Monthly Archives: October 2021
Olufunke Fontenot is the New Provost at Fort Valley State University in Georgia
Before coming to Fort Valley State University in 2019, Dr. Fontenot served as the interim regional vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of South Florida – St. Petersburg. Dr. Fontenot also served as associate provost and associate vice president for academic affairs, and interim provost and vice president for academic affairs at Albany State University in Georgia.
The Lingering Effects of the Federal Government’s Redlining of Black Neighborhoods
Beginning in the 1930s and 40s, the federal government delineated areas where mortgages could be insured. These redlining policies, which remained in effect until the 1960s, led to decades of community disinvestment, concentrated poverty in inner-city neighborhoods, and denied residents the ability to build intergenerational wealth through homeownership. Health impacts remain to this day.
Three African Americans Who Have Been Appointed Deans at Universities
Marla Love has been named the Robert W. and Elizabeth C. Staley Dean of Students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Asquith S. “Sean” Armstrong has been named dean of University College at Washington University in St. Louis and Arlene J. Montgomery is the new interim dean of the School of Nursing at Hampton University in Virginia.
Lisa Harrison of Ohio University Recognized for Her Contributions to Middle-Level Education
Lisa Harrison, an associate professor and program coordinator for Middle Childhood Education at Ohio University, is the recipient of the John H. Lounsbury Award for Distinguished Service in Middle Level Education from the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE).
Train the Trainer Career Readiness Program to Help HBCU Students Navigate the Job Market
The Thurgood Marshall College fund is teaming up with Grant Thornton and American Express for a Train the Trainer Program. The two-and-half days of programming will focus on fostering professional preparation skills and resources at eight HBCUs, with a goal of ensuring students can thrive in internships and full-time positions.
Six African American Faculty Members Who Are Taking on New Roles or Duties in Higher Education
Taking on new assignments are Kimberly Mayfield at Holy Names University in Oakland, Hugh Mighty at Howard University in Washington, D.C., Thelma Hurd at the University of California, Merced, Martell Teasley at the University of Utah, DeAnnah Byrd at Arizona State University, and Castel V. Sweet at the University of Mississippi.
Norfolk State University Teams Up With Apple to Upgrade Students’ Technology Capabilities
The university gave every incoming and returning student an iPad Pro with ultra-fast 5G speeds to access their studies on and off campus, as well as Apple Pencil, Apple Smart Keyboard Folio, and AirPods Pro. When the students graduate from Norfolk State they can buy the devices for a nominal $1 fee.
Bowdoin College’s Michael Cato Honored for His Efforts to Promote Diversity
Michael Cato, senior vice president and chief information officer at Bowdoin College in Brunswick Maine, is the recipient of the 2021 Diversity, Education, and Inclusion Award from EDUCAUSE, the nonprofit informational technology association.
North Carolina Central University Partners With Wake Technical Community College for Accounting
Under the agreement, students who earn an associate degree in accounting and finance at Wake Technical Community College may now transfer those credits to North Carolina Central University and complete a bachelor's degree in accounting in two years.
Seven African Americans Taking on New Administrative Roles at Universities
The new appointees are Timothy Hatchett at Fort Valley State University in Georgia, Santee Ezell at Mississippi State University, Erica Alexander at Howard University, Mea E. Ashley at Mississippi University for Women, Letitia C. Wall at Winston-Salem State University, Laiya Thomas at Marquette University in Milwaukee, and Jacqueline Blackett at Columbia University in New York.
Recent Books 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. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view.
Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers
Each week, JBHE will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week’s selections.
Bowdoin College in Maine Has Established Four Endowed Chairs to Honor Black Alumni
Bowdoin College, the highly rated liberal arts college in Brunswick, Maine, has announced the creation of four new endowed faculty professorships that honor distinguished Black graduates of the college. The four new chairs will honor Matthew D. Branche, Iris W. Davis. Rasuli Lewis, and Frederic Morrow.
Higher Education Grants or Gifts of Interest to African Americans
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.
Duke University Renames Building to Honor Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke
Wilhelmina Reuben-Cooke was one of the first five Black students to integrate the Duke campus in 1963. She becomes the first Black woman to have a campus building named after her. She joins historian John Hope Franklin and campus architect Julian Abele as having buildings or grounds named after them on the Duke campus.
Jelani Favors Appointed to an Endowed Chair at North Carolina A&T State University
The Henry E. Frye Distinguished Professorship is named for an American judge and politician who served as the first African American chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. Judge Frye and his wife, Shirley, are graduates of North Carolina A&T State University and established the endowed faculty position.
The Large Racial Gap in Home Internet Access in the Rural South
A new report from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies finds that in the Black rural South, 25.8 percent of residents lack the option to subscribe to high-speed broadband compared to 8.8 percent of non-southern rural residents and 3.8 percent of all Americans. Even where broadband is available in the Black rural South, many find it unaffordable.
Kyle Farmbry Will Be the Tenth President of Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina
Dr. Farmbry has been serving as a professor of public administration in the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University in Newark. Earlier, he was dean of the Graduate School at Rutgers-Newark. When Dr. Farmbry takes office on January 1, he will be the first African American to serve as Guilford College's president.
Study Finds Differences in Perception of Mental Health Providers’ Cultural Competence
A new study by researchers at Yale University, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and Vanderbilt University finds that patients who identify as racial and ethnic minorities prefer medical providers who share and understand their culture, but those patients are not as likely as others to access providers who can provide such care.
Prairie State College in Illinois Names Its First African American President
Dr. Michael D. Anthony previously served as the vice president of student affairs and enrollment management at Rochester Community and Technical College in Rochester, Minnesota. Earlier, he was the inaugural chief diversity officer at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines, Illinois, and inaugural director of the Cultural Center at the University of Louisville.
African Americans Are Making Slow Progress in Closing the Racial Gap in Investments
Researchers examined investment account ownership across more than 80,000 households of differing racial and ethnic backgrounds over a six-year period. They found only about a quarter of African American adults owned a taxable investment account, and more than half owned no investments of any kind.
Three African American Women Who Have Been Appointed to Dean Positions
Lynette Luckers is the new dean of counseling and completion services at Delaware County Community College in Media, Pennsylvania. Debbie G. Thomas has been appointed dean of the College of Education at Grambling State University in Louisiana and Tawana Parks was appointed the Martha A. Darling Dean of Students at Reed College in Portland. Oregon.
Six Black Scholars Who Have Been Given New Faculty Assignments
Taking on new positions are Bianca Baldridge at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Stephen Buckley at Duke University in North Carolina, Joshua Bartholomew at the Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas, Emily Greenwood at Princeton University in New Jersey, Warrick Moses at Syracuse University in New York, and Charles Peterson at Oberlin College in Ohio.
Three HBCUs Join Forces to Examines Best Practices in STEM Program Retention at HBCUs
The center, known as “STEM-US,” will be housed at Morehouse College. The three HBCUs will share a $9 million award from the National Science Foundation. The five-year grant will assist in the ultimate goal of implementing effective interventions that will increase retention across all STEM disciplines and improve graduation rates to above the national average.
Universities Announce the Hiring of Seven African Americans for Administrative Positions
Taking on new administrative assignments are Joseph M. Corazzini at Clark University, Andrea Sankey at Prairie View A&M University, Lorri L. Saddler at Clark Atlanta University, Maurita N. Poole at Tulane University, Nelson Mosely at the University of Kansas, Brittany Straw at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and Haley Gingles at Winston-Salem State University.
Norfolk State University to Offer a New Master’s Degree Program in Health Analytics
Historically Black Norfolk State University, in consortium with the Virginia Department of Health and the Hampton Roads Community Health Center, seeks to produce 100 underrepresented minority graduates by December 2024. Health informatics utilizes information technology to improve healthcare outcomes.
Tarisha Stanley Wins the Teaching Literature Book Award for Her Work on Octavia Butler
Tarshia Stanley, dean of the division of Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, and professor of English at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota, has been selected as the winner of the Teaching Literature Book Award, an international prize for the best book on teaching literature at the college level. The award is presented biennially by the graduate faculty in English at Idaho State University.
Students at 35 HBCUs Can Receive Full-Tuition Scholarships at Suffolk University Law School
The scholarship is named for Thaddeus Alexander Kitchener, who was the first student of color to graduate from Suffolk Law. Originally from Jamaica, Kitchener graduated in 1913. Before being accepted at Suffolk Law, Kitchener was working as a janitor at what is now Simmons University in Boston. After law school, Kitchener continued to work as a janitor until at least 1918.
Five African Americans Who Have Been Appointed to Higher Education Diversity Posts
The five African Americans taking on new diversity roles are G. Christopher Hunt at Moravian University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Randi Congleton at the University of Pittsburgh, Herman Gray at Wayne State University in Detroit, Natara Gray at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, and Jordan Brandt at the University of Kansas.
Online Articles That May Be of Interest to JBHE Readers
Each week, JBHE will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. Here are this week’s selections.
Recent Books 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. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view.
Pennsylvania State University Launches Its Center for Racial Justice
The new center will be dedicated to research and scholarship around racism and racial bias. It will be housed within the Social Science Research Institute, which aims to foster research addressing critical human and social problems.
Higher Education Grants or Gifts of Interest to African Americans
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.
In Memoriam: Valree Fletcher Wynn, 1922-2021
Dr. Wynn was the first Black woman to earn a master's degree in English and the first Black woman to earn a Ph.D. in English at Oklahoma State University. In 1965, she became the first Black faculty member at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma.
Hate Group Targets Campus of the University of Saint Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota
Posters and stickers referencing the Patriotfront, a known white supremacist group, were found attached to doors, signs, and posts at various locations on the campus of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.
A Snapshot of African American Enrollments in Private K-12 Schools in the United States
Of the more than 4.6 million students enrolled in private schools in the United States in 2019, 9.4 percent were Black or African American. Blacks made up a greater percentage of students in smaller private schools and in private schools in urban areas.
