Monthly Archives: April 2023

Stillman College Wins the 2023 Honda Campus All-Star Challenge

The event is an academic competition for students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities that was hosted on the American Honda corporate campus in Torrance, California. This was the 34th time Stillman College participated in the competition but the first time it won the national championship.

A Pair of Black Scholars Who Have Been Appointed to New Faculty Roles

Elisha Chambers was appointed director of the new master's degree program in occupational therapy at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke and Isrea Butler will be the next director of the School of Music at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

National Endowment for the Humanities Awards Grants to Several HBCUs

The National Endowment for the Humanities recently announced more than $30 million in grants to colleges, universities, nonprofit groups, and other organizations. Among the grantees are several historically Black colleges and universities.

Two African American Men Win Prestigious Awards

Robert Bullard, the Distinguished Professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University has been selected to receive the Horizon Award from the Harvard Law School’s Environmental Law Society and James L. Moore III, the chief diversity officer at Ohio State University, received the Transformative Impact Award from the American Counseling Association.

Delaware State University to Be the First HBCU to Offer Helicopter Flight Training

The first cohort of ROTC helicopter students will begin their training in the fall semester 2023. The U.S. Army will cover the cost of the tuition, books, and related flight lab fees for the ROTC cadets. After the first cohort of ROTC cadets, any student in the university's aviation program will be eligible to pursue helicopter flight training.

A Quartet of Black Administrators in New Higher Education Roles

Taking on new administrative duties are Antoinette Candia-Bailey at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, Javier McCoy at West Virginia University, Adell Brown at Alcorn State University in Mississippi, and Renae Myles Payne at Fort Valley State University in Georgia.

In Memoriam: Lilly Adams-Dudley, 1950-2023

In 1975, Lilly Adams-Dudley joined the staff at Canisius College as a language arts specialist. She retired in 2018 as the director of Canisius Opportunity Programs for Education (COPE) which provided scholarships, mentoring, and tutoring for students from underrepresented groups.

We Must Protect This House: Guarding Black Women College Athletes 

Authors Jewel Clark and Rachel Wilson Patterson examine the double standard applied to Black and White athletes and the need to affirm, uplift and celebrate Black women athletes.

College Board Once Again Making Revisions to Advanced Placement Course on Black Studies

In the fall of 2022, The College Board offered an Advanced Placement course in African American studies for the first time. The course was offered in 60 high schools throughout the United States in a pilot program. Now 800 schools are planning to offer the course. But controversy about the content of the course persists.

The First Black Woman in Vanderbilt University’s Neurosurgery Residency Program

According to the American Society of Black Neurosurgeons, there are currently only 33 Black women who are in the field of neurosurgery in the United States. Tamia Potter, who completed her medical degree at Case Western Reserve University, will be the first Black women neurosurgery resident at Vanderbilt in the program's 91-year history.

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.

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.

The First African American to Deliver the Bampton Lectures at the University of Oxford

Willie James Jennings an associate professor of systematic theology at Yale Divinity School, has been selected to deliver the Bampton Lectures for 2023 at the University of Oxford in England. He is the first African American selected to give these lectures in the 243-year history of the program.

New ACE Report Presents Data on College Presidents Who Are Black

The American Council on Education report finds that the college presidency remains older, White, and male. But, Blacks or African Americans were 13.6 percent of college or university presidents, approximately equal to the percentage of Blacks in the U.S. population.

Vann R. Newkirk Selected as the Next President of Wilberforce University in Ohio

Dr. Newkirk has been serving as interim associate vice president at Alabama A&M University in Huntsville. Earlier, Dr. Newkirk was named provost and vice president for academic affairs at Fisk University in 2018 and became president in February 2021.

Racial Disparities in Working From Home Before and After the Pandemic

In 2019, Whites were 80.5 percent of all people who worked from home. Blacks made up 7.8 percent of all home-based workers. By 2021, Whites were 66.8 percent of all home-based workers and Blacks made up 9.5 percent of this group.

Racist Images Still Persist in Anthropology and Medical Texts and in Museums

Racist and sexist depictions of human evolution still permeate a broad range of cultural materials in popular media, education, and science, according to a new study led by researchers at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Racist Images Still Persists in Anthropology and Medical Texts and in Museums

Racist and sexist depictions of human evolution still permeate a broad range of cultural materials in popular media, education, and science, according to a new study led by researchers at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Marshall Fulbright III Named President of Monterey Peninsula College

Marshall Fulbright III was appointed superintendent and president of the Monterey Peninsula Community College District in California. Monterey Peninsula Community College enrolls just over 6,800...

Marshall Fulbright III Named President of the Monterey Peninsula Community College

Dr. Fulbright is currently the vice president of academic affairs at Grossmont College in El Cajon, California. Previously he was an instructional dean at Norco College and the College of the Sequoias.

A Change in Leadership at Alcorn State University in Mississippi

The Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning in Mississippi announced that Felecia Nave, who served as the 20th president of Alcorn State University since 2019, was no longer leading the educational institution. Provost Ontario S Wooden was named interim president.

“Hate Comes Tumbling Down:” Morgan State Demolishes the Spite Wall

In 1917, what is now Morgan State University purchased land to build a new campus in the Lauraville neighborhood of Baltimore. The surrounding neighborhood was predominantly White. As the campus expanded, in the early 1940s White residents built a brick wall to separate the HBCU campus from their community.

“Hate Comes Tumbloing Down:” Morgan State Demolishes the Spite Wall

In 1917, what is now Morgan State University purchased land to build a new campus in the Lauraville neighborhood of Baltimore. The surrounding neighborhood was predominantly White. As the campus expanded, in the early 1940s White residents built a brick wall to separate the HBCU campus from their community.

A Trio of Black Scholars in New Faculty Positions

William T. Brooks has been named an assistant professor of music at Albany State University in Georgia. Ericmoore Jossou will be joining the engineering faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this summer and Joan Blakey is the new director of the University of Minnesota School of Social Work.

Two HBCUs Join With Georgetown University to Combat Enviromental Injustice

The Environmental Impact Data Collaborative is a cross-institutional partnership that will allow researchers to directly engage with communities most affected by environmental injustice and develop a diverse network of researchers and activists who can transform data into solutions that promote equity and combat climate change.

Four African Americans Who Have Been Named to University Administrative Positions

Taking on new administrative duties are Elfred Anthony Pinkard at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Whitney McDowell-Robinson at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia, Terryl Brown at Pace University in New York, and Rochie C. Hunter at the University of Michigan.

Alabama State University Partners With South University for Pharmacy Diversity

Data shows that at present, only 7.6 percent of the registered pharmacist in the nation are members of a minority community. In 2023, only 143 pharmacy students in the U.S. are African-American. This new agreement hopes to encourage more Black students to pursue pharmacy doctorates.

Two African American Women Appointed to Endowed Chairs

Stacey Abrams was named the inaugural Ronald W. Walters Endowed Chair for Race and Black Politics at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Rhonda Y. Williams was named to the Coleman A. Young Endowed Chair in the department of African American studies at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Camara Phyllis Jones Honored for Her Contributions to Health Education

Camara Phyllis Jones received the 2023 Elizabeth Fries Health Education Award from the CDC Foundation and the James F. and Sarah T. Fries Foundation. Dr. Jones was honored for her exceptional ability to educate about pathways linking racism to poor health outcomes.

President of Langston University in Oklahoma Will Be Leaving Academia

Kent J. Smith, Jr., announced that he will retire as president of Langston University in Oklahoma at the end of the current semester. Dr. Smith will become the owner/operator of a Chick-fil-A franchise.

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.

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.

Head of African American Studies Department at Penn State Resigns in Protest

Michael West, head of the African American studies department at Pennsylvania State University, has resigned as chair but will remain a member of the faculty. He has served less than one year of a five-year term. Dr. West says that five faculty have left the department since 2019 and only two new faculty members have been hired.

Record Number of Black Admits at the University of Southern California

The university reports that 13 percent of all students offered admission, identify as Black, a record for the university. In the fall of 2020, only 8.6 percent of the entering class was Black.

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