Morehouse College alum and civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt has announced his run for Texas Attorney General! The lawyer has worked on key cases related to the murders of Botham Jean, Ahmaud Arbery and more. Learn more about his run in the NewsOne article by Bruce C. T. Wright below.
Credit: Montinique Monroe/Getty
Months after announcing his intentions to run for Texas attorney general, civil rights lawyer Lee Merritt is making good on his promise and officially launched his campaign on Tuesday.
Merritt, running as a Democrat, is also an activist who has played instrumental roles in seeking justice for victims of gun and police violence by notably representing the families of Ahmaud Arbery, Botham Jean and Atatiana Jefferson, said he is confident he can beat the incumbent Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — whom he has called “associate of white supremacy and tool of voter suppression” — in a general election.
Merritt is basing his campaign on several urgent pillars, including protecting the right to vote, energy, education, and criminal justice and policing.
A campaign toolkit sent to members of the media made it a point to remind of Paxton’s role in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and supporting Donald Trump’s widely debunked claims that he was a victim of election fraud.
“We are up against the worst of the worst,” the toolkit says in part. “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has aligned himself with the most conspiratorial, most Trumpian wing of the Republican party. He refused to join his peers in condemning the January 6th riots, sued to prevent the results of the 2020 presidential election from being certified, and has continued to push the Big Lie in an attempt to strip millions of Texans of their right to vote. He is a threat not only to our democracy but also to the lives of everyday Texans. Instead of cracking down on the energy giants that control power in our state after the power failure of 2020, he did nothing. That’s probably because he takes millions of dollars from energy lobbyists to ensure he stays in power.”
This is Ken Paxton, associate of white supremacy and tool of voter suppression. He has failed the people of Texas and his time is up. https://t.co/coqjBChdzI
Paxton, the current Texas attorney general, was elected in 2014 with overwhelming support from Republican voters. Democrats closed the gap a bit in 2018, but Paxton still won by a few hundred thousand votes despite lingering controversies.
Former Galveston, Texas, Mayor Joe Jaworski, who announced his intent to run for attorney general last September, pointed to Paxton being under investigation for securities fraud. In November, the Texas Tribune reported some of Paxton’s top aides accused him of bribery and abusing his office.
A few weeks after that news broke, Paxton joined in efforts to undermine the 2020 election results. In support of Trump’s big lie, Paxton sued four states making vague allegations in support of a clearly partisan effort to overturn the election.
It’s been 6 years since Sandra Bland‘s death, and in that time her story has unfolded, with many questions still unanswered. However, in that same span of time, the Prairie View A&M University alumna has left a lasting legacy in the U.S. and beyond. Read the beautiful story about Sandra Bland’s reach in the NewsOne article about Bruce C.T. Wright below.
(Credit: Kena Betancur/Getty)
The 28-year-old was driving from her native Illinois to begin a new job at Prairie View A&M University when she was pulled over for a minor moving violation. But what should have been a routine ticketing experience quickly devolved into brutality when State Trooper Brian Encinia failed to de-escalate the encounter, which resulted in Bland being charged with assault.
Dashcam video from Encinia’s cruiser suggested he was the aggressor.
Three days later, on July 13, 2015, Bland’s body was found hanging from her jail cell, where she had been remanded because of an inability to afford a $5,000 bond.
Even though Bland’s death was ruled a suicide, suspicion of officers in the Waller County Jail has lingered as no one has ever been held accountable.
Bland’s death took place amid a spate of controversial police-involved deaths of unarmed Black people, thrusting her name onto a growing list on which no one wants to be.
The WNBA’s Atlanta Dream observe a moment of silence for Sandra Bland before a game in 2020. (Credit: Julio Aguilar/Getty)
Since Bland’s death, her legacy has grown immeasurably. Notably, Texas has reformed its laws surrounding protocol during traffic stops. Texas Gov. Greg Abbot in 2017 signed the Sandra Bland Act into law, which set new mandates for county jails to divert people with mental health and substance abuse issues toward treatment and requires that independent law enforcement agencies investigate jail deaths.
The law was recently involved when an inmate was found unresponsive and pronounced dead in his cell at Bexar County Jail on Saturday. In that instance, the local sheriff’s office, as well as the Texas Commission on Jail Standards, were notified of the in-custody death of Michael Rene Johnson — two groups that, prior to the Sandra Bland Act being enacted, may not have been told promptly, or at all, about the incident.
About a thousand Black Lives Matter activists in Brooklyn honored the life of Sandra Bland exactly one year after she died. (Credit: Erik McGregor / Getty)
Bland’s name also lives on with the launch of the brand new Sandra Bland Center for Racial Justice in Austin. When it opened back in May, Bland’s mother explained what the organization wants to accomplish, local news outlet KSAT reported.
“We’re trying to really assist families with being whole again. So we’re doing scholarships, we’re doing training, we’re teaching financial literacy,” Geneva Reed-Veal said at the time.
And in an indication of how important and widespread Bland’s name and legacy has become for the Black Lives Matter movement, a new “Say Their Names” Memorial was opened last week in San Diego and prominently includes Bland.
Not all has been positive since Bland’s death. The justice being demanded by her family since Day 1 has been elusive. Her family noted last year amid the national protests against police violence and demanding racial justice and equality that law enforcement was still killing Black people with impunity.
“I’m angry,” Shante Needham told ABC News last year. “I’m angry that my sister passed five years ago and they are still killing us. I’m angry.”
Savannah State University has a new director of bands and assistant professor of music! Learn more about Gabriel Arnold and how he plans to change the face of music at Savannah State in the Savannah Business Journal staff report below!
Savannah State University has named Gabriel Arnold, Ph.D., assistant professor of music and director of university bands.
In this role, Arnold will direct the Savannah State University Band Program including the Powerhouse of the South marching band, pep, jazz and symphonic wind ensemble bands in rehearsals and performances. He will provide leadership in recruiting band members and music majors, coordinating auditions and scholarships, and maintain active and collaborative relationships with university Athletics, Advancement, Student Affairs, Academic Affairs as well as public schools and band programs throughout the state of Georgia and beyond. Arnold will provide quality instruction, vision and leadership for all aspects of a traditional Historically Black College or University band program repertoire.
“As a native son of Georgia, I am so excited to lead the Powerhouse of the South! I look forward to infusing my core values of excellence in musicianship, strong character, and high academic achievement into the Savannah State University Band Program,” he said.
With more than 18 years of experience teaching music, Arnold comes to Savannah State from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La., where he was director of athletic bands and assistant professor of music since 2018. A retired Marine, Arnold served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1994 – 1998, achieving the rank of sergeant in three years.
He earned his doctorate in music education, a master of music education and a bachelor of music in education from Florida State University, Tallahassee. In addition, he is a graduate of the Armed Forces School of Music, Norfolk, Virginia. Arnold is a member of the National Association for Music Education, Georgia Music Educators, Florida Music Educators, Kappa Kappa Psi Honorary Music Fraternity and Phi Mu Alpha Fraternity.
An extension of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Savannah State University Band Program provides the excitement of tiger pride at university athletic events and showcases the enrichment of student life. The Powerhouse of the South marching band is an award-winning band and the most visible of the SSU bands, performing regularly at home and selected away football games, parades and Battle of the Bands competitions. The marching band accepts invitations to perform throughout the Southeast.
Morgan State University will be offering 24 cybersecurity scholarships by way of a $3 million grant! Get the full story from Security Magazine below!
Morgan student works on cybersecurity project at University’s CAP Center. (Credit: Office of Morgan State University)
Morgan State University’s (MSU) Cybersecurity Assurance and Policy (CAP) Center has been awarded a $3.2 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to implement the agency’s novel CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (SFS) program at Morgan, providing 24 cybersecurity scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students. As the only HBCU recipient to be awarded the grant this year, Morgan joins six other universities distinguished by the NSF to administer the CyberCorps program at their respective institutions. The award, which carries a term of five years, recognizes MSU’s CAP Center as a leader in cyber defense education and the study of secure embedded systems. Kevin T. Kornegay, Ph.D., the director for the CAP Center and professor at Morgan, will serve as principal investigator.
Designed to recruit and train the next generation of cybersecurity professionals, CyberCorps alongside its partner institutions creates pathways for students to receive critical training and education. At Morgan, the program will afford scholarships to 24 MSU students (10 bachelors, eight masters and six doctoral) providing them with an opportunity to participate in a unique educational program and innovative curriculum rooted in secure embedded systems integrating active learning experiences and mentoring.
The CAP Center will oversee the program’s implementation at Morgan branding it as the Secure Embedded Systems Scholarship (SES2). The resources provided will assist the Center in recruitment, mentoring, and will afford students pursuing cybersecurity-focused bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees with financial support.
“The innovation and high-degree of instruction Dr. Kornegay and his team are pursuing within the Cybersecurity Assurance and Policy Center is not only a model to follow, but it is representative of the high-value research and experiential learning opportunities that we afford our students here at Morgan,” said David K. Wilson, president of Morgan State University. “We thank the National Science Foundation and its partners for recognizing the critical role that Morgan will play in preparing future qualified digital security professionals as well as for the investment in our students to fill these roles.”
Livingstone College is among several HCBUs like Wilberforce College and more that have used substantial funds to forgive student debt! Get the full story in the release by K. Harrington at Livingstone below.
Carnegie Library at Livingstone College. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Livingstone College announced today an initiative that will forgive the debt of students who attended Livingstone during the spring 2021 academic semester.
The Livingstone College Debt Forgiveness Persistence Initiative (DFPI) will award more than $2.8 million in persistence grants to qualifying students of the spring 2021 semester who have outstanding student account balances. This is in addition to the more than $4 million in need-based student aid Livingstone College already provides from its general operating budget each year.
“The economic hardships created by the COVID-19 virus is unprecedented and has made it extremely difficult for students to pursue their dreams of obtaining a college education during this period of economic uncertainty,” said Livingstone President Dr. Jimmy R. Jenkins, Sr. in a letter to qualifying students. “The population we serve relies heavily on student loans to pay for their college education. Therefore, as we look forward to the fall 2021 academic semester, we would like to remove one of the primary barriers related to persistence – student debt.”
This initiative will enable students to pursue their college education in the absence of student debt, he said.
The college will utilize the CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund to support this critical initiative.
“Access and affordability must work in tandem,” said Dr. Anthony J. Davis, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Livingstone College. “The population we serve has been significantly impacted by this pandemic. Therefore, we are deploying every resource possible in support of our students and their families.”
To take advantage of this opportunity, students will receive a letter and document from Livingstone College that will require their signature. The document must be signed and returned no later than July 15, 2021.
Florida Memorial University will be on probation for a year, but faculty and staff at the university think it’s now moving in the right direction. Learn more about the decision and how FIU plans to weather the storm in the Inside Higher Ed article by Sara Weissman below.
Credit: BlackPast
Florida Memorial University has been put on a yearlong probation by its accreditor due to financial mismanagement and failure to comply with fiduciary requirements.
According to the accrediting body, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), university leaders failed to maintain a governing board that exercises fiduciary oversight over the institution, manage financial resources in a responsible manner, utilize appropriate control over all its financial resources and comply with program responsibilities related to financial aid programs.
The accreditor said in a disclosure statement last month that the university was put on “probation for good cause.” This sanction is imposed when an institution makes insufficient progress toward meeting requirements over a two-year monitoring period but has had “significant recent accomplishments in addressing non-compliance” and “provided evidence” that it can fix problems within a year. The university remains accredited despite this action by the SACSCOC, which was first reported by the Miami Times.
Adrienne Cooper, provost and executive vice president of the university, said administrators are complying with the accreditor’s demands and she is confident the institution will successfully address the problems and be taken off probation, because this particular kind of probation “doesn’t happen unless there’s clear evidence that you’re moving in the right direction.”
She said the academic standing of the institution was not in question.
“We have been messaging to students and we continue to reiterate that we continue to offer quality education, that this has nothing to do with academic quality,” Cooper said. “The degrees are absolutely still valid and will continue to be valid, that we will continue to educate students and they are still eligible for financial aid.”
Credit: Florida Memorial University Athletics
SACSCOC also put three other institutions on “probation for good cause.” The accreditor sanctioned Pfeiffer University, a private Methodist liberal arts institution in North Carolina, for failing to sustain sound financial resources and responsibly manage its finances. Southwestern Christian College, a private historically Black Christian institution in Texas, was similarly put on probation for not maintaining sustainable funding and exercising appropriate control over finances. South Louisiana Community College in Lafayette was penalized for failing to adequately measure and assess student outcomes for undergraduate degree programs and provide proof of efforts to improve.
Florida Memorial’s new probation status comes after long-standing financial problems and enrollment declines at the historically Black private university in Miami Gardens, Jaffus Hardrick, the institution’s president, said in a July 7 video statement. Hardrick was the university’s third leader in less than two years at the time he started as interim president in July 2018.
“The issues that need to be addressed are financial and are the result of a combination of underinvestment and low enrollment at the university for over the past 10 years,” he said.
One of the goals outlined in the university’s strategic plan, released in October 2020, is increasing student enrollment to 3,000 students. The total head count for the 2018-19 academic year was 1,445 students, compared to 2,287 students in 2009-10, a decrease of more than 36 percent over nearly a decade, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Cooper said enrollment held fairly steady from fall 2019 to fall 2020 in spite of the pandemic, however, the college has not made its 2020 enrollment numbers publicly available.
Hardrick said the university plans to draw more students with new academic and athletic programs.
“Just this past year, we’ve launched 12 new certificate programs to really inspire and spur enrollment growth here at the university,” he said.
The university has had problems with institutional finances in the past. Roslyn Clark Artis, a former president, told the Miami Herald that she inherited a $3 million deficit when she became interim president in 2013. She said the institution reduced the deficit to $1 million through a series of belt-tightening measures, which included about a dozen layoffs, salary freezes and a decrease in nonessential travel by administrators.
Florida’s three private historically Black colleges were also among the institutions that took a state funding hit in 2011. The state appropriation to Florida Memorial, Bethune-Cookman University and Edward Waters College collectively decreased 7 percent that year compared to the previous year, Florida Trend reported. The decrease represented a 27 percent decline from fiscal years 2006 and 2007 funding levels, according to the publication.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis recently increased funding for Florida Memorial in his 2020-21 budget and allocated $7 million to the institution, up from $3.5 million the previous year. Florida Memorial was also among the 45 historically Black institutions granted loan forgiveness in the December 2020 federal coronavirus relief bill. The debt relief went to colleges and universities that borrowed money through the federal government’s HBCU Capital Financing Program, which provides access to low-rate capital for refinancing existing debt and making infrastructure improvements.
Florida Memorial has a year to address and fix the problems cited by the accreditor, which will send a special committee of representatives to visit the university during that time frame to assess and report on its progress. SACSCOC will also review a report from university leaders on the institution’s progress in June 2022. The accreditor could then take the university off probation, keep it on probation for a second year or cancel the university’s accreditation. The university would be ineligible for federal funding, including federal financial aid and Pell Grants for students, without accreditation.
“This is an opportunity of checks and balances and accountability,” said Janea Johnson, public relations and data specialist at SACSCOC. “Institutions often become compliant and then are removed from probation. That’s more often than not.”
Many small colleges have struggled to stay accredited in recent years as enrollments decline and tuition revenues drop, said Robert Palmer, chair of the educational leadership and policy studies department at Howard University. Those challenges have been particularly acute at small, historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, such as Florida Memorial.
He noted that even before the pandemic, which led to drops in enrollment across higher education systems, colleges and universities faced a demographic cliff, a sharp falloff in the number of traditional college-age students in the United States. Long-term enrollment decline is a “more systemic issue,” he said, one that might be hard for the university to address in a single year.
Cooper, Florida Memorial’s provost, agreed that the demographic cliff was partly responsible.
“I think we’re facing what every university is facing,” Cooper said. “We have a declining population of 18- to 24-year-olds. HBCUs across the board have seen, for the most part, a decline in enrollment over the last few years.”
Enrollments increased at some HBCUs after the killing of George Floyd prompted a “national reckoning” about anti-Black racism in this country and Black students sought refuge on HBCU campuses, where they felt more welcome and protected. However, smaller, private HBCUs are still in competition with more affordable public colleges to enroll students, and they tend to have smaller endowments to offer financial aid, if they have endowments at all, Palmer said. HBCUs also serve high numbers of first-generation and low-income students, who often need more financial support, he said.
“When they start losing students, when students start to go elsewhere, that really takes a heavy toll on their tuition [revenue]. They have to start cutting in other areas,” he said of HBCUs.
SACSCOC, which currently accredits colleges in 11 Southern states, including 72 historically Black institutions, has revoked the accreditation of several small, private HBCUs in the past. The commission stripped Morris Brown College in Atlanta of its accreditation in 2002 after a former college president and financial aid director misappropriated Department of Education money. The college has since become a candidate for accreditation with the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) this year. Barber-Scotia College in North Carolina lost its accreditation two years after Morris Brown. Paul Quinn College followed in 2009 and is now accredited by TRACS, and Saint Paul’s College in Virginia closed in 2013 after losing its accreditation. Bennett College’s accreditation was canceled in 2018, but the North Carolina women’s college is now a candidate for accreditation with TRACS.
“We feel like there is disparate treatment very often where HBCUs tend to get the harshest penalties and tend to get called out … much more often than other types of institutions,” said Lodriguez Murray, senior vice president of public policy and government affairs at the United Negro College Fund, a membership organization representing private HBCUs. He pointed to a UNCF white paper, published in 2019, which alleges that SACSCOC has imposed disproportionate sanctions on minority-serving institutions because of the potential for bias in the accrediting process.
Johnson, of SACSCOC, said the accreditor holds “all institutions accountable to the same standards” and predominantly white institutions received similar sanctions this year. She also noted that small, private institutions of all types tend to be more “tuition-driven,” which can come with “more challenges in their financial arena.”
“If there is a shortfall in enrollment, and particularly first-year enrollment, that impacts the budget, so it’s more about the nature of being a private institution,” she said.
Estelle Taylor, president of the Orlando chapter of the Florida Memorial University Alumni Association, said she was unaware of Florida Memorial’s probation but had prior concerns about spending decisions that she and other alumni believed were not in the best interests of the university and did not contribute to its financial health. She pointed to the decision to revive the university football team in fall 2020 — after more than 60 years without one — as an example.
“I can’t say all of us, but a lot of us, really questioned that and didn’t approve of that,” she said. “We know that the school needs other things. They need a brand-new music room; they need new instruments and different academic things. The classrooms need new tables and chairs and things to go in there that’s comfortable for the students.”
An anonymous online petition by an account called “FMU ALUM” calling for the removal of the university’s president and signed by about 100 people has sprung up in response to Florida Memorial being put on probation. The petition alleges lax campus safety measures, problematic technology such as unreliable Wi-Fi, and falling enrollments, the Miami Timesreported.
Cooper said the college is employing a number of strategies to increase enrollment and revenue, including a new health-care program, a bachelor’s degree in health care with a concentration in administration and a new online master’s program in exceptional student education approved by SACSCOC. There are also new classes focused on preparing students for the fast-growing video game industry. She also described recent updates to the infrastructure of the 53-year-old campus, such as the replacement of the electrical grid this past year.
“We know we are moving in the right direction,” she said.
Morris Brown College is establishing its staff amid its accreditation with a new provost and VP of Academic Affairs! Get the full story on Dr. Anthony Johnson, who will fulfill both roles, from The Black Wall Street Times below.
After a national search by AGB Search Firm, Morris Brown College is proud to welcome Dr. Anthony B. Johnson as its new provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs.
Dr. Kevin James, President of Morris Brown College said, “As we continue to work through the hard reset, we are thrilled to have Dr. Johnson. He has a wealth of experience in leading HBCU’s through accreditation, student progress, governance, fiscal stability, and academic affairs. I welcome him to my senior team to take Morris Brown College’s academic department and its programs to the next level in our storied history.”
Experience and Leadership
Dr. Anthony Johnson brings to Morris Brown College extensive administrative experience having served at a broad range of higher education institutions, including HBCUs. This experience includes the development and implementation of accreditation and program review processes, procedures, assessment, and accountability measures. He most recently served as the Interim Vice President for Academic Affair and Chief Academic Officer at Philander Smith College, Little Rock, Arkansas; Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor at Grambling State University, Grambling, Louisiana; and, Associate Dean and Assistant Dean at Howard University’s School of Education, Washington, DC.
Moreover, Dr. Johnson served as the Assessment Coordinator and Assistant Professor in the College of Education at Grambling State University and served as a Distinguished Faculty Member in the Summer Teachers’ Institute sponsored by Florida International University.
Dr. Johnson’s experience with assessment and accreditation includes serving on visiting teams for The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). In addition to leading efforts to develop assessment systems that embrace both initial and advanced programs, his work has resulted in reaffirmation of accreditation.
Dr. Johnson attended University of Southern Mississippi and earned his bachelor’s degree in Counseling Psychology; a master’s degree in Elementary Education from Jackson State University, and a Doctorate in Education with a concentration in Special Education, Research & Statistics from Jackson State University. Dr. Johnson currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Institutes for Historically Underserved Students.
Prairie View A&M University is set to receive an engineering scholarship after receiving over $200,000 from an engineering firm! Learn about the donor and how PVAMU is planning to use the funds in the new release below.
Credit: 123RF
Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) is the grateful recipient of $240,000 from Fluor Corporation, an engineering and construction firm headquartered in Irving, Texas. One of three Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) slated to receive funds in Fluor’s newly initiated $1 million Engineering Scholar Program for HBCUs, PVAMU will use the money to establish the HBCU Engineering Scholar Program and Global University Sponsorship Program (GUSP) in its Roy G. Perry College of Engineering.
“Dean Pamela Obiomon and I have worked in our respective areas to promote an environment conducive to advancement, growth, creativity, outreach and discovery,” Quincy Moore, the director of PVAMU’s Honors Program, who is leading the new program with Obiomon, said at the announcement of the donation. “Given this opportunity, we strive to engage civil, chemical and mechanical engineering students with real discovery and create a learning environment that enhances learning and gives the students real-world experience for training the next generation of engineers.”
Moore noted that while the College of Engineering has partnerships with various companies, which propose to fund different activities, this particular partnership is different. “One unique feature of this one is that the Honors Program is teaming up with engineering, as some of our Honors students coming through the engineering program don’t otherwise have scholarship opportunities,” Moore said. “In a way, Fluor is helping provide the infrastructure so students are qualified for the industry once they leave PVAMU, and potentially providing a pipeline into their company. But beyond that, they are reaching out to underrepresented minorities with their HBCU program. With this, students not only get opportunities to do research, but they also have more direct engagement with engineers from the industry.”
Fluor Corp. headquarters in Irving. (Credit: Fluor Corp)
Fluor, a national leader in corporate giving, established the Fluor Foundation, its charitable arm, in 1952. Torrence Robinson, president of the Fluor Foundation, said that selection criterion for the Engineering Scholar Program for HBCUs included proximity to Fluor’s offices, faculty research expertise, students’ overall academic success profile and the results of College of Engineering administration interviews. “We also considered which universities conferred the most degrees to Black graduates in civil, chemical and mechanical engineering. What stood out to us was the enthusiasm expressed by Prairie View A&M about the potential of the partnership. We are excited about what we can do together to better equip students for successful engineering careers.”
While noting PVAMU’s success in conferring engineering degrees, Robinson called workforce diversity an “ongoing challenge” within many academic disciplines. “According to the Hechinger Report, from 2001 to 2016 in the United States, the percentage of engineering degrees awarded to Black graduates declined from 5 to 4 percent,” Robinson said. “Black workers make up 5.6 percent of the science and engineering workforce, and Fluor is committed to taking additional steps to help narrow that gap.”
As part of the new program, six $5,000 merit-based scholarships will be awarded each year to civil, chemical and mechanical engineering majors at PVAMU who have demonstrated outstanding performance in the classroom, as well as leadership and campus involvement. Scholarship recipients will be required to participate in a lecture series, research modules, tech talks, technical writing workshops, mock interviews and career fairs. They will also benefit from professional development workshops with Fluor engineers, including an innovative design pitch competition. Students selected are thus provided a framework for promoting innovation and creativity, helping to prepare them for a global market. Under the terms of Fluor’s partnership, PVAMU may earn additional monies, matched dollar-for-dollar by the company in coordination with external donors.
“A lot of engineering students would like to have more experiential learning that can help land them their dream job after college,” said Moore. “So having those opportunities for them while they’re on campus is going to be a positive for these students and for students coming down the pipeline. It will make an impact on the whole campus experience.”
HBCU presidents are weighing in about the unprecedented donations from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott months after her she donated millions to dozens of HBCUs. Read the full story from Liann Herder at Diverse: Issues In Higher Education below.
Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough was driving when he received the good news: Dillard University, the private historically Black university (HBCU) where he serves as president, was receiving its largest donation ever. He didn’t believe it.
“I said, ‘Wait, let me pull over and confirm,’” Kimbrough said. “We were surprised, just like everybody else.”
Everybody else includes the 384 organizations who received almost $6 billion in donations from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott in the summer and fall of 2020. Scott, who gave a third round of gifts just last month to more HBCUs, community colleges, and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), signed “The Giving Pledge” in 2019, where the wealthiest persons in the world agreed to donate most of their wealth to those in need.
Dr. Walter M. Kimbrough
These donations, although not enough to counter the “problems of 100-year-old institutions that have never been funded on a level commensurate with their impact and their need,” are still a great start, said Dr. Charlie Nelms, the chancellor emeritus of North Carolina Central University and an HBCU graduate and advocate. He said, more people than ever are giving to HBCUs and MSIs in the “post George Floyd era.” But one of the more remarkable aspects of Scott’s donations is that they came with no strings attached, which “means that the institutions themselves could see where the dollars would best be served.”
Nelms recently penned an op-ed for Diverse about Scott’s philanthropic gifts and offered a blueprint on HBCUs can build on their philanthropic efforts.
With the freedom of no-strings attached, HBCUs are planning to use these funds in a variety of ways including helping their students financially, doubling their institutional endowments, and investing in faculty development. With a new school year slated to begin next month, many of these institutions have already started to put the funds to use.
Dillard University’s leadership team decided the best way to use their $5 million gift would be in outreach, marketing, and enrollment management.
“We’re a small, private university,” Kimbrough said of the New Orleans institution that was founded in 1869. “Dillard has never done a national branding campaign to help craft our message, get the word out, and tell our story.”
Like so many other HBCUs, fall enrollment at the school is up and “the caliber of students accepting our scholarships is up by double digits,” he said, adding that the money set aside for scholarships is allowing the school to be competitive in recruiting students to enroll.
Kimbrough expects to “see impacts of this gift for a decade, probably. We see it as a capacity-building grant. We want to leverage it to bring additional returns.”
Like Kimbrough, Dr. David Kwabena Wilson, president of Morgan State University is looking to leverage the $40 million donation his institution received in Fall 2020. He has already used $500,000 of the gift to create a state-funded community health center. The center will study health inequity in Baltimore, where Morgan State is located.
Dr. David Kwabena Wilson
“I approached the governor and asked if he’d be open to an annual appropriation of $3 million,” said Wilson, in exchange for Morgan committing a half-million to jump start the project. The governor agreed, and the center opened its doors on July 1.
Scott’s donation to Morgan was the largest donation in the school’s history. The majority was placed into their endowment, but they left $2 million accessible to fund the health center, and buy laptops and hot spots for those students impacted by the pandemic. They gift also helped to fund professional development for faculty and staff so they could build better emotional support for their students as they navigated the difficulties of being in quarantine.
Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston, president of Norfolk State University called the $40 million that her institution received from Scott a “transformational gift.”
“A large portion went to the student endowment,” said Adams-Gaston. “90% of our students need some kind of financial assistance, and a little under 70% are Pell-eligible.”
Norfolk State will use their newly doubled endowment to support its faculty with new development opportunities. This fall, any faculty or staff member will have the chance in to pitch a creative idea for endowment allocation.
“We don’t know what kind of proposals we’ll see. Our professional staff is so creative, we’re not limiting them.” said Adams-Gaston. The selected proposals could be implemented as early as Spring 2022.
Dr. Javaune Adams-Gaston
Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) received $50 million from Scott, the largest donation Scott has given to an HBCU. Like other institutions, PVAMU put most of the Scott donation towards the university’s endowment. But $10 million was set aside for students as a relief fund called Panther Success Grants, made to directly counter financial difficulties experienced during the pandemic.
“To date we’ve allocated $5.2 million to just under 4,000 students,” said Dr. James Palmer, PVAMU’s provost and senior vice president of academic affairs.
The Panther Success Grants are automatically given to students with a balance in their account that would negatively affect their ability to re-enroll in the following semester. The grants could be up to $2,000 per student per semester and the university waived an application process.
“Students are busy,” said Palmer. “Putting up a virtual roadblock means we take away the opportunity for success. We wanted to make this as easy as possible,” he said.
PVAMU’s endowment has almost doubled, allowing for the hiring of new faculty in their colleges of Arts and Sciences, and Education. They created a $3 million endowment, the Toni Morrison Writer in Residence Endowment. With this, they will bring a prominent writer, yet unannounced, to teach over the course of two semesters.
There is an unmistakable gratitude flowing from these college leaders, who each hope that Scott’s philanthropy will encourage others to give too. Wilson said that he’s been fielding calls from others wishing to support his institution, whether it’s with a donation of five dollars or $5 million.
“We welcome all of them, because it’s coming from their heart,” he said. “I say to the entire philanthropic community, ‘You don’t have to look too hard to find institutions like Morgan, where transformational gifts could really change the United States in significant ways.’”
Morehouse College student Carl Haywood is being celebrated after being accepted into a media program that only 50 people in the country got into! Get the full story from P. Umille at Patch below.
Carl Haywood, of Anaheim, CA, has been selected for the Television Academy Foundation’s prestigious 2021 Summer Fellows Program. Haywood is one of just 50 students chosen from across the country by Television Academy members for the program.
Haywood, a 2021 graduate of Morehouse College, majored in Film and will be a Television Production Fellow this summer through the Television Academy Foundation’s program. He attended Polytechnic High School.
“Being selected to be a part of such a prestigious group of people is mind-blowing,” said Haywood. “Knowing that the Television Academy took their time and had thousands to choose from, made me extremely proud to be selected. I am a first-generation college student. Getting selected for this fellowship is the reassurance and affirmation that I’m doing the right thing.”
“I remember, when I was child, sitting in front of the of the television watching shows like Family Matters and Full House, and thinking about how happy they made me. If I could give some of that feeling to another generation it would give me so much pleasure,” said Haywood.
Typically, the Television Academy Foundation’s annual Internship Program provides 50 internships, at top Hollywood studios and production companies, to college students nationwide every summer. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Television Academy Foundation has had to re-imagine its internship program this year offering the 50 students selected from across the country the chance to either intern remotely or enroll as a Summer Fellow.
The Summer Fellows Program includes virtual one-on-one visits with professionals in a student’s field of study, online panels with leaders in the television industry, and customized seminars covering personal brand building and navigating the job market ahead. Fellows also become life-long members of the Foundation’s alumni family giving them access to events and networking opportunities as they build their careers in the industry.
Food deserts not only deprive residents of proper nutrition, but they set poor eating habits for youth in the next generations as well. Now, Central State University‘s Extension has received a grant that will make a large dent in Dayton’s food deserts through a 3-year grant! Read about it all in the local WDTN news station report below!
This photo shows a display of lettuce variety grown and harvested by participants. (Photo: CSU)
Central State University Extension (CSUE) said Friday it has been awarded a three-year, $250,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture/National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA/NIFA) that will establish incubator farms and farmer’s markets in underserved Dayton-area neighborhoods.
“Many communities face barriers that prevent them from obtaining access to fresh fruits and vegetables within communities defined as food deserts,” said CSUE Agriculture/Natural Resources Program Leader Alcinda Folck, Ph.D. “Access to affordable and healthy foods is difficult because of limited transportation, low number of retail outlets selling fresh produce, and a high number of fast-food options. The end result leaves residents at greater risk for obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.”
The program will, said Dr. Folck, empower new farmers through training at incubator farms to establish their own farming operation, develop a curriculum for training farmers at incubator farms within underserved and underrepresented communities, improve community health through access and knowledge of incorporating fruits and vegetables into the diet and encourage minorities to choose agriculture as a career.
Central State University Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs F. Erik Brooks, Ph.D., said, “One of my beliefs about institutions of higher education is that we cannot only take resources from the communities that we are located in, but rather we should be a resource to empower the people who live within them. This is a perfect example of fulfilling this belief.” According to Dr. Brooks, many urban communities and rural communities are located in food deserts and this is one of many ways Central State plans to strike a blow against this issue that plagues low socio-economic communities. “Community health and wellness are on Central State University’s radar. This federal grant funding will allow our Extension Services to make a positive impact on health disparities and the lack of food in this community,” said Dr. Brooks.
The grant funds will be used to create and support a local food system by training local residents to become sustainable farmers through educational opportunities and incubator farms. The grant also connects these beginning farmers with local consumers through farmer’s markets and other marketing outlets.
Two incubator farms have been created, one in the Edgemont neighborhood in Dayton in partnership with Edgemont Solar Gardens, and another in the City of Trotwood, located on the grounds of the Trotwood Community and Cultural Arts Center.
When it comes to receiving your college diploma, it’s better late than never! That’s a lesson that politician Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes recently took to heart after finally clearing up a mistake that prevented him from receiving his Alabama A&M University degree over a decade ago. Learn more about the intriguing tale in the Associated Press article below.
Mandela Barnes (Credit: Jarvis Lawson)
Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is preparing to enter next year’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, quietly received his diploma from Alabama A&M University in May 2020, 12 years after he attended classes there.
Barnes came under criticism two years ago for saying that he had a degree even though he had not yet fulfilled all the requirements to receive one.
Barnes received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications Media specializing in Performance. The diploma was dated May 1, 2020, and included signatures from Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and Alabama A&M President Andrew Hugine, Jr.
Barnes attended Alabama A&M from the fall of 2003 to the spring of 2008.
Wisconsin Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes speaks at a rally for Jacob Blake, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020, in Kenosha, Wis. (Credit: AP/Morry Gash)
In a statement, Barnes told the Journal Sentinel: “In 2008, I completed all my courses at Alabama A&M and walked in graduation ceremonies. However, due to a minor technical issue with my transcript, the diploma was never sent. Last year, I worked with the appropriate Alabama A&M officials to resolve the internal error and was awarded the diploma I earned back in 2008.”
Barnes faced questions about his degree after telling Madison’s Isthmus newspaper in August 2019 that he left college before completing his degree.
“I had a class. I got an incomplete. I completed the coursework to get that incomplete resolved. It never got turned in,” Barnes told the Isthmus. “It’s a small technical thing.”
Barnes is expected to soon join a large field of Democrats running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson. The election is in 2022.
Civil rights icon John Lewis is among multiple leaders to have a statue created in their honor to adorn Atlanta’s Rodney Cook Sr. Park. The Fisk University and American Baptist College graduate left a legacy of grit and inspiration, and now the new article below by Ernie Suggs at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is sharing the impact the statue had on his family and allies.
Credit: Jenn Finch
The Lewis brothers, as they generally are, were quiet.
Samuel and Henry Lewis, the younger brothers of the late John Lewis, just watched as dozens of people, including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Ambassador Andrew Young, scrambled to get their photos taken in front of a massive statue of thecongressman that harkened the opening of the new Rodney Cook Sr. Park in Vine City.
“All I can say is wow,” Henry Lewis finally said, looking at the crowd and then the statue.
Credit: Athens Banner-Herald USA TODAY
Watching his brother search for words, Samuel Lewis, wearing a “Good Trouble” hat, asked Henry Lewis what their father, Eddie, a sharecropper who in 1944 took $300 in savings and purchased 110 acres of Alabama dirt to make a home for his family, would say at this moment.
“That’s my boy,” Henry Lewis said.
“Yes,” agreed Samuel. “That’s my boy.”
Just 10 days before the one-year anniversary of the passing of John Lewis, another rung to his legacy was filled with the unveiling of his statue at the new 16-acre Cook Park in Atlanta’s Westside on Wednesday.
The city of Atlanta, the Trust for Public Land, and the National Monuments Foundation developed the park just west of Mercedes-Benz Stadium. They hope it revitalizes the struggling but improving Vine City neighborhood by providing a clean and safe outdoor space.
Mayor Bottoms said the park is the first one in Neighborhood Planning Unit-Q and helps get her closer to her goal of having a park within a 10-minute walk of every Atlantan.
“There has always been a richness of community here,” Bottoms said. “And I was blown away by the beauty of this park. It is one thing to see it on paper and another to see it in person.”
George Dusenbury, southern hub director for the Trust for Public Land, called it “the most beautiful park in Atlanta.”
In it, a series of water fountains and a linear pond serve as the park’s major visual features.
It will be ringed with 18 bronze statues, plaques and monuments dedicated to peacemakers with ties to Georgia, including Young, Vivian, Julian Bond and Martin Luther King Jr., whose last home is only two blocks from the park.
“What this represents is a heritage of peace and reconciliation,” said Young, the former mayor of Atlanta. “We conceived this as a peace park, where we can come and be in peace together. And I have never been to a park like this.”
Credit: Jenn Finch
But hidden among the playground, the workout equipment, basketball courts and geese that have taken residence in the park is an intricate stormwater control system for an area prone to severe flooding.
The system is expected to capture about 37 million gallons of stormwater per year from the surrounding neighborhood.
The park is named after Rodney Mims Cook Sr., an Atlanta alderman and state legislator who pushed for civil rights in the 1960s. His son, Rodney Cook Jr., the founder of the National Monuments Foundation, is spearheading the efforts to get monuments, like the Lewis statue, placed in the park.
The 7-foot Lewis statue, created by sculptor Gregory Johnson, stands on a 7-foot pedestal facing the city.
The next installation will be a statue of Chief Tomochichi, who was credited with mediating peace between Georgia’s native population and British colonialists. It is already complete and awaiting a pedestal.
At the end of Wednesday’s formal ceremony, the Lewis brothers joined the mayor and other dignitaries for the ceremonial cutting of the ribbon to open the park and christen the statue. They were joined by their nephew Adolph Lewis Jr., the son of the late Adolph Lewis, the legendary brother who did all of the future congressman’s chores as a child, so Lewis could read.
“My grandfather Eddie made sure that our family was really close,” Adolph Lewis said. “So when I look at that statue, I just see pride. It just warms my heart to know that I’m part of this family.”
The University of the Virgin Islands has found a permanent leader in new School of Education Dean Dr. Karen Brown! Learn about Brown’s previous accomplishments in higher education and beyond, plus the plans she has for UVI in the release below!
Courtesy of The University of the Virgin Islands
The University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) has appointed Dr. Karen Brown to serve as Dean of the School of Education after an extensive external search for a permanent hire. She has more than 20 years of higher education experience and 14 years in higher education leadership. Dr. Brown joined UVI in 2015 as an associate director of the Virgin Islands University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (VIUCEDD) and served as interim dean for two academic years.
“We are pleased to have Dr. Brown in this leadership position as UVI’s School of Education positions itself to provide 21st Century approaches to education,” said Dr. Camille McKayle, provost and vice president of Academic Affairs. “Our School of Education recognizes that in working with future teachers, it is in fact playing an important role in preparing our Territory for the future through education of its citizens.” Dr. McKayle continued, “Dr. Brown will bring expertise and experience to the job of creating the team that will ensure excellence.”
Dr. Brown is a licensed speech-language pathologist with 29 years of experience and maintains the Certificate of Clinical Competence (CCC) by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).
Prior to being appointed as Dean, Dr. Brown served as an associate professor of Curriculum and Instruction in 2018. She is the recipient of the President’s Appreciation Award in recognition of her dedicated service to the vision of innovative early childhood education through the establishment of the UVI Inclusive Childcare and Diagnostic Center.
Preceding her time at UVI, Dr. Brown was a tenured associate professor and served as the director for Speech-Language Pathology Programs at the University of West Georgia. There, she had the distinction of being the first African-American faculty member and first speech-language pathology faculty to earn tenure and be promoted to the associate professor rank at that institution.
A Virgin Islander educated in the territory’s public school system, Dr. Brown holds a Ph.D. in Special Education with a concentration in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of South Florida. She has two master’s degrees: a master’s in Speech-Language Pathology from Nova Southeastern University and a master’s in Public Health from Temple University.
Dr. Brown earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Speech Communication from the University of Miami. She is a graduate of the Georgia Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Other Disabilities (GaLEND) program and the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities.
Some of Dr. Brown’s aspirations for the UVI School of Education include building a cadre of expert faculty in their respective disciplines who have embraced the principles of diversity, equity and inclusion; achieving an ongoing robust enrollment of both teachers and other school professionals so that the School of Education will be developing educational leaders who are culturally responsive and academically prepared to lead locally, regionally and globally with an equity lens.
“I believe this can be accomplished through igniting innovation and creativity in the School of Education and requires a paradigm shift,” said Dr. Brown. “As the Dean, I must write the vision and make it plain, communicating the shared vision clearly and fostering creativity and confidence. Persistence, resilience, and boldness for new ideas are prerequisites.”
At the territorial level, she is a member of the VI Advisory Panel for Special Education, appointed by former Gov. Kenneth Mapp and reappointed by Gov. Albert Bryan, Jr. At the national level, Dr. Brown is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Act Early Ambassador to the U.S. Virgin Islands for the “Learn the Signs. Act Early” campaign. She has served in this position for five years.
In addition, she serves as a committee member of the Georgetown University National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) Community of Practice (CoP) on Cultural and Linguistic Competence in Developmental Disabilities National Advisory Committee. Dr. Brown’s research interests are in Caribbean perspectives of disability and self-efficacy related to early identification of developmental disabilities.
“I want to thank Dr. Thomas for seeing in me greatness and potential. She saw me in this position before I saw myself,” said Dr. Brown. “Through her succession planning I am here and I will be forever grateful,” she said. Dr. Linda V. Thomas served as Dean of the School of Education from 2011-2019 and is currently the interim associate provost of Graduate Studies and Academic Affairs.
Teen Zaila Avant-garde has become a poster child for Louisiana pride after her historic win at this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee! With her spelling of the word “murraya,” the spelling champ and Guinness World Record holder has become an overnight sensation.
The Harvey, Louisiana native has caught the attention of Louisiana’s governor, John Bel Edwards, who shared this message in a tweet: “Congratulations to Zaila Avant-garde on winning the Scripps National #SpellingBee. You have made all of Louisiana P-R-O-U-D.” Now, schools like Southern University are joining the fanfare by offering Avant-garde scholarships to go to college! Read all about the teen and her impressive opportunities in the article by The Advocate written by Jacqueline Derobertis below.
Zaila Avant-garde, 14, from New Orleans, Louisiana, wins the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee Finals at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, U.S. July 8, 2021. (REUTERS/Joe Skipper)
Southern University became the third Louisiana academic institution to offer a full-ride scholarship to Zaila Avant-garde, the Harvey 14-year-old who won the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Ray L. Belton, Southern University president-chancellor, tweeted Saturday evening that he would not only offer her a scholarship, but also create a “Zaila Day” at the school.
“Our student leaders, faculty, and alumni look forward meeting with you,” he wrote. “We welcome you to the #JaguarNation!”
A Southern University spokesperson clarified in an email that “the university will work to schedule a personalized ‘Zaila Day’ on campus, where Zaila can meet with student leaders, faculty, alumni and more!”
Belton’s offer comes after the new LSU president, William Tate, offered the teen a full-ride scholarship and welcomed her to the LSU Roger Hadfield Ogden Honors College Saturday morning.
(AP Photo/John Raoux)
And on Friday, the Louisiana Community and Technical College System became the first academic institution to offer Zaila a full scholarship to attend any community and technical college in the state.
Zaila has previously said she was interested in attending Harvard University.
She won the $50,000 spelling bee on Thursday night by correctly spelling her final word, Murraya, a genus of tropical Asiatic and Australian trees. She also holds three Guinness World Records for basketball, which she’s said is her true passion. She hopes to one day play in the WNBA or possibly coach in the NBA.
