Monthly Archives: November 2013

Two Students at Lee University Attend Party in Blackface

The students at the university in Cleveland, Tennessee, apologized for their behavior, saying they did not consider that their actions might be seen as offensive to members of the campus community.

In Memoriam: Maxine Herring Parker, 1944-2013

Before she was elected to the Birmingham City Council in Alabama in 2005, Parker had a 41-year career as an administrator at Talladega College in Alabama.

Racial Incidents on the Campus of the University of Nebraska Lincoln

A racial slur was written in chalk on the sidewalk on the campus of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and a member of the student senate used the same slur while speaking before the student government body.

Black First-Year Students at the Nation’s Leading Research Universities

Here is some very good news. For the 29 high-ranking universities for which we have data for both this year and last, 20 universities showed gains over last year in Black student first-year enrollments.

Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers

From time to time, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week's selections.

Recent Books That May Be of Interest to African American Scholars

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. Here are the latest selections.

The Discouraging Trend in Graduation Rates at HBCUs

Prior research has shown that the major reason that Black students drop out of college is money. And many HBCUs, as well as the families who send their students to these schools, have faced difficult economic times.

Three White Students Charged With Hate Crimes at San Jose State University

The White students are accused of barricading the Black student in his room, displaying a Confederate flag, writing the word "nigger" on a white board in a common area, and attaching a metal bicycle lock around his neck.

Higher Education Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

Virginia Tech’s Bevlee Watford Spending Two Years at the National Science Foundation

The associate dean for academic affairs at the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, will be the program manager for broadening participation in the engineering education and centers division of the NSF.

National Bar Association Names an Award to Honor a West Virginia University Administrator

The Major General Kenneth D. Gray Excellence in Jurisprudence Award will recognize a leader, jurist, or practitioner who has exhibited distinctive and exemplary service to their community and or nation.

Students From Sub-Saharan Africa at U.S. Colleges and Universities

In the 2012-13 academic year, there were 30,585 students from sub-Saharan Africa enrolled at colleges and universities in the United States. They made up 3.7 percent of the 819,644 foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities.

Paula Allen-Meares to Stay On as Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago

Dr. Allen-Meares became chancellor of the University of Illinois at Chicago in January 2009. Previously, she served as the dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan.

Survey Finds African Americans Value Higher Education But Are Unprepared for It

Some 90 percent of African American respondents to a Rice University survey stated that success requires education beyond high school. This was a higher rate than other ethnic groups in the survey.

Chinese Government to Offer Hundreds of Scholarships to Black Students

The People's Republic of China will award 1,000 scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students at historically Black colleges and universities to study in China for periods ranging from three months to two years.

Study Examines Relationship Between Racial Segregation and Public Health

Racially segregated, high-poverty neighborhoods often have lower levels of public service, more liquor stores, more fast-food outlets, and higher crime rates, all factors that can have an adverse impact on a community's health.

Harvard Business School Honors Its Black Alumnae

The new website honoring Black women graduates was established in conjunction with the 50th anniversary celebration of coeducation in the full-time MBA program at Harvard Business School.

Prairie View A&M Provost Is Stepping Down and Returning to the Classroom

E. Joahanne Thomas-Smith, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, has announced that she will step down from these posts on August 31, 2014.

North Carolina Central Wants to Be a Guinea Pig for Pell Grant Reform

Chancellor Deborah Saunders-White has proposed that NCCU tryout a performance-based Pell Grant system where students would be given an incentive to complete their education in four years.

In Memoriam: Mitchell Wright Spellman, 1919-2013

Dr. Spellman served on the faculty at the medical schools of Howard University, Charles R. Drew University, the University of Southern California, UCLA, and from 1978 to 2004 at Harvard Medical School.

Prestigious Honors for Two African American Academics

Marie Chisholm-Burns dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, received a reward for her research and the late Julius Chambers received the Spirit of North Carolina Award.

Two HBCUs Launch New Journals

Fayetteville State University in North Carolina has established a new journal on educational issues and research initiatives. Morgan State University in Maryland debuts a new journal on journalism with an international focus.

Two Black Scholars Named to Teaching Posts

Albert Monroe was named visiting assistant professor of law at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, and James Tengatenga was appointed a presidential fellow at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Spelman College Looks to Export Its Wellness Revolution Nationwide

The new agreement calls for Spelman and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to promote the college's Wellness Revolution as a model for college women on other campuses across the nation.

Four African Men in New Leadership Positions in Higher Education

The new appointees are Stanley Donaldson Jr. at Norfolk State University, Kemel Dawkins at Michigan State University, Gerald Lewis at East Carolina University and Troy Riddle at the John Marshall Law School in Chicago.

Howard University Debuts New Satellite Radio Station

The Howard University Radio Network is serving as the anchor station on the new HBCU Channel on SiriusXM satellite radio. The new radio station will feature radio programs from several HBCU radio stations.

Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers

From time to time, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week's selections.

Recent Books That May Be of Interest to African American Scholars

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. Here are the latest selections.

Black First-Year Students at the Nation’s Leading Liberal Arts Colleges

For six of the last seven years, Amherst College in western Massachusetts has had the highest percentage of Black students in its entering class among the nation's leading liberal arts colleges.

African American College Students Are Increasingly Studying Abroad

According to the Institute of International Education, in the 2011-12 academic year, Blacks made up 5.3 percent of the total of 283,332 students who studied abroad. This is up from 3.5 percent six years earlier.

Report Documents 20 Years of Research on Black Fraternities

The report, published by the Center for the Study of the College Fraternity at Indiana University, offers an extensive bibliography documenting 20 years of scholarly research on Black Greek-letter organizations.

HBCU Championship Football Game Cancelled After Quarterback Assaulted

The championship football game of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association between Winston-Salem State University and Virginia State University was cancelled after an incident at the pre-game luncheon.

New Online Archive of the Papers of Klan Infiltrator Stetson Kennedy

During the 1940s, Kennedy infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in Georgia and exposed their rituals and beliefs in a 1954 book. The collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, files, fliers, pamphlets, and photographs.

Higher Education Grants of Interest to African Americans

Here is this week’s news of grants to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.

Post-Racial Society? Think Again

American Renaissance, a White supremacist website, recently posted two articles from JBHE on Black student college graduation rates. What spewed forth was a vast amount of ignorance and racial hate.

White Candidate Pretends to Be Black to Win Seat on Community College Board

"Because it was an African-American district, I didn’t feel like putting my picture on any of those brochures would get me any votes. You can’t sell maternity clothes to a bunch of men."

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