Black Faculty at the Nation’s Highest-Ranked Liberal Arts Colleges
According to new data from the U.S. Department of Education, Wellesley College in Massachusetts has the largest number of black faculty among the nation’s 30 highest-ranking liberal arts colleges. There are 20 black faculty members at Wellesley. At Oberlin and Smith colleges there are 19 black faculty members. Mount Holyoke College and Wesleyan University each have 18 black faculty members.
There is only one black faculty member at Harvey Mudd College in California. There are five or fewer black faculty at Davidson College, Colby College, Bowdoin College, Claremont McKenna College, and Scripps College.
On a percentage basis, Haverford College in suburban Philadelphia leads the way. The latest data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that the 12 black faculty members at Haverford make up 7.9 percent of the college’s total full-time faculty. In percentage terms, Swarthmore College and Mount Holyoke College also show a strong performance.
The liberal arts colleges where blacks are less than 2 percent of the total faculty are Bowdoin College, Claremont McKenna College, Scripps College, and Harvey Mudd College.
THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
Assistant Professor, Sociology
The Department of African American and African Studies at The Ohio State University invites applications and nominations for applications for a tenure-eligible assistant professor of Sociology. We are looking for a candidate whose research and teaching commitments examine the sociology of African Americans. Preference will be given to candidates with interdisciplinary or comparative perspectives on the African Diaspora. The successful candidate will teach both undergraduate and graduate courses. African American and African Studies Department offers an undergraduate major and minor and a Master of Arts degree. The appointment will begin in Autumn 2010. Candidates must have the Ph.D. in hand at the time of the appointment (Autumn 2010) and must demonstrate scholarly achievement and successful teaching.
The department will begin reviewing applications on November 20, 2009, and will continue until the position is filled. Please send a letter of application, a CV, and three letters of reference to Anthonia Kalu, Chair, Department of African American and African Studies, The Ohio State University, 486 University Hall, 230 North Oval Mall, Columbus, OH 43210-1319.
The Ohio State University is an AA/EOE. Women, minorities, veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
Blacks Are Still Suffering From Jeb Bush’s One Florida Plan
In 2000, Jeb Bush, then the governor of Florida, proposed the One Florida plan in which state-operated universities and graduate schools would no longer be permitted to use race as a factor in admissions decisions. He implemented the One Florida plan by executive order and it remains in effect today.
Initially, there was a huge drop-off in black first-year students at the flagship campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville after the One Florida plan went into effect. Those numbers have recovered somewhat. Today, blacks make up 8.8 percent of the total undergraduate student population, about one-half the level of blacks in the college-age population in Florida.
But it is at the graduate level where the One Florida plan continues to have a major harmful impact on African Americans. At the University of Florida law school, black enrollments have dropped from 106 in 1999 to 65 in 2009. The percentage of blacks in the law school dropped from 9.4 percent to 5.3 percent.
But the most dramatic statistics occur at the University of Florida’s College of Medicine. This year, there are only two blacks among the 128 first-year students at the medical school.
Naming of White Homecoming Queen at Hampton University Causes Stir
Earlier this month, Nikole Churchill was chosen as Miss Hampton University. The title enables her to serve as homecoming queen and compete in the 2010 Miss Virginia pageant, a stepping stone to the Miss America pageant. Churchill, a 22-year-old nursing student from Hawaii, is the first white Miss Hampton in the university’s history. Blacks make up 96 percent of the student body at the historically black educational institution.
After Churchill was selected, she claimed that many people on campus were upset that a white woman was chosen to represent the university. As a result of the criticism, Churchill wrote a letter to President Obama, which she published online, asking the president to come to campus to give a lecture on racial tolerance. In the letter, she wrote, “I am hoping that you can assist me in opening some closed minds.”
Churchill later stated that she regretted writing the letter and bringing negative attention to the university.
Clothes Closet Offers Students at a Black University the Opportunity to Look Professional for Job Interviews
The employees of Enterprise, the car rental firm, donated a large number of business suits for both men and women to a clothes closet project at historically black Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. Students can borrow the business clothes when they have a job interview or are visiting a job fair. Additional clothing was donated by university faculty and staff.
Clemson University Program Addresses the Shortage of Black Male Teachers
About 87 percent of America’s public school teachers are white. More than three quarters are female. While black males make up about 8 percent of all students in the nation’s public schools, only 2 percent of the teachers are black males.
Roy Jones is the director of the Call Me MISTER program, which is based at Clemson University in South Carolina. MISTER stands for Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models. The program offers college scholarships to black men in return for a pledge to teach in the public schools once they earn their college degree.
About 250 students are now in the MISTER pipeline. But this is only a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed. In order to raise the percentage of black males as public school teachers from 2 percent to 3 percent, an additional 45,000 black male teachers would be needed.
Dr. Jones is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He holds a master’s degree in educational psychology from Atlanta University and a doctorate in higher education administration from the University of Georgia.
African-American Poet at Washington University Is a Finalist for National Book Award
Carl Phillips, professor of English and of African and African-American studies at Washington University in St. Louis, was selected as one of five finalists for the National Book Award in poetry. Professor Phillips was nominated for his collection Speak Low, his tenth book.
In describing his latest poetry collection, Professor Phillips said, “I think of it as a kind of meditation on risk, restlessness, and the way in which being human can come in conflict with how society defines so-called moral and responsible behavior, especially when it comes to sex.”
This is the third time Phillips has been a finalist for the National Book Award. He is a graduate of Harvard University. Phillips holds a master’s degree in Latin and classical humanities from the University of Massachusetts and a master’s degree in creative writing from Boston University.
The winners of the National Book Award will be announced on November 18 in New York City.
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
Postdoctoral and Transition Program
for Academic Diversity
The Program
New York University (NYU) is dedicated to ensuring that its scholarly community is ready to compete in a global world and is enriched by individuals, who, through their different races and ethnicities, gender identities, age, abilities, political beliefs, economic status, and sexual orientation, contribute to an intellectually challenging and inclusive educational environment. To that end, NYU has created the NYU Postdoctoral and Transition Program for Academic Diversity fellowship program to support promising scholars and educators from different backgrounds, races, ethnic groups, and other diverse groups whose life experience, research experience, and employment background will contribute significantly to academic excellence at NYU.
Eligibility
The fellowship program is open to all areas of study at the University. U.S. citizens or permanent residents who are from the following three categories may apply:
1) Graduate students in the final year of their dissertation
2) Postdoctoral students who have completed their dissertation within the last three years
3) Professionals transitioning to academic careers (for those in fields for which the doctorate is not the terminal degree)
Awards
NYU will award up to five in-residence fellowships in 2010. The two-year appointments, which begin September 2010 and end August 2012, have a possibility of a third-year extension. Graduate students in the final year of their dissertation must make significant progress toward the dissertation. Fellows teach a maximum of one course per semester.
Stipends and Allowances
Fellows receive an annual stipend of $40,000 as well as allowances for housing ($20,000), research ($2,000), and one-time relocation ($3,000). The University also provides a medical and dental benefits package.
All materials must be received by NOVEMBER 30, 2009.
Applications will be reviewed as they are received.
New York University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution.
Honors and Awards
• Henry Louis Gates Jr., Fletcher University Professor and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University, received the Hale Award from the trustees of the Richards Free Library in Newport, Rhode Island. The award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to literature and letters, is given annually to a New England scholar.
• North Carolina A&T State University has endowed a professorship to honor Shirley T. Frye, an alumna, educator, and community organizer. The Shirley T. Frye Distinguished Professorship in Urban Education was founded with a $500,000 endowment provided by the C.D. Spangler Foundation and the University of North Carolina system.
• Karen Kossie-Chernyshev, associate professor of history, received the 2009 J. McCleary Teacher of the Year Award from Texas Southern University.
Dr. Kossie-Chernyshev holds bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Rice University. She also has a second master’s degree from Michigan State University.
• The football field in the Carrier Dome at Syracuse University has been named in honor of Ernie Davis. In 1961 Davis was the first African American to win the Heisman Trophy, awarded annually to the nation’s best college football player. Davis died in 1963 from leukemia at the age of 23.
142 Number of black first-year students at Cornell University in the fall of 2008.
259 Number of black first-year students at Cornell University in the fall of 2009.
source: Cornell University Office of Admissions
Grants and Gifts
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has announced grants to three historically black universities. The universities will be entitled to grants of up to $1 million in each of the next five years.
Delaware State University will use the funds to establish an optical sciences center for applied research. North Carolina Central University will fund its Center for Aerospace Device Research and Education. North Carolina A&T State University will use the grant to support the operation of its Center for Aviation Safety.
• Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue a program to promote outside-the-classroom activities aimed at increasing professional opportunities for women and minorities in information technology.
• Historically black Alabama A&M University received a three-year, $13 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The grant will fund the university’s participation in the Textbooks and Learnings Material Program which will provide books to schoolchildren in Ethiopia.
• Florida A&M University, the historically black educational institution in Tallahassee, received a $1.2 million grant from the federal government to support the university’s efforts to train healthcare professionals. Scholarships will be provided for students in such fields as public health, toxicology, biostatistics, and nutrition.
• Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis received a $1 million grant from the Anheuser-Busch company to establish a scholarship program for students in its school of business.
• Historically black Grambling State University in Louisiana received a $1.5 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to provide scholarships for students majoring in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, or computer science.
The university also received a six-year, $3 million grant from the United States Department of Education to support the university’s master’s degree program in nursing.
• Jackson State University, the historically black educational institution in Mississippi, received a $1 million federal grant for a program to prepare law enforcement officers to deal with school-based emergencies.
• Spelman College, the historically black educational institution for women in Atlanta, received a $151,000 grant from the U.S. State Department to create a study-abroad program which will enable Spelman students to travel and take classes at universities in China, Brazil, and Turkey.
For breaking news and previews of upcoming articles
Ranking the Nation’s Top Universities in Their Commitment to Enroll Low-Income Students
For several years JBHE has been tracking the percentage of low-income students at the nation’s leading colleges and universities. We believe that it is important to measure the progress made at these educational institutions in enrolling more low-income students as an indication of their overall commitment to increase economic and racial diversity on their campuses.
The latest data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that low-income students have a small presence on the campuses of most of the nation’s highest-ranked universities. At the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at Los Angeles, low-income students make up more than 31 percent of all students. But at none of the nation’s other universities ranked in the top 30 academically do low-income students make up as much as 17 percent of the student body.
Among the 30 highest-ranked universities, Washington University in St. Louis has the lowest percentage of students who receive Pell Grants. Wake Forest University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Notre Dame all have student bodies where less than 9 percent receive Pell Grants.
“When we begin to think about the direction of the field, we believe that what we are doing here at Princeton will set the path for the field of African-American studies in the next century.”
— Eddie S. Glaude Jr., the new chair of the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University
The Black Man Who Broke the Racial Faculty Barrier in Ohio
Kent State University in Ohio recently completed a $10.4 million renovation of Oscar Ritchie Hall, which houses offices and classrooms for the department of Pan-African studies, offices of the black student organizations, the performance space for the African Community Theatre, and the Uumbaji Art Gallery.
Built in 1947, the building was renamed in 1977 to honor Oscar Ritchie, the first African American to serve as a faculty member at a predominantly white state university in Ohio.
Ritchie was a native of Hallandale, Florida. In 1926 he enrolled at Florida A&M University but had to drop out of college during the Great Depression. For more than a decade he worked as a musician, porter, and steelworker. Finally, in 1942, he enrolled at Kent State University while continuing to work full-time at a steel mill in Massillon.
After graduating in 1946 Ritchie entered the graduate school and became a graduate teaching assistant at Kent State. His master’s thesis was published in the Yale Quarterly Journal of Alcoholic Studies.
In 1947 Ritchie became the first black faculty member at Kent State and the first African American to teach at any of Ohio’s public universities. This was the same year that Allison Davis of the University of Chicago became the first African American to be hired to a tenured faculty position at any of the nation’s leading universities.
Despite his faculty appointment, Ritchie could not secure housing near the university and was obliged to live in a segregated black community. He would endure this indignity for the next 16 years.
Dr. Ritchie earned his Ph.D. in sociology at New York University. Ritchie remained on the sociology department faculty at Kent State University for 29 years serving as a full professor and department chair. He died from cancer in 1967 at the age of 58.
Assistant Professor/Scene Designer
SCENE DESIGNER — Assistant Professor, tenure track, to start in August 2010. Department of Theatre Arts seeks M.F.A. with scenic design expertise. Responsibilities typically include: teaching four courses, advising students, designing six college theatrical productions per year, 4 in our production season, the Opera, and the Foreign Language play. Timely preparation of construction drawings, supervising student scene designers and student workers. Shared duty with Technical Director to oversee day-to-day operation of the scene shop – specifically in overseeing scenic painting and properties acquisition. Significant responsibilities during work call, load-in, technical rehearsal, and strike.
The Department of Theatre Arts is housed in the Arts Center and shares the Callahan Theater with an Arts Center subscription series of adult and children’s events. M.F.A. required. Salary competitive and commensurate with experience. Nazareth College is a thriving independent co-educational liberal arts college located minutes from downtown Rochester, the third largest city in NY. The college has enrollment of 1972 undergraduates and 1062 graduate students. Rochester is noted for its cultural diversity.
Send application, resume, digital design samples, all transcripts and names/addresses/telephone numbers of three references on or before January 15th, 2010, to Professor Yuanting Zhao, Department of Theatre Arts, Nazareth College, 4245 East Avenue, Rochester, New York 14618-3790. EOE/AA.
Nazareth College is an equal opportunity employer and educator committed to excellence through inclusiveness.
Spelman College Seeks to Raise $150 Million
Spelman College, the historically black educational institution for women in Atlanta, has embarked on a $150 million fundraising campaign. Spelman, which has the second-largest endowment among the black colleges, has already collected $80 million toward the goal. Spelman will use the new funds to boost its endowment earnings in order to support academic programs and to provide student financial aid.
Grambling State University President to Step Down Saturday
Horace A. Judson, president of Grambling State University in Louisiana, announced suddenly last week he was leaving his post effective this coming Saturday. He has served as president for the past five years.
Recently, both student and faculty groups had drafted petitions of no confidence in Judson. But neither petition had yet come to a vote.
However, the university’s board of governors stated in a press release that Judson was leaving on his own initiative because of an illness of a close family member.
Dr. Judson formerly served as president of Plattsburgh State University in New York. He is a graduate of Lincoln University of Pennsylvania and holds a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry from Cornell University.
In Memoriam
Douglas DePriest (1944-2009)
Douglas DePriest, the acting dean of the School of Science at Hampton University, died earlier this month at the age of 65.
Dr. DePriest was a 1966 graduate of Hampton University. He held a master’s degree in mathematics education from the University of Tennessee and a Ph.D. in statistics from American University. He joined the Hampton faculty in 1999 as an associate professor of mathematics. He became acting dean of the School of Science in 2008.
Appointments, Promotions, and Resignations
• Alfreda Brown was appointed vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Kent State University in Ohio. She was the interim chief diversity officer at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Dr. Brown is a graduate of Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, New York. She holds a master’s degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a doctorate from Nova Southeastern University.
• W. Anthony Neal was named vice president for institutional advancement at Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina. He was area development director for the United Negro College Fund.
Neal is a graduate of Denison University in Granville, Ohio. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from Central Michigan University.
• Alondra Nelson was appointed associate professor of sociology at Columbia University. She was an assistant professor of sociology at Yale University.
Dr. Nelson is a graduate of the University of California at San Diego. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from New York University.
• Leah M. Wright is a new assistant professor of history and African-American studies at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. A graduate of Dartmouth College, she holds a master’s and Ph.D. from Princeton University.
• Jabbar Bennett was appointed assistant dean for recruiting and professional development at the graduate school of Brown University. He was a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and an administrator at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Dr. Bennett is a graduate of North Carolina A&T State University and holds a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from Meharry Medical College.
• Lakeisha Meyer has been named assistant professor of education at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. She was an assistant professor of education at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.
Dr. Meyer is a graduate of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in educational psychology from Indiana University.
• Orlando L. Taylor was named the inaugural president of the Washington, D.C., campus of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Dr. Taylor has served as a faculty member and administrator at Howard University for the past 35 years.
• Nerissa E. Morris is the new vice president for human resources at the University of Miami in Florida. She was the human resources manager for the Global Information Technology division of the Ford Motor Company.
Morris holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY
Faculty Positions, The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development
The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University advances knowledge, creativity, and innovation at the critical crossroads of human learning, culture, development, and well-being. Through rigorous research and education, both within and across disciplines, the School’s faculty and students evaluate and redefine processes, practices, and policies in their respective fields, and, from a global as well as community perspective lead in an ever-changing world. NYU's dynamic Global Network University includes NYU Abu Dhabi and international programs and academic centers around the world.
The Steinhardt School is recruiting for positions in the areas listed below for the upcoming academic year. Complete faculty position descriptions and applications can be found on our website at: http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_positions/
APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY Psychology and Social Intervention
- Assistant Professor, Tenure-Track
MUSIC AND PERFORMING ARTS PROFESSIONS Music Business
- Clinical Assistant Professor, Non-Tenure Track
Jazz Studies
- Music Assistant Professor, Non-Tenure Track
MEDIA, CULTURE, AND COMMUNICATION Media Advocacy
- Assistant Professor, Tenure-Track
NUTRITION, FOOD STUDIES AND PUBLIC HEALTH Public Health
- Associate Professor, Tenure-Track/Tenured
The Steinhardt School anticipates continuing our recruitment activities in future years in these areas as well as in the Visual and Performing Arts, Education, Applied Psychology, Health Programs. Our School is comprised of eleven departments: Administration, Leadership, and Technology; Applied Psychology; Art and Art Professions; Communicative Sciences and Disorders; Humanities and the Social Sciences in the Professions; Media, Culture, and Communication; Music and Performing Arts Professions; Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health; Occupational Therapy; Physical Therapy; Teaching and Learning. We invite you to visit the above website for updated information.
New York University is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to building a culturally diverse educational environment.