Monthly Archives: December 2012
David Wilson Is Not Done Yet at Morgan State University
In early December, the board of regents of Morgan State University voted not to renew the contract of David Wilson who has served as president of the university since 2010. After protests from students, faculty, and alumni the board has had a change of heart.
Emilie Townes Named Dean of the Vanderbilt Divinity School
Dr. Townes currently serves as the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of African American Religion and Theology at Yale Divinity School. She also is the associate dean of academic affairs. She will assume her new post in July.
MIT Doctoral Student Looks to Help Victims of His Country’s Civil War
David Moinina Sengeh escaped with his family from Sierra Leone during the country's brutal civil war. At MIT he is working to develop higher quality, inexpensive prosthetic limbs to be used by the victims of the war.
James B. Ewers Retiring After a 40-Year Career in Higher Education
Since 2009 he has served as vice president for student affairs and enrollment management at Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida.
Eighteen-Year-Old African American Earns Degree in Physics at Southern University
During college he conducted summer research at North Carolina State University. He plans to start graduate school in the fall and pursue a career in biological and physics engineering.
Michigan Renews Support for Its Africa Studies Center
The university will provide $1.8 million to the center over the next three years. The money supports research, course development, fellowships, and other initiatives.
MBA Student Establishes MercyCards to Help the Homeless
Jed JohnHope, a native of St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and an MBA student at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, noticed that fewer people are carrying cash and spare change that they can donate to the homeless.
SUNY Extends Financial Aid Program for Haitian Students
The board of trustees of the State University of New York has renewed authorization of a program that offers state resident tuition for students from Haiti through the spring semester of 2014.
Online Photographic Archive of the “First Blacks in the Americas”
The collection entitled, "First Blacks in the Americas," contains more than 2,900 photographs relevant to African history in what is now the Dominican Republic from the 16th century through colonial times.
J. Blaine Hudson Stepping Down as Dean, Returning to University of Louisville Faculty
Dr. Hudson has served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Louisville since 2005.
Black Students Fare Well in Williams College’s Early Decision Admissions
African Americans make up 11.3 percent of all students accepted under Williams' early decision plan.
University of Pittsburgh Study Examines Racial Differences in Bone Marrow Donorship Decisions
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine conducted a study to learn why Black and other minorities opt-out of bone marrow transplant registries at rates far higher than whites.
Yale Establishes Lectureship to Honor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Philanthropists Joanna and Daniel Rose have donated funds to Yale University to create the Henry Louis Gates Jr. Lectures.
Brown University Graduate Student Examines HIV Disclosure Rates in Ethiopia
Ayalu Reda, a graduate student in sociology at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, surveyed AIDS patients in Ethiopia and found that one third of those who are married had not told their spouse they were HIV-positive.
Mary Evans Sias Awarded an Honorary Degree from Central Michigan University
The 13th president of Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Dr. Sias was honored for being a "forward-thinking leader" and for her advocacy of higher education as chair of the board of directors of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
Instilling Racial Pride Can Help Black Students Do Better in School
A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University finds that African American adolescents do better in school if their parents instill in them a strong sense of racial pride.
College Sophomore Honored for Her Work With Children Whose Parents Are in Prison
Olivia Stinson, a sophomore at Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina, was recognized as a 2012 L'Oreal Paris International Woman of Worth for establishing a nonprofit organization that distributes books and other supplies to children whose parents are incarcerated.
Delaware State University Acquires a New Flight Simulator for Its Aviation Program
Delaware State University, the historically Black educational institution in Dover, has acquired a new flight simulator so that students in its aviation program can practice flying in the classroom in addition to using one of the 10 aircraft currently in the university's fleet.
Claflin University Enters Into Partnership With Savannah River Remediation
Under the agreement, students at Claflin will have internships and other job training activities and receive mentoring from company officials.
Grambling State University Graduates Its First Marine Corps Officer in Nearly 40 Years
Earlier this month Olaolu Ogunyemi graduated from Grambling State University in Louisiana. He also was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps.
Three Black Scholars Taking on New Roles in Higher Education
Calvin McFadden at Bristol Community College, Chinyere Ukabiala at Grinnell College, and Billy Lawton at Prairie View A&M University are assuming new responsibilities.
Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers
From time to time, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week's selections.
Recent Books That May Be 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. Here are the latest selections.
Rachel Petty Now Leads the University of the District of Columbia
Dr. Petty, a professor of psychology and former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, will serve as interim chief operating officer until an interim president is named sometime in January.
Williams College Receives Rare Collection of African-American Writings
The collection includes poetry, plays, prose, anthologies, recordings, and personal correspondence from scholars such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Gwendoyln Brooks, Countee Cullen, Nikki Giovanni, Langston Hughes, and Sterling Brown.
University of Alabama at Birmingham to Celebrate the City’s Civil Rights Movement
The University of Alabama at Birmingham has entered into a partnership with the city of Birmingham to sponsor "50 Years Forward," a commemoration of the 1963 civil rights movement in in the city.
Medical Prodigy Is a Freshman at Florida A&M
At age 14 Tony D. Hansberry developed a new suture method for patients undergoing hysterectomies. The new method decreases hospital stays for women who undergo the surgery.
Leading Liberal Arts Colleges Form New Partnership to Increase Faculty Diversity
The Creating Connections Consortium is a partnership between 26 leading liberal arts colleges and the University of California at Berkeley and Columbia University.
The Higher Education of the Only Black U.S. Senator
He is the first Black senator from a southern state since Reconstruction and he is the only African American currently serving in the U.S. Senate.
Alabama State University Partners With Yangzhou University in China
Under the agreement there will be faculty and student exchanges between the two universities. Much of the activity will center around research in nanobiotechnology.
New Student Success Center Planned at Winston-Salem State University
Fundraising for the $13.5 project is still underway but significant support from corporations including Reynolds Aluminum, BB&T Bank, and Wells Fargo has already been received.
Xavier University Takes Steps to Eliminate a $5 Million Deficit
A drop in enrollments of 6.5 percent for the fall semester has forced the university to institute a salary and hiring freeze and some layoffs of non-faculty employees .
Joyce Stallworth Appointed Associate Provost at the University of Alabama
Since 2004, she has been senior associate dean of the College of Education at the university and has been on the University of Alabama faculty since 1995.
Dr. Joyce Blackwell Elected President of the Association of Chief Academic Officers
The senior associate provost at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, was named president of the Association of Chief Academic Officers of the Southern States.
University of Memphis VP Honored for Addressing Multicultural Issues in Psychology
Rosie Phillips Bingham, vice president of student affairs at the University of Memphis, was named Distinguished Elder by the National Multicultural Conference and Summit.
Dowell Taylor Named Director of Bands at Jackson State University
He has served in the post on an interim basis since April 2012. While a student at Jackson State in the 1970s, he was a member of the Sonic Boom of the South marching band.
