FAMU hazing defendant Shawn Turner agrees to plea in Champion’s death

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FAMU hazing defendant Shawn Turner, who claimed he was drum major Robert Champion‘s “protector” and not an attacker, agreed today to plead no contest to felony hazing in the deadly ritual.

Turner, 27, will likely receive a community-service sentence similar to those imposed on other band members who have admitted they were present at the hazing, Orange-Osceola assistant state attorney Nicole Pegues said. Prosecutors will drop the manslaughter count in the agreement, which requires Turner to provide investigators with detailed testimony about Nov. 19, 2011, hazing that killed Champion.

Turner, who has moved from Florida to North Carolina, was ordered to appear in court Friday, when Champion’s parents are expected to travel from Georgia to Orlando for the sentencing of fellow drum major Rikki Wills.

Like Wills, who pleaded no contest last month, Turner has insisted he was only trying to shield Champion from the punches, kicks and drumstick strikes on a charter bus in the Rosen Plaza hotel parking lot.

No one has acknowledged striking Champion during the ritual known as “Crossing Bus C,” but detectives estimated he absorbed 300 blows while running through a gantlet of bandmates.

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Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Opens Elementary School in Haiti

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20090908NS-ho-HAITIAID687_t607-300x200As the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority celebrates the 100th anniversary of its founding this year, they will also be celebrating an additional accomplishment: the grand opening of an elementary school in Haiti on June 15.

In collaboration with the non-profit Water and Educational International, the Delta Research and Educational Foundation established the Water and Educational International Student Collaboration for Haiti Outreach Opportunities for Learning (WEI SCHOOL) project in 2012 that seeks to provide “an adequate school facility to include clean water for school children in Haiti,” according to a statement.

A school in Chérette, a village southwest of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince, was rebuilt with bigger classrooms and new technologies that will promote a “hands-on global service learning experience.” There will also be unlimited access to fresh, clean water to meet the needs of the 300 students who attend the school.

“As a former elementary school teacher, it has been my experience that providing the proper educational tools and creating a positive learning environment to school instruction … enables students to excel in and outside the classroom,” National president of Delta Sigma Theta, Cynthia M.A. Butler-McIntyre said in a statement.

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Sallie Mae To Split Into Separate Companies Within 12 Months

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Sallie Mae plans to split into two separate, publicly traded companies. The student loan giant also named John Remondi as its CEO.

Sallie Mae, formally named SLM Corp., said Wednesday that the two separate companies – an education loan management business and a consumer banking business – would help unlock value and boost its long-term growth potential.

The education loan management business would include the company’s portfolios of federally guaranteed and private education loans, as well as most related servicing and collection activities. Remondi will continue as its CEO.

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Trains, Airplanes and Hyperloops, Oh My: The Future of Travel

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Cheaper and faster than air travel, immune to weather and simply a “really fun ride,” can you picture yourself going from downtown LA to downtown San Francisco in under 30 minutes–at a cost cheaper than an air ticket or car?

Elon Musk, a South African American entrepreneur and SpaceX founder, wants to develop the next big thing in transit and believes he found the answer.

The “Hyperloop,” a possible fifth form of transportation after after planes, trains, automobiles and boats, according to Musk:

“How’d you like something that can never crash, it is immune to weather, it goes three or four times faster than the bullet train that’s being built? It goes an average speed of twice what an aircraft could do,” said Musk.

“So you would go from downtown LA to downtown San Francisco in under 30 minutes. It would cost you much less than an air ticket or car. Much less than any other mode of transport, because the fundamental energy cost is so much lower. You can also make it self powering if you put solar panels on it.”

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Jackson State to host 2013 HBCU Awards

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More than 330 of 489 students at Wilberforce University came together and threatened to leave school for nearby Central State University in order for their voices to be told.

Wilberforce students rallied at least twice during the 2013-2014 academic year, protesting against high tuition costs, mold concerns and a reduction in services including dorm space.

“[Students] came together, got withdrawals and marched to get transfer papers. If we are not heard, over 200 students will transfer,” said Brandon Harvey, a member of the student government at the time.

For their outreach and advocacy efforts in the campus community, Wilberforce is a nominee at The 2013 HBCU Awards for Best Student Government Association.

The Third Annual HBCU Awards highlights the best historically black colleges have to offer–and winning awards mean bragging rights.

“Since capturing the 2011 HBCU of the Year award, Paul Quinn College has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and several higher education publications for its work in diversity, social justice and community advocacy,” according to The HBCU Awards official website.

Jackson State University will host The 2013 HBCU Awards on June 27-29.

Competition for awards given are fierce, from Best Marching Band and Best Student Newspaper to Female President of the Year and the prestigious HBCU of the Year–you name it, The HBCU Awards have it.

Check out the nominees

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Clinton, Holder honor civil rights icon Medgar Evers 50 years after his assassination

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A week before the 50th anniversary of the civil rights icon’s death, former President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder joined other dignitaries at Arlington National Cemetery to honor Medgar Evers where he was laid to rest.

Evers was shot in the back and killed by white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith on June 12, 1963, as he and his family carried NAACP T-shirts that read ”Jim Crow Must Go” into their home.

His widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams, spoke at the event about her husband’s sacrifice and the importance of carrying on his legacy.

“I can hear Medgar’s voice saying, ‘I thank all of you for believing in me but it’s really not necessary. Just get out there and prove that you believe in me and that you believe in my country–which is our country,’” she said.

“We pay tribute to him and he will forever life in our hearts. And may we go beyond today and do what we can to build beyond his image,” she said. “Bring in the young people. Exchange ideas. See where we can go from this point to build the kind of America that Medgar believed in. To build the kind of America that he was willing to give his life for so that we can all one day be able to say, I played my part. Thank you, Medgar Evers, for playing yours.”

Clinton spoke about how the year of Evers’ murder “was an amazing year in the course of our nation’s struggle for a more perfect union,” and praised both Medgar and Myrlie for their civil rights work.

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Lawsuit filed over Bethune-Cookman student’s death

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Courtesy Bethune-Cookman University

A wrongful death lawsuit claims Bethune-Cookman University failed to stop fraternity hazing that led to the death of a Marching Wildcat band member.

Marcus Thomas, a sophomore on a marching band scholarship, died in February 2012 when the car in which he was riding crashed into a utility pole in Daytona Beach.

In a lawsuit filed in Volusia County Circuit Court, Thomas’ mother says hazing by members of the Pi Gamma chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America subjected her son, the car’s driver and other pledges to sleep deprivation.

The lawsuit says the car’s driver fell asleep, leading to the fatal crash. Everyone else in the car survived.

The university and the then-coordinator of Greek Life “had direct knowledge of previous hazing activities occurring in student groups affiliated with BCU, including (the) fraternity, and did little or nothing to discipline the activity, thus sending a message to students that the anti-hazing policy was not enforced by the university,” according to the lawsuit.

Bethune-Cookman officials tell The Daytona Beach News-Journal said they could not comment specifically about the lawsuit.

“Bethune-Cookman University prides ourselves on having a zero tolerance on hazing and put mechanisms in place to ensure that doesn’t happen and if it does we address it to the fullest,” said Dwaun Warmack, the vice president who heads the department over students and student organizations.

 

Alpha Phi Alpha Black Ice & Old Gold Affair

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The Gamma Eta Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated invites you to the biggest party of the summer.

The Black Ice & Old Gold Affair is the official party on Friday night (June 28) during the Alpha Phi Alpha National Convention in Austin, TX.

Come out and enjoy Grammy-winning DJ and Producer 9th Wonder spinning all night on one stage while the funky sounds of Funk Mob will be jamming on the other. Live from The Parish Austin on Friday, June 28, 2013, kicking off at 8 p.m.

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1 in 10 young adults lose jobs because of social media posts

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Facebook-logo-300x200Be careful what you post on Facebook or Pinterest — those pictures of you drunk at a club last weekend may cost you more than just your dignity.

A recent survey by On Device Research found that 1 in 10 people between the ages of 16 and 34 have lost job opportunities because of posts they made or posts made about them on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

“If getting a job wasn’t hard enough in this tough economic climate, young people are getting rejected from employment because of their social media profiles,” Sarah Quinn, On Device Research’s marketing manager, said in a statement.

She added that what is more troubling is that young people don’t seem to be very concerned about it. Despite the risk of losing a job opportunity, a majority of those surveyed said that the risk wasn’t enough of a deterrent to keep them off social media.

In fact, it only made them more likely to tailor the content on their Facebook and Twitter profiles to what their friends would want to read – and not their future employers.

“Better education of the impact of social media is needed to ensure young people are not making it even harder for them selves to get on the career ladder,” Quinn added.

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HBCU legend Deacon Jones on paving the way for others

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NFL Hall of Fame defensive end David “Deacon” Jones died on Monday, June 4 at the age of 74. Jones will be most remembered for his outstanding NFL career, where he made a living out of putting quarterbacks in the dirt. Sacks, a term Jones is credited with coining, were not an official statistic when he played in the 1960s, but had they been, he would currently rank third overall. And he hasn’t played in over 40 years.

Before he took the NFL by storm, Jones was another young Black athlete from the South who was not recruited by majority schools. While today, Florida, Miami and Florida State would probably be fighting for him on a daily basis, Jones probably never even thought twice about those schools. That just wasn’t a reality in the South of the 1950s. Perhaps that’s what drove him to put those quarterbacks, all of whom were white, in the ground with such furor…the fact that he could have done it in college.

“I never went to school with a Caucasian. The first time I hit one without the police coming after me was in the pros. I will never forget that. That rings in my mind every day.”

-Deacon Jones, Black College Football Hall of Fame Speech 

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In the Spotlight: HBCU Buzz Founder Luke Lawal, Jr.

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559803_10200674008122671_296228215_nName: Luke Lawal, Jr. (@LukeLawal & @HBCUBuzz)

Occupation: Founder of HBCU Buzz (www.hbcubuzz.com)

Bio: A native of the nation’s capital, Washington, DC, Luke Lawal, Jr. is a young entrepreneur who graduated from Bowie State University in May 2012 with a degree in Biochemistry.  He is also equipped with a strong marketing and branding background and is a prime force in the social nightlife scene in DC, having served in marketing capacities at LOVE Nightclub and Park at 14th; Lawal, Jr. has also done marketing for the Washington Redskins.

What inspired you to start HBCU Buzz? Why did you think it was necessary?  I got the idea after visiting an HBCU campus in Florida, just to gain some insight on how their SGA operated. When I got down there, I just loved the way FAMU’s SGA was structured. I don’t know if it was specific to the particular SGA administration or if it was part of the foundation of the University, but I was inspired by the way the SGA was operated like a business. So I when I came back to Bowie, I thought ‘wow’, why didn’t I know about this? I felt like I really needed to start touring more HBCU campuses, learn from what they are doing to improve some of the ways that we do things. The question I kept asking myself is: “Why isn’t anyone publicizing this?” It was the inspiration as to why I started HBCU Buzz. I got the idea that more of this kind of information needed to be publicized so students could know what’s happening on other campuses and take pride in their HBCUs.

What would you say has been HBCU Buzz’s biggest success so far? What does the future look like?  Our big success has definitely been the HBCU Buzz Show.  It streams weekly and can be found at https://hbcubuzz.com/show.  For the future, I simply want HBCU Buzz to be THE leading voice in all things relative to historically black colleges & universities.

Any advice for aspiring entrepreneurs? Work for what you want, and remain unique.  “Don’t be an imitator be an innovator, design your life and live it your way, not someone else’s way. Stand up, stand out and start living uniquely, creatively and awesomely.”

Don’t forget to follow Luke and HBCU Buzz on Twitter! @LukeLawal and @HBCUBuzz

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TSU Nursery Research Center Hosts Green Industry Day June 4

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The 2013 Tennessee Green Industry Field Day will take place Tuesday, June 4 at Tennessee State University’s Otis L. Floyd Nursery Research Center from 8 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.

Co-sponsored by the Tennessee Nursery and Landscape Association, the event is free and open to the public, with no pre-registration required. Events include exhibits, education and tours.

The following lectures will take place:

·      Pruning nursery trees for structural integrity

8 a.m.

·      Tennessee Department of Transportation OW/OD Rules and Regulations

9 a.m.

·      Turf pests and care in Tennessee – an update

10 a.m.

·      Pesticide Safety

11 a.m.

·      Bold, bright and pest resistant plants for the landscape

1:30 p.m.

·      Fire ants, Japanese beetles, borers and other nursery pest issues

2:30 p.m.

For those individuals needing pesticide points, the day will offer six points.  Lunch is not provided, but vendors will be on site for lunch purchase.  According to TSU officials, the field day is a great opportunity to learn about the NRC and the nursery industry.

The Nursery Research Center is located at 472 Cadillac Lane in McMinnville, Tenn. For more information, call 931.815.5140 or visittnstate.edu/agriculture/nrc.

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‘Skinny guy with a funny name’: Morehouse valedictorian’s long journey to graduation

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On a rainy afternoon this spring when President Barack Obama gave the commencement speech at Morehouse College in Atlanta, he called valedictorian Betsegaw Tadele the “skinny guy with a funny name” – a nickname Obama has often called himself.

So, who is that other “skinny guy?”

Tadele’s journey to sharing a stage with the president began in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the youngest of Tadele Alemu and Almaz Ayalew’s two children. Tadele’s first name, Betsegaw, means “by God’s grace” in Amharic, his native language.

In the summer of 2009, Tadele came to the United States in pursuit of a higher education.

Morehouse College, a historically black college, was not Tadele’s first choice; he was initially interested in more technical schools. Morehouse only awarded him enough scholarship funds to pay for tuition, not room and board. But Tadele’s brother happened to be living and working in Atlanta. Tadele saw this as an opportunity to spend time with his brother while taking advantage of what the university had to offer. Morehouse became his new destination.

After four years at Morehouse, Tadele had a 3.99 GPA. He graduated with a degree in computer science and a minor in mathematics. He won departmental awards in math and the school’s computer science leadership and scholarship award, led Morehouse’s Computer Science Club and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

“There is no impossible. There is no unbelievable. There is no unachievable, if you have the audacity to hope,” Tadele said during his speech, paraphrasing the name of the president’s 2006 book, “The Audacity of Hope.”

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Morehouse graduate Leland Shelton refuses to let hardships get in his way

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During a recent visit with Morehouse graduate Leland Shelton at his home in Baltimore, I noticed a trophy on a bookshelf honoring him as the top political science student in his class. What would he ask President Obama about politics if given the chance?

“I would ask him what he thinks about the future of the war on drugs and the war on poverty,” said Leland, 21. “I’d ask how he deals with having to concede a lot of the legislation he’s pushing; how do you negotiate so you can actually get things passed?”

Obama had singled Leland out for special recognition while giving a “no excuse for failure” commencement address at Morehouse last week. The president noted that he was graduating Phi Beta Kappa and headed for Harvard Law. Moreover, Obama added, the young man had succeeded despite the fact that, at age 4, “social services took him away from his mama” and placed him in foster care.

Leland Shelton became an instant sensation.

Just to give some idea about how much the shout-out resonated, Washington-based writer A’Lelia Bundles posted a story about it that same day on her Facebook page, “Helping Ourselves.”

Most of her postings garner about a thousand views. As of Tuesday, the one about Leland had received nearly 750,000.

Who is this young man?

He’s passionate about politics, that’s for sure. Morehouse, a historically black, all-male college in Atlanta, is noted for producing first-rate political theorists and tacticians — the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. among them.

Oddly, Obama did not mention politics at all.

“I was taking civics in elementary school, and I remember being very interested in how laws were passed,” Leland said. “What made people want to obey laws? How could laws be used to make communities better?”

Leland has an open, expressive face, a broad smile and eyes that light up when he talks politics. His build is compact, athletic and recently toned by a marathon of bear hugs he’s been giving to well-wishers.

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Opinion: Minority scholarships are bettering college education

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300-0513-AgrilRecently there has been an uproar concerning a“whites-only” scholarship offered by Columbia University. The Lydia C. Roberts Graduate Fellowship requires the recipient to be “a person of the Caucasian race.” The school is currently undergoing legal proceedings to eliminate this clause from the scholarship.

In light of this situation, there has been talk surrounding the elimination of all scholarships that are racially based in an attempted movement toward a society that is colorblind in all scenarios — including college processes.

These same discussions often depict minority scholarships as a form of reverse racism by claiming that they are a politically correct form of discrimination — which is clearly inaccurate.

Historically, people of color have been marginalized and barred from social, economic and political advancement opportunities. Minority scholarships are, simply put, an attempt to level the playing field for disenfranchised groups.

While this progress is being highlighted as discriminatory against another group, the benefits provided to collegiate-level education by minority scholarships are being neglected.

Scholarships explicitly for people of color are only making U.S. colleges and the subsequent workforce a more equally opportunistic place.

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