Black Issues in Higher Education articles from May 1999

Black Issues in Higher Education archives from May 1999

UNCF Urges More Federal Funding For Black Colleges in 2000.(United Negro College Fund)
May 13, 1999... The College Fund/UNCF is asking Congress for budget increases that would propel the government's historically Black college funding program past the $200 million mark next year. College Fund/UNCF President William Gray, a former member of...

New Round of Fordice Hearings While Board Considers Privatizing Ole Miss.(Ayers v. Fordice; African American universities)
May 13, 1999... JACKSON, Miss.--U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers Jr. has told the Mississippi College Board to prepare for a new round of court hearings in the 24-year-old Ayers v. Fordice lawsuit that accuses the state of favoring White colleges over...

Retention Rates Drop for Georgia's HOPE Scholars.
May 13, 1999... ATLANTA--The percentage of students who retained their HOPE scholarship has dropped 4 percent, a decline educators partially blame on potential grade inflation in high school. The Georgia Student Finance Commission, which runs the HOPE...

Texas Asks Court to Reconsider Hopwood.(affirmative action case)
May 13, 1999... AUSTIN, Texas--The University of Texas, last month, asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its Hopwood ruling, the decision that led to the elimination of affirmative action policies at the state's public colleges and...

Hampton Coaches Sue for $30 Million in False Arrest Case.(Hampton, Virginia, basketball coach; race discrimination)
May 13, 1999... HAMPTON, Va.--The Hampton University women's basketball coach, her assistant, and her husband have filed a civil action lawsuit against the city of Lubbock, Texas, and several of its police officers, claiming they were unlawfully arrested (see...

Mayor Backs Away from Proposal to Move UDC.(University of the District of Columbia; Mayor Anthony Williams)
May 13, 1999... WASHINGTON--Mayor Anthony Williams apologized to more than 500 students and faculty at the University of the District of Columbia last month for failing to consult with them before taking steps to move their school. "I do apologize,"...

Louisiana House Proposes Jail Time for NCAA Violators.(National Collegiate Athletic Association)
May 13, 1999... BATON ROUGE, La.--Lester Earl may be alive and well in Kansas, but his ghost haunts the Louisiana House of Representatives. Members voted 87-10, last month, to make student athletes--as well as boosters, agents, and others--eligible for...

What's New.(Johnson C. Smith University; St. John's University; Savannah State University)
May 13, 1999... Johnson C. Smith University, in Charlotte, N.C., announced, last month, that it will be joining the IBM ThinkPad University program through which all of its students will receive IBM ThinkPad notebook computers. JCSU is the first historically...

FAMU Could Face Budget Cuts.(Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University)
May 13, 1999... TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--Florida A&M University (FAMU) stands to lose approximately $3.75 million in funding because of a change in the way university students are counted in the state budget, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. ...

Board Member Resigns After Making Racial Remark.(East Carolina University)
May 13, 1999... GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Walter L. Williams, a member of the East Carolina University Board of Trustees for whom the school's basketball arena is named, has decided to resign after making a racial remark during an April 7th speech. Williams...

Arkansas State to Give Native Americans Tuition Break.
May 13, 1999... JONESBORO, Ark. -- The Arkansas State University (ASU) Board of Trustees voted to give tuition breaks to American Indians who have ancestral links to Arkansas. The board agreed to limit tuition for some Native Americans, whether Arkansas...

Black Alaskan Police Organization Recruiting from HBCUs.(historically black colleges and universities)
May 13, 1999... ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- For a group representing Alaska's Black police officers, getting more minorities into the Anchorage Police Department (APD) comes down to getting out the word to the right people. The Alaska Black Law Enforcement...

Students Unite to Search for Ways Around I-200.(anti-affirmative action initiative)
May 13, 1999... SEATTLE -- Some students at the University of Washington (UW) have formed what they call a "multicultural think tank" to maintain the school's diversity in the wake of anti-affirmative action Initiative 200. The think tank will come up...

University Rescinds Mass Suspension of Black Greek Organizations.(The University of Alabama)
May 13, 1999... BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- The University of Alabama-Birmingham (UAB) rescinded a mass suspension of all its Black Greek-letter organizations, last month, after some students questioned why White groups were not treated the same way. A school...

Maryland Report Documents Ongoing Disparites.(African American education)
May 13, 1999... WASHINGTON -- In the first of what is expected to be a series of state-by-state reports on the status of Blacks in higher education in the South, the Southern Education Foundation (SEF) declares that although Maryland has been in some ways a...

Fired Baton Rouge Employee Alleges Discrimination.(Baton Rouge Community College)
May 13, 1999... COMPLAINTS OF DISCRIMINATION BY A LATINA INSTRUCTOR AT BATON ROUGE COMMUNITY COLLEGE HAVE COMPELLED A LOUISIANA STATE SENATOR TO CALL FOR AN INVESTIGATION BATON ROUGE, La. -- A former instructor at Baton Rouge Community College has sued...

Waste Not, Want Not.(African American gene research)
May 13, 1999... SOUTH CAROLINA RESEARCHERS BELIEVE A `THRIFTY GENE' HANDED DOWN TO RESIDENTS OF THE SEA ISLANDS FROM AFRICAN ANCESTORS COULD EXPLAIN THE PREVALENCE OF DIABETES AMONG BLACK AMERICANS CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Nearly four decades after a geneticist...

The Study of Whiteness.(caucasians)
May 13, 1999... IN RECENT YEARS, A BURGEONING NUMBER OF PUBLICATIONS, ARTICLES, AND COURSES DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF WHITENESS HAS CAUSED SOME SCHOLARS TO ASK WHETHER THIS IS SERIOUS SCHOLARSHIP WITH A FUTURE, OR A PASSING CULTURAL FANCY At a conference...

Whiteness Studies: Deceptive or Welcome Discourse?(Interview)
May 13, 1999... DR. MAULANA KARENGA WAS ONE OF THE SCHOLARS WHO PRESSED FOR BLACK STUDIES IN THE LATE 60S AND EARLY 70S AS THE AUTHOR OF INTRODUCTION TO BLACK STUDIES A TEXT USED WIDELY THROUGHOUT THE ACADEMY, HE ALSO IS THE FOUNDER OF KWANZAA, A CELEBRATION...

Back from the Brink of Extinction.(Institute of American Indian and Alaska Native Culture and Arts Development)
May 13, 1999... AFTER SURVIVING FUNDING BATTLES AND A STUDENT INSURRECTION, AMONG OTHER THINGS, THE NATION'S PREMIER NATIVE AMERICAN ARTS INSTITUTE FINALLY IS GETTING A HOME OF ITS OWN Its federal funding was slashed by nearly half and nearly cut off...

Black Issues Quiz.
May 13, 1999... The Black Issues Quiz offers you an opportunity to test your knowledge on the people, places, issues, and history surrounding the struggle for academic equity. Each question is based on information published in the current or previous editions...

GATEWAY 21.
May 13, 1999... OPENS ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE Dr. Morris Simon is accustomed to using obscure and hard-to-find academic journals in his research as an anthropologist and international studies professor at Stillman College. Recently, articles in the...

What is Ethnic Cleansing, Really?
May 13, 1999... Ignorance is bliss, especially in historical context. This is why so many Americans seem so extraordinarily moved by the "ethnic cleansing" that is taking place in Kosovo. The killings of Albanians are outrageous, to be sure. But people are...

St. Augustine V.P. and Husband File Suits Against the College.
May 13, 1999... RALIEGH, N.C.--The vice president of St. Augustine's College has filed a $7 million lawsuit against the college and top administrators alleging sexual harassment, and gender and employment discrimination. Her husband, a former employee also...

Notre Dame Gets First Black Mascot.
May 13, 1999... SOUTH BEND, Ind.--It's hard to miss the vivid color of Michael Brown's uniform as the leprechaun mascot for the University of Notre Dame. But these days it is the color of Brown's skin that has captured the attention of many longtime Fighting...

University Honors First Black Student.
May 13, 1999... LEXINGTON, Ky.--Within sight of a lawn where a cross was burned to protest the integration of the University of Kentucky, the son of the school's first Black student helped unveil a historical marker in his father's honor. Lyman M....

Mississippi Valley Launches $25 Million Campaign.
May 13, 1999... ITTA BENA, Miss. -- Mississippi Valley State University is undertaking the largest private campaign in its history, a five-year $25 million fund drive to enhance scholarships, attract top faculty, and upgrade academic programs. "We're...

Career CONSULTANTS.
May 13, 1999... Dear BI Career Consultants: I'm Interested in getting as academic/administrative appointment but have nontraditional credentials: l.e. no Ph.D. How do I do about getting an appointment? DR. ERNESTINE MADISON associate vice president...

Professional APPOINTMENTS.
May 13, 1999... ACADEMIC DR. KELLY S. ERVIN, an assistant professor of comparative American cultures at Washington State University, is the new editor of the Western Journal of Black Studies. The journal is a national publication printed three times a...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
May 13, 1999... The credentials listed in the April 15, edition for Thomas J. Elzey, Howard University's new executive vice president/chief operations officer were incorrect. Elzey has a bachelor's degree in economics from Bradley University; and a master's...

GRANTS & AWARDS.
May 13, 1999... * Ramapo College has successfully completed a $2.4 million Kresge Foundation Challenge grant after raising more than $1.9 million in new gifts and pledges. The money will be used to support construction of the Angelica and Russ Berrie Center...

Interrupting the Patterns of Discrimination.
May 13, 1999... Two years ago, I read a short article by renown scholar C. Eric Lincoln called, "All [N.....s] Have to Wait: A Child's First Lesson in Jim Crow." In the article, Lincoln discusses how he first came to know, in the subjective sense, the dual...

WASHINGTON UPDATE.(Review)
May 27, 1999... Lawmakers Trade Barbs During Budget Debate It's role reversal time in Congress, and some Democrats are not happy about it. Democrats find themselves on the defensive this year as Republicans take shots at President Bill Clinton's...

Letters to the Editor.
May 27, 1999... Mistaken Identity Dear Editor, I admire your magazine and read it to keep abreast of pertinent issues in higher education. However, I must point out an error in Kari Leveton's essay on Paul Robeson (see Black Issues, April 15, 1999)....

Conservative Successfully `Defunds' Professorship Named for Anita Hill.
May 27, 1999... OKLAHOMA CITY -- The University of Oklahoma is ending an endowed professorship named for Anita Hill, which has never been filled, following the successful campaign of a longtime conservative political activist. "Defund the Anita Hill...

Central State in the Black for First Time in 14 Years.
May 27, 1999... WILBERFORCE, Ohio -- Central State University, rocked by financial problems in. the past, has reported a positive budget balance for the first time in 14 years, the school announced earlier this month. According to an audit by Price...

Americo Paredes, a Founder of the Chicano Studies Movement, Dies.
May 27, 1999... AUSTIN, Texas -- One of the founders of the Chicano studies movement, Dr. Americo Paredes, died here on May 5. He was 83. At the time of his death, the writer and folklorist was professor emeritus of English and anthropology at the...

U. Michigan Seeks Dismissal of Discrimination Suits.
May 27, 1999... DETROIT -- The University of Michigan asked two federal judges, earlier this month, to uphold its admission policies in a summary judgment and not proceed with the trials of two discrimination lawsuits filed by White applicants. The Center...

Slow Going for Diversity in Tennessee.
May 27, 1999... NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee's colleges and universities are making progress toward desegregation goals established 15 years ago, but in most instances the goals have not been met. The figures were released late last month in the annual...

Howard Hospital Demotes Reinstated Doctor.
May 27, 1999... WASHINGTON--After suspending a high-risk pregnancy specialist for 15 months because of questions about her care and then reinstating her, Howard University Hospital officials have now demoted her, according to The Washington Post. The...

Programs, Accreditations, & Initiatives.
May 27, 1999... In the spring semester of 2000, the Southern University and A&M College School of Nursing in Baton Rouge, La., will admit its first doctoral candidates. The new Ph.D. program is the first of its kind at a historically Black institution. ...

Asian American Studies Protest at UT-Austin.
May 27, 1999... AUSTIN, Texas - After a weekend of unrest here at the University of Texas, a rally protesting the arrest of 10 students concluded when administrators agreed to meet with students to discuss recent decisions made concerning the creation of a new...

Rosa Parks Gets Honorary Degree from USC.
May 27, 1999... LOS ANGELES -- Rosa Parks, 86, who is often hailed as the mother of the civil rights movement, received an honorary degree from the University of Southern California earlier this month. Last month, President Clinton signed a bill that would...

Tuskegee U. Opens New Bioethics Center.
May 27, 1999... TUSKEGEE, Ala. - A new bioethics center focusing on medical issues for minorities is opening in this town where Black men with syphilis went untreated for 40 years while participating in a notorious government study. National Center for...

URI Moves to Ease Racial Tension.
May 27, 1999... SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. -- The University of Rhode island (URI) will establish links with African universities, create new scholarships, and take other steps to increase racial diversity on campus, the school and federal mediators say. The...

University of Rochester President Apologizes to Black Students.
May 27, 1999... ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The president of the University of Rochester is apologizing to Black students following an incident that arose between them and school security officers that ended with the arrest of four students. The security officers...

Oregon State Student Target of Racial Harassment, Again.
May 27, 1999... EUGENE, Ore. - A Black student from Oregon State University, whose harassment three years ago provoked protests and reforms on campus, has once again become the victim of racism. Frederick Harris, now a senior, was walking home May 1 when a...

Las Vegas Trip Under Scrutiny in Haskins Case.
May 27, 1999... MINNEAPOLIS- University of Minnesota President Mark Yudof says he has asked the institution's lead attorney, Mark Rotenberg, to investigate allegations of improper travel by the men's basketball coaching staff. A 1997 Las Vegas trip and...

Oregon Schools Struggle to Retain Minority Professors.
May 27, 1999... EUGENE, Ore. -- Dr. Quintard Taylor has a reputation as one of the country's preeminent experts on Black history. The University of Oregon professor is respected by colleagues, popular with students and was recently named a Knight...

BIG WIN FOR ETHNIC STUDIES AT BERKELEY.
May 27, 1999... BERKELEY, Calif. -- The bitter three-week-long dispute between the University of California-Berkeley's students and administrators over the status of the university's ethnic studies programs ended in an agreement one protester calls the biggest...

Penalizing SUCCESS?
May 27, 1999... THE MEDIA DARLING A MERE TWO YEARS AGO FLORIDA A&M NOW STRUGGLES AGAINST A HOSTILE STATE LEGISLATURE AND INTERNAL TROUBLES BROUGHT ON BY RAPID GROWTH TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--When Dr. Frederick S. Humphries became president of Florida A&M...

FAMU Journalism Ph.D. Controversy.
May 27, 1999... The friction between the Florida A&M University Journalism school and the university's President, Dr. Frederick S. Humphries, over the Issue of tenure has been going on for more than a year. Humphries has refused to grant tenure to faculty...

Georgetown Protest Supports African Studies.
May 27, 1999... WASHINGTON Scores of Georgetown University students of color held a rally on the campus Red Square early this month in protest of what they describe as racist treatment of the university s African studies program. Food for thought, said...

Golf Tournament's Bogey.
May 27, 1999... PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- In a competition laced with confusion and irony Bethune-Cookman College's men's team won the National Minority College Golf White team of students who hail from abroad. Adding to the irony, two teams of minority players...

Race Women Stepping Forward.(protest male-centered African Studies programs)
May 27, 1999... FOLLOWING IN THE PATH OF PEOPLE LIKE MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE, PAULLI MURRAY, AND ANNA JULIA COOPER, TODAY'S GENERATION OF RACE WOMEN IS CARVING A WIDE PATH IN THE ACADEMY, TRANSFORMING THE ROLE SCHOLARSHIP BY BLACK WOMEN CAN AND MUST PLAY IN...

BI Bookshelf.(Black issues)
May 27, 1999... African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote 1850-1920 By Rosalyn Terborg-Penn Indiana University Press, 1998 Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism By bell hooks South End Press, 1981 All the Woman Are White. All...

Black Feminist Foremothers.
May 27, 1999... EARLY RACE WOMEN FROM SLAVERY TO CIVIL RIGHTS In 1977, Barbara Smith coined the phrase "Black Feminist Criticism" in her essay of the same title(Conditions, 1977). She discusses invisibility of Black women and Black feminist thought in...

Earning and Demanding R-E-S-P-E-C-T.(philosophy of Black professor Sarah Lawrence-Lightfoot)
May 27, 1999... AUTHOR, SOCIOLOGIST, AND HARVARD UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR, DR, SARAH LAWRENCE-LIGHTFOOT SHARES HER THOUGHTS ON WHAT RESPECT MEANS FOR BLACK WOMEN IN THE ACADEMY Any good professor knows that sometimes, the most teachable moments emerge when...

MIT Names its First Black Academic Dean.(Dr. Isaac M. Colbert of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
May 27, 1999... CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Dr. Isaac M. "Ike" Colbert has been named Dean for Graduate Students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and will be a member of the Academic Council effective July 1. Colbert will be the first Black academic dean in...

Exodus of Women Leave FSU Law School; Some Cite Racial Tension.
May 27, 1999... TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--Five female professors, including one of only three Black faculty members at the law school, resigned earlier this month from the Florida State University -- four of them saying they had been harassed almost daily by fellow...

University Clears Administrator Accused of Hazing.(Lincoln University's Arnold Hence will not be charged)
May 27, 1999... OXFORD, Pa.--A Lincoln University official accused by students of watching fraternity members haze pledges and doing nothing to stop it has been cleared of any wrongdoing by a university commission. Interim university President James...

Black Issues Quiz.
May 27, 1999... 1 Although underrepresented minority enrollment in America's dental schools dropped by just over 2 percent between 1994 and 1997, according to the American Dental Association, which group saw a rise in enrollment during that time? ...

Career CONSULTANTS.(letters)
May 27, 1999... Dear BI Career Consultants: What kinds of initiatives do higher education institutions need to create supportive environments that facilitate minority faculty retention? DR.CAROLINE S. TURNER associate professor of educational policy...

Professional APPOINTMENTS.
May 27, 1999... PRICE TAKES HELM, MAKES HISTORY AT MARYGROVE COLLEGE DR. GLENDA D. PRICE has become the seventh president and the first African American female to head Marygrove College in Detroit. Before coming to Marygrove, she served as provost of...

GRANTS & AWARDS.
May 27, 1999... * Tuskegee University has been awarded a $2.5 million grant from the Ford Motor Company. The grant which will be awarded over the next five years, will be used to help renovate Tukegee's College of Business. Organization and Management, and to...

Black Women Need The Power of History to Fuel the Future.
May 27, 1999... History has its own power, and Black women, more than ever before, need its truths to challenge hateful assumptions, negative stereotypes, myths, lies, and distortions about our own role in the progress of time. Black women need to know the...