U.S. News & World Report has announced its annual rankings of America's best colleges and universities. Once again this year, the magazine has included a list of what its editors believe are the best historically black colleges and universities.
Spelman College in Atlanta was rated the top HBCU. Following Spelman was Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Morehouse College in Atlanta. Hampton University in Virginia ranked fourth. Fisk University in Nashville, Tuskegee University in Alabama, and Xavier University in New Orleans tied for fifth place.
Rounding out the top 10 black colleges and universities according to U.S. News are Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, Dillard University in New Orleans, and Florida A&M University in Tallahassee.
WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS
Fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson Center
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is pleased to announce the opening of its 2012-2013 Fellowship competition. The Center awards approximately 20-25 academic year residential fellowships to individuals from any country with outstanding project proposals on national and/or international issues. The Center accepts non-advocacy, policy-relevant, fellowship proposals that address key challenges of past, present, and future issues confronting the United States and the world. Applicants must hold a doctorate or have equivalent professional experience. The Center also supports projects that intersect with contemporary policy issues and provide the historical and/or cultural context for some of today's significant public policy issues.
Fellows are provided stipends (which include round trip travel), private offices, Windows based personal computers, loan privileges with the Library of Congress, and part-time research assistants.
A New Database on Oral History Collections of the Civil Rights Movement
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture have launched a new Web site presenting a database of oral history projects about the civil rights movement.
The Civil Rights History Project has data on more than 1,000 oral history collections in libraries, museums, and university archives. Scholars can search the database to locate collections across the country.
A second phase of the project will consist of new oral history interviews from people whose stories have not been recorded previously. In addition, photographs, home movies, letters, diaries, and documents relating to the civil rights movement will be collected, digitized, and made available online at the Web site.
New Partnership to Continue Book Series on Race in the Transatlantic World
A new partnership has been formed between the University of Georgia Press and the Library Company of Philadelphia to promote Race in the Atlantic World, 1700-1900, a book series on racial aspects of transatlantic history. The Library Company, founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, was America’s first lending library. Today it is a depository for rare books and manuscripts. The Library’s Program in African-American History is directed by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, associate professor of history at the University of Delaware. Professor Dunbar is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University.
The book series was established in 2006 by the University of Georgia Press. So far, nine books have been published. Now, under the new partnership, all books in the series will receive a subsidy from the Library Company to help fund publishing and printing costs.
Two Musicians Get New Posts at Delaware State University
The Department of Music at Delaware State University has issued two major announcements.
Horace B. Lamar Jr. was named chair of the department. For the past several years, Dr. Lamar has been working as a consultant. Previously, he was a professor and dean of the School of Music at Alabama State University. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Mississippi Valley State University. He earned a master’s degree in music education at the University of Minnesota and a doctorate in music education at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Lloyd Benjamin Mallory Jr. was named associate professor and director of choral activities at Delaware State. He was the interim choral director at Clark Atlanta University. Previously, he taught at Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama.
Dr. Mallory is a graduate of Oakwood University. He holds a master’s degree from Morgan State University in Baltimore and a doctorate in musical arts from the University of California at Los Angeles.
The Racial Gap in Dental School Faculty Is Hard to Swallow
Recently, JBHE reported the huge racial gap in dental school enrollments. In the 2009-10 academic year, blacks were 5.7 percent of all dental school enrollments. This is less than one half the level that would apply if racial parity were to prevail.
Now we turn our attention to blacks as faculty in U.S. dental schools. During the 2007-08 year, there were 324 African Americans employed as dental/clinical science faculty at U.S. dental schools. They made up only 3.4 percent of all dental school faculty.
In the entire country, there were 42 tenured African-American faculty members in U.S. dental schools. There were only nine tenured African-American women faculty with tenure.
Texas A&M Reports Black Enrollment Data
This year, for the first time, there are more than 50,000 students on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station. Among these students are 1,723 African Americans, an increase of nine black students from a year ago. Thus, blacks make up 3.4 percent of the student body.
There are 279 black students in the undergraduate entering class at the university, up by eight students from a year ago. Blacks make up 3.4 percent of the entering class.
African Americans make up about 11 percent of the college-age population in Texas.
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Assistant Professor in Biological Engineering
The MIT Department of Biological Engineering invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position at the assistant professor level, to begin July 2012 or thereafter. Applicants should hold a Ph.D. in a science or engineering discipline related to biological engineering. A more senior faculty appointment may be considered in special cases. The candidate should aspire to direct a leading research program that substantively fuses molecular/cellular bioscience with quantitative engineering analysis/synthesis/design approaches and should be capable of teaching in our biological engineering undergraduate and graduate core curricula. Faculty duties including teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels along with research and supervision of student research.
We especially encourage individuals from underrepresented groups to apply because of MIT's strong commitment to diversity in engineering education, research, and practice.
Interested candidates should send application materials to the Biological Engineering Faculty Search Committee at: be-fac-search@mit.edu. Each application should include: a curriculum vitae, the names and addresses of three or more references, a strategic statement of research interests, and a statement of teaching interests specifically in the context of the Biological Engineering Department educational programs [http://web.mit.edu/be/programs/]. We request that each candidate arrange for the reference letters to be sent directly to be-fac-search@mit.edu.
Questions may be directed to: Prof. Douglas Lauffenburger, Head, Department of Biological Engineering MIT, 16-343, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA 02139-4307 or lauffen@mit.edu.
Application materials received by 15 November 2011 will be given priority.
MIT is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer.
Appointments, Promotions, and Resignations
• Linda Rose was appointed vice president of academic affairs at Santa Ana College in California. Since 2005, she has served as dean of liberal arts at Cerritos College in Norwalk, California.
Dr. Rose holds bachelor's and master's degrees from California State University, Dominguez Hills. She earned an educational doctorate at UCLA.
• Michele Butts was named an assistant professor of legal analysis and writing at the Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge. She was on the faculty at the John Marshall School of Law in Atlanta.
Professor Butts is a graduate of Syracuse University and earned her law degree at the University of Florida.
• Kyle T. Miller is the new director of Children International at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. UALR Children International is an outreach program that provides educational, health, and family assistance to 3,000 children in the Little Rock public school system. Previously, Dr. Miller was director of the Gear Up program ast Phillips Community College in Helena, Arkansas.
Dr. Miller is a graduate of the University of Central Arkansas. He earned master’s degrees at Arkansas State University and the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He recently was awarded an educational doctorate at the University of Mississippi.
• John L. Faulk, director of admissions at the law school of the University of Virginia, was appointed to the board of visitors of Virginia Tech.
Faulk is a 1998 graduate of Virginia Tech and earned a law degree at the University of Virginia. Before taking on his position as admissions director in 2009, he was an editor and columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
• Evene Estwick was named associate professor of communications and granted tenure at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Professor Estwick joined the university’s faculty in 2005 after completing her doctorate at Temple University in Philadelphia.
• Dallas Reed was appointed dean of student development and campus life for the New York campuses of Berkeley College. Before coming to Berkeley, Dr. Reed was associate vice president for student life at Mississippi Valley State University.
Dr. Reed is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University. She holds a master’s degree from Pfeiffer University in Charlotte, North Carolina, and an educational doctorate from Jackson State University in Mississippi.
• A. Todd Franklin was promoted to full professor of philosophy at Hamilton College in Clniton, New York. He currently serves as chair of the college’s philosophy department and has been on the Hamilton faculty since 1997.
Professor Franklin earned a Ph.D. at Stanford University.
• Lorelle D. Semley is a new assistant professor of history at the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Previously, she taught at Bryn Mawr College and Wesleyan University.
Dr. Semley is a graduate of Georgetown University. She holds a master's degree from Yale University and a second master's degree and a Ph.D. in history from Northwestern University.
Two New Deans at North Carolina Central University
North Carolina Central University, the historically black educational institution in Durham, has named two new deans.
Keith Pigues was appointed dean of the School of Business. He was senior vice president and chief marketing officer for PlyGem Industries, a building products company headquartered in Cary, North Carolina.
Pigues is a graduate of Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tennessee. He earned an MBA at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Pigues is the author of Winning With Customers: A Playbook for B2B (John Wiley & Sons, 2010).
Ontario Wooden was named dean of University College at NCCU. He has been serving as associate dean since 2008.
A native of Albany, Georgia, Dr. Wooden is a graduate of Albany State University. He earned a master’s degree and an educational doctorate at Indiana University.
Three African-American Siblings, All of Different Ages, Are Spending Their First Semester as Students at Cornell University
This fall there are three African-American siblings who will be spending their first semester at Cornell University. All of the three students are different ages and will be enrolled in different grades. They all are graduates of Ithaca High School and were raised by their maternal grandmother.
Javail Brown will enter Cornell as a first-year student. She is a 2011 graduate of Ithaca High School. Her brother Xavier Brown is transferring to Cornell after spending his first year at the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in New York City. Their half brother Jeremy March will be a junior at Cornell after graduating from Tompkins Cortland Community College.
Javail and Jeremy plan to study sociology. Xavier has enrolled in the School of Hotel Administration.
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
Fellowship and Distinguished Visitor Positions,
Center for African American Studies
The Center for African American Studies at Princeton University (CAAS) invites applications for the 2012-2013 academic year. For full consideration, materials must be received by November 20, 2011 and all candidates must use the online application process to submit their materials. You may apply online at: jobs.princeton.edu. Click here for a full description of the positions and application procedures.
Distinguished Visitor: CAAS invites nominations or self-nominations for faculty members from research universities and liberal arts colleges for a Distinguished Visiting Appointment for the 2012-2013 academic year. This visiting appointment was established to enable the Center to invite one scholar each year whose research and teaching explicitly examines issues of race in innovative interdisciplinary ways. Candidates in any field may apply. The Distinguished Visitor may be appointed for one semester or for the entire academic year.
Post Doctoral Fellows: CAAS invites applications from pre-tenure scholars and recent Ph.D. graduates in all disciplines for two postdoctoral fellowship positions. These fellowship positions will be awarded for the academic year 2012-2013 to emerging scholars who will devote their ten-month residency at Princeton to writing about race in the national or global contexts. Fellows will hold a research appointment for the length of the 10-month fellowship period.
Princeton University is an equal opportunity employer and complies with applicable EEO and affirmative action regulations.
Historically Black Coppin State University Seeks to Boost Retention in Teacher Education Programs
Coppin State University, the historically black educational institution in Baltimore, has established a new center designed to increase retention of students in teacher education programs. The Teacher Education Advisement and Retention Center (TEAR-C) will prepare students from their first year in college to follow an educational path so that they are better prepared to pass teacher certification examinations. The center will be staffed by K-12 and higher education faculty who will serve as mentors to undergraduate students in education.
Emory University Study Examines Racial Disparity in Kidney Disease
Kidney failure is four times as likely among African Americans than for whites. Researchers at Emory University in Atlanta have found what they believe may contribute to a higher rate of kidney disease among African Americans.
The study of 27,911 individuals found that African Americans are more likely than whites to excrete large amounts of protein in their urine. This can contribute to kidney disease and failure.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.
Recent Books That May Be of Interest to African-American Scholars
The JBHE Weekly Bulletin regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. Here are the latest selections.
James Earl McLeod, vice chancellor of students and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died earlier this month at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. He was 67 years old and had been diagnosed with cancer in 2009.
Dean McLeod first came to Washington University in 1974 as an assistant professor of German. He later was director of the African and African-American studies program at the university. He was named dean in 1992 and vice chancellor in 1995.
A native of Dothan, Alabama, Dean McLeod was a graduate of Morehouse College and did graduate work at Rice University and the University of Vienna. Before joining the Washington University faculty, he taught at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Honors and Awards
• Moustapha Diack, a professor in the doctoral program of science and mathematics education at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, received the 2011 Distinguished Service Award from Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT). Professor Diack was honored for his work to create the MERLOT Africa Network of online learning materials and faculty support services.
• Later this month, Henry Tisdale, president of Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, will be inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame. He is the only college president among the 23 inductees this year.
Dr. Tisdale is a magna cum laude graduate of Claflin. He was the first African American to earn a doctorate in mathematics at Dartmouth College. He has been president of Claflin since 1994.
• James M. Jones, a professor of psychology and African-American studies at the University of Delaware, received the Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology from the American Psychological Association (APA). The award is the association’s highest honor.
Professor Jones has been on the University of Delaware faculty since 1982 and has worked with the APA since 1977. He is the author of Prejudice and Racism.
A graduate of Oberlin College, Professor Jones earned a master’s degree at Temple University and a Ph.D. at Yale University.
• Keith C. Norris, professor of medicine and executive vice president for research and health affairs at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, received the Meritorious Achievement Award from the National Medical Association.
Dr. Norris is a graduate of Cornell University and received his medical degree at Howard University.
Grants and Gifts
• Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, received a three-year $731,278 federal grant to study the role heredity plays in prostate cancer among African Americans. Researchers at Jackson State University in Mississippi will also participate in the project.
• Southern University, the historically black educational institution in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, received a two-year, $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for a project entitled “An Integrated Study of the Novel Thermal Barrier Coating for Nb-based High Temperature Alloy.”
• Historically black Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina received a three-year, $296,340 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop game-like instructional models to enhance student learning in computer science classes.
• The University of Illinois at Chicago received a three-year, $90,000 grant to study algebra learning among African-American high school students. The project will examine how students learn algebra and how classroom discussion and student-to-student conversations impact learning.
The research is under the direction of Maisie Gholsen, a third-year doctoral student in mathematics education at the university.
• The University of Massachusetts received a five-year, $675,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to fund a study on whether introducing infants to the faces of people of different races may reduce racial prejudice later in life.
Past Issues - JBHE Weekly Bulletin (select from menu below)
U.S. News & World Report has announced its annual rankings of America's best colleges and universities. Once again this year, the magazine has included a list of what its editors believe are the best historically black colleges and universities.
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture have launched a new Web site presenting a database of oral history projects about the civil rights movement.
A new partnership has been formed between the University of Georgia Press and the Library Company of Philadelphia to promote Race in the Atlantic World, 1700-1900, a book series on racial aspects of transatlantic history. The Library Company, founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin, was America’s first lending library. Today it is a depository for rare books and manuscripts. The Library’s Program in African-American History is directed by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, associate professor of history at the University of Delaware. Professor Dunbar is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University. 
The 
Horace B. Lamar Jr. was named chair of the department. For the past several years, Dr. Lamar has been working as a consultant. Previously, he was a professor and dean of the School of Music at Alabama State University. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Mississippi Valley State University. He earned a master’s degree in music education at the University of Minnesota and a doctorate in music education at the University of Southern Mississippi.
Lloyd Benjamin Mallory Jr. was named associate professor and director of choral activities at Delaware State. He was the interim choral director at Clark Atlanta University. Previously, he taught at Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama.
Recently, JBHE reported the huge racial gap in dental school enrollments. In the 2009-10 academic year, blacks were 5.7 percent of all dental school enrollments. This is less than one half the level that would apply if racial parity were to prevail.
This year, for the first time, there are more than 50,000 students on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station. Among these students are 1,723 African Americans, an increase of nine black students from a year ago. Thus, blacks make up 3.4 percent of the student body.
• Linda Rose was appointed vice president of academic affairs at Santa Ana College in California. Since 2005, she has served as dean of liberal arts at Cerritos College in Norwalk, California.
• Michele Butts was named an assistant professor of legal analysis and writing at the Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge. She was on the faculty at the John Marshall School of Law in Atlanta. 
• Kyle T. Miller is the new director of Children International at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. UALR Children International is an outreach program that provides educational, health, and family assistance to 3,000 children in the Little Rock public school system. Previously, Dr. Miller was director of the Gear Up program ast Phillips Community College in Helena, Arkansas.
• John L. Faulk, director of admissions at the law school of the University of Virginia, was appointed to the board of visitors of Virginia Tech. 
• Dallas Reed was appointed dean of student development and campus life for the New York campuses of Berkeley College. Before coming to Berkeley, Dr. Reed was associate vice president for student life at Mississippi Valley State University. 
• A. Todd Franklin was promoted to full professor of philosophy at Hamilton College in Clniton, New York. He currently serves as chair of the college’s philosophy department and has been on the Hamilton faculty since 1997.
• Lorelle D. Semley is a new assistant professor of history at the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. Previously, she taught at Bryn Mawr College and Wesleyan University. 
Keith Pigues was appointed dean of the School of Business. He was senior vice president and chief marketing officer for PlyGem Industries, a building products company headquartered in Cary, North Carolina.
Ontario Wooden was named dean of University College at NCCU. He has been serving as associate dean since 2008.
Coppin State University, the historically black educational institution in Baltimore, has established a new center designed to increase retention of students in teacher education programs. The Teacher Education Advisement and Retention Center (TEAR-C) will prepare students from their first year in college to follow an educational path so that they are better prepared to pass teacher certification examinations. The center will be staffed by K-12 and higher education faculty who will serve as mentors to undergraduate students in education. 
Kidney failure is four times as likely among African Americans than for whites. Researchers at Emory University in Atlanta have found what they believe may contribute to a higher rate of kidney disease among African Americans.
The JBHE Weekly Bulletin regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. Here are the latest selections.
James Earl McLeod, vice chancellor of students and dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died earlier this month at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. He was 67 years old and had been diagnosed with cancer in 2009.
• Moustapha Diack, a professor in the doctoral program of science and mathematics education at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, received the 2011 Distinguished Service Award from Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT). Professor Diack was honored for his work to create the MERLOT Africa Network of online learning materials and faculty support services. 
• Later this month, Henry Tisdale, president of Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina, will be inducted into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame. He is the only college president among the 23 inductees this year.
• James M. Jones, a professor of psychology and African-American studies at the University of Delaware, received the Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology from the American Psychological Association (APA). The award is the association’s highest honor. 
• Keith C. Norris, professor of medicine and executive vice president for research and health affairs at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, received the Meritorious Achievement Award from the National Medical Association.
• The University of Illinois at Chicago received a three-year, $90,000 grant to study algebra learning among African-American high school students. The project will examine how students learn algebra and how classroom discussion and student-to-student conversations impact learning.