Emory University Library Starts New Collection on African Americans in Sports

The Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University in Atlanta has established a new collection on African Americans in sports. The new archive includes books about African-American athletes, memorabilia, documents, posters, and other collectibles.

Among the most notable items are a ticket stub from the 1938 Joe Louis/Max Schmeling heavyweight title fight, a photograph of the Atlanta Black Crackers baseball team, and autographed baseballs with the signatures of Hank Aaron and Satchel Paige.

Pellom McDaniels III, an assistant professor of history and American studies at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, is serving as a consultant curator for the new collection. McDaniels, who played in the National Football League, holds a bachelor’s degree from Oregon State University and master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Emory University.

Rodney S. Clark Named to Lead Attleboro Campus of Bristol Community College in Massachusetts

Rodney S. Clark was named dean of the Attleboro campus of Bristol Community College, based in Fall River, Massachusetts. Clark was dean of admissions at the college.

As head of the satellite campus, Clark will be charged with raising enrollments, which have been on the decline.

Clark dropped out of Tufts University because he couldn't pay his bills. He then worked as an investment advisor before enrolling in a master’s degree program in management at Cambridge College, outside of Boston.

He began his academic career as associate director of admissions at Roxbury Community College.

HBCUs Pitch In to Rebuild the State University of Haiti

A group of 12 historically black colleges and universities has launched a campaign to raise $12 million to help rebuild the Université d’Etat d’Haïti (State University of Haiti), which was severely damaged by an earthquake in January 2010. The money will be used to construct a classroom building where students can participate in distance education programs taught by faculty at the HBCUs. Some of the money will be used to hire faculty to replace professors who were killed in the earthquake and the consortium hopes to provide scholarships to about 1,000 Haitian students.

The fundraising effort is being coordinated by Frederick Humphries, former president and now regent professor at Florida A&M University. In addition to Florida A&M, the participating HBCUs are South Carolina State University, Morgan State University, Howard University, Miles College, and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Additional members of the consortium are Central State University (Ohio), Virginia State University, North Carolina A&T State University, Fort Valley State University (Georgia), Tennessee State University, and Jackson State University (Mississippi).

Georgetown University Study Finds Racial Disparity in Care of Stroke Victims

A study by researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center finds a racial disparity in care for stroke victims. The research, published in the journal Stroke, found that blacks were less likely than whites to receive tPA, the most effective drug treatment for stroke victims.

The reasons for the disparity include the fact that blacks often do not go to the hospital immediately after a stroke and when they do arrive it is too late for tPA to be effective in breaking up the clot blocking blood flow to the brain.

Also, blacks are more likely than whites to have preexisting conditions such as hypertension which precludes the use of tPA.

The authors of the study point to the need for educational efforts to inform African Americans of the importance of getting medical treatment as soon as possible after a stroke occurs.

Kroger Continues Its Support of the UNCF

Shoppers at Kroger Food Stores in North Texas now have the opportunity to contribute to the United Negro College Fund from now through September 10. Coin canisters have been placed at all checkout counters to encourage shoppers to deposit contributions to help students at the UNCF’s 39 member colleges and universities.

Kroger Food Stores also supports the UNCF through its Neighbor-to-Neighbor program which has made donations of more than $770 million to charitable causes of all types over the past five years.

Meharry Professor to Lead the National Medical Association

Rahn Kennedy Bailey was named president-elect of the National Medical Association, an organization representing 30,000 African-American physicians nationwide. He will become the association’s 113th president in July 2012 and will serve a one-year term.

Dr. Bailey is chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. He is board certified in general psychiatry and forensic psychiatry.

Dr. Bailey is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta. He received his medical training at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

In Memoriam

Matthew J. Perry (1921-2011)

Matthew J. Perry, civil rights leader and the first African-American federal judge in South Carolina, died late last month at his home in Columbia. He was 89 years old.

Perry worked on the day that he died in the federal courthouse that bears his name.

Perry was a graduate of South Carolina State University and the short-lived segregated law school which was established on that campus. During the civil right era, it is estimated that Perry successfully appealed 7,000 convictions of civil rights protesters in the federal courts. He was instrumental in the legal proceedings that ended racial segregation at the University of South Carolina and Clemson University.

Dawn Della DeVeaux (1962-2011)

Dawn Della DeVeaux, university omsbud officer for students at Fort Valley State University in Georgia, died late last month at the age of 49.

Dr. DeVeaux was a graduate of Howard University. She earned a master’s degree in mass communications from Austin Peay State University in Clarkesville, Tennessee, and a doctorate in community college education at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Dr. DeVeaux joined the faculty at Fort Valley State in 2005 as an assistant professor of fine arts. She also served as interim director for enrollment management and interim director of financial aid.

Honors and Awards

• Natachie Elie, a senior at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, was named Woman of the Year by the National Association of Black Accountants. The award comes with a $10,000 scholarship.

Elie will be spending the fall semester at the American Business School in Paris and after graduation next spring she will become an analyst for JP Morgan Chase.

• Janette L. Dates, dean of the School of Communications at Howard University in Washington, D.C., was inducted into the Minority Media & Telecom Council's Hall of Fame for her work to bring greater diversity to the nation's media. Dr. Dates has served as dean since 1996.

Dean Dates is a graduate of Coppin State University. She earned a master’s in education at Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate at the University of Maryland at College Park.

Grants and Gifts

• Researchers at the College of William and Mary and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County received a three-year, $171,928 grant from the National Science Foundation to study how cultural and social language patterns affect learning in science and mathematics classrooms, particularly among African-American students.

The research will be conducted in K-12 classrooms in Richmond and Baltimore. One of the co-investigators is Anne Charity Hudley, an associate professor of education, English, and linguistics at the College of William and Mary.

• The University of Connecticut received a $480,000 grant from the U.S. Department of State to conduct a five-week summer institute for 39 students from Africa. The program is designed to foster a better understanding of the United States by emerging leaders of African nations.

• Historically black Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to support a program that helps low-income students prepare for college.

• The HBCU Library Alliance and the library network LYRASIS were awarded a two-year, $600,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support library leadership development programs at historically black colleges and universities.

In your opinion, who will be the GOP nominee for president in 2012? Sarah Palin Mitt Romney Tim Pawlenty Michelle Bachman Rick Perry Someone else

University of Utah to Offer Degree Program in Ethnic Studies

The Utah State Board of Regents has approved the establishment of a degree program in ethnic studies at the University of Utah. Previously, students could take ethnic studies courses but could not major in the discipline.

The program will include component sections of African-American, American Indian, Asian/Pacific American, and Chicano studies.

The Higher Education of the Nation’s Newest Black Judge

Wilma Lewis was recently confirmed as judge for the U.S. District Court in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. She is the first woman to serve as a federal district judge for the Virgin Islands. Lewis was assistant secretary of the Interior where her responsibilities included supervision of the Bureau of Land Management, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement. Previously, she was the first African American to serve as Inspector General at the Department of the Interior.

Judge Lewis is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School.

Will Higher Standards for Bar Passage Rates for Graduates of U.S. Law Schools Lead to a Lower Level of Racial Diversity in the Legal Profession?

In 2007 the American Bar Association, which has been authorized by the U.S. Department of Education as the accrediting agency for U.S. law schools, adopted a requirement that for a law school to remain in good standing, at least 75 percent of the graduates of the law school must pass the bar examination in the state where the school is located in at least three of the past five years. Since the difficulty of bar exams varies from state to state, law schools can maintain good standing if their first-time bar passage rate is not more than 15 percentage points lower than other law schools in that state.

Now the ABA is considering a new proposal that would call for an 80 percent bar passage rate or a rate that is no more than 10 percentage points below that of other law schools in the state.

The new standards are of particular concern to the dean of law schools at historically black universities, many of which would have difficulty meeting the new standards. LeRoy Pernell, dean of College of Law at historically black Florida A&M University told the National Law Journal that “When the statistics tell you that virtually every black college will be in noncompliance, it’s a matter of grave concern.”

It is feared that many law schools, including those at historically black universities, will be reluctant to admit students from disadvantaged backgrounds who tend to score lower on the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). This could result in a lower level of diversity in the legal profession.

The First African-American President of Kansas City, Kansas Community College

This week Doris F. Givens began her new duties as the fifth president of the Kansas City, Kansas Community College. She is the first woman and the first African American to lead the college.

Dr. Givens has been serving as vice chancellor of educational services at the Kern Community College District in Bakersfield, California. She previously served as president of Spokane Community College in Washington and as interim president at Los Angeles City College and West Los Angeles College. Earlier in her career, she was the head of the black studies program at San Diego City College.

Dr. Givens holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from San Diego State University. She earned a doctorate in community college leadership at the University of Texas.

New Provost at North Carolina Central University

Debbie Thomas was appointed provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at North Carolina Central University in Durham. She was serving as associate provost and associate vice chancellor at NCCU.

Prior to coming to NCCU last year, Dr. Thomas was the executive director of the Center for Urban and Regional Excellence at Indiana University Northwest. Previously, she has served as an administrator and/or faculty member at Fisk University, the University of Arkansas at Monticello, and the University of Central Florida.

Dr. Thomas holds bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. She earned a doctorate in curriculum and instruction at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

Shaw University President Resigns

After only 11 months on the job, Irma McClaurin abruptly resigned as president of Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Classes at the university are scheduled to begin on Monday. An official inauguration of Dr. McClaurin as university president was scheduled for October.
The school has faced financial difficulties which were compounded when a tornado ripped through campus last April.

Before coming to Shaw University, Dr. McClaurin was an associate vice president at the University of Minnesota. She holds a bachelor’s degree in American studies from Grinnell College in Iowa and a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Appointments, Promotions, and Resignations

• Vicky Coleman was appointed dean of library services at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, effective September 1. She has been serving as an associate university librarian at Arizona State University. She previously was director of the Clemons Library at the University of Virginia.

Dean Coleman holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from North Carolina A&T State University and a master's degree in information and library science from the University of Michigan.

• Sheilah Shaw Horton was appointed vice president for student affairs at Loyola University Maryland. She was associate vice president for student affairs and dean for student development at Boston College. Horton has been an administrator at Boston College for nearly 25 years.

A graduate of Emmanuel College, Dr. Horton holds a master’s degree and Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Boston College.

• Melissa V. Harris-Perry was named professor of political science at Tulane University in New Orleans. There, she will also be the founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race, and Politics in the South. She was on the political science and African-American studies faculty at Princeton University. Her most recent book, Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America, was recently released by Yale University Press.

Dr. Harris-Perry is a graduate of Wake Forest University. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from Duke University.

• Bernard Franklin was named special assistant to the vice president for student life at Kansas State University. Among other duties, Dr. Franklin will be responsible for student recruiting in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area. He recently served as president of the Penn Valley campus of Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City.

Dr. Franklin is a 1976 graduate of Kansas State University where he was elected student body president. He earned a master’s degree from the University of South Alabama and returned to Kansas State to earn a doctorate in counseling and higher education administration.

• Michele Butts was appointed professor at the Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge. She was a professor at the John Marshall School of Law in Atlanta.

Professor Butts is a graduate of Syracuse University and the University of Florida School of Law.

• Michelle Williams was named the Stephen B. Kay Family Professor of Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. She will also chair the department of epidemiology. Dr. Williams was a professor of epidemiology and global health at the School of Public Health at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Professor Williams is a graduate of Princeton University. She holds master's degrees from Tufts University and Harvard University and a doctor of science degree from the Harvard School of Public Health.

• Sheri R. Notaro was appointed associate dean for inclusion and professional development at Cornell University. The appointment is effective August 19. She has been serving as associate dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

Dr. Notaro holds a master's degree, a master of public health degree, and a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Michigan.