The School of Education and the Graduate School will be renamed to honor African Americans students who broke racial barriers at the university. The Design Building is being renamed for the university’s first Black professor.
T. Elon Dancy II, the Helen S. Faison Endowed Chair in Urban Education and executive director of the Center for Urban Education at the University of Pittsburgh, recently received the 2022 Derrick Bell Legacy Award. The award honors critical race theorists, critical race studies scholars, and progressive educators-activists committed to advancing social justice and educational race equity.
Eight universities that are members of the Southeastern Conference are undertaking an effort to recruit students from Africa to come to the United States to pursue higher education. Samba Dieng of Louisiana State University, is leading a week-long recruitment trip with the senior international officers from the other seven universities.
Recently, leaders of historically Black Southern University and A&M College and Louisiana State University signed the LSU-SU A&M Agenda, a five-year agreement between the two institutions to expand their collective positive impact across the region.
Jane Irungu is the inaugural vice president for diversity, equity, and inclusion at Utah State University. Todd Manuel was appointed vice president of inclusion, civil rights & Title IX at Louisiana State University and Rochelle D. Smith has been selected as Saint Louis University’s next vice president for diversity and innovative community engagement.
Louisiana State University has acquired The Wyatt Houston Day Collection of Poetry by African Americans. This collection of more than 800 works includes poetry from the 18th century, the Harlem Renaissance, and later works including up to the present.
E. Patrick Johnson, dean of the School of Communication and the Annenberg University Professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, recently received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Communication Association. He has taught at Northwestern University for more than two decades.
Much has been written about the disintegration of the traditional family structure in the African American community and the struggles of single parents in raising their children. But a new study led by Antonius Skipper, an assistant professor of gerontology at Georgia State University, focuses on factors that lead to successful Black marriages.
Jinx Coleman Broussard, the Bart R. Swanson Endowed Memorial Professor in the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State Univerity, has been selected as the 2021 Bruce K. Berger Educator Honoree from the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations. The center is housed at the University of Alabama.
Mona Lisa Saloy is the Conrad N. Hilton Endowed Professor of English at historically Black Dillard University in New Orleans. A native of New Orleans, Professor Saloy holds a master of fine arts degree in creative writing and a Ph.D. in English from Louisiana State University.
Taking on new diversity roles are Nakeshia N. Williams at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, Kortet Mensah at Warren Wilson College in Swannanoa, North Carolina, Luz Randolph at Louisiana State University, and Mary Wardell-Ghirarduzzi at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.
Dr. Tate has been serving as the Education Foundation Distinguished Professor, executive vice president for academic affairs, and provost at the University of South Carolina since July 2020. Professor Tate served as dean of the Graduate School and vice provost for graduate education at Washington University in St. Louis.
A decades-long movement at the university to create an independent Black studies department regained steam over the summer amid the resurgence of civil rights protests across the country.
Dr. Martin is a professor of sociology and a professor of African and African American studies. Dr. Martin joined the faculty at Louisiana State University in 2013, after teaching at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York.
Tina M. Harris, who holds the Douglas L. Manship Sr.-Dori Maynard Race, Media, and Cultural Literacy Endowed Chair at the Manship School of Mass Communication, won the Francine Merritt Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Lives of Women in Communication.
Appointed to new positions are Gloria Johnson-Cusack at Florida International University, Joseph Ballard II at Iowa State University, Maria Ramirez at New York University, Cornell B. LeSane II at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Samba Dieng at Louisiana State University.
Sharon E. Williams was appointed interim dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina. Brandon Common was named dean of students at Louisiana State University and Nichole Lewis is the new dean of students at Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina.
Dr. Mitchell is the E.B “Ted” Robert Endowed Professor and has been serving as interim dean. Professor Mitchell joined the faculty at the university in 2005 and was named a full professor in 2018.
Tina M. Harris holds the Douglas L. Manship Sr.-Dori Maynard Race, Media, and Cultural Literacy Endowed Chair at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. She joined the faculty at LSU this past summer after teaching at the University of Georgia for more than two decades.
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication has announced the establishment of the Jinx Coleman Broussard Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Media History. Dr. Broussard is the Bart R. Swanson Endowed Memorial Professor in the Manship School of Mass Communications at LSU.
Taking on new roles are L. Trenton S. Marsh at the University of Central Florida, Nadya Mason at the University of Illinois, Ariel James at Malcaster College in St. Paul, Minnesota, Keena Arbuthnot at Louisiana State University, and Trevon Logan at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Tina M. Harris of the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University is being honored for “dedication to excellence, commitment to the profession, concern for others, vision of what could be, and acceptance of diversity and forthrightness.”
Taking on new duties are LaKami Baker at Auburn University in Alabama, Ikemefuna Agbanusi at Colorado College, Sheryl Kennedy Haydel at Louisiana State University, Anthony Troy Adams at Kentucky State University, and January O’Neil at the University of Mississippi.
Taking on new roles are Maria del Guadalupe “Lupe” Davidson at West Virginia University, Jessica Scoffield of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Tina M. Harris at Louisiana State University, Rodney Priestley at Princeton University in New Jersey, and Lynette Yarger at Pennsylvania State University.
Since 2014, Dereck J. Rovaris Sr. has served as vice provost for diversity at Louisiana State University. Earlier, he was associate vice chancellor for academic and multicultural affairs at the Louisiana State University Heath Sciences Center in New Orleans.
LeRonn P. Brooks has been named associate curator for modern and contemporary collections at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles and David L. Stamps has been appointed to the faculty in the School of Mass Communications at Louisiana State University.
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.
Dr. Reed currently serves as executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education. When she becomes Commissioner of Higher Education in Louisiana this summer, she will be the first African American to hold the position.
Dr. Fields currently serves as professor and chair of the department of agricultural economics and rural sociology at Auburn University in Alabama.
Currently, Dr. Amar is the associate dean for undergraduate studies and chief diversity officer at the School of Nursing at Emory University in Atlanta. Earlier, she was an associate professor and director of the advanced forensic nursing program at Boston College.
Dr. Reed served as under secretary of education for postsecondary diversity and inclusion in the Obama administration. She also served as head of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
A Black student at Louisiana State University found a racist message on her door at an off-campus apartment complex where many university students reside. Someone wrote “Go back 2 Africa Nigger monkeys” on a Halloween door ornament.
The university reports that there are 3,741 African Americans on campus this fall, an all-time high. But it must be pointed out that African Americans make up 12 percent of the student body at the university, whereas Blacks are 32.5 percent of the Louisiana population.
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.
Bobby R. Phills, former dean and director of land grant programs at Florida A&M University, was named chancellor of the Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center and dean of the university’s College of Agriculture.
Ivory Toldson, executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities has resigned and will return to the faculty at Howard University. Kim Hunter Reed will now lead the office. She was a deputy undersecretary of education and former chief of staff for the Louisiana Board of Regents.
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