Monthly Archives: December 2015
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 First Black Student to Earn a Ph.D. in History at the University of Southern Mississippi
A half century after the racial integration of the University of Southern Mississippi, Tonya De'Nee Blair is the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in history at the university.
College of Architecture at Texas A&M University Debuts Diversity Certificate Program
The certificate program requires students to take a minimum of nine hours of diversity-related courses and to complete four credit hours of independent projects or research.
University of Maryland Renames Stadium That Had Honored an Opponent of Racial Integration
The board of regents of the University of Maryland System has agreed to rename Byrd Stadium as Maryland Stadium. Student protesters noted that during Byrd’s tenure as president of the university he barred Blacks from enrolling at the University until 1951.
Oregon State University Takes Steps to Promote Diversity, Equity, and Racial Justice
After student protests on the campus of Oregon State University in November, President Edward J. Ray has announced a series of measures to promote diversity, inclusion, and racial justice on campus.
University of Missouri Establishes Office for Civil Rights
The new office will centralize reports and investigations of all types of discrimination on the University of Missouri campus.
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.
In Memoriam: Diane Mae Stewart Pollard, 1944-2015
After serving on the faculty at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Professor Pollard joined the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1976. She taught there for more than 30 years.
HBCUs Get Increased Funding in New Federal Budget Deal
The new budget deal passed by Congress and signed by President Obama includes increased federal appropriations for the nation's historically Black colleges and universities.
Morehouse College Student From Zimbabwe Wins Rhodes Scholarship
Prince Abudu, a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, was awarded one of the Rhodes Scholarships given to students from Zimbabwe. Abudu is the fourth student from Morehouse College to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship.
HBCU Gives a Major Advantage to Its Undergraduates in Admission to Graduate Program
Winston-Salem State University university has announced that undergraduate students at the university who meet certain standards will be automatically admitted to its highly selective doctor of physical therapy program.
Monica Monroe Named Dean of Students at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
Monroe has been serving as a lecturer in law and as associate dean of students at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. She has taught at the law school since 2004.
Tennessee State University’s New Workshop on Wheels
The "workshop on wheels" travels to farm communities across the state and shows farmers how they can use between 1 percent and 3 percent of their total acreage to produce enough biodiesel fuel to power all their farm machinery for the year.
Three African American Faculty Members Taking on Added Responsibilities
Taking on new duties are Jacquelyn Taylor at the Yale University School of Nursing, Barbara Krauthamer at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and S. David Mitchell at the University of Missouri.
The Large Racial Gap in High School Graduation Rates Is Slowly Eroding
The Black student high school graduation rate in 2013-14 was 72.5 percent. The good news is that since the 2010-11 academic year the Black-White gap in high school graduation rates has declined from 17 percentage points to 14.8 percentage points.
A Leadership Change at Elizabeth City State University
Stacey Franklin Jones has resigned from her position as chancellor of Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina. Thomas Conway, vice chancellor and chief of staff at Fayetteville State University, was named to replace Dr. Jones.
Study Finds a Huge Diversity Shortfall in Biomedical Research
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco find that there has been little change in the number of clinical research studies that include subjects from underrepresented minority groups or in the race of scientists being funded with federal research grants.
Brian O. Hemphill Named the Seventh President of Radford University in Virginia
Since July 2012, Dr. Hemphill has served as the 10th president of West Virginia State University. Previously, he was vice president for student affairs and enrollment management at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
Death by Cop: New University Study Tabulates the Data
A new study by researchers at Florida Atlantic University and the Baylor College of Medicine found that between 1999 and 2013, 5,511 people were killed by law enforcement officers in the line of duty.
Texas Southern University President to Step Down at the End of the Academic Year
John M. Rudley has served as the eleventh president of Texas Southern University in Houston since 2008. Earlier, he was interim chancellor of the University of Houston System and interim president of the University of Houston.
Kutztown University Bans Confederate Flags and Then Reconsiders
Kutztown University, a campus of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, announced a policy that banned Confederate flags and swastikas in students' dormitory rooms. Days later the university backtracked on the ban.
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.
Duke to Further Recognize the Black Man Who Designed Many Buildings on Its Campus
Julian Abele designed many of the Gothic buildings on the campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. But because of his race, the university did not originally celebrate the architect of many of its most important structures.
University of Cincinnati Commits $40 Million to Faculty Diversity Initiatives
Yet a new Black student group on campus recently held a protest claiming that the administration's efforts to diversify the faculty have gone too slow. The group stated that there were 75 Blacks out of a total of 2,800 faculty members on campus.
Tufts University Opens Archives of Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter to Researchers
Carter was a middleweight boxer who spent 19 years in prison after being convicted of a triple murder in Paterson, New Jersey. The convictions were later overturned by a federal court.
Winthrop University Will No Longer Give Out the Tillman Award
Winthrop University has announced that the university's top academic prize for students will no longer be named after "Pitchfork Ben" Tillman, a former segregationist governor of South Carolina and U.S. Senator.
In Memoriam: Walter Wallace, 1927-2015
Walter Wallace taught sociology at Princeton University for 30 years. At Princeton, Professor Wallace was the faculty adviser for the senior thesis of Michelle Robinson, who is now First Lady of the United States.
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.
Wellesley College to Upgrade Its Black Student Center
Wellesley College in Massachusetts, announced plans to enhance and add to existing multicultural centers on campus including Harambee House that has served as a center for women students of African descent since 1970.
The Persisting Racial Gap in Doctoral Degree Awards
In 2014, African Americans earned 6.4 percent of all doctoral degrees awarded to U.S. students. This is about one half the number that would be the case if racial parity with the Black U.S. population prevailed.
New Report Shows the Failure of K-12 Schools in Preparing African Americans for College
A new report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation finds that nationwide only 15 percent of African American eighth graders were proficient in reading and 12 percent were proficient in mathematics.
Eddie N. Moore Jr. Named President of Norfolk State University in Virginia
Moore has been serving as interim president of Norfolk State since 2013 and the board of visitors rewarded him for leading the university when it was placed on probation by its accrediting agency. It has now been removed from probation.
Study Shows That Athletes Make Up Huge Percentages of Black Students at Many Universities
In the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I schools, an African American man at a college or university is 13 times more likely to be on a football or basketball scholarship than a White man.
Prudence Carter Appointed Dean of the Graduate School of Education at Berkeley
Dr. Carter currently serves as the Jacks Family Professor of Education and the faculty director of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities at Stanford University.
