Monthly Archives: November 2022
In Memoriam: Mae Coates King, 1938-2022
Dr. King, professor emerita of political science at Howard University in Washington, D.C., was the first African American senior staff associate of the American Political Science Association. She was a founding member of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists and a former president of the International Association of Black Professionals in International Affairs.
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.
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.
In Memoriam: Terrance Dean, 1968-2022
Dr. Dean joined the faculty at Denison University in 2019. His research interests included gender and sexuality, Black religion and homiletics, rhetoric and communication, the African diaspora, Black cultural studies, James Baldwin and Afrofuturism.
Legislation Aims to Boost Racial Diversity in the Management of Higher Education Endowments
Women- and minority-owned asset management firms currently control only 1.4 percent of the over $82 trillion in managed assets in the United States compared to the 98.6 percent of assets controlled by firms owned by White men.
Racial Differences in the Age of Doctoral Degree Recipients in the United States
On average, Whites who earned doctorates in 2021 were 31.4 years old when they received their doctoral degrees. For African Americans, the average age was 36.6. Some 24.7 percent of all Blacks who earned doctorates in 2021 were over the age of 45. For Whites earning doctorates in 2021, only 8.7 percent were over the age of 45.
Kenneth Long Is the New President of East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania
Long has served as interim president since July 2020 and is the first African American to lead the institution. Before being named interim president in 2020, Long had served as the university’s vice president of administration and finance and chief financial officer since 2013. Earlier, he served for five years as assistant vice president of administration and finance at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania.
How Whites Continue to Hold Major Advantages in College President Searches
A new report prepared by Bensimons & Associates for the California Futures Foundation finds that whiteness "is embedded at every stage of presidential search and selection processes. The racial-ethnic and gender makeup of the presidents of California's public colleges and universities are much the same as in the 1970s: almost exclusively white and male."
Charletta H. Barringer-Brown Is the New Dean of the School of Education at Virginia Union University
Dr. Barringer-Brown had been serving as a tenured professor in the department of political science and public administration and as the faculty director of general education at Virginia State University. Earlier in her career, Dr. Barringer-Brown served as an assistant dean, department chair, and director of research at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina from 2004-2018.
Study Finds a Huge Advantage in Appraisal Values for Homes in White Neighborhoods
A new study from sociologists at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis finds that homes today in White neighborhoods are appraised at double the value of comparable homes in communities of color. This represents a 75 percent increase in neighborhood racial inequality in home values over the last decade.
Yolanda Wilson Will Be the First African American President at the College of Southern Maryland
Dr. Wilson has been serving as vice president of instruction at Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. She has been a professor and administrator in the North Carolina and South Carolina community college systems for more than 22 years.
White Student Yelling Racial Slurs Attacks Black Student Worker at the University of Kentucky
A White student at the University of Kentucky was arrested for yelling racial slurs and attacking a Black student worker. The worker was punched several times, kicked in the stomach, and bit on the arm.
A Quartet of African American Women Who Have Been Named to University Administrative Positions
Taking on new jobs as university administrators are Anjerrika Bean at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Karen Elizabeth Bussey at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, Torie A. Johnson at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and Ivana Rich at Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, Florida.
Southern University Ends 50-Year Campus Ban of Students Who Mounted a Protest in 1972
On November 16, 1972, student protesters were confronted with tear gas canisters that they threw back at police. During an ensuing melee, two students were shot and killed. Four student leaders were arrested, expelled from the university, and banned from campus. The ban has now been lifted.
Ernest Gaines to Be Honored With His Image on a U.S. Postage Stamp
The late Professor Gaines taught at the University of Louisiana Lafayette from 1983 to 2010. He was the author of nine novels and several short stories. The stamp will be the 46th in the U.S. Postal Service's Black Heritage series
Tougaloo College Partners With Mississippi State University’s College of Engineering
Under the agreement, Mississippi State University and Tougaloo College will continue to develop options for “3+2” programs, where students can earn a bachelor’s degree from Tougaloo and a bachelor’s or a master’s degree in engineering from the university’s Bagley College of Engineering.
New Faculty Assignments at Colleges and Universities for Five Black Scholars
Taking on new faculty roles are Michael Carbin at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Judith Casselberry at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, Yvonne Chireau at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, Tesfaye Mengiste at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and Rae Shaw at San Francisco State University.
Prairie View, Southern Methodist, and Goldman Sachs Team Up for Cybersecurity Research
The research relationship with the two universities will tap the skills of undergraduate cyber security majors from Prairie View in tandem with graduate-level cyber security students at Southern Methodist. Researchers from both universities envision a pipeline to high-paying cybersecurity jobs for students who start their studies at Prairie View.
Three Black Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to Diversity Posts in Higher Education
Taking on new roles relating to diversity are Edward Antonio at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York, Jennifer Hamer at Pennsylvania State University, and Jeffrey Coleman at Framingham State University in Massachusetts.
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.
Georgetown Creates New Fund to Benefit Descendants of People Enslaved by the University
The Reconciliation Fund has begun accepting applications for projects that aim to benefit communities of the descendants of people enslaved and sold by the university, many of whom live in and around Maringouin, Louisiana, where their ancestors were sold and forcibly moved to in 1838. The university plans to allocate $400,000 annually to the effort.
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.
Penn States Scraps Plans to Establish the Center for Racial Justice on Campus
Last fall, Pennsylvania State University announced plans for the center that it said would be dedicated to research and scholarship around racism and racial bias. Now, after installing a new president, the university's plans for the new center have been abandoned.
In Memoriam: Frank Sidney Jones, 1928-2022
In 1968, Frank Sidney Jones was named executive director of the Urban Systems Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1971 he was named Ford Professor of Urban Affairs and became the first African American to achieve tenure at MIT.
Vast Racial Differences in the Financing of Doctoral Education
Only 19.4 percent of all African Americans who earned doctorates in 2021 had no education-related debt when they earned their terminal degree. For Whites, 51.7 percent had no education-related debt. The median education debt for Whites was $45,000. African Americans who earned doctorates in 2021, had an average student debt of $110,000.
Emory University Has Announced the Debut of a Ph.D. Program in African American Studies
Emory University states that the doctoral program is the first of its kind in the southeastern United States and the first at a private university in the entire South. Each student in the program will receive specialized training in one of three fields: gender and sexuality; social justice and social movements; or expressive arts and cultures. The first students will enroll in the fall of 2023.
The Very Wide Racial Gap in College Graduation Rates
New data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that nearly 68 percent of all White students entering four-year colleges seeking a bachelor's degree in 2015 had graduated within six years. But only 45.7 percent of Black students had earned a bachelor's degree within six years. The racial gap was even larger at price, not-for-profit colleges and universities.
L. Ebony Boulware to Lead the Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Dr. Boulware hs been serving as the director of the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute, in Durham, North Carolina, as vice dean for translational science and associate vice chancellor for translational research at Duke University. She was also a distinguished professor of medicine and served as chief of the division of general internal medicine in the department of medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine.
Study Finds Black Medical Students Publish Less Scholarly Research Than Their White Peers
In a new study of medical school students, researchers at Yale University found that there were only slight differences between Whites and members of underrepresented groups in research experience. But Black medical school students had 15 percent fewer publications than their White peers.
The New Dean of Students at Central Ohio Technical College and Ohio State University-Newark
For the past five years, Dr. John Davenport has served as assistant vice president and dean of students at Illinois State University. He spent 10 years in residential life and 16 years overall in the dean of students office at the university.
Washington and Lee University Adds Four Black Assistant Professors to Its Faculty
Washington and Lee University, the highly rated liberal arts educational institution in Lexington, Virginia, has appointed four African Americans to assistant professor positions: Christopher Brown in anthropology, K. Avvirin Gray in English, Jimmie Johnson in physical education, and Ehi Rajsky in accounting.
Morgan State University in Baltimore Adds Courses in Several Foreign Languages
The new course offering are in Mandarin Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Yoruba. The Yoruba language is primarily spoken in the African nations of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The department is also offering a new second-level course in Italian. According to Morgan State University, it is the only HBCU to offer courses in Italian.
Seven African Americans Who Have Been Named to Administrative Posts in Higher Education
The new Black administrators are Brandon Harris at the University of Southern California, Lillian Wanjagi at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, Chanel Derricott at Virginia Union University, Tiffani Dawn Sykes at Florida A&M University, Anita B. Walton at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, Kareem D. Kenney at Talladega College in Alabama, and Nicole McDonald at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina
Columbia University School of Social Work Debuts New Scholarship Program for HBCU Graduates
The scholarship is named for Winona Cargile Alexander who was the first HBCU graduate to enroll in what is now the Columbia University School of Social Work. She earned a master of social work degree in 2016 and then became the first Black social worker in New York City.
