Among the Leading Liberal Arts Colleges, Amherst Has the Highest Percentage of Black Freshmen: Amherst Leads JBHE Survey for Fourth Straight Year
For 17 years JBHE has collected black student admissions data on the highest-ranked liberal arts colleges. Over this long period there have been seven years when Amherst College in western Massachusetts reported the highest percentage of black freshmen. On five occasions Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, had enrolled the highest percentage of black first-year students.
This year Amherst leads the rankings for the fourth consecutive year. This fall there are 75 black freshmen at Amherst College. They make up a whopping 14.6 percent of the first-year class. This is the highest percentage of black freshmen at a high-ranking liberal arts college in the 17-year history of the JBHE survey. The number of black freshmen at Amherst is up 53 percent from a year ago.
Mount Holyoke College, Swarthmore College, and Williams College all have freshman classes that are at least 11 percent black. Vassar, Oberlin, Pomona, and Wesleyan all have first-year classes that are at least 9 percent black.
For the complete results of the annual survey of black freshmen at the nation’s leading liberal arts colleges, click here.
STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY
Dean, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
The School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) at Stony Brook University seeks nominations and applications for the position of Dean.
Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences is among the world’s leading organizations dedicated to research and education in atmospheric sciences and all the major disciplines of oceanography – biological, chemical, geological, and physical. There are 90 faculty and staff who teach and mentor more than 600 undergraduate students and over 100 graduate students on various marine, terrestrial, and atmospheric issues facing our world today. Fundamental and applied research at SoMAS explores solutions to issues ranging from local environmental problems around Long Island to climate processes that are impacting the entire globe. Its location near Long Island Sound allows students and faculty to investigate a variety of habitats and coastal processes that range from the open ocean to the largest metropolitan area in the United States, and to tap into resources at the nearby National Weather Service (NWS) Upton, NY office, NWS Eastern Region Headquarters, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. In addition to its presence on the main campus of Stony Brook University, SoMAS also operates research and educational facilities at the Stony Brook Southampton campus (including the Southampton Marine Station with access to the Atlantic Ocean) and the Flax Pond Marine Laboratory on Long Island Sound. The New York Sea Grant, a cooperative program of the State University of New York and Cornell University, is housed at SoMAS. More detailed information on SoMAS is available on its web page: www.somas.stonybrook.edu.
The Dean is the chief administrative officer of SoMAS and is responsible for programmatic leadership, financial management, personnel administration, facilities management, fund raising, and academic planning, and is a member of the Provost’s Advisory Group and the President’s Council of Deans.
The successful candidate will demonstrate a record of academic and scholarly achievement commensurate with the rank of professor, a national or international reputation, successful administrative experience, demonstrated leadership and the ability to organize researchers in multidisciplinary projects, dedication to the development of undergraduate and graduate education programs, and a commitment to diversity, fund raising and public outreach. A Ph.D. in marine or atmospheric sciences or a related field is required.
Stony Brook University, young by comparison to most of its peers in the Association of American Universities, has experienced phenomenal growth and innovation in the 53 years since its founding. Now encompassing 24,700 students and 2,200 faculty, Stony Brook is an educator of many of the nation’s best scientists, the foremost provider of healthcare, an economic engine for Long Island, a magnet for some of the finest talents in the arts, and an incubator of cutting edge technology.
The search will continue until the position is filled; salary will be commensurate with experience. Nominations, expressions of interest, and applications (curriculum vitae and letter of interest) will be treated as confidential. Credential review will begin in mid-November. Electronic submissions are strongly encouraged and should be sent to Lucy A. Leske, the Witt/Kieffer consultant supporting Stony Brook University with this search, at SBUDeanSoMAS@wittkieffer.com. Materials that must be mailed may be sent to:
Dean, School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences
Stony Brook University
c/o Witt/Kieffer
2015 Spring Road, Ste 510
Oak Brook, IL 60523
Stony Brook University/SUNY is an affirmative action, equal opportunity educator and employer.
Harvard University Adds Another Black Face to Its Portrait Gallery
A 2002 survey by the curator of the Harvard University portrait collection found that 690 of the university’s approximately 750 portraits were of white men. About 58 portraits were of white women. Only two portraits were of minorities.
Later that year, then Harvard president Lawrence Summers pledged $100,000 to the Minority Portraiture Project. The first three portraits of African Americans, unveiled in 2005, were of Archie C. Epps III, the late dean of students, Eileen Jackson Southern, the first black woman to hold a tenured faculty position at Harvard, and David L. Evans, an electrical engineer who worked on the Apollo project, which sent men to the moon. Evans subsequently served as a senior admissions officer at Harvard for more than 30 years.
Now another African American has been added to the Harvard portrait gallery. At a reception held earlier this month, in the common room at Lowell House, the university unveiled a portrait of Chester M. Pierce, the longtime professor of psychiatry and education. Pierce is a 1948 graduate of Harvard College. In 1947, Pierce played for Harvard at a football game at the University of Virginia. It is believed that this was the first time a black player participated in a football game at an all-white southern state university.
Yale Pledges $20 Million to Help Educate New Haven Students at Other Universities
Yale University has announced a scholarship program for students in the predominantly black New Haven public school system. The full-tuition scholarships are not for these students to enroll at Yale, but rather they are for New Haven high school graduates who plan to attend a public college or university in Connecticut.
In order to qualify for the scholarship, New Haven high school graduates will have had to maintain a B average, contribute at least 40 hours of community service, have a 90 percent attendance rate, and a clean disciplinary record. It is estimated that between 200 and 250 New Haven high school students will meet the qualifications each year. Recipients will have to maintain a 2.5 grade point average in college in order to continue to receive funds.
Yale will contribute $4 million annually to the New Haven Promise scholarship program for the next five years. The scholarships are not need based and will cover all of the recipient’s tuition at a state educational institution. But they will not provide for room and board.
Yale University president Richard C. Levin stated that the scholarships will ultimately help the university because “Yale’s strength is inextricably linked to the community’s strength.”
The Persisting Racial Divide in Broadband Internet Access in the Home: Implications for Access to Higher Education
The Internet is the information superhighway for those seeking employment, social connections, and higher education. Online distance education has become an important aspect of American higher education. And for college-bound students, the Internet provides a wealth of information to help them make the correct decisions on where they should apply.
But new data from the U.S. Department of Commerce shows a persistent racial divide in broadband Internet access in the home. In 2009, 68 percent of white households had high-speed Internet connections compared to only 49 percent of black households. Even when we compare high-income households with parents who are college-educated, there is still a 10 percentage point racial gap in broadband Internet access.
This persisting racial divide places blacks at a disadvantage to whites in navigating the online world of higher education.
UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT
Associate/Full Professor and Director, Institute for African American Studies
The University of Connecticut seeks applications for a senior faculty member to serve as Director of the Institute for African American Studies (IAAS). The Director will be charged with the expansion of the Institute’s interdisciplinary research activities in the College and wider university. The IAAS offers an interdisciplinary major and minor, with joint-appointment of faculty across two schools and six departments. Its mission is “to enlighten and inform the University of Connecticut community and the people of the State of Connecticut, nation and the world about the history, culture, contributions and experiences of people of African descent in the United States and abroad.” Additionally, the Institute supports programmatic endeavors such as symposia, conferences, and guest lectures. The Director will be expected to help coordinate and develop instruction, programming, and curriculum, enhance the profile of the IAAS nationally through collaborative programming from within and without the University community. He or she will also be expected to develop long range goals for the growth and development of IAAS and its major and minor and provide leadership in moving towards those goals.
For full position description and details on the application process, please visit Husky Hire at www.jobs.uconn.edu and upload a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, and a list of three references. Review of applications will begin November 15 and will continue until the position is filled. The University of Connecticut is an EEO/AA employer. (Search # 2011222)
In Memoriam
Janet E. McClain (1950-2010)
Janet McClain, who spent 34 years on the faculty of Northern Iowa University in Cedar Falls, has died after a battle with cancer. She was 60 years old.
Professor McClain taught in the department of curriculum and instruction in the university’s College of Education and was director of the college’s Minorities in Teaching program.
A native of Chicago, Professor McClain was a graduate of Northern Illinois University. She held a master’s degree from the University of Dayton.
Anna Fay Vaughn-Cooke (1947-2010)
Anna Vaughn-Cooke, a linguist and associate provost and dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, died from vasculitis last month at a hospice facility in Washington, D.C. She was 63 years old.
Dr. Vaughn-Cooke was a native of Turrell, Arkansas. In 1968 she graduated from the University of Missouri at Kansas City with a degree in speech pathology. She held a master’s degree in speech pathology from the University of Maryland and a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in linguistics from Georgetown University.
D. Vaughn-Cooke spent nearly a quarter of a century on the faculty of the University of the District of Columbia. She was considered one of the nation’s leading authorities on African-American dialects and on language development among black youth. In 1998 she became dean of graduate studies at Florida A&M University. From 2003 to 2006 she served as vice president of academic affairs at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. In 2008 she was named associate provost at FAMU.
Appointments, Promotions, and Resignations
• Annette Gordon-Reed, professor of law, professor of history, and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, was elected to the board of trustees of Dartmouth College.
Professor Gordon-Reed is a 1981 graduate of Dartmouth College and she earned a law degree at Harvard. Gordon-Reed is a past winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal and is a current MacArthur Foundation Fellow.
• Phillip L. Clay, chancellor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 2001, has announced his intention to step down as soon as the university can find his replacement. As chancellor he was responsible for overseeing the offices of Undergraduate Education, Graduate Education, and Student Life. He will remain a professor of urban studies and planning at MIT.
Dr. Clay is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a Ph.D. from MIT.
• Stacey Franklin Jones has stepped down as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Bowie State University in Maryland. Dr. Jones, who became provost this past July, had come under fire for not consulting with the faculty on job reassignments.
Dr. Jones is a graduate of Howard University. She holds two master’s degrees from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in computer science from George Washington University.
• Jennifer A. Richeson, a professor of psychology and a fellow of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, was appointed Weinberg College Board of Visitors Research and Teaching Professor at Northwestern.
Dr. Richeson is a graduate of Brown University and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University.
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Director of Major Gifts
The College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences is conducting a search for a Director of Major Gifts. The University of Virginia, one of the nation's premier academic institutions, commenced a $3 billion campaign in September 2006. More than $2.2 billion has been raised to-date. As part of the campaign, the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, the largest academic unit in the University, has a goal of $500 million. Arts & Sciences has nearly 100,000 alumni living in the United States and overseas. As the largest academic unit, and having the largest prospect pool including a particularly affluent parent population, the College is poised to tap into a substantial pool of prospects to complete its $500 million goal. The College and Graduate School has raised $255 million to-date. The Director will play a critical role in the current campaign and in ongoing efforts to build the endowment for the College. The Director of Major Gifts leads a team of gift officers. In addition, the Director carries a portfolio of approximately 75 prospects. The position reports to the Associate Dean for Development who has additional responsibility for Direct Marketing, Donor Relations, Stewardship, Development Communications, Finance and Administration, and works closely with the College Foundation Board. The ability to build a strong and motivated team is essential to this role. The Director will recruit, train, manage, mentor, evaluate and deploy staff members to achieve maximum financial support. The gift officer team currently includes nine gift officer positions plus administrative staff. There is an opportunity to have an immediate impact on the profile of the team by filling several key vacancies.
The Director of Major Gifts will: Supervise the major gift staff and personally manage a portfolio of donors. Execute the recently established strategy for cultivation and solicitation of lead donors. Develop effective strategies to increase Benefactor Society membership through leadership level annual gifts. Work with development colleagues to design stewardship strategies for key donors. Prepare and brief the Dean of the College, the Associate Dean for Development, senior University administrators and senior level volunteers when meeting with prospects. Provide support to the development activities of the College Foundation Board of Trustees, in cooperation with the Associate Dean. Position requires frequent travel and occasional evening and weekend work.
Qualifications: Master's degree required; Bachelor's degree and five years of related professional experience may be considered in lieu of a Master's degree. Experience directing a staff of fundraisers is strongly preferred.
To apply: submit a Candidate Profile through Jobs@UVa (https://jobs.virginia.edu), by searching on Posting Number 0606561 and electronically attach the following: a cover letter, curriculum vitae and contact information for three references.
Review of applications by the committee will begin 11/05/2010; however, the position will remain open until filled.
UVa is an EOAA Employer. Women and members of minority groups are strongly encouraged to apply.
Study Finds That Financial Analysts Discount the Educational Backgrounds of Black Executives Who Graduated from Prestigious Universities
A new study appearing in Organization Science, the journal of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science, finds that financial analysts who rate management teams at large companies discount the educational backgrounds of black executives who graduated from prestigious colleges and universities. At the same time, white managers with prestigious educational backgrounds are singled out.
In an experiment, the authors of the article submitted company data to financial analysts which included the educational background of the executive team. Photographs of the executives were included in the information so that the analysts could surmise the race of the executives. The results showed that for companies with similar financial prospects, firms with white executives with prestigious educational backgrounds were projected to have high stock price gains. The lowest projected stock price gains were given to firms with black executives with prestigious educational backgrounds.
The authors concluded that the financial analysts assumed that the black executives were admitted to the prestigious educational institution under an affirmative action program and therefore they were not perceived as talented or as capable as white executives with similar educational backgrounds.
Cooperative Agreement Signed by Universities Serving Blacks in the United States and Colombia
For the past century Phelps Stokes has helped to improve educational opportunities for blacks and other minorities. Now the nonprofit organization has entered into an agreement with the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges and the Association of Colombiana de Universidades to strengthen cooperation between historically black colleges and universities in the United States with universities serving Afro-Colombian students.
Under the agreement the universities will participate in cultural activities, research initiatives, internships, and faculty and student exchange programs.
African-American Psychologist at Texas A&M University Examines Racial Differences in Aggressive Behavior Among Youth
Jamilia Blake, an assistant professor of educational psychology at Texas A&M University in College Station, is conducting research on how parents’ attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs mold their children’s conduct and relationships with their peers. Dr. Blake is particularly concerned with possible racial and ethnic differences in aggressive behavior among children. She has conducted interviews with 600 youngsters and 300 parents, as well as with the teachers of the young students, in order to determine if black and other minority youth are more likely to engage in aggressive behavior and, if so, whether their parents’ attitudes contribute to the likelihood of these behaviors.
Dr. Blake hopes that her research will lead to the establishment of intervention and prevention programs for youth and for parental training to reduce aggressive behaviors.
Dr. Blake holds bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in psychology, all from the University of Georgia.
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Tenure-Track Faculty Position, MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab (http://www.media.mit.edu) is seeking candidates to fill a tenure-track faculty position.
The Media Lab is a cross-disciplinary research organization focusing on the design and study of new media technologies that bring dramatic improvements in the ways people live, learn, work, and play. Candidates should have a strong track record of design and invention, a commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration, and a willingness to take risks and develop new visions.
Job Requirements
Successful candidates will be expected to: establish and lead their own research group within the Media Lab, participate in collaborative projects with industrial sponsors and other Media Lab research groups, supervise Master's and Doctoral students, and teach classes in the Media Arts and Sciences program.
The Media Lab welcomes applications from candidates with backgrounds in any area related to the Media Lab mission, with special focus on candidates interested in establishing research programs in the areas of (1) social media and community computing, (2) visual and interaction design, or (3) health and wellness.
Appointments will be within the Media Arts and Sciences academic program, principally at the Assistant Professor level. Candidates should have a Doctorate (or equivalent) and a strong record of research.
The Media Laboratory is building a diverse community of scholars, and strongly encourages applications from women and members of under-represented groups.
Alarming Statistics on Young Black Male Educational Performance
A new report from the Council of the Great City Schools shows some alarming statistics on the poor educational performance of young black males. The study found that only 12 percent of black males in the fourth grade were proficient in reading compared to 38 percent of same-age white males. In mathematics, 12 percent of black males in the eighth grade were rated proficient compared to 44 percent of white males.
Poverty is not solely to blame for the alarming statistics. The study shows that black males who are not eligible for the free lunch programs are doing about the same as white males from poor families.
The report, entitled A Call for Change, can be downloaded by clicking here.
Recent Books That May Be of Interest to African-American Scholars
The JBHE Weekly Bulletin regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. Here are the latest selections.
• Ahead of Her Time in Yesteryear: Geraldyne Pierce Zimmerman Comes of Age in a Southern African-American Family by Kabibi Mack-Shelton (University of Tennessee Press)
• Beyond Slavery: Overcoming Its Religious and Sexual Legacies edited by Bernadette Brooten (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Conservatism and Racism and Why in America They Are the Same by Robert C. Smith (State University of New York Press)
• Contemporary African Fashion edited by Suzanne Gott and Kristyne Loughran (Indiana University Press)
• Daily Demonstrators: The Civil Rights Movement in Mennonite Homes and Sanctuaries by Tobin Miller Shearer (Johns Hopkins University Press)
• Fame to Infamy: Race, Sport, and the Fall From Grace edited by David C. Ogden and Joel Nathan Rosen (University Press of Mississippi)
• Harlem Is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitt (Little, Brown & Co.)
• Harlem: The Four Hundred Year History from Dutch Village to the Capital of Black America by Jonathan Gill (Grove Press)
• Inherently Unequal: The Betrayal of Equal Rights by the Supreme Court 1865-1903 by Lawrence Goldstone (Walker & Co.)
• Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall edited by Michael G. Long (HarperCollins)
• Monstrous Intimacies: Making Post-Slavery Subjects by Christina Sharpe (Duke University Press)
• The Color of Law: Ernie Goodman, Detroit, and the Struggle for Labor and Civil Rights by Steve Babson et al. (Wayne State University Press)
• The History and Contemporary Relevance of the Thirteenth Amendment edited by Alexander Tsesis (Columbia University Press)
• The Law Is Good: The Voting Rights Act, Redistricting, and Black Regime Politics by Steven Andrew Light (Carolina Academic Press)
• You Are All Free: The Haitian Revolution and the Abolition of Slavery by Jeremy D. Popkin (Cambridge University Press)
URSINUS COLLEGE
Full-Time Faculty Positions
Ursinus College is a highly selective, nationally ranked, independent, co-educational, residential liberal arts college of approximately 1750 students located on a beautiful campus 25 miles northwest of center city Philadelphia. The College is continuing to expand the faculty to broaden our offerings in the arts, sciences, and social sciences, enhance interdisciplinarity and enrich the overall academic program. We actively seek candidates strongly committed to excellence in teaching and research in a liberal arts setting. Dedicated to liberal education and to fostering student achievement through undergraduate research and creative work, the College invites applications from candidates who are eager to teach in a strong liberal arts environment and to mentor undergraduate students in research and creative projects.
Ursinus College invites applications for the following full-time faculty positions beginning in Fall 2011:
Ursinus is an EEO/AA employer. In keeping with the College’s historic commitment to equality, men and women and members of all racial and ethnic groups are encouraged to apply.
Honors and Awards
• Lucile Adams-Campbell, professor of oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center and associate director of minority health and health disparities research at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, was named a Legacy Laureate at the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Adams-Campbell holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Drexel University in Philadelphia. She earned a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh.
• Eve J. Higginbotham, senior vice president and executive dean of health sciences at Howard University, received the Heed Award from the American Academy of Opthalmology. She is the first woman to earn the award in its 45-year history.
Dr. Higginbotham holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from MIT and is a graduate of Harvard Medical School.
• Elaine R. Jones, retired president and director-counsel emeritus of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was named the recipient of the 2011 Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association. Jones is a graduate of Howard University and the University of Virginia School of Law.
• Joan Archie, executive director of construction compliance at the University of Chicago Medical Center, was named compliance officer of the year by Black Contractors United.
• H. Richard Milner IV, the Betts Associate Professor of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University, won the 2010 Carl A. Grant Multicultural Research Award from the National Association for Multicultural Education.
Dr. Milner holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from South Carolina State University. He holds a second master’s degree and a doctorate in educational policy from Ohio State University.
• David R. Jones, the CEO of CastleOak Securities, received the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Boston University School of Management.
Jones earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Boston University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Grants and Gifts
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a new round of awards under its Outreach Assistance to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Competitive Grants Program. Historically black colleges and universities receiving grants are Albany State University in Georgia ($340,580), Alcorn State University in Mississippi ($300,000), Tuskegee University in Alabama ($213,887), and Virginia State University ($300,000).
• Historically black Alabama A&M University received a five-year, $746,665 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to provide scholarships for master’s degree students in rehabilitation counseling.
• Fort Valley State University, the historically black educational institution in Georgia, received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to complete a renovation project of a major thoroughfare leading to the university campus.
• Historically black South Carolina State University received a five-year, $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education for student support services such as academic counseling, tutoring, financial literacy programs, and career counseling.
• Florida A&M University, the historically black educational institution in Tallahassee, received a $400,000 grant from the Florida Juvenile Justice State Advisory Group to establish the Juvenile Justice Research Institute on campus.
Past Issues - JBHE Weekly Bulletin (select from menu below)
For 17 years JBHE has collected black student admissions data on the highest-ranked liberal arts colleges. Over this long period there have been seven years when Amherst College in western Massachusetts reported the highest percentage of black freshmen. On five occasions Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, had enrolled the highest percentage of black first-year students. 
A 2002 survey by the curator of the Harvard University portrait collection found that 690 of the university’s approximately 750 portraits were of white men. About 58 portraits were of white women. Only two portraits were of minorities.
Yale University has announced a scholarship program for students in the predominantly black New Haven public school system. The full-tuition scholarships are not for these students to enroll at Yale, but rather they are for New Haven high school graduates who plan to attend a public college or university in Connecticut. 
The Internet is the information superhighway for those seeking employment, social connections, and higher education. Online distance education has become an important aspect of American higher education. And for college-bound students, the Internet provides a wealth of information to help them make the correct decisions on where they should apply.
Janet McClain, who spent 34 years on the faculty of Northern Iowa University in Cedar Falls, has died after a battle with cancer. She was 60 years old.
• Annette Gordon-Reed, professor of law, professor of history, and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, was elected to the board of trustees of Dartmouth College.
• Phillip L. Clay, chancellor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 2001, has announced his intention to step down as soon as the university can find his replacement. As chancellor he was responsible for overseeing the offices of Undergraduate Education, Graduate Education, and Student Life. He will remain a professor of urban studies and planning at MIT.
• Stacey Franklin Jones has stepped down as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Bowie State University in Maryland. Dr. Jones, who became provost this past July, had come under fire for not consulting with the faculty on job reassignments.
• Jennifer A. Richeson, a professor of psychology and a fellow of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, was appointed Weinberg College Board of Visitors Research and Teaching Professor at Northwestern.
A new study appearing in Organization Science, the journal of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science, finds that financial analysts who rate management teams at large companies discount the educational backgrounds of black executives who graduated from prestigious colleges and universities. At the same time, white managers with prestigious educational backgrounds are singled out. 
For the past century Phelps Stokes has helped to improve educational opportunities for blacks and other minorities. Now the nonprofit organization has entered into an agreement with the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges and the Association of Colombiana de Universidades to strengthen cooperation between historically black colleges and universities in the United States with universities serving Afro-Colombian students. 
Jamilia Blake, an assistant professor of educational psychology at Texas A&M University in College Station, is conducting research on how parents’ attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs mold their children’s conduct and relationships with their peers. Dr. Blake is particularly concerned with possible racial and ethnic differences in aggressive behavior among children. She has conducted interviews with 600 youngsters and 300 parents, as well as with the teachers of the young students, in order to determine if black and other minority youth are more likely to engage in aggressive behavior and, if so, whether their parents’ attitudes contribute to the likelihood of these behaviors.
A new report from the Council of the Great City Schools shows some alarming statistics on the poor educational performance of young black males. The study found that only 12 percent of black males in the fourth grade were proficient in reading compared to 38 percent of same-age white males. In mathematics, 12 percent of black males in the eighth grade were rated proficient compared to 44 percent of white males.
The JBHE Weekly Bulletin regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. Here are the latest selections.
• Lucile Adams-Campbell, professor of oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center and associate director of minority health and health disparities research at Georgetown’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, was named a Legacy Laureate at the University of Pittsburgh.
• Eve J. Higginbotham, senior vice president and executive dean of health sciences at Howard University, received the Heed Award from the American Academy of Opthalmology. She is the first woman to earn the award in its 45-year history.
• Elaine R. Jones, retired president and director-counsel emeritus of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, was named the recipient of the 2011 Thurgood Marshall Award from the American Bar Association. Jones is a graduate of Howard University and the University of Virginia School of Law.
• Joan Archie, executive director of construction compliance at the University of Chicago Medical Center, was named compliance officer of the year by Black Contractors United.
• H. Richard Milner IV, the Betts Associate Professor of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University, won the 2010 Carl A. Grant Multicultural Research Award from the National Association for Multicultural Education.
• David R. Jones, the CEO of CastleOak Securities, received the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award from the Boston University School of Management. 
