Monthly Archives: September 2016
Survey Examines HBCU Students’ Views on First Amendment Issues
A new report from the Knight Foundation and and the Newseum Institute finds that students at HBCUs are more likely than college students generally to support restrictions on banning offensive or biased speech on campus.
The Next Provost at Albany State University in Georgia
Tau Kadhi has been serving as associate provost for academic programs and undergraduate research at North Carolina Central University in Durham. He will begin his new role at Albany State University in Georgia on November 1.
Florida A&M University to Lead the New Center for Coastal and Marine Ecosystems
The new center is supported by a five-year, $15.4 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Larry Robinson, Distinguished Professor and interim president, will serve as the director of the Center for Coastal and Maine Ecosystems.
New Administrative Duties for Four Black Academics
Appointed to new administrative posts are Elizabeth Lewin at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Anthony Andrews at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York, Reginald Lewis at Rutgers University-Newark, and Robert M. Franklin at Emory University in Atlanta.
Elizabeth City State University Expands Its Mission With the U.S. Coast Guard
The university will offer educational opportunities for Coast Guard members and their families. The Coast Guard will increase its efforts to recruit the university's students into its officer training corps and will offer scholarships for students under the Coast Guard College Student Pre-Commissioning Initiative..
Four African American Scholars Appointed to New Faculty Roles
The four faculty members in new positions are Christina Knight at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, Jessyka Finley at Middlebury College in Vermont, Richard Souvenir at Temple University in Philadelphia, and Michael James at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers
Each week, JBHE will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week’s selections.
Three Black Academics Awarded MacArthur Foundation Fellowships
Of this year’s 23 MacArthur Fellows, four are African Americans and three have current ties to the academic world.
Legal Scholar Michelle Alexander Selected to Receive a $250,000 Heinz Award
Michelle Alexander is a visiting professor at the Union Theological Seminary and a senior fellow at the Ford Foundation. Earlier, she taught at Ohio State University and Stanford Law School. Professor Alexander is being honored for her research on racial disparities in incarceration rates.
Recent Books 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. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view.
Black Women Now Have the Highest Graduation Rate at the University of Georgia
The Office of Institutional Diversity at the university reports that for students who entered the university in 2008, 92.8 percent of all African American women had either earned their degrees within six years or had transferred to another educational institution. The rate for the student body as a whole is 84.6 percent.
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.
Two African Americans Appointed to Positions as Deans
J. Leon Washington was named dean of enrollment management at Villanova University in Pennsylvania and Michael Adams, a professor of public affairs at Texas Southern University, was named interim dean of the Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs at the university.
Natasha Trethewey Awarded the 2016 Fellowship for Distinguished Poetic Achievement
Natasha Trethewey is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing and the director of the creative writing program at Emory University. She is the former poet laureate of the United States.
The Leadership Shake Up at Florida A&M University Continues
New interim president of Florida A&M University Larry Robinson wasted no time by firing six members of his predecessor's leadership team. Rodner Wright, dean of the university's School of Architecture and Engineering Technology, was named interim provost.
In Memoriam: Lancelot C. A. Thompson, 1925-2016
Dr. Thompson joined the faculty at the University of Toledo in 1958. For four years, he was the only Black faculty member at the university. In 1968, Dr. Thompson was appointed vice president of student affairs, a post he held for 20 years.
Large Racial Gaps Remain in Graduate School Enrollments in Some STEM Fields
Blacks made up nearly 18 percent of new graduate enrollments in public administration and 12 percent in education, business, and social and behavioral sciences. But Blacks were just 3.2 percent of all new graduate enrollments in the physical sciences.
Scholars Identify Diversity in the English Language Used Online by Different Ethnic Groups
The goal of the study was to identify online language usage by African Americans so that search engines like Google will be better able to serve a more diverse population of users.
Mickey Burnim to Step Down From Presidency of Bowie State University
Mickey L. Burnim, president of Bowie State University, the historically Black educational institution in Maryland, announced that he will step down at the end of the current academic year on June 30, 2017. When he retires, he will have led the university for nearly 11 years.
Study Finds a False Promise of Trade School Education for Low-Income Black Youth
A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and the University at Buffalo finds that Black students who enroll at for-profit trade schools often wind up more in debt and with fewer job prospects than their peers who enrolled at two-year or four-year nonprofit educational institutions.
Incomes Rise But the Stubborn Racial Income Gap Persists
The persisting and large income gap between Blacks and Whites in the United States has major implications on access to quality higher education. Whites are three times as likely as Blacks to come from high-income households that do not have to worry about affording the costs of higher education.
Among High School Seniors Illicit Drug Use Is Lower for Blacks Than for Whites
A new report from the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan finds that illicit drug use is more prevalent among White students who are about to enter college than it is among African American students who are about to enter their college years.
New Academic Year, Same Old Racism
As has been the case every year since JBHE was founded in 1993 incidents of racial hate continue to plague the campuses of American higher education. In recent days, there have been several incidents at campuses across the United States.
Four Black Scholars Taking on New Roles at Colleges and Universities
Taking on new assignments are Kosali Simon at Indiana University, Juli Grigsby at Haverford College in Pennsylvania, Bobby L. Wilson at Texas Southern University in Houston, and Marcus Bellamy at Boston University.
More Good News on Enrollments at Historically Black Universities
Hampton University, Mississippi Valley State University, Dillard University, Alcorn State University, Kentucky State University, Bethune-Cookman University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Xavier University have all reported impressive gains in enrollments.
Two African American Women Scholars Honored With Prestigious Awards
Adrienne R. Carter-Sowell of Texas A&M University was honored by the American Psychological Association and Saundra Yancy McGuire of Louisiana State University was selected to receive an award from the American Chemical Society.
New Legislation Aims to Make It Easier for HBCUs to Raise Money Through Bonds
U.S. Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota has introduced the HBCU Investment Expansion Act. The legislation would make bonds issued by historically Black colleges and universities exempt from federal, state, and local taxes.
Four African Americans Appointed to New Higher Education Posts
The appointees are Danita Nias at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Wendy Wilson at Darton State College in Georgia, Lamont Sellers at the University of South Dakota, and Thurman D. Hollins at North Carolina Central University in Durham.
South Carolina State University Enters Partnership With Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College
South Carolina State University, the historically Black educational institution in Orangeburg, has entered into an agreement with Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College that will make it easier for students to transfer from OC Tech to South Carolina State University in order to earn bachelor's degrees.
Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers
Each week, JBHE will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week’s selections.
Recent Books 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. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view.
Nnedi Okorafor Wins Two of Science Fiction’s Most Prestigious Awards
Nnedi Okorafor, an associate professor of English at the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York System, is only the fourth author in the past two decades who has won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award for the same novella. The awards are among the highest honors given to science fiction authors.
In Memoriam: Samuel A. Floyd Jr., 1937-2016
Samuel Floyd Jr. was the founder of the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College in Chicago and the founder of the Black Music Research Journal.
Race-Related Vandalism on the Campus of DePauw University in Indiana
The nameplates on the dormitory doors of African American students at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, were ripped off in acts of vandalism. One Black student had a racist inscription written on the message board on her dormitory room.
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.
The Flagship Campus of Indiana University Has a Record Number of Black Students
There are 1,862 Black students on campus. But they make up only 4.3 percent of the total student body. Black enrollments at the state's flagship university are less than one half of what would be called for if racial parity were to prevail to the percentage of Blacks in the state's population.
