her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Vanderbilt University. With the completion of her advanced degree, Carson intends to devote her professional research to developing translational research in cancer vaccines and personalized immunotherapy.
“I am honored to become the first to accomplish this feat. I look forward to diversifying my industry and continuing the discussion of representation in high-level research environments,” she said.
A native of Terry, Carson obtained her B.S. in physics in 2014 from JSU. Shortly after, she transitioned to Fisk University to participate in their Fisk-Vanderbilt Master’s-to-PhD Bridge Program, where she also obtained her master’s degree in physics.
Carson shared that a large portion of her technical studies prepared her for more traditional teaching opportunities as a physicist. Eager to expand her professional scope, Carson credits her tenure at Fisk as the exposure needed to spark her connection to medical physics.
(Photo Credit: Jackson State University Communication)
Carson said it was imperative that she commit her research towards the advancement of cancer research to aid in bridging the information gap for her family members and community. Her interest in translational research gained inspiration when her grandmother was diagnosed with cancer and selected to undergo an immunotherapy clinical trial, which was relatively new.
“Translational research is more likely to impact the treatment of cancer patients directly. That’s what I want to do. I want to have a direct hand in the treatment of cancer patients…I want to directly impact cancer patients with the hopes to improve the lives of people living with cancer,” she said.
Carson highlighted the importance of her resiliency throughout her academic journey, occasionally warding off the feeling of unworthiness plaguing her mind.
“I felt small, and imposter syndrome started getting bigger. I felt like I didn’t deserve to be here. Being the first African American female to get this Ph.D., I didn’t see anybody that looked like me,” said Carson. “So I started to find mentors in other departments that were Black women. I joined organizations that were for Black graduate students, and that truly helped me.”
Having secured national fellowships and published several academic publications while attending Fisk and Vanderbilt, Carson credits JSU for providing her with the ability to network effectively with key stakeholders in her field. More specifically, she extended deep gratitude toward former JSU faculty member Quentin Williams, Ph.D., for investing in her ability and training her work ethic, which further inspired her to pursue the Fisk-Vanderbilt program.
With many of her academic counterparts attending prestigious institutions outside of the HBCU spectrum, Carson recognized the likelihood that her fellow peers and professors would not view her as the ideal candidate. However, her quality of work and motivation behind her pursuits sustained her.
During her commencement ceremony, Carson honored the faculty at Vanderbilt that took a chance and allowed her to prove that greatness comes in many forms and from any environment.
“I was not the golden candidate that all faculty seek to advise, but the leader at Vanderbilt took a chance on me. Faculty needs to take a chance on all students,” said Carson. “Just because they didn’t come from a prestigious undergraduate institution or didn’t have high-level research doesn’t mean they aren’t capable of being successful in your lab or program.”
Reflecting on her academic career, Carson believes the most sound advice she’d impart to her younger self would be utilizing your resources, asking probing questions, and allowing your professional connections and insights to inform your pathway.
Carson said she looks forward to dedicating the next several years to advancing her medical research and obtaining her MBA degree with hopes of one day becoming a director of oncology.
With film being one of the most cherished forms of entertainment in the world, Fox Soul created a landmark contest to bring a fresh perspective to the art. Through the “Fox Soul Screening Room HBCU Pitch Contest” launched earlier this year, the network was not disappointed in its search to elevate top HBCU filmmaking talent.
The bold HBCU students who set out to apply had plenty to gain. For one, the grand prize winner would receive a useful $5,000 prize to fund their idea for a short film. However, perhaps the most coveted perk would be the exposure. The contest was created in part with “The Screening Room,” a show on Fox Soul hosted by legendary actress Vivica A. Fox. Now in its second season, the popular show has been showcasing black filmmakers and their short films. Like so many filmmakers featured on the show, the newly crowned winner is much closer to achieving his big screen dreams.
For recent Morehouse College graduate Kameron Bain, winning the contest felt like a long time coming. Years before he ever submitted his application, he was an 11-year-old who felt drawn to acting and film editing. It took him working on a silent film in high school for him to recognize a future in directing. “After that experience and showing my class my final product, I knew that I had that ‘thing’ about my story telling that people really liked,” said Bain.
Bain largely credits his Morehouse experience with helping him to reach a level where he was prepared to compete with the top talent in the contest. As a young black man, the exposure to different people and ideas that he received in college changed his life. He was finally able to unpack political moments happening around him in 2015-2016 such as the highly polarizing election of Donald Trump and rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Realizing that there was a need for black stories to be told by black filmmakers in the film market, he got to work. “I knew that kids my age didn’t read books as much if they didn’t have the type of access I did at Morehouse so I looked to make political and philosophical statements in my writing to reach more black men,” he said. “My writing grew into some really powerful work.”
When the application for Fox Soul’s inaugural HBCU Pitch Contest were released, Bain submitted a short film concept that he had been working on for a long time. Black Rage is a psychological thriller about a black painter who is told to make his race a larger part of his art if he wants to stay relevant. Perhaps thousands of black artists have been given similar professional advice, causing them to forgo personally meaningful art ideas in lieu of pieces that objectify their race. The finished film would explore how the pressures of masculinity, grief, sexuality, and “unhinged rage” sink their teeth into the main character, and metaphorically black artists at large.
“During COVID, I wrote Black Rage and started to work with a writers room in Atlanta to learn the professional writing process and getting used to hearing the struggles of other film creatives,” he said. His courageous decision to pitch his short was like lighting a fire. He leveraged marketing experience he had from working in the music industry to produce his first professional trailer with creative partners Shaun Mathis and Brandon Obey. Then in his senior year at Morehouse, he created his own streaming platform called Homegrown TV to give Black Rage even more momentum.
Like many great filmmakers, Kameron Bain hopes that his work will have resounding effects. “My long term vision is to bring more diverse stories in unique film genres back to hip hop culture,” he said. All his life, he has drawn inspiration from films like Belly, Friday, Dead Presidents, Thin Line Between Love and Hate and Boys in the Hood as films that truly allowed viewers to see what that culture is like. Yet with his work, he hopes to bridge the gap between that wave of impactful films and what is marketed now. “Over the years we have lost touch with the black artists who make the culture,” he said. “Issa and Donald Glover are working hard to bring it back but, I know they need the young bucks to participate and support too!”
Congratulations are in order for Kameron. We look forward to his developing portfolio of work as well as the 2023 Fox Soul HBCU Pitch Contest!
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