Monthly Archives: February 2017
University of Nevada, Las Vegas Documents Black History in the City
The university's “Documenting the African American Experience in Las Vegas” project, included a documentary film, the formation of an advisory board, the collection of oral histories and materials, and the creation of a digital portal to provide online access to the project’s materials.
Niagara University Establishes a New Center on Race and Equality
The Rose Bente Lee Ostapenko Center for Race, Equality and Mission will be focused on research and integrating issues of race and equality into the teaching/learning environment at Niagara University.
University of Kansas to Develop Curriculum for Teaching About the 1967 Riots
The three-week seminar, entitled "Teaching the Long Hot Summer of 1967 and Beyond," will allow 30 high school teachers to develop lesson plans for teaching about this period of civil rights history.
Yale Students Enlisted to Help Guide Low-Income Students Through the College Application Process
Yale University is expanding its partnership with Matriculate, a nonprofit organization that uses students at high-ranking universities to provide online college advising services to high school students from low-income families.
Misbehavior and Negative Attitudes Do Not Explain the High Suspension Rates of Black Students
The results of two studies found that, although some differences existed among races in certain types of misbehavior, these differences could not explain the disproportionalities in suspension rates.
New Data on African American Enrollments in Higher Education
A new report from the U.S. Department of Education reports that there were 20,389,307 students enrolled in degree granting institutions in the fall of 2015. Of these, 2,606,038 were African Americans.
Study Finds More Black Police May Not Prevent Police Shootings of African Americans
A new study by researchers at Indiana University, finds that the hiring of more Black police officers will not reduce the number of Black citizens who are shot by police unless the percentage of Black officers on the force reaches 35 percent.
The Heavyweight Champion of Black Doctoral Degree Awards
African Americans were awarded 682 doctoral degrees from Walden University between 2011 and 2015. This is almost double the number of doctoral degrees awarded by Howard University, which ranks in second place in doctoral degree awards to blacks from 2011 to 2015.
HBCU Participating in Major Research Project on Police Response to Minor Criminal Offenses
The six university partners - including historically Black North Carolina Central University - will be conducting research in their local communities on arrests and resolutions of criminal charges on offenses such as shoplifting, fraud, petty theft, forgery, and drug possession.
A Further Honor for a Giant in the Field of Sociology
William Julius Wilson, the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University, has been selected to receive the 2017 SAGE-CASBS Award from SAGE Publishing and the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.
Clark Atlanta University Partners With Georgia Piedmont Technical College
The agreement establishes the Access 4 Achievement program that calls for dual admissions and joint enrollments, program-specific transfer agreements, and joint teaching opportunities for faculty and graduate students.
New Administrative Duties in Higher Education for Three African American Men
Taking on new administrative roles are Sean Huddleston at the University of Indianapolis, Allen Stanley at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and Ronnie Hopkins at Voorhees College in Denmark, South Carolina.
Lincoln University of Missouri Reactivates History Degree Programs
Last summer, Lincoln University in Missouri suspended it bachelor's degree programs in history for three years while it considered revising or eliminating the programs. Now, the university has decided to reinstate the degree programs for the fall 2017 semester.
Honors and Awards for Four African American Scholars
The honorees are Hortense Spillers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Bettye M. Clark at Clark Atlanta University, Fenice Boyd of the University at Buffalo, and Derek B. Bardell of Delgado Community College in New Orleans.
HBCU Research Aims to Enhance Goat Meat Production in the U.S.
Tennessee State University, the historically Black educational institution in Nashville, is conducting research on genetics and breeding to find out which goat breeds are the healthiest and need the least amount of maintenance.
Four Black Faculty Members Named to New Posts
Taking on new assignments are Nikki M. Taylor at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Maurice Edington at Florida A&M University, Joseph Watson Jr. at the University of Georgia, and Kevin Blackistone at the University of Maryland.
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.
Yale University Removes Name of Slavery Defender From Residential College
In 1932 a residential college at Yale University was named for John C. Calhoun, a former vice president of the United States, Yale alumnus, and proponent of slavery. The university has now decided to remove his name from the college.
Financial Aid Grant Allows Seniors at HBCUs to Complete Their Degree Programs
Lowe's Corporation has made a $500,000 contribution to the United Negro College Fund's Emergency Student Aid program. The program offers financial aid to seniors at HBCUs who need funds in order to stay in school and complete their degree program.
University of Virginia Law Students Participate in Pro Bono Civil Rights Law Clinic
The goal of the clinic is to bring cases that have the potential to provide real and concrete relief to large groups of people who have been harmed by discrimination or deprivation of protected rights.
Higher Education Grants or Gifts of Interest to African Americans
Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education.
Cornell University Scholar Honored for His Young Adult Literature
Lanre Akinsiku, a lecturer in English at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, was honored by having two of this books selected for inclusion on the best books of the year for children and young adults by the New York Public Library.
Tuskegee University Adds to Its Digitized Audio Archives
Tuskegee University, the historically Black educational institution in Alabama, has announced that is has digitized several important audio recordings from its university archives including speeches by Jackie Robinson, Martin Luther King Jr., and Muhammed Ali.
Cornell University Posts Online a Vast Archive of Historical Photographs of African Americans
The collection includes 645 images, spanning the years from 1860 to the 1960s. Most of the photographs are images of everyday life in the African American community.
Andre Watts Named a Distinguished Professor at Indiana University
Indiana University has announced the appointment of nine scholars to the rank of Distinguished Professor. This is the highest academic rank at the university. One of the nine scholars named a Distinguished Professor is an African American.
Sharon Davies Named the Next Provost at Spelman College in Atlanta
In 2015, Professor Davies was named vice provost and chief diversity officer at Ohio State University. She has been on the faculty at the university’s Moritz College of Law for the past 22 years and holds the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties.
Black Students’ Loss of Trust in Their Teachers May Lead to Lower College Enrollment
A new study finds that middle school students of color who lose trust in their teachers due to a perception of mistreatment or unfairness are less likely to go to college, even if they achieved good grades and test scores that qualified them for college admission.
Mohamed Camara to Chair the Department of Africana Studies at Howard University
Dr. Camara has been serving as associate vice president for academics, speaker of the Faculty Senate, and director of the McNair Scholars Program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Academic Disciplines Where African Americans Earned No Doctoral Degrees in 2015
According to the National Science Foundation, in 2015, 2,330 doctorates were awarded in 23 academic disciplines. Not one was earned by an African American.
The First African American President of the American Psychiatric Association
Altha Stewart, an associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Health in Justice Involved Youth at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, will serve one year as president elect and then lead the association for a year, beginning in May 2018.
UCLA Report Examines Racial Segregation of Schools in the Nation’s Capital
From 1992 to 2013, the percentage of students in the public schools in Washington who were Black declined from 89 percent to 73 percent. But more than 88 percent of Black students in the District attend schools where at least 90 percent of all students are Black.
Three Finalists Announced for President of Historically Black Kentucky State University
When a field of three finalists to become permanent president of Kentucky State was announced, interim president Aaron Thompson's name was not on the list. Many in the university community have lauded Dr. Thompson's performance over the past two years.
Four Black Scholars in New Faculty Roles in Higher Education
Taking on new faculty roles are Raina Merchant at the University of Pennsylvania, Norman Anderson at Florida State University, Kristie Williams at Ursuline College in Ohio, and Keisha R. Callins at Mercer University in Georgia.
The Continuing Woes of Historically Black Knoxville College in Tennessee
Historically Black Knoxville College in Tennessee lost its accreditation in 1997. It has not enrolled any students since the Spring 2015 semester. Now the city of Knoxville has forced college officials to leave campus because of unsafe conditions at the only two buildings that had remained open.
Vievee Francis to Receive the 2017 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award
The award, presented by Claremont Graduate University in California, honors a mid-career poet with a prize of $100,000. Professor Francis, who joined the Dartmouth College faculty last fall, will be honored in April.
