Rodney Bennett, who has served as president of the University of Southern Mississippi since 2013, announced that he will step down from his post at the end of his contract in 2023. He is the first African American to serve as president of one of the state’s five predominantly White public universities.
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.
Taking on new roles are Garrett L. Washington at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Marjuyua Lartey at the University of Southern Mississippi, Darius Young at Florida A&M University, LaTasha Barnes at Arizona State University, and Gregory K. Freeland at California Lutheran University.
Since 2015, Dr. Crosby has been vice president for student affairs at Alabama A&M University. Prior to joining AAMU, he served in various capacities at Jackson State University in Mississippi. When he takes office on July 1, he will be the first man and first African American to lead the university in its 121-year history.
Jacqueline Certion was the assistant director of the Foundations for Academic Success Track, or FASTrack, in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Mississippi. In her position, Certion served as an adviser and mentor for thousands of students over the past 19 years.
Dr. Walton is a professor of chemistry at the university. Her research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of molecules that exhibit liquid crystalline behavior and polymer synthesis. She holds two U.S. patents. Dr. Walton has served as interim provost since May 2019.
In 1970, John Calvin Berry became the first African American faculty member at the university when he was named an instructor of student teaching. He retired from the university in 1985 as an associate professor of educational leadership and research.
The four African Americans who have retired or have announced their retirements are Tommie Stewart at Alabama State University, Adolph Reed Jr. at the University of Pennsylvania, Walter Fluker at the School of Theology at Boston University, and Alfreda Horton at the University of Southern Mississippi.
In 1860, the ship Clotilda is believed to be the last vessel to import slaves into the United States, more than 50 years after the international slave trade had been abolished.
Taking on new assignments are Alondra Nelson at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, Keith A. Alford at Syracuse University, Kendall M. Campbell at East Carolina University, Duane Lee Hollland Jr. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Curtis Davis. Jr. at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Joyce E. Smith, CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, has announced she will retire in summer 2020 and Eddie A. Holloway, assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students at the University of Southern Mississippi, will retire in June.
The honorees are Derron Wallace, an assistant professor at Brandeis University, Crystal A. George Mwangi, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, and Clyde Kennard, the first Black student to seek admission at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Clyde Kennard applied for admission to what was then Mississippi Southern College in 1955 and was denied. In 1959, he applied again and was rejected. For challenging the rules of Jim Crow, he was framed and sentenced to seven years in state prison.
They are: Melissa C. Thomas Hunt at Vanderbilt, Charkarra Anderson Lewis at the University of Southern Mississippi, Talitha Washington at Howard, Charmaine Royal at Duke, Tara T. Green at UNC-Greensboro, Alwyn Leiba at Miami Dade College, and Enobong Branch at the University of Massachusetts.
Griffin’s career at Alcorn State lasted for more than 40 years. He was named director of bands in 1969 and remained in that post until his retirement in 2012. He was the founder of the university’s Sounds of Dyn-O-Mite marching band.
The appointees are Timothy Dunn at Trinity College in Connecticut, Eboney Hearn at MIT, Latonya Guillory at the University of Southern Mississippi, Tracy Dildy at Chicago State University, and Getchel L. Caldwell at Clark Atlanta University.
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.
A half century after the racial integration of the University of Southern Mississippi, Tonya De’Nee Blair is the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in history at the university.
The appointees are Andra Johnson at Alcorn State University, Kery D. Davis at Howard University, Shea Kidd Houze at the University of Southern Mississippi, C.C. Jackson at South Carolina State University, and Matthew M. Winston Jr. at Virginia Tech.
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.
Just three days after Dr. Rodney Bennett had been named the 10th president of the University of Southern Mississippi in February 2103, a devastating tornado hit the Hattiesburg campus.
The honorees are Lissa Stapleton of the University of Southern Mississippi, Retha Hill of Arizona State University, and Karla FC Holloway of Duke University.
There are 3,285 African Americans enrolled at the University of Mississippi this fall. They make up 14.2 percent of the total enrollments. Blacks make up 37.4 percent of the state’s population.
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 University of Southern Mississippi recently received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to digitize its collection of oral histories and make them available to the public. At the present time, many of the oral histories are on reel-to-reel or cassette tapes.
Linda R. Crump will soon step down as assistant to the chancellor for equity, access, and diversity programs at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and Royal P. Walker Jr. has retired from his position as executive director of the Institute of Disability Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Royal P. Walker Jr. is the executive director of the Institute for Disability Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi. He will serve a four-year term on the council that advises the President and Congress on disability issues.
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.
African American academics appointed to new positions are Myron Hughes at the University of Cincinnati, Keith Pierce at Virginia Tech, Shea Kidd Houze at the University of Southern Mississippi, and Talitha Washington of Howard University.
Berry came to the University of Southern Mississippi as associate director of Title IV programs. In 1970 he was hired as an instructor, the first African American faculty member in university history.
Christian Friar, a student at the Mississippi University for Women, is spending the summer chronicling runaway slave advertisements in pre-Civil War newspapers from Alabama and Mississippi.
Dr. Joyce Blackwell came to Bennett College in the summer of 2012 as senior associate provost. Previously, she was vice president for academic affairs at South Carolina State University. Joe Whitehead comes to North Carolina A&T State University from the University of Southern Mississippi.
An environmental attorney, he was the first African American to receive an athletic scholarship at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Dr. Otaigbe, a professor of polymers and high performance materials at the University of Southern Mississippi, was named to the Fulbright-Tocqueville Distinguished Chair at the University of Lyon in France for the Fall 2013 semester.
Dr. Bennett, now vice president for student affairs at the University of Georgia, will be the first African American president of any of the five predominantly White state universities in Mississippi.
Royal P. Walker Jr., executive director of the Institute for Disability Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi, is honored by the Association of University Centers on Disabilities.
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