Disappointing Results in Performance of the Nation’s Top Liberal Arts Colleges in Enrolling More Low-Income Students
Last week JBHE released its highly disappointing results showing significant declines in low-income students at the nation’s 30 highest-ranked universities.
Now we turn our attention to the performance of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges in enrolling low-income students.
JBHE’s data on federal Pell Grants for low-income students, obtained from the Department of Education, shows that over the past 23 years only 10 of the nation’s 30 highest-ranked liberal arts colleges have shown progress in increasing the percentage of low-income students enrolled in undergraduate programs. Smith and Mount Holyoke posted the largest gains. The largest declines have occurred at Barnard, Oberlin, and Macalester.
In the 1993 to 2006 or intermediate period, only six of the 30 top liberal arts colleges had gains in their percentage of low-income students. Twenty-four colleges saw their percentage of low-income students decline.
Since 2004 only four of the nation’s 30 highest-ranked liberal arts colleges have shown improvement. They are Williams, Bowdoin, Carleton, and Colby.
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS
Faculty Positions
California Institute of the Arts’ (CalArts) School of Film/Video is conducting searches for three faculty positions. The Program in Experimental Animation (BFA and MFA) is accepting applications for a full-time faculty position in Independent Animation. The Film Directing Program (MFA) is accepting applications for a full-time faculty position in Production and Direction and a part-time position in “Real World Skills” and Post-Production. Complete job descriptions can be found at: http://calarts.edu/employment/academicjobs.
The deadline for applications is February 15, 2008; all appointments will begin in September 2008. To apply send a letter of interest, a current resume and samples of creative work to Steve Anker, Dean of the School of Film/Video, CalArts, 24700 McBean Parkway, Valencia, CA 91355.
The School of Film/Video is one of the nation’s premier colleges for studying the art of the moving image and hosts a faculty of actively working film artists. Both the Program in Experimental Animation and the Film Directing Program are renowned for fostering artistically superior independent filmmakers. The Institute is committed to fostering a diverse academic/artistic community. www.calarts.edu. EOE.
Racial Differences in the Use of Social Networking Web Sites by College Students
Social networking Web sites such as FaceBook and MySpace are very popular among college students. The sites are used by college students to share news, find friends with similar interests, and to post messages, photographs, and videos.
Eszter Hargittai, an assistant professor of communications studies and sociology at Northwestern University, surveyed more than 1,000 students at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The results, which were published in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, showed that 88 percent of the students used social networking sites and 74 percent frequently used one particular site.
Nearly 80 percent of those surveyed said that they used FaceBook, a site that was originally designed exclusively for college students. Fifty-five percent of the respondents said that they used MySpace. Less than 7 percent of all respondents reported using the less popular social networking sites Xanga, Friendster, Orkut, and Bebo.
The results showed differences by race. Black students were less likely than other students to use social networking sites. Blacks who did use the sites were less likely than whites to use the four less popular social networks. And blacks made up a larger percentage of the users of MySpace than their percentage of total users at Facebook. Asian American students were far more likely than other students to use the four least popular sites. Hispanic students tended to prefer MySpace over the other social networks.
New Chancellor at Winston-Salem State University States His Top Goal Is to Raise the Graduation Rate
Donald Reaves, the new chancellor of Winston-Salem State University, the historically black educational institution in North Carolina, has stated that his primary goal is to boost the retention and graduation rates of students. “It’s the primary reason we’re here,” Reaves said. “In the end that is the measure of success.”
Currently only 18 percent of entering freshmen earn a bachelor’s degree in four years and 44 percent earn a degree within six years. Over the next five years, Reaves aims to increase the four-year graduation rate to 30 percent and the six-year graduation rate to 56 percent.
To meet these goals, Reaves seeks to raise admissions standards so that better-prepared students come to Winston-Salem State. He also plans to change the curriculum so that there are more courses and more sections of required courses so that students are not shut out of classes that they need to fill their major requirements. He also plans to hire a new group of advisers to help students navigate through college.
Emory University Establishes New Visiting Scholars Program for Civil Rights Research
The James Weldon Johnson Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies at Emory University in Atlanta has announced the establishment of the Mellon Scholars program. The program, funded through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will bring three to five visiting scholars to Emory each academic year to conduct research on the civil rights era. The scholars will teach one course, host public lectures, participate in a joint colloquium with other Mellon Scholars, and have access to the vast civil rights resources at Emory and other universities in Atlanta.
Study Finds That Black Freshman College Students Do Better Academically If They Have Another Black Student From Their High School in Their Entering Class
Research presented at the recent conference of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management in Washington, D.C., finds that African-American college freshmen do better in school if there is at least one other black student from their high school at the same college.
In examining the academic performance of entering students at the University of Texas, researchers found that black freshman students with at least one other black student from their high school had on average a 0.13 point higher grade point average than black students who were the only African American in their high school class who went to the University of Texas.
The study was co-authored by Marta Tienda, professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University, and Jason M. Fletcher, an assistant professor of public health at Yale University. The authors report similar results for Hispanic students and they have also found that the same effect exists for minority students at other universities.
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA WILMINGTON
Faculty Positions, Watson School of Education
Opportunity to join a 74-member faculty in a growing school of education recognized for quality and leadership at the local, state, regional and national levels. The Watson School (www.uncw.edu/ed) enjoys strong support from our Chancellor, Provost, Deans and from our 11-district university/school partnership.
UNCW is a dynamic and growing campus of the 16-campus UNC system situated on 640 acres in the historic port of Wilmington, five miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The University is rated as one of the top 10 public universities in the south by US News and World Report. Current enrollment is 10,700 undergraduates and 1,200 graduate students. UNCW and the Watson School value and reward undergraduate and graduate teaching, encourage and support faculty research and sustain a high level of service to public education and the profession. The Watson School of Education has just established the university’s second doctoral degree in response to needs expressed by educators in the region, with whom faculty work closely. The school is accredited by NCATE and all programs are approved by the state of North Carolina. The WSE is housed in a new state-of-the-art education building and seeks applicants for the following which will begin in August, 2008:
Assistant/Associate Professor for Curriculum/Instruction Supervision Assistant/Associate Professor for Educational Leadership and Administration Superintendent-In-Residence (rank to be determined) Assistant/Associate Professor for Early Childhood Education Assistant/Associate Professor for Special Education
Review of applicants will begin January 22, 2008, but will be accepted until the position is filled.
UNC Wilmington is committed to equal employment opportunity and is an affirmative action employer. Minorities and women are encouraged to apply.
Berkeley’s Unique Doctoral Program in Black Studies
Hundreds of colleges and universities in the United States now have established black studies programs. However, there are very few doctoral programs in the field. But the African Diaspora Studies Program at the University of California at Berkeley recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. Over the past decade, the program has produced 12 Ph.D.s, all of whom currently hold tenure-track faculty positions or postdoctoral fellowships at research universities.
Among the program’s graduates are Elisa Joy White, an assistant professor of ethnic studies at the University of Hawaii. Dr. White’s doctoral dissertation concerned the status of blacks in Ireland. Another graduate of the program, Xavier Livermon, did postdoctoral work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and will be joining the faculty at Wayne State University. His dissertation was on how music and performance art have influenced cultural change in South Africa.
At the College of DuPage, Black Students Are Recruited at an Early Age
Colleges and universities across the United States go to great lengths to recruit promising African-American students. At the College of DuPage, a community college in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, recruitment starts at a very young age. A new program hopes to plant the seeds of attending college in fifth-grade students in the school districts near the college campus.
The program is the brainchild of Robert K. Nichols, an African American who is the associate dean for technology at the college. Under the program, fifth-graders are brought to campus for an introductory tour. The next year the students return to campus as sixth-graders to shadow a current college student as he or she goes about daily academic routines. The sixth-graders are paired with college students who share the same interests. In later years the students are invited to college, career, and financial aid fairs held on campus. The most academically talented students are encouraged to investigate dual-credit opportunities where they can take classes at the college during their high school years.
Enrollments Drop at Florida A&M University as the School Awaits Decision on Its Accreditation
From all indications, James Ammons, the new president of Florida A&M University, has hit the ground running in his effort to revitalize the struggling institution which has been beset by a host of financial and management problems. Currently, the university is on accreditation probation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Some students have been reluctant to enroll at an institution where its academic future is in doubt. Students at schools that lose their accreditation are no longer eligible for federal financial aid. As a result, enrollments at the university have dropped 12 percent since 2004 and are currently at a nine-year low.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools will meet on December 8 to decide on the university’s accreditation. The association could vote to continue the probation or to reinstate or revoke full accreditation.
Appointments
• Wesley T. Bishop was named associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at Southern University in New Orleans. He is a tenured assistant professor of criminal justice at the university and an attorney at the New Orleans law firm Spears & Spears.
Bishop is a graduate of Southern University in New Orleans. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Mississippi and a law degree from Ohio State University.
• William Woodson was appointed director of MBA programs at the Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. Woodson is the founder of Forward Motion Management Consulting. He is a graduate of Brown University and holds a master’s degree from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
• Ivan T. Mosley Sr., professor of manufacturing systems at North Carolina A&T State University, was elected vice chair of the executive board of the National Association of Industrial Technology. He is the first African-American male to hold the position.
• Mickey L. Burnim, president of Bowie State University in Maryland, was named chair of the executive membership development committee of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities.
Obama Proposes Free Community College for All
Presidential candidate Barack Obama unveiled a new plan that would provide a tax credit for the first $4,000 spent by a family on college tuition. According to the Obama campaign, this would effectively make community college “completely free for most Americans.”
In announcing the proposal at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, Obama stated, “For too long policy makers in Washington have treated community colleges as a stepchild of the higher education system instead of essential resources. These schools produce the lifeblood of our communities and the backbone of our work force.”
“We don’t have quotas, we don’t have preferential admissions, we don’t have the type of things that have been issues in other states. So I don’t know why people think this is necessary to put into our constitution.”
— Ron Withem, a lobbyist for the University of Nebraska, commenting on the proposed public referendum in Nebraska to ban the use of race in university admissions, hiring decisions, contracting, and scholarship awards
Will Dropping Early Admissions Result in Fewer Black Students at Harvard and Princeton?
A year ago Princeton University and Harvard University both ended their early admissions programs. It was expected that many other high-ranking colleges and universities would follow suit. But this did not come to pass.
Now it appears that the disappearance of early admissions programs at Harvard and Princeton has produced a surge of early admission applications at many other top-ranked universities. Yale reported a 36 percent increase in early applicants this year. The University of Chicago had a 42 percent increase in early admission applications. At Georgetown University, early applicants were up by 30 percent. Dartmouth and Brown also showed significant increases in early admission applicants.
In the past, many black students were reluctant to apply to colleges and universities with binding early admission programs. This was the case because, if accepted, the student was obligated to enroll at that particular educational institution. This meant that black students admitted under binding early admission could not bargain with different universities over the financial aid award that they were to receive. But over the past decade blacks have been increasingly applying early because it was generally perceived that early applicants have a better chance of being accepted.
Now Harvard and Princeton may have put themselves at a severe disadvantage in attracting the most academically gifted black students. Yale, Dartmouth, Penn, Columbia, and most other high-ranking universities are in a position to use the early admission process to accept large numbers of black students and to assure themselves of an academically strong and diverse entering class.
Many high school seniors, black and white, want to get the college selection process over with as quickly as possible. As a result, many academically strong black students may apply early admission to a particular school and many of them will be accepted. This may dramatically decrease the pool of academically qualified black students available during the regular admissions process for Harvard and Princeton.
MIT Sets Up New Campus Committee to Foster Better Race Relations
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has established the Committee on Race and Diversity. The committee’s responsibilities will include assessing the racial climate on campus and suggesting strategies to improve race relations. The committee will also sponsor events to increase racial understanding and to foster inclusion for all racial and ethnic groups. The committee will also have funds at its disposal to make grants to campus organizations that are seeking to better race relations at MIT. The new committee, which will include students, faculty, and members of the administration, will be chaired by J. Philip Thompson, an associate professor of urban politics.
UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING
Dean, College of Education
The University of Wyoming invites nominations and applications for the position of Dean of the College of Education. The Dean is the chief academic officer of the college, reporting to the Vice President for Academic Affairs and overseeing seven academic departments and the Science-Mathematics Teaching Center.
Required qualifications for this position include an earned doctorate, expertise in at least one of the disciplines represented in the college, a distinguished record of teaching and scholarship consistent with a tenured appointment as professor, demonstrated leadership and evidence of strong managerial ability in a university or college environment, a demonstrated commitment to diversity, and the strong interpersonal skills necessary for effective interactions both within the University and across the state. Preferred qualifications of a successful candidate include a commitment to internationalization and effective statewide partnerships.
As the only public four-year institution of higher learning in Wyoming, the university takes pride in its distinctive role in the state and in its stature as a national research university. More information about the university is available on the University of Wyoming web site, http://www.uwyo.edu/.
Complete applications include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, names and contact data for at least three professional references, and a brief narrative summarizing the candidate’s leadership experience and interest in the University of Wyoming. The deadline for applications is 15 January 2008. Please send all nominations and applications to College of Education Dean, Search Committee, University of Wyoming, Dept. 3302, 1000 E. University Avenue, Laramie, WY 82071. Please send electronic applications to mpeck@uwyo.edu.
The university adheres to the principles of affirmative action and welcomes applications from qualified individuals, independent of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, veteran status, sexual orientation or political belief. We welcome applications from underrepresented groups, including women and people of color.
Banish the Stereotype That Blacks Are Incapable of Advanced Scientific Research
A report from the Africa News Service notes that Esther Effiong of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development in Nigeria is coming to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in synthetic chemistry at Howard University in Washington, D.C. The report notes that Ms. Effiong is the first student in the 140-year history of Howard University to achieve a perfect score on the university’s Ph.D. placement examination.
16.2% Percent of all public schools in the United States in 2006 where minorities were less than 5 percent of the student body that had at least one incident of possession of alcoholic beverages on campus.
12.6% Percent of all public schools in the United States in 2006 where minorities were more than 50 percent of the student body that had at least one incident of possession of alcoholic beverages on campus.
source: U.S. Department of Education
Racial Differences in Educational Attainments in 2006 for Students Who Were Sophomores in High School Four Years Earlier in 2002
A new report from the U.S. Department of Education offers a snapshot of the educational attainments of students in 2006 who were sophomores in high school four years earlier in 2002. The study found that over 91 percent of the white students had achieved a high school diploma compared to 82 percent of African-American students.
The results showed that 75 percent of the white high school sophomores in 2002 had enrolled in college or other postsecondary educational institution by 2006. For blacks, 62.3 percent went on to higher education. More than 46 percent of the white students had enrolled in a four-year college. For blacks, 32.7 percent were enrolled in four-year colleges or universities. Nearly 17 percent of white high school sophomores had enrolled in highly selective colleges and universities by 2006. This was more than four times the rate for blacks.
Competition at Ole Miss Designed to Foster Better Race Relations on Campus
The Emmy Award-winning Amazing Race is a popular television reality show where teams of contestants travel around the world performing various tasks and stunts.
At the University of Mississippi the format for this reality show was recently used to foster better race relations on campus. The OMazing Race pitted 20 teams of four members each. Contestants were split up into groups so that each team had people from different genders and ethnic groups and religions. The aim was to take students from different backgrounds and have them work together as a team.
The OMazing Race included a three-hour scavenger hunt across the Ole Miss campus. The winning team was awarded a $2,000 cash prize.
An Academic Emergency at Clark Atlanta University
Clark Atlanta University, the historically black educational institution in Georgia, announced a new faculty, administration, and student initiative to tutor students who are experiencing academic difficulty. The initiative was announced after it was revealed that 4,900 course grades of D or F were assessed at midterm of the fall semester. There are 4,300 undergraduate students at the university.
The poor performance was attributed to reduced enrollment, a hiring freeze, and a chaotic course registration period which made many students miss classes at the beginning of the semester.
In a letter to the campus community, Carleton E. Brown, provost at Clark Atlanta, stated, “The faculty and administration has made it clear that academic standards will not be lowered or compromised.”
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHARLOTTE
Assistant Professor, Health Communication
Department of Communication Studies seeks to fill a tenure-track position in Health Communication at the rank of Assistant Professor. Review process will begin January 15, 2008 and continue until filled. Position begins August 2008.
Required qualifications include: Ph.D. or appropriate terminal degree. Expertise in one of the following areas preferred: patient/provider health communication, health literacy, and/or global health communication. Candidates with a background in global health communication would be expected to participate in a planned Ph.D. program in Global Studies. All candidates would be encouraged to participate in the University¹s Health Psychology doctoral program. The successful candidate will be expected to conduct research, teach, and advise B.A. and M.A. students in the Department of Communication Studies. Candidates are expected to maintain a strong record of research and professional activity consistent with Ph.D.-granting academic programs.
As one of the Southeast's premier places to live, more than 500,000 people reside within Charlotte's borders, approximately 1.3 million within the metro area, and 6 million within a 100-mile radius. Charlotte is home to the Carolinas Medical Center, a widely-recognized teaching hospital.
Applications are taken on-line at http://jobs.uncc.edu. Please also have a graduate transcript and three original letters of reference sent to Dr. Richard Leeman, chair, Department of Communication Studies; 9201 University City Blvd.; Charlotte, NC. 28223-9201.
UNC Charlotte is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community and strongly encourages women and minorities to apply. AA/EOE
In Memoriam
Amadou Cisse (1978-2007)
Amadou Cisse, a native of Dakar, Senegal, and a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago, was shot and killed during an armed robbery on a street adjacent to the campus. He was 28 years old. A week after the slaying, police arrested a 16-year-old youth and charged him as an adult with first-degree murder. A second youth was also arrested in connection with the case.
Just days before this tragedy, Cisse had successfully defended his doctoral dissertation which was entitled, “Photodegradation of Poly (Methyl-Methacrylate) and Applications in Surface Science and Diffusion Studies.”
Cisse was a 2001 graduate of Bates College. At a memorial page on the Bates College Web site, one of his colleagues said that Cisse “was the brightest chemistry student I have ever met.”
As a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Chicago, Cisse was extremely popular among both students and faculty. An avid weightlifter, Cisse loved African music and literature. He was fluent in several languages.
Tomorrow, he will be posthumously awarded his Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of Chicago.
Charles Brady Hauser (1917-2007)
Charles B. Hauser, a civil rights pioneer and long-time professor of education at Winston-Salem State University, died last month from complications of pneumonia at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. He was 90 years old.
C.B. Hauser was arrested in 1947 for failing to move to the back of a Greyhound bus when instructed to do so by the driver. The charges were later dismissed and Hauser won a $2,000 settlement from Greyhound. He used the money to buy a car and never had to take the bus again.
Hauser was born in Yadkinville, North Carolina, the third of 13 children. He was a graduate of Winston-Salem State University and earned a master’s degree and doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania. He joined the faculty at Winston-Salem State University in 1956 and remained there until his retirement in 1977.
Grants
• Johnson C. Smith University, the historically black educational institution in Charlotte, North Carolina, has received a $1 million grant from the Wachovia Foundation. The grant will be used to fund the Wachovia Excellence Endowed Scholarships and the JCSU Student Leadership Program.
• Meharry Medical College, the historically black medical school in Nashville, Tennessee, received a $1 million grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation to fund the medical school’s Women’s Health Research Center. The center conducts research in diseases that disproportionately impact women and minorities, particularly diseases that affect African-American women.
The center is under the direction of Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, senior vice president for health affairs and dean of the school of medicine.
Social networking Web sites such as FaceBook and MySpace are very popular among college students. The sites are used by college students to share news, find friends with similar interests, and to post messages, photographs, and videos.
Donald Reaves, the new chancellor of Winston-Salem State University, the historically black educational institution in North Carolina, has stated that his primary goal is to boost the retention and graduation rates of students. “It’s the primary reason we’re here,” Reaves said. “In the end that is the measure of success.”
The James Weldon Johnson Institute for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies at Emory University in Atlanta has announced the establishment of the Mellon Scholars program. The program, funded through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will bring three to five visiting scholars to Emory each academic year to conduct research on the civil rights era. The scholars will teach one course, host public lectures, participate in a joint colloquium with other Mellon Scholars, and have access to the vast civil rights resources at Emory and other universities in Atlanta. 
Research presented at the recent conference of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management in Washington, D.C., finds that African-American college freshmen do better in school if there is at least one other black student from their high school at the same college. 
Hundreds of colleges and universities in the United States now have established black studies programs. However, there are very few doctoral programs in the field. But the African Diaspora Studies Program at the University of California at Berkeley recently celebrated its tenth anniversary. Over the past decade, the program has produced 12 Ph.D.s, all of whom currently hold tenure-track faculty positions or postdoctoral fellowships at research universities.
Among the program’s graduates are Elisa Joy White, an assistant professor of ethnic studies at the University of Hawaii. Dr. White’s doctoral dissertation concerned the status of blacks in Ireland. Another graduate of the program, Xavier Livermon, did postdoctoral work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and will be joining the faculty at Wayne State University. His dissertation was on how music and performance art have influenced cultural change in South Africa. 
Colleges and universities across the United States go to great lengths to recruit promising African-American students. At the College of DuPage, a community college in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, recruitment starts at a very young age. A new program hopes to plant the seeds of attending college in fifth-grade students in the school districts near the college campus. 
From all indications, James Ammons, the new president of Florida A&M University, has hit the ground running in his effort to revitalize the struggling institution which has been beset by a host of financial and management problems. Currently, the university is on accreditation probation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Some students have been reluctant to enroll at an institution where its academic future is in doubt. Students at schools that lose their accreditation are no longer eligible for federal financial aid. As a result, enrollments at the university have dropped 12 percent since 2004 and are currently at a nine-year low. 
• Wesley T. Bishop was named associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at Southern University in New Orleans. He is a tenured assistant professor of criminal justice at the university and an attorney at the New Orleans law firm Spears & Spears.
Presidential candidate Barack Obama unveiled a new plan that would provide a tax credit for the first $4,000 spent by a family on college tuition. According to the Obama campaign, this would effectively make community college “completely free for most Americans.” 
A year ago Princeton University and Harvard University both ended their early admissions programs. It was expected that many other high-ranking colleges and universities would follow suit. But this did not come to pass.
In the past, many black students were reluctant to apply to colleges and universities with binding early admission programs. This was the case because, if accepted, the student was obligated to enroll at that particular educational institution. This meant that black students admitted under binding early admission could not bargain with different universities over the financial aid award that they were to receive. But over the past decade blacks have been increasingly applying early because it was generally perceived that early applicants have a better chance of being accepted. 
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has established the Committee on Race and Diversity. The committee’s responsibilities will include assessing the racial climate on campus and suggesting strategies to improve race relations. The committee will also sponsor events to increase racial understanding and to foster inclusion for all racial and ethnic groups. The committee will also have funds at its disposal to make grants to campus organizations that are seeking to better race relations at MIT. The new committee, which will include students, faculty, and members of the administration, will be chaired by J. Philip Thompson, an associate professor of urban politics.
The Emmy Award-winning Amazing Race is a popular television reality show where teams of contestants travel around the world performing various tasks and stunts.
Clark Atlanta University, the historically black educational institution in Georgia, announced a new faculty, administration, and student initiative to tutor students who are experiencing academic difficulty. The initiative was announced after it was revealed that 4,900 course grades of D or F were assessed at midterm of the fall semester. There are 4,300 undergraduate students at the university. 
Amadou Cisse, a native of Dakar, Senegal, and a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago, was shot and killed during an armed robbery on a street adjacent to the campus. He was 28 years old. A week after the slaying, police arrested a 16-year-old youth and charged him as an adult with first-degree murder. A second youth was also arrested in connection with the case.
