Monthly Archives: December 2015
Duke University to Study How It Deals With Bias and Hate on Campus
Duke University has created a task force that will be charged with a broad review of Duke’s policies, practices and culture as they pertain to bias and hate in the Duke student experience.
New Online Archive to Document History of Black World War I Veterans
The new website being put together by faculty and students at the Reed College of Media at West Virginia University will allow users to visit memorials to Black veterans around the world through virtual reality.
University Scientists Develop Portable Device for Sickle Cell Diagnosis
Scientists at the University of Connecticut, Yale University, Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new method of detecting sickle cell disease that can be used in remote areas that do not have advanced medical technology.
In Memoriam: Robert Martin Screen
Robert Martin Screen was head tennis coach at Hampton University for 41 years. He is the only African American coach to win a national collegiate tennis championship. He also was chair of the department of communication sciences and disorders for more than 50 years.
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.
New Report Shows Graduation Rate Progress for Minority Students, But Blacks Trail Other Groups
The Education Trust has released a new report showing progress has been made in the college graduation rates of minority students. But progress for Black students has trailed the improvements shown by students from other underrepresented minority groups.
The Next Dean of the School of Architecture at Tuskegee University
Carla Jackson Bell, one of only 12 African American women nationwide who hold a tenured faculty position in architecture, has been serving as director of multicultural affairs in the College of Architecture, Design, and Construction at Auburn University in Alabama.
Tulane University Study Finds a Racial Gap in Student Use of Salad Bars
A survey of public schools, conducted by researchers in the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, found that 60 percent of all students visited salad bars in the cafeterias. But White students were twice as likely as Black students to use salad bars.
Black Enrollments in Higher Education Continue to Drop
In 2014, there were 2,726,098 African Americans enrolled in U.S. higher education. They made up 13.2 percent of all enrollments. There were nearly a quarter million fewer African American students enrolled in higher education than was the case in 2011, a decline of 8 percent.
New Evidence of the Dangers of Lead Exposure for African American Children
Black children were nearly three times more likely than White children to have very high lead levels in their blood. Studies have shown a correlation between lead exposure and sleep problems, lower academic test scores, and behavioral and neurological disorders.
Johns Hopkins University Announces a Major New Faculty Diversity Initiative
In 2013, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore reported that Blacks made up 4 percent of its total full-time faculty and 1.7 percent of its full professors. Now a new five-year, $25 million initiative has the goal of significantly improving those numbers.
Jackson State University Launches Its School of Journalism and Media Studies
The university is already well established in the field with a mass communication academic program, two television stations, one radio station, one affiliate radio station, a weekly student newspaper, a student-produced magazine, and access to an online weather facility.
Black Canadian Woman From the University of Pennsylvania Wins a Rhodes Scholarship
Adebisi (Debi) Ogunrinde, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, was awarded one of the 11 Rhodes Scholarships from Canada. She will pursue a master's degree in social anthropology and a master's degree in public policy at the University of Oxford.
New Program Provides a Path to Medical School for Harris-Stowe State University Students
Each year, five students will be selected to spend their first three years at Harris-Stowe. They will then enroll in a one-year bioscience program at Kansas City University. Those who successfully complete the program will be admitted to the KCU medical school.
Two Black Men Appointed to New Administrative Posts in Higher Education
Andrew Agwunobi was appointed executive vice president for health affairs at the University of Connecticut and Marvin E. Green Jr. was promoted to associate athletics director for sports administration at Florida A&M University.
Two HBCUs in South Carolina Enter Into a Partnership
Voorhees College and Denmark Technical College have agreed to allow students who earn an associate's degree at Denmark Technical College to seamlessly transfer their credits and enroll at Voorhees College as a junior to work toward their bachelor's degree.
Racial Slur Found on Restroom Door at the University of Iowa
A message containing a racial slur was found carved on the inside of a bathroom door in the Spence Laboratories on the campus of the University of Iowa.
Four Black Women Win Rhodes Scholarships
The Rhodes Trust has announced the latest class of 32 American students who will study at the University of Oxford as Rhodes Scholars. Of this year’s 32 American Rhodes Scholars, it appears that four are African Americans. All four are women.
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.
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.
Fort Valley State University Joins the Peace Corps Prep Program
The Peace Crops Prep Program is designed to train students who are interested in working abroad in international development work. Fort Valley State is the 39th educational institution nationwide to join the effort.
Duke University Acquires Marcus Garvey Papers Collection
The collection includes the papers and research documents used by Professor Robert A. Hill to compose the 12-volume Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers.
Helon Habilia Named Judge of a Prestigious Book Prize Competition
Helon Habila, an associate professor of creative writing in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, has been selected as the judge for the 2016 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction.
University of Kansas Faculty Member Placed on Leave After Allegedly Using Racial Slur in Class
In a letter to the campus community, students in the class stated that the assistant professor said, “As a White woman I just never have seen the racism…It’s not like I see ‘Nigger’ spray painted on walls.”
In Memoriam: Jefferson Joseph Jones, 1932-2015
Jefferson J. Jones joined the faculty at Case Western Reserve University in 1967. He served on the faculty there for more than 40 years. Dr. Jones was the first African American endodontist in the state of Ohio.
Higher Education Grants of Interest to African Americans
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.
HBCUs With the Highest Percentage of Graduates Who Make Donations
At Claflin University in Orangeburg, South Carolina an average of 48.9 percent of alumni donated to their alma mater each year during the 2012-to-2014 period. The next highest HBCU alumni giving rate of 38.2 percent was at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Two African American Men Named to New Faculty Positions
David Murungi is a new assistant professor of information and process management at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and Thomas A. LaVeist was named professor and chair of the department of health, policy, and management at George Washington University.
New Scholarship for Students From The Bahamas to Attend Central State University
Ten students from the Bahamas will receive four-year scholarships to attend Central State University each year for the next four years. The scholarships, for students from public schools in the Bahamas, will be financed primarily through the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology in The Bahamas.
Alabama State University Partners With a Nigerian Educational Institution
Alabama State University, the historically Black education institution in Montgomery has signed a partnership agreement with Adekunie Ajasin University in Nigeria. The agreement calls for both student and faculty exchanges between the two universities.
University of North Carolina Asheville Acquires African American Photographic Archive
The Special Collections and University Archives has acquired an archive of more than 1,000 photographs of the African American community in Asheville from the 1950s through the 1970s.
Notable Honors for Two African American Scholars
The honorees are Don C. Locke, distinguished professor emeritus of counselor education at North Carolina State University and William B. DeLauder, president emeritus of historically Black Delaware State University.
Seven African Americans in New Higher Education Administrative Posts
Here is this week’s roundup of African Americans who have been appointed to new administrative positions at colleges and universities throughout the United States.
