Monthly Archives: February 2021

In the United States, a Greater Percentage of Blacks Are Enrolled in School Than Whites

For African Americans over the age of 3, there were 11,551,000 students enrolled in school in October 2019. They made up 28.0 percent of the total Black population age 3 or over. For Whites only 20.5 percent of the population 3 and over were enrolled in school.

Vincent Rougeau Will Be the First African American President of the College of the Holy Cross

Vincent Rougeau has been dean of the Boston College Law School since 2011. Prior to his role at Boston College, Rougeau was a tenured professor of law at Notre Dame Law School and served as their associate dean for academic affairs from 1999-2002.

COVID-19’s Disparate Impact on the Education of Young Black Students

In examining the results of third grade students on standardized tests, the authors found that between the fall of 2019 and the fall of 2020 the proportion of students reaching the previous promotion minimum score declined by 13.8 percentage points for Black students and 5.8 percentage points for White students.

Three African American Men Who Have Been Appointed Deans

Larry Webster Jr. was named the dean of the Division of Career and Technical Education at Coahoma Community College in Clarksdale, Mississippi. Jerell B. Hill is the new dean of the School of Education at Pacific Oaks College in California and Zackeus Johnson was named dean of University College at Southern University in Louisiana.

Arizona State University Study Shows NFL’s Rooney Rule Has Been Ineffective

There are currently three Black head coaches in the National Football League. That’s the same number of Black head coaches as when the NFL adopted the Rooney Rule in 2003. Of the 115 head coaching hires in that time period since the Rooney Rule was enacted, 92 were White men.

Loren Blanchard Appointed the Seventh President of the University of Houston-Downtown

Dr. Blanchard has been serving as executive vice chancellor for academic and student affairs for the California State University System. Earlier, he was provost and senior vice president of academic affairs at Xavier University in New Orleans.

Shirley Ann Jackson Wins Award From the American Association of Physics Teachers

Dr. Jackson was chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 1995 to 1999. She then left government service to take over as the 18th president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1999. She was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in any discipline from MIT.

Partnership Allows Students to Obtain Three Degrees in Engineering Fields

Students participating in the 2+2+2 program will earn an associate's degree at Motlow State Community College, a bachelor's degree at historically Black Tennessee State University, and a master's degree in industrial engineering at the University of Tennessee.

Universities Announce the Appointments of Nine African Americans to Administrative Posts

Here is this week’s roundup of African Americans who have been appointed to new administrative positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States.

Southern University Launches a New Literary Magazine

The department of languages and literature at Historically Black Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has published its inaugural issue of Sangam, a national, online literary magazine. The journal is named for a Sanskrit term for "joining together."

Three African Americans Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Named Profesorships

Eric Darnell Pritchard was appointed to the Brown Chair in English Literacy at the University of Arkansas. Angela Onwuachi-Willig is the first Ryan Roth Gallo and Ernest J. Gallo Professor at the Boston University School of Law and Christopher Tounsel has been named the inaugural Catherine Shultz Rein Early Career Professor at Penn State.

Alabama State University Teams Up With the Alabama Shakespeare Festival

The agreement will create opportunities for the university's students for internships, professional training, observations, mentorships, class credits, and other avenues of education and professional advancement under the guidance of university faculty and the staff at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

Four African American Women Appointed to Diversity Positions at Colleges and Universities

The four women hired to diversity, equity, and inclusion positions are Kerri Alexander at Xavier University in New Orleans, Shontay Delalue at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, Cammie Jones at Barnard College in New York City, and Eunice Tarver at Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma.

In Memoriam: James Lee Conyers Jr., 1961-2021

Dr. Conyers, who began his career teaching at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, joined the faculty at the University of Houston in 2002. He has been credited with shaping and transforming the University of Houston’s African American studies program.

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.

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.

Rutgers University Acquires the Personal Library of Literary Scholar Cheryl Wall

The Paul Robeson Cultural Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, announced that it has acquired the personal library of Cheryl Wall. The collection includes more than 2,000 volumes. Dr. Wall, who died last spring was the Board of Governors Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English at Rutgers.

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.

A Significant Increase in the Number of Black Applicants to the University of California

Black applicants to the flagship Berkeley campus are up by more than 35 percent from a year ago, while overall applicants to Berkley are up by 23.8 percent. At the University of California, Los Angeles, the number of Black applicants surged by nearly 37 percent.

Five African Americans Who Have Announced Their Retirements From Higher Education Posts

Those who have announced they are stepping down are Melvin K. Smith at Auburn University in Alabama, Cassandra Vaughn and Janice Gibson at Alcorn State University in Mississippi, Renée A. Middleton at Ohio University, and Glenda Jones at Prairie View A&M University in Texas.

A Checkup of Black Students at Medical Schools in the United States

In 2020, 22,239 students enrolled in medical school for the first time. Of these, 2,117, or 9.5 percent, were Black. The number of Black matriculants was up 10.5 percent from 2019 and by 51.6 percent from 2013.

Larry Johnson Will Be the Next President of Guttman Community College in New York City

Since 2018, Dr. Johnson has been serving as the first African American president of Phoenix College, a public community college in Maricopa County, Arizona. He will become president of Guttman Community College in Manhattan on July 1.

Scientists Call for an End to Racial Funding Disparities in Biomedical Engineering

Representatives from a network of women deans, chairs, and distinguished faculty in biomedical engineering are calling upon the National Institutes of Health and other funding agencies to address disparities in allocating support to Black researchers.

Tiffany Hunter is the New Provost at Clark State Community College in Springfield, Ohio

Prior to coming to Clark State Community College in 2019, Dr. Hunter served at Florida State College-Jacksonville as the dean of education and human services and as a faculty member for more than seven years. Earlier, she worked for Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina.

Racial Differences in Well-Being for College Graduates Ten Years After Earning Their Degrees

Thirty percent of Blacks who earned a bachelor's degree in the 2007-08 academic year had earned a master's degree 10 years later. Only 26.6 percent of Whites had earned a master's degree. Whites were significantly more likely than Blacks to earn a professional degree within 10 years of graduating from college.

Veteran Journalist Named to Lead the School of Communication at American University

Sam Fulwood III was appointed dean of the School of Communication at American University in Washington, D.C., effective May 15. He has been serving as a senior fellow and vice president of race and equity at the Center for American Progress.

Five Black Scholars Taking on New Assignments in Higher Education

Taking on new duties are Roger A. Mitchell, Jr. at Howard University, Karine Gibbs at the University of California, Berkeley, Marie-Carmelle Elie at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Tia N. Dumas at Clemson University in South Carolina, and Twanda Young at Bowie State University in Maryland.

Four Houston-Area Universities Form a Black Studies Consortium

Two historically Black educational institutions - Texas Southern University and Prairie View A&M University - have partnered with Rice University and the University of Houston to form the Southeastern Texas African and African American Studies Consortium.

Six African Americans Appointed to Administrative Posts at Major Universities

Taking on new duties are Dawn L. Ridley at Howard University, Cedric Gathings at Mississippi State University, Danielle Haynes at Cornell University, Michèle G. Turner at the University of Southern California, Lonnie Cockerham at North Carolina A&T State University, and Franklin Ellis Jr. at Vanderbilt University.

Historically Black Bowie State University Upgrades Its Animation Program

LAIKA, the Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning feature film animation studio, is partnering with Bowie State University to build the nation’s first stop-motion animation studio at a historically Black college or university.

Harvard’s Henry Louis Gates Jr. Honored by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

Professor Gates received the Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The award has been given out only seven times since it was established in 1975.

Albany State University Partners With Wiregrass Georgia Technical College in Valdosta

The agreement will provide educational advancement opportunities for Wiregrass students in the associate of applied science program to continue their education towards a bachelor’s degree at Albany State University.

Four African American Appointed to Diversity Roles at Colleges and Universities

The four African Americans appointed to diversity positions are Jarvis Marlow-McCowin at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Eric Reed at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Elizabeth Tovar at the University of Iowa, and Brian Harper at the New York Institute of Technology.

In Memoriam: Stephan Mickle, 1944-2021

Judge Mickle taught at the Univerity of Florida College of Law for 38 years. He was the first African American to earn a bachelor's degree and the second African Americans to earn a law degree from the University of Florida.

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.

Latest News