Page 491 – HBCU Buzz

Sodexo’s $4.3 million is largest-ever gift to Claflin, makes ‘actual difference in lives’

Posted on Oct 28, 2013

A $4.3 million donation from Sodexo Corporation has moved Claflin University closer to realizing its $94.6 million Capital Campaign goal.

Jim Jenkins, senior vice president of Sodexo’s Education Division, made the announcement at a celebration Thursday night at the university.

Jenkins reported that Sodexo’s global mission is closely aligned with Claflin’s vision “to solve critical global issues and to improve the quality of life for all people.”

“We see the vision and we see the dream, and we’re all about investing in the communities where we work,” he said.

Buzzing News

Central State alumnus donates $50k to HBCU radio station

HBCU Editors

Posted on Oct 28, 2013

During a recent visit to his alma mater, Joshua Smith, a 1963 graduate, made a generous contribution of $50,000 to WCSU FM, the country’s oldest continually operating HBCU radio station. Dedicated to empowering young professionals, he spoke with students who were mass communication, business, and political science majors about the importance of focus and diligence as they complete their college education. Recalling and reflecting on his family’s legacy at Central State, (over 15 members of his family are CSU alumni) he reminded the students that “to whom much is given, much is required.” Smith is the host of Biz Talk with Josh, a weekly radio program that features top business leaders.

“Mr. Smith’s visionary gift to the radio station will enable us to remain at the forefront of the cutting-edge technology in digital broadcasting,” said Ed Clay, interim general manager at WCSU.

Buzz Killer

Top HBCUs increase school tuition

Tommy G. Meade Jr.

Posted on Oct 28, 2013

Despite the fact that the cost of tuition for attending college has increased over the years, Historically Black Colleges and Universities have become less expensive alternatives by managing to keep tuition rates 50 percent lower than those of their historically white counterparts.

But given the economic downturn, small endowment numbers and poor alumni giving, some black institutions are taking calculated steps to stay afloat: which means increasing tuition.

[divider]

BET reports:

Atlanta’s own No. 1 ranked school’s (Spelman College) tuition rates were $23,794 in Fall 2011-12. The 2013-14 tuition rate increased less than $1000 at $24,634.
To attend school at Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama, as of the 2013-2014 school year, it will cost $19,400 in tuition and fees, compared to $18,900 in 2011.
Xavier University has seen one of the largest tuition hikes among HBCUs, with tuition rising to $20,560 for the 2013-14 academic year from $18,700 just two years prior.

Editorial

Thanks for Nothing: An Open Letter to the Secretary of Education

Robert Hoggard

Posted on Oct 25, 2013

Dear Mr. Arne Duncan,

To my displeasure I was told that my “EFC rate” was too high to receive enough federal funds to pay for college. My financial aid officer told me that I could apply for the Parent PLUS loan to pay for my remaining costs. I paced over to the computer located in our financial aid office to apply for the loan and less than three minutes after, I read the words, “We regret to inform you”. I knew there would be no help for me. I left very angry to my apartment on campus and called a mentor from my hometown. He said, “Try using your grandmother as a parent to secure the loan since her income is significantly less than your mother’s.” I said “Yes, sir.”

This time, I walked to financial aid with a smile on my face. I walked with all the information that I needed because I knew it would propel me to what I needed. I signed onto the computer in financial aid and again read the words, “We regret to inform you.” once again.

After that I tried to apply to private loans because I just knew that something would give. I knew that something would fall the way I needed it to. Several private loans also sent me the words that I knew all too well at this point, “We regret to inform you.”

At this point, I write this open letter with a $6,900 bill that I cannot pay hanging over my head. As one who is anticipating to graduate in May, I cannot apply to graduate school because my transcripts are on hold and I cannot graduate if I don’t pay my school over $12,000 by May.

I stand for myself and others to say that something must be done in your power to solve this. I’m sure many others are tired of hearing great presentations about the ills of education. It’s time for policies to be in effect that will solve the ills. When will we move from profound speeches to powerful policies?

Shockingly, over 14,000 students from our nation’s HBCUs have been declined Parent PLUS loans. As of Aug. 9, 300 students from Morgan State University were in jeopardy of dropping out because of lack of financial aid. The Education Department recently dropped the maximum income eligibility for Pell Grants to $28,000, making thousands of urban applicants ineligible.

It is an injustice for thousands of students and someone like myself with a 3.3 GPA to be declined from federal aid to pay for school. What will you do for the thousands of students who are faced with a conundrum like this?

The original document can be viewed here

Robert Hoggard is a HBCU Buzz Staff Writer. Follow him on Twitter @mindofRKH

News

ESPN is wrong: Grambling State is not the first college team to fight back

HBCU Editors

Posted on Oct 25, 2013

Even in football, a sport whose DNA is constructed to produce obedience and deference to authority, people can be pushed only so far before they push back. At Grambling State, the players engaged in a players’ strike, what all media outlets are calling “a mutiny”, and refused to take the field on Saturday against Jackson State. It just lasted one game, but only because the administration and powers that be made a series of promises to get them back on the field.

They had little choice. The list of grievances at the school that the late Hall of Fame Coach Eddie Robinson called home is both long and startling. From unsanitary locker room conditions that have led to multiple cases of staph infection” as well as “mildew and mold on the ceiling, walls and floor,” to 750-mile overnight bus rides before games, to a weight room that appears to be an ugly accident waiting to happen, to having their popular coach, former Grambling quarterback Doug Williams summarily fired, this is a team of young people that has simply had enough. (Read their grievance letter in its entirety here.)

Some of the players’ frustration stems from the numerous cases of infighting by the adults in charge, but the root cause of the chaos can be found in the Louisiana Governor’s office of Bobby Jindal. Governor Jindal rejected federal stimulus funds in 2009, while also cutting 219 million dollars in state funds for higher education, $5 million of which would have gone to Grambling State. In 2012, Jindal cut another million that was due to go to Grambling State’s operating costs.

This has hammered the entire school, and the athletic department is no exception. At a school where players are self-rationing weight-lifting supplements to make sure everyone gets a fair share, every dollar matters. But as necessarily as it is to call out Governor Jindal, the Obama administration’s record on supporting historically black colleges and universities has also been, to be kind, brutal, with decreases in federal grant funding and changes in loan programs that have estimated to have cleaved $300 million from HBCU’s nationally.

Now a football school that as recently as 2011 won their conference title has not come within ten points of an opponent all season and the players are saying enough is enough.

Sports

WSSU continues plans to purchase stadium

HBCU Editors

Posted on Oct 25, 2013

Winston-Salem State’s football team may be in the midst of a road trip, but Bowman Gray is definitely at the forefront of the university’s mind. The Winston-Salem Journal reports that the university’s Board of Trustees voted in favor of moving ahead with the stadium’s purchase via special obligation bonds.

“The bonds would be used to finance the purchase of Bowman Gray and a total of 94 acres, including Civitan Park. WSSU’s board had to approve the resolution before the board of governors could take further action.

According to school officials, the amount needed to acquire the stadium, about $7 million, was small so it made more sense for WSSU to use special obligation bonds than to pursue long-term financing.”

Buzz Killer

Jackson State says it will sue Grambling

HBCU Editors

Posted on Oct 25, 2013

Grambling State’s football player mutiny captured the attention of media outlets and sports fans nationally.

Add Jackson State’s lawyers to that list.

Jackson State says it took a financial hit after its homecoming game last Saturday was canceled because Grambling forfeited when players refused to play. Now, Jackson State leaders plan to take legal action against Grambling State and “others” to recoup the losses, a Jackson State spokesman said Tuesday night in a message to alumni and school supporters.

“The JSU family was damaged. Our Homecoming game draws tens of thousands of fans. The university intends to use litigation to be made whole for our direct and indirect financial losses,” Eric Stringfellow, executive director of Jackson State University Communications, wrote.

“We have a fiduciary responsibility to Mississippi taxpayers and the JSU community to mitigate our ongoing and substantial losses. Jackson State plans to pursue litigation against Grambling State and others.”

Buzz Killer

Grambling’s administration is to blame

HBCU Editors

Posted on Oct 25, 2013

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Traditionally, Grambling has been to HBCU football what Notre Dame is to major college football. They were nationally prominent and a brand that resonated with the masses. Under Eddie Robinson, the “G-Men” were the standard by which all other HBCU programs were judged.

But thanks to a rogue president, an incompetent athletic administration, and a state government that has reduced its endowment to a third of what it was, Grambling’s football program has now reached critical mass. Three coaches in one season, 17 consecutive losses since 2011, and the embarrassment of forfeiting Jackson State’s homecoming, pale in comparison to the institutional abuse of the players, which has finally boiled over.

If this story was only about 16-18 hour bus trips and blowout losses, you could tell the players to suck it up. Were it just about having to buy their own Gatorade, you could plausibly justify that as long there is safe drinking water they could hydrate themselves adequately.

News

The Whitest Historically Black College in America

HBCU Editors

Posted on Oct 24, 2013

Deirdre Guyton, Bluefield State College's director of alumni affairs, holds up a photo of the school's football team from 1927 to 1928, when it was the best black college team. — Deirdre Guyton, Bluefield State College’s director of alumni affairs, holds up a photo of the school’s football team from 1927 to 1928, when it was the best black college team.

It opened in the late 19th century as the Bluefield Colored Institute, created to educate the children of black coal miners in segregated West Virginia. Although it still receives the federal funding that comes with its designation as a historically black institution, today Bluefield State College is 90 percent white. The road that separates those realities is as rocky as any story of racial transition in post-World War II America.

We went to the campus of Bluefield State to see what campus life was like at this unusual college.

The very first student we met, Antonio Bolden, or Tony as he introduced himself, looked like any other student you might see at a historically black college or university (HBCU). He’s a laid-back 19-year-old, stocky with shoulder-length dreadlocks and green eyes. But at Bluefield State, Tony is an outlier for several reasons. He’s a teenager; the average age of his classmates is 27. He started college right after high school; many of his classmates are working full-time jobs, raising children, or both. And of course, he’s black, whereas the student body is only historically so.

Antonio Bolden, a 19-year-old student and baseball player, is a rarity at Bluefield State: He started college right after high school and isn’t from the region.

Tony came to Bluefield State to play baseball, hoping to win the starting spot on third base. But he was surprised by what he found when he got to campus. “My first thought was: There are a lot of white people,” he said.

“Where all the black people at?”

Homecoming

iPad Mini give-a-way at Howard University

Posted on Oct 23, 2013

WHO WANTS A FREE iPAD MINI?

SMG provides great keynote speakers and headlining talent to universities and colleges all across the globe.

They have provided us with a great keynote speaker for this year’s Entertainment Power Summit, Roland S. Martin. He is an award-winning journalist who inspires and informs millions of Americans daily.

Not only do SMG Speakers provide great keynote speakers and headlining talent. They give away cool gifts and gadgets. This year they are giving away a free iPad mini.

The iPad Mini has everything you love about the iPad — the beautiful screen, fast and fluid performance, FaceTime and iSight cameras, thousands of amazing apps, 10-hour battery life*-And you can hold it in one hand.

So, who wants a iPad mini? Well, it’s super easy to win… Grab your smart phone. Find and like the SMG Speakers Facebook Fan page. And enter your chance to win a free iPad Mini. Remember, you must LIKE the fan page in order to have your chance at winning. The winner will be selected from the SMG Speakers fan page at the close of this week.

Good Luck!

News

US unemployment rates fall for black, white and Hispanic workers in September

HBCU Editors

Posted on Oct 22, 2013

The September drop in U.S. unemployment benefited a broad number of demographic groups.

Unemployment rates fell for white, black and Hispanic workers, as well as teenagers, young adults and Americans ages 25 to 54.

The national unemployment rate declined to 7.2 percent last month, down from 7.3 percent in August and the lowest since November 2008. Still, unemployment remains elevated more than four years after the recession officially ended. And many subgroups of Americans are suffering even higher jobless rates.

News

Gentrification Rocks North Carolina’s Historic Black Community: Old Hayti & Black Wall Street

HBCU Editors

Posted on Oct 22, 2013

Durham Gentrification - Main and Parrish St.

Several years ago, the city of Durham, NC announced that it had developed a ten-year program to eradicate local homelessness. Several years ago, city officials stated that additional housing for the poor and underprivileged was one of the city’s most sincere concerns. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like city officials have made due on their promises.

Instead, low income residents are being pushed out of their homes all over the city, especially in the communities surrounding Durham’s burgeoning downtown district. In the same manner the Durham Freeway was constructed through Durham’s historic Black community, eminent domain is once again uprooting mostly poor Black residents. Profit motives are replacing history and people with upscale restaurants and designer strip malls.

The communities of Southside and East Durham have already fallen victim to gentrification efforts. The district that Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois once praised, Old Hayti, is without a doubt, going to be next. Old Hayti was home base to North Carolina’s Black Wall Street. Knowing the history of Durham’s underground development plans, it’s probably already on the city’s gentrification radar.

Gentrification is the process of replacing low income distressed communities with new commercial and residential districts that cater to the middle and upper class. Communities targeted for such systematic face lifts are typically poor, Black and Latino. The popular claim is that corporations and city officials are reinvesting money back into the community, and that’s great, but dismantling low income neighborhoods is not the way to do it. Replacing families who depend on community ties to survive with coffee shops, specialty beer bars and dessert parlors, borders on complete inhumanity. Such decisions regarding the infrastructure of people stand as testaments to the disregard of human life.

Buzz Killer

Prairie View A&M investigates after nude video goes viral

HBCU Editors

Posted on Oct 22, 2013

A nighttime video of a young woman frolicking naked in a pond at Prairie View A&M University has prompted school officials to investigate the incident and to remind students of their responsibilities.

“All students who attend Prairie View A&M University are expected to obey university rules,” the school said in a statement issued Oct. 17 by Sheleah D. Reed, executive director of communications.

“While we encourage our students to enjoy their college experience, especially during times like Homecoming, we also expect them to uphold the highest level of personal integrity and respect for themselves and others,” the statement continued.

The approximately two-minute video, posted on various websites, was shot Oct. 13, after the university’s Homecoming 2013 Gospel Fest. The evening concert took place in the Memorial Student Center, according to an online schedule of Homecoming activities.

Buzzing News

Morehouse alum Jeh Johnson to be named Homeland Security Secretary

HBCU Editors

Posted on Oct 22, 2013

Morehouse man Jeh Johnson will be named the new Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, according to reports.

Johnson, who served as the general counsel of the Department of Defense from 2009 to 2012, is replacing Janet Napolitano, who resigned earlier this year, and will be the first African American to serve in this Cabinet position.

“He is one of the most highly qualified and respected national-security leaders, having served as the senior lawyer for the largest government agency in the world,” a White House official told Reuters on Thursday.

News

NAACP names female Interim President

HBCU Editors

Posted on Oct 22, 2013

The NAACP Saturday announced that Lorraine C. Miller, a member of the national board of directors since 2008, would become interim president and CEO of the 104-year-old organization.

In doing so, she’s the organization’s first interim president and the first woman to fill the president-executive secretary’s role since 1916, a spokesman told The Root, although four women have been chairman of the board and three have held the title of national president. She begins Nov. 1.

Leadership of the search committee to select a new president and CEO was also named, according a release. It will be chaired by the Rev. Theresa Dear of Bartlett, Ill., and the vice chairman is Lamell McMorris of Washington, D.C. Both are members of the NAACP’s national board.

The moves come after NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous, who served as the face of the nation’s largest civil rights organization for the past five years, announced plans in September to step down, effective Dec. 31. In a detailed interview with The Root‘s editor-in-chief, Henry Louis Gates Jr., he cited a desire to spend time with his family as one of the reasons for his departure.

“Lorraine is a natural fit as interim president of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization,” Jealous said in a prepared statement. “She comes into this position with two decades of experience working for the U.S. House of Representatives and an even longer career in civil rights advocacy and policy. She will have the honor of leading the dynamic staff of this great organization.”

News

Obama appoints 1st black Chief Judge of US Court of Federal Claims

HBCU Editors

Posted on Oct 22, 2013

Just a month after Patricia E. Campbell-Smith was appointed a judge for the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and two days after being confirmed, President Barack Obama has promoted her to the position of chief judge of the court. With the appointment, Judge Campbell-Smith is the first African American to hold that position in the history of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

In a statement from the White House, President Obama said he was proud of Campbell-Smith’s designation. “She has a long and distinguished record of service,” the president said. “I am confident she will serve with distinction.”