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Chicago-native Chestang arrived in Lorman, Miss., in 2005, after accepting an athletic scholarship to what is affectionately known as the “reservation.”  Confident that he was finally on the road to providing financially for his family back in the Windy City, Chestang was living his “dream”:

I felt basketball was my way to the American dream to help my family, Chestang said. It was the grown-up brotherhood thing that I was looking for.

According to Chestang, the dream became a nightmare when a basketball game forced him to miss a psychology exam in 2008.  Enter, Dr. Simpson, a tenured professor at Alcorn State and adored by students for his unique and innovative approach to psychology and his willingness to serve as mentor to students in his program.

Chestang is now accusing Dr. Simpson of sexually propositioning him in exchange for the opportunity to retake the test.

If I wanted to take the test, I [could], but it had to be at his house, Chestang said.

According to the 6’8″ ball player, what he discovered when he went to Simpson’s house with a friend shocked him to his core:

He comes to the door with a gown on. He lets us in, but then he lays across the couch, Chestang said. He knew I was trying to get eligible, but he kept holding it over my head.

Chestang claims that he didn’t accept Simpson’s alleged sexual advances, and in retaliation, the professor refused to change his grade. From that point, Chestang began reportedly recording conversations with Simpson.

On the tape, a man alleged to be the psych professor can be heard trying to “entice” Chestang, according to WAPT. The man alleged to be Simpson can also be heard sharing how he had helped other students earn college credit. These tapes were presented in court, but a judge ruled that it was not enough to claim sexual harassment. (See court documents here.)

Chestang claims that he reported the incident to school officials, but they didn’t respond. He also claims that after he filed the lawsuit, he received death threats and threatening phone calls from Alcorn State students in support of Simpson.

An anonymous source, currently a junior at the nation’s oldest historically black land-grant institution, says that he doesn’t believe Chestang’s claims:

Doc is a good dude and one of the best professors on the Yard. I think it’s a case of a spoiled basketball player retaliating because a professor wouldn’t let him slide academically.

Dr. Simpson told WAPT’s Travell Eiland that the allegations were false and referred him to his attorney. NewsOne’s calls to Dr. Simpson had not been returned at press time.

Chestang claims that he was not trying to vilify Simpson but just wanted to fulfill his hoop dreams:

All I wanted was to be eligible for ball and he was stopping me.

While ASU President Dr. M Christopher Brown II claims that he is not “familiar” with the case, he says that he will make an official statement once he looks into it.

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But now, just when the country needs HBCUs the most, many in Congress want to slash the federal support HBCUs receive by more than a third — $85 million — even if it means slashing HBCUs’ contribution to the country’s economic and social health.

Read more at the Root.

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His passion led him to marching bands from middle school through college. He was drum major for the famed Marching 100 band of Florida A&M University, a group that has performed at Super Bowls, the Grammys and presidential inaugurations. The prestige also brought a “culture of hazing” and a secret world that played a role in Champion’s death, his family said.

“It needs to stop. The whole purpose is to put this out there and let people know there has to be a change,” Champion’s mother, Pam, said Monday at a news conference.

On Nov. 19, after the school’s football team lost an away game to rival Bethune-Cookman, Champion collapsed on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla., hotel. The 26-year-old junior had been vomiting and complained he couldn’t breathe shortly before he became unconscious.

When authorities arrived about 9:45 p.m., Champion was unresponsive. He died at a nearby hospital.

Authorities have not released any more details, except to say hazing played a role. An attorney representing Champion’s family also refused to talk specifics.

“We are confident from what we’ve learned that hazing was a part of his death. We’ve got to expose this culture and eradicate it,” Christopher Chestnut said. “There’s a pattern and practice of covering up this culture.”

Since Champion’s death, the school has shuttered the famed marching band and the rest of the music department’s performances. The longtime band director, Julian White, was fired.

The college also announced an independent review led by a former state attorney general and an ex-local police chief in Tallahassee, where the historically black college is based.

White, who believes he was unfairly dismissed, said Monday that he had suspended band members for hazing-related incidents before Champion died. White said he feared the death could lead to the end of the storied marching band.

Hazing has a long history in marching bands, particularly at historically black colleges, where a spot in the band is coveted and the performances are sometimes revered as much as the school’s sports teams.

FAMU has been at the center of some of the worst cases. In 2001, former FAMU band member Marcus Parker suffered kidney damage because of a beating with a paddle. Three years earlier, Ivery Luckey, a clarinet player, said he was paddled around 300 times and had to go to the hospital.

The university’s president said the school had been investigating hazing in the band before Champion’s death.

Champion’s parents said their son never spoke of hazing. Robert Champion Sr. said he talked to his son just a few days before his death and everything was fine.

“I wanted to believe stuff like that wouldn’t happen,” he said. “I would ask my son questions. ‘Is there anything you need to tell me? Let me know.’ He told me, ‘Dad everything is going OK. I’m working, trying to go to school and practice.’”

Champion dreamed of leading marching bands. As a child, he would use a broom handle to mimic a band director’s baton. At one point, he designed his own drum major uniform, his mother said.

“You put him on a field in a performance and he would give you a show,” she said.

His first instrument was the clarinet, which he learned to play in the fifth grade. A middle school teacher recognized his talent and he was tapped to lead the school’s orchestra and perform with the Southwest DeKalb High School band as an eighth grader. He could also sing and play keyboards.

Chapel Hill Middle School band director Natalie Brown said she’ll never forget his outgoing personality and phenomenal musicianship.

“He was always smiling. He never gave me a hard time,” she said. “If class was about to start, he’d get everyone quiet and start the warm-up process. He had the drum major mentality way back then.”

Champion wanted to one day teach music. He was so enthusiastic about performing that his mother would call him “Mr. Band.”

At times he struggled with his schoolwork and he didn’t immediately go to Florida A&M after high school. But he eventually enrolled, balancing a job with school and his commitments in the band. In late 2010, he was named drum major.

“His experience in the band was, in his words, great. Robert was happy,” his mother said. “He loved the band and everything that went with it. He loved performing. That was his life. You couldn’t take him out of it.”

The family’s attorney said they hoped a lawsuit would lead to changes at the school and prod other hazing victims to come forward.

“We want to eradicate a culture of hazing so this doesn’t happen again,” said Chestnut. “Hazing is a culture of, ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell.’ The family’s message today is: ‘Please tell.’”
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Attorney Christopher Chestnut said the family plans to file a lawsuit in the death of 26-year-old Robert Champion, who was found Nov. 19 on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla., hotel after the school’s football team lost to rival Bethune-Cookman.

Police say Champion, a clarinet player who recently was named drum major, had been vomiting and complained he couldn’t breathe shortly before he collapsed. Police suspect hazing but have not released any more details about what may have led to Champion’s death. Chestnut also refused to talk about any specifics of the death.

“We are confident from what we’ve learned that hazing was a part of his death. We’ve got to expose this culture and eradicate it,” he said. “There’s a patterns and practice of covering up this culture.”

Champion’s parents said their son never told them about any troubles with the band.

“He loved the band, and every band he’s been in. He loved performing in the band,” said Champion’s mother, Pam Champion. “My thing is to make sure this does not happen to anyone else, let people know this is real.”

Since Champion’s death, the school has shuttered the famed Marching 100 band and the rest of the music department’s performances, and the longtime band director, Julian White, was fired. Florida Gov. Rick Scott has said state investigators would join the probe and the college announced an independent review led by a former state attorney general.

The Marching 100 – whose rich history includes performing at several Super Bowls and representing the U.S. in Paris at the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution – was scheduled to perform at the fall commencement on Dec. 16.

As Troy Davis awaited his fate, HBCU students were fighting to keep him alive. An image I will never forget circulated the ‘net of HU students protesting along the White House fence with fists raised and mouths taped as they sat on the cement. Silence seems to be upon the students, but the photograph, their call to action said so much without a word being spoken. Down in Atlanta 200 students from Clark Atlanta University, Morehouse and Spelman loaded buses to travel to the prison in Jackson, GA where Troy Davis spent the last second of his life.

Again, I was proud to be a graduate of an HBCU.

From Tennessee State University professor Crystal A. deGregory’s “Rainbows in the Clouds of Troy Davis: Student Activism at Howard, Morehouse, Spelman and Clark Atlanta”:

While it is easy view the execution as evidence of failure of activists to stop it, I’m reminded of Mother Maya’s challenge to be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud. As activists, these HBCUs students accepted that challenge. They were rainbows in Troy Davis’ cloud. I hope that these young HBCU activists are reminded of this fact today. Just as the thousands upon thousands of HBCU activists before them, they now know the joys and sorrows of standing up for that which they believe.

After all, Mother Maya never said there wouldn’t be rain.”

Read the full story on HBCU Digest.

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For my first Easter Sunday in New York, I drove to Queens with my significant other to spend the holiday with a fellow alum from Tennessee State University. She and I met through our alma mater’s local chapter. After eating, laughing and chatting, the women headed to the kitchen to help clean up while the men sat in the other room discussing sports and politics. Ms. Betty graduated from TSU in the ‘60s, and I four decades later. Somehow while washing dishes and scooping out ice cream for dessert the conversation led to HBCUs and alumni giving.

Hearing Ms. Betty and I passionately discuss our beloved HBCU apparently struck a nerve in one of the women. She was a mid-twenty something native New Yorker who attended Stony Brook University. Although she’d never gone to an HBCU, hadn’t done any extensive reading on HBCUs, she had quite a few criticisms not only about HBCUs, but also the students it produced. In an attempt to validate her inaccurate point about HBCU education not being up to par with that of traditionally white institutions, she offered up as evidence that she had seen HBCUs recruit and accept high school students on the spot without them having to take any SATs or ACTs. She babbled on and on about how HBCUs ethnic makeup is not representative of the real world. After she finished I assured her that state schools are state schools regardless if they are HBCUs or TWIs. SAT or ACT scores are a requirement for admission into an accredited college. Further, I reassured her as a graduate of both an HBCU and TWI that I received a top-notch, quality education at my HBCU. Not something I would say about my experience at the TWI I attended.

Ms. Betty interrupted. “Well all I know is I can’t give my money to a school that continuously admits white students and gives them free rides just for being the minority,” she said bluntly. “If they want me to give back they need to find a way to earmark my money only for Black students.”

The woman who I had been debating with earlier took this as her opportunity to keep throwing shade at HBCUs. “Tell me this. Since HBCU graduates are always so passionate about HBCUs being such wonderful institutions, why don’t graduates give back?” she queried. “The bottom line is HBCUs are sinking due to financial strains and the alumni are nowhere to be found.”

People who are typically uninformed about HBCUs, but have righteous and wrong opinions about them and use anecdotal evidence to back up their points, grind my gears. But Miss Stony Brook had a point. One of the toughest problems HBCUs face is getting alumni to give back.

It’s no surprise that alumni giving is significantly lower at HBCUs in comparison to traditionally white institutions. Several studies report alumni giving at HBCUs to be in the single digits. As much as I wanted to come up with a clever retort explaining that perhaps HBCU graduates don’t give back because they are faced with student loan debt — and working minimum wage jobs to survive — I couldn’t ignore that the lack of HBCU alumni donors was a very real issue that needed to be addressed.

In 2010, Blacks had an estimated buying power of $913 billion despite being hit hard by the faltering economy, according to Target Market News. Besides the fact that as a whole Blacks are spending astronomical amounts of money that in turn creates wealth for others while we remain at the bottom of the economic totem pole, very little of those billions went into our own institutions. For colleges and universities facing dire circumstances, alumni giving is a matter of life or death. One thing that must happen is administrators, presidents and faculty must instill the importance in alums giving back from day one. Throughout students’ matriculation the message of having a responsibility to give back once they leave those doors should be ingrained. Just as someone helped them in some capacity along the way, it is their duty to do the same. After all, it is the degree received from an HBCU that opened up career doors.

As far as Ms. Betty’s concerns that her money may not be used for a deserving Black student, I get it. But not giving at all is unacceptable. Money from alumni is used for a number of the school’s needs—infrastructure, technology, scholarships and so on. Not giving at all out of fear the money will be used to fund a minority student’s education only hurts the university. Graduates often cite being treated poorly by a rude employee in the Bursar’s office or some other administrative office as one of the main reasons they don’t give back. We have to move past this if we want to see HBCUs thrive. One or two bad encounters shouldn’t dictate giving back to the school that made sure you walked across the stage degree in hand.

There are only so many Bill Cosby’s and Oprah’s (a TSU grad!) that can donate millions to HBCUs. It can’t all rest on the shoulders of the super rich Black celebs who actually give a damn about Black colleges and universities. If Blacks can’t invest into our own institutions, why should anyone else care? If we truly love HBCUs, alumni, myself included, we should be dedicated in making sure they last another 200 years by giving back with our wallets and talents.

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According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Historically Black Colleges and Universities are actively recruiting non-black students to boost lagging enrollment and offset funding shortfalls.

The Root.com reports:

We’re glad the Wall Street Journal has discovered what is commonly known on HBCU campuses, there is racial, religious, gender and cultural diversity on them. Recruiting outside of your core group makes sense especially since Blacks have many more options than before. Further with the elimination of affirmative-action programs and massive cuts in funding at mainstream universities, it stands to reason that more whites and Hispanics would be seeking education elsewhere.

Read more at TheRoot.com

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The money, which was raised during a month-long fundraising effort, helped the school eliminate its hefty debt to the U.S. Department of Education.

Rev. Dr. Marvin Moss said they couldn’t let a historic part of their community go by the wayside.

“We recognize the historical significance of Morris Brown College to our community and the world,” Moss said in a statement last week. “We are grateful that our Cascade members have answered the call during these tough economic times. We are called to be a light in the community so we are pleased to participate in this vital way.”

Read more at BET News

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About 100 presidents of historically black colleges are meeting in Atlanta and will discuss their role in President Barack Obama’s call for America to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.

Meanwhile, Pell Grants are under fire as some members of Congress look at cutting such programs to trim the budget. Many minority students depend on the needs-based grants to stay in school.

To meet the president’s goal, John Wilson, executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, says the country will need to produce about 8 million more graduates — 2 million of whom need to be African-American, and 200,000 from historically black colleges.

“HBCUs and their productivity are built into the way we see this problem being solved,” Wilson said. “That means we have to go from about 36,000 graduates per year to somewhere north of 50,000 a year. That is a big challenge.”

Wilson said Obama is committed to preserving the Pell Grant program, which has grown from 6 million recipients when he took office to 9 million, and is expected to reach 10 million by 2012. He pointed out that while the program channels almost $1 billion into HBCUs alone, far more white students receive the grant.

“That is very significant,” Wilson said. “When you defend Pell, you’re defending America. This is a national thing. If the others had succeeded in going back to 2008 levels, it would’ve been immediately devastating.”

Morgan State University President David Wilson said he has been talking with Maryland’s congressional delegation to address the issue.

“If the Pell Grant is reduced in the next budget … I can see where our enrollment at Morgan could very well suffer a huge decrease,” said Wilson. He said 90 percent of his students receive a form of financial aid. “On one hand, we have a complete college America goal, and on the other hand, we are talking about not investing in those students who would be critical in the nation achieving that goal.”

Kentucky State University President Mary Evan Sias agreed.

“You shouldn’t have to divide and say access or success,” she said. “At a time when we need to be graduating more students, we can’t afford to drop the amount of money that we’re giving those students.”

Clark Atlanta University President Carlton Brown said the president’s goal is realistic, but only under certain conditions.

“We have to understand that there has to be some investment in pre-college education and a whole new standard of outcomes,” Brown said. “It’s possible, but we need the political will.”

Paying it forward is one of the ways the men have chosen to thank Ms. Winfrey for their gift. Collectively, they have pledged over $300,000 to keep the scholarships going at Morehouse.

Some past recipients of the scholarship spoke on a video about what the degree received meant to them.

Read more at Examiner.com

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RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The University of California-Historically Black Colleges and Universities Initiative has awarded UC Riverside a $156,417 grant to encourage more African American undergraduates to enroll in UC graduate programs.

A total of 18 African American students from historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) will spend eight weeks at the Riverside campus – six each summer – beginning in 2012.

The UCR program – named the Lindon Barrett Scholars Mentoring Program in memory of a UCR scholar of African American literary studies who died in 2008 – will offer a graduate research experience in African American literature and literary studies and mentors for the participants.

The goal of the University of California initiative is to increase the number of African American students enrolling in UC doctoral programs in all disciplines, said Erica Edwards, assistant professor of English and principal investigator of the grant.

Participating students, who must have completed their junior year, will receive financial support to cover travel expenses, room and board, and a $3,000 stipend. Those who are accepted into the graduate program will receive further support for their Ph.D. program.

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Assistant Attorney General Campbell Killifer, while representing the Maryland Higher Education Commission, argued that the state should be let off the hook for the continuing disparities between traditionally black colleges and predominantly white schools. While Maryland has admitted to practicing discrimination in the past, state leadership maintains that it has addressed this issue sufficiently to level the playing field completely and that any differences in quality that continue must be due to other factors. Killifer seeks to shift the burden of proof for the accusation of racism to the struggling black organizations crying out for solutions to persistent inequalities.

The Consumerist Blog has spawned an interesting debate about this fight. Some readers are appalled that Maryland will not investigate whether discriminatory practices might still be taking place. Others contend that the decline of these HBCUs marks the moment for all black colleges’ timely demise. The relatively successful integration of elite universities like Harvard does de-emphasize the urgency of the HBCU’s original purpose. Plus, if even the administrators of Maryland’s black colleges admit that neighboring institutions are better, college bound African-American students could be harming their prospects by “going black.”

The benefits of attending an HBCU depend on one’s field of interest. Studies show black students do better in math and technology when they attend African-American establishments, and that HBCUs graduate a significant percentage of our nation’s black scientists – and political leaders. At a time when we need to see more of our youth move into the sciences, and leadership in our community is in crisis, these points are vital to consider.  But for the general job market, the economic benefit of attending an HBCU is non-existent. Attending a predominantly white school helps blacks earn 20% more than those graduating from HBCUs. This fact could account for the steady decline in HBCU attendance.

There are also internal reasons these schools are besieged. Dr. Boyce Watkins, writing on Thy Black Man, makes some interesting arguments:

We must also confess to the possibility that our HBCUs are not being run nearly as efficiently as they could be.  During a visit to The University of North Carolina Central and Howard University, I was shocked at how reluctant many HBCUs are to hire African American male faculty, particularly in business and the sciences.  According to a survey among readers of YourBlackWorld.com, over 40% of HBCU grads had less than five African American professors in fields outside of African American studies.  Many HBCUs are flush with foreign professors, some of whom either don’t care much about the black kids and/or collude to only hire faculty from their home countries.  This leaves our children without a sufficient number of classroom role models as they navigate their way to graduation.

There are also many stories about HBCU inefficiency as it pertains to financial aid, admissions and even hiring.  Many of these problems can be traced to inadequate funding, but some should be connected to the archaic and dysfunctional manner by which some of us choose to lead our institutions. The old school models of leadership for HBCUs should be forced out by those who care about our children’s futures.

The battle between the state of Maryland and its historically black colleges raises many grave questions.  The few benefits of attending HBCUs might not outweigh the tremendous costs to students who are not considering politics or a scientific career. While the plight of these black Maryland educators is unfair, it is alarming that the mismanagement of black schools has not been addressed as a contributing problem, even though scandals have rocked many HBCUs in recent years. The issues weighing on these bodies is rendering historically black colleges and universities nearly obsolete.

No infusion of cash can compensate for the tremendous challenges HBCUs face on many fronts. These complex tests can only be addressed by the creativity of their leaders. Hopefully the situation of Maryland’s HBCUs will stimulate black college administrators nationwide to start an internal crusade to keep these organizations alive.

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“It makes no sense to have colleges blocks apart, neither one of them with graduation rates we can accept,” Jindal said at a weekly legislative news conference in Baton Rouge, La. according to the AP.

Meanwhile, more than 200 Southern University supporters gathered to protest the proposal, which they believe would cause the school to lose its legacy as an HBCU.

“It will be the death of SUNO,” student government vice president Ellis Brent Jr. told the AP.

Read more at AFRO.com

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A college senior at HBCU St. Augustine is slated to graduate this Sunday but won’t be able to walk because of something he posted on Facebook.

Roman Caple  said that the vice president of student affairs at the college told him it was based on a Facebook post on his profile that “jeopardized the integrity of the college.”

Even though Caple posted a lot of comments on his Facebook page following the tornado that hit the Raleigh, N.C. area almost two weeks ago, he is confused as to what could have offended the college. Most of his comments alluded to the unification and strength the students should have at that time of distress and uncertainty. One of the posts said, “We all need to set our differences aside and help one another. Falcons we will continue to fly high because that’s what we do. Help your neighbor, if need be, Falcons are one.”

Read more at TheGrio

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Google is looking to hire HBCU alums

Search engine and Internet giant Google will be hosting functions in a number of major cities around the country in an effort to recruit HBCU graduates.

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“Over the past few years HBCU graduates have made significant contributions to Google’s success,” the company said in a statement. “We are excited to continue our relationship with HBCUs and hire their very best graduates to join our team.”

READ THE FULL RELEASE FROM GOOGLE BELOW

Greetings from Google!

As you may have heard, Google is hiring! 2011 is slated to be one of our most aggressive hiring years, and we are working to find top talent. Over the past few years HBCU graduates have made significant contributions to Google’s success. We are excited to continue our relationship with HBCUs and hire their very best graduates to join our team.

Google will be hosting functions in a number of major cities as we seek to make contact with HBCU graduates that may have an interest in our organization. The first of these events will be held at the Google Atlanta Office (10 10th Street NE Suite 600 Atlanta, GA 30309) on Wednesday March 30, 2011 at 7PM. We are targeting non-engineering majors from the graduating classes of 2006-2010. This event will give participants a glimpse into what we have to offer here at Google. They will hear from current Googlers, receive information on positions that are currently open, and have the chance to speak with recruiters who will be on-site to answer questions. Additionally, this is a great time to network, not only with Googlers, but also with peers.

We would appreciate your assistance in distributing this exciting information to members of your organization that are currently based in Atlanta. Those interested in attending can click HERE for registration information. Do you have a colleague, friend, peer, or family member that also meets the event criteria? Feel free to pass this information along! Please note that we have a limited number of seats for this event, so an RSVP is required. We will send a confirmation e-mail to those we are able to accommodate.

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LAKE BUENA VISTA, Florida — A conference of HBCU academics and supporters was held to discuss ways in which to strengthen and advance the perception of the nation’s Black universities.

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Organized by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, the meeting’s theme was “HBCUs Under Attack: What Must We Do?”

TMCF President and CEO Johnny C. Taylor Jr., stressed that criticism of HBCUs is not a new challenge, saying:

We have two choices, we can either ignore the attacks or have a crucial conversation with our member universities. Let’s take the focus off the institution and go to the students and ask them how we remain relevant.

The conference also hosted panel discussions to address the challenges facing historically black colleges and universities.

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SAVANNAH, Georgia — Spike Lee spoke to college students at the historically black Savannah State University, telling them to fight ignorance with education.

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Using anecdotes from his own experiences, the bespectacled Lee told the hundreds gathered in Tiger Arena what he believes is the key to a positive, happy life.

“Some way, some how you’ve got to figure out what you want to do and make that happen,” he said. “If you don’t, you’ll be unhappy in many, many ways.”

Spike Lee, an alumni of Atlanta HBCU More House College,  said he relished the opportunity to speak at Savannah State University.

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Atlanta — African American students who attend HBCUs do better in both math an technology according to a recent report. BlackWeb 2.0 reports:

On Monday, The Commission released its annual briefing report on The Educational Effectiveness of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)and Encouraging Minority Students to Pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Careers. The study found that students at historically black colleges and universities reported higher levels of academic involvement in their studies and in faculty research projects than black students at non-HBCUs.

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The president had sustained a bloody lip while playing in a pickup basketball game Friday morning — a gash that needed a dozen stitches to close — but Obama’s injury was nearly imperceptible, according to the White House press pool report.

It happened during the fifth game Obama was playing with friends and family, including Education Secretary Arne Duncan, nephew Avery Robinson and personal assistant Reggie Love — a former Duke University basketball player. During the game, opposing player Reynaldo Decerega, the director of programs at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, had the ball and Obama was defending him; Decerega turned into the president on his way to the basket and inadvertently elbowed him in the mouth.

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Hugs In The Age Of Obama

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Because of the injury, Obama skipped a ceremony in which the first family receives the White House Christmas tree. As first lady Michelle Obama appeared, the president was photographed watching the ceremony from a window in the White House, holding what appeared to be an ice pack to his mouth.

Read entire article at Politico.com

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Tea party activists in South Carolina are allegedly intimidating black college students and other black voters at the polls, according to the South Carolina Democratic Party. Early this morning, self-identified tea party activists showed up at a polling station near Benedict College in Columbia, “basically harassing students—telling people not to vote and generally making voters feel uncomfortable,” says Keiana Page, press secretary for the state Democratic Party, who said that the party’s legal team is currently investigating the reported incident at the historically black college.

To read more in Mother Jones, click here…

William P. Foster, credited with innovating a much-imitated high-stepping style as founder and longtime director of the Florida A&M Marching 100 band, died Saturday. He was 91.

Foster died in Tallahassee, university officials said. They did not release a cause of death.

Foster served as the marching band’s director from 1946 until his retirement in 1998. He created more than 200 half-time pageants for the band at the historically black university.

He is credited with innovating marching band techniques, including a high stepping style imitated by high school and college bands nationwide.

A 1991 article in USA Today called the Marching 100 “probably the best known college marching band in the USA,” and a 1989 New York Times piece called them “perhaps the most imitated of marching bands.”

“There’s a psychology to running a band,” Foster told The New York Times in 1989. “People want to hear the songs they hear on the radio; it gives them an immediate relationship with you. And then there’s the energy. Lots of energy in playing and marching. Dazzle them with it. Energy.”

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In 1989, the French chose the Marching 100 to represent the United States in the Bastille Day Parade in Paris, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. Instead of traditional marching band music, the band marched — and danced — to songs by James Brown.

“They illustrate American music to me, which is to say the best of black music,” the parade’s artistic director, Jean-Paul Goude, told The New York Times. “Some things have never been exposed to the Parisian people, and this is more exciting than some pop star seen on MTV.”

Over the years, members of the Marching 100 have played at Super Bowls, the Olympics, the Grammy Awards and the inaugurations of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.

The Marching 100 won the Sudler Intercollegiate Marching Band Trophy in 1985 and in 1992, Sports Illustrated declared them the best marching band in the country.

The band has grown to more than 400 members, who wear green and orange uniforms. Many go on to careers as band directors and professional performers. One of the best known was jazz alto saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley.

“As a visionary leader, (Foster) built America’s greatest band by departing from the standard routines and maneuvers to showcase band pageantry,” said FAMU President James H. Ammons.

Foster graduated from the University of Kansas in 1941, earned his masters degree from Wayne State University in 1950 and received his doctorate from Teachers College at Columbia University in 1955.

He wrote two books, “Band Pageantry: A Guide for the Marching Band” and “The Man Behind the Baton.”

Foster was born in Kansas City, Kansas, on Aug. 25, 1919. He began his music career by learning to play the clarinet at age 12.

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I don’t quote Ronald Reagan often, but the annual sight of parents taking new freshmen to college always reminds me of one of his sayings. Negotiating arms-control agreements with the Soviet Union, Reagan said that his principle was, “Trust — but verify”: We wouldn’t sign a treaty with the Soviets if there weren’t a basic foundation of trust — but make sure they’re keeping their end of the agreement, and be prepared to act if they aren’t.

That’s also my advice for parents of entering freshmen: Trust — but verify.

September will mark my 41st year as an observer of college students. I taught literature and English composition for 20 years at Morehouse and Spelman colleges in Atlanta and served for seven years as president of Dillard University in New Orleans. Now I’m president of the United Negro College Fund, following the progress of the 20,000 or so freshmen who attend our member colleges and receive our scholarships, and I see statistics from students at all schools.

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South Carolina State University is currently being investigated for alleged misuse of state and federal grant funds towards its transportation research center.

The James E. Clyburn University Transportation Center (JECUTC) is named after alumni and House Majority Whip Rep. James E. Clyburn, who has recently become a vocal critic of the center’s management.

Back in 1998, when the center first opened, proponents of the JECUTC promised it would recast the future of transportation, with state of the art research programs, and plans to open a multi-million dollar physical complex.

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However last month, amidst claims that the university had been mismanaging their grant funds, state Sen. Robert Ford called for an independent state audit of the center, which has reportedly received millions of dollars over the course of 12 years.

Read entire article at TheGrio.com

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For the fourth consecutive year, U.S.News & World Report has produced a ranking of the undergraduate education at historically black colleges and universities (HBCU). These colleges were compared only with one another for these rankings.

How did we choose the schools to be part of the survey? In order to be on the list, a school currently must be listed as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities registry. The Higher Education Act of 1965 defines an HBCU as “any historically black college or university that was established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans, and that is accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting agency or association determined by the Secretary [of Education] to be a reliable authority as to the quality of training offered or is, according to such an agency or association, making reasonable progress toward accreditation.”

To qualify for the U.S. News ranking, an HBCU also must be an undergraduate baccalaureate-granting institution that enrolls primarily first-year, first-time students and must have been a school that was currently part of the 2011 Best Colleges rankings. In almost all cases, if an HBCU college was “Unranked” in the 2011 Best Colleges rankings, it was also listed as being “Unranked” in the HBCU rankings (see more details below). In total there were 80 HBCU colleges and universities eligible to be ranked, and 9 of those were “Unranked.”

Peer assessment (weighting: 25 percent). The U.S. News ranking formula gives greatest weight to the opinions of those in a position to judge a school’s undergraduate academic excellence. The peer assessment survey allows the top academics we consult to account for intangibles such as faculty dedication to teaching. Each individual is asked to rate peer schools’ academic programs on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished). Those who don’t know enough about a school to evaluate it fairly are asked to mark “don’t know.” In the spring and summer of 2010, U.S. News conducted an exclusive peer survey among only the president, provost, and admission dean at each HBCU. Each HBCU received three surveys. The recipients were asked to rate all HBCUs, considering each school’s scholarship record, curriculum, and quality of faculty and graduates at schools they were familiar with. A total of 242 surveys were sent out, and 36.3 percent responded. Synovate, an international opinion-research firm based in Chicago, collected the data.

Retention (25 percent). The higher the proportion of freshmen who return to campus the following year and eventually graduate, the more likely a school is offering the classes and services students need to succeed. This measure has two components: six-year graduation rate (80 percent of the retention score) and freshman retention rate (20 percent). The graduation rate indicates the average proportion of a graduating class who earn a degree in six years or less; we consider freshman classes that started from fall 2000 through 2003. Freshman retention indicates the average proportion of freshmen entering each fall from 2005 through 2008 who returned the following fall.

Top 20 Rankings:

1. Spelman College

2. Howard University

3. Morehouse College

4. Hampton University

5. Tuskegee University

6. Xavier University of Louisiana

7. Fisk University

8. Claflin University

9. Dillard University

10. Tougaloo College

11. North Carolina Central University

12. (TIE) Florida A&M University & North Carolina A&T State University

14. South Carolina State University

15. (TIE) Jackson State University & Johnson C. Smith University

17. (TIE) Delaware State University & Elizabeth City State University

19. Winston-Salem State University

20. (TIE) Morgan State University & Tennessee State University

Find out the rest of the Rankings at USnews.com

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A bevy of historically black colleges and universities are hemorrhaging too many students while revenue sources have dried up to the point where it threatens their very survival. Legendary radio host and famed HBCU advocate Tom Joyner will launch an ambitious online education initiative to stem the bleeding at the institutions, bring back throngs of black students and, most importantly, help many more of them graduate.

“We need to help our students, — not only K-12 — but as the President said, we need more college graduates. And to have more college graduates, we need to do something about our college system, especially HBCUs. You know I love HBCUs,” Joyner said at the National Urban League Centennial Convention in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. “So what we’re doing is we’re going to change things in 2010; we’re going to launch HBCUs online in September. We’re going to compete with the University of Phoenix and the rest of the for-profit [colleges]. That’s where most of our black students are going.”

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Despite university budget cuts and a rise in anti-ethnic-studies sentiment, black-studies programs have held their ground in higher-education curricula. But while there has been substantial overall growth in the field during the last 40 years, it has happened primarily outside the community of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

“There’s activity going on [at HBCUs]; it’s just not as visible and as well supported as you might see at white institutions,” says Dr. James Stewart, national president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History.

Most HBCUs have established courses in black studies, but few have departments dedicated to the field, and only Howard and Clark Atlanta universities offer master’s programs. Howard is also the only HBCU to offer a doctoral program in African studies, which is offered by eight traditionally white institutions.

The bottom line is money.

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In the current economic environment, one impact of the credit crunch is that it’s getting harder than ever to obtain loans of all kinds, including student loans. Unfortunately, millions of Americans rely on loans to pay for a college education. That’s why roughly $730 billion in federal and private student loans are outstanding, and only 40% of it is currently being repaid, according to FinAid.org, which tracks student loans.
If you require loans to pay for your education – or your child’s – you need to arm yourself with information to be a smart borrower. Here are five facts you should know in order to do just that.

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An Orangeburg County jury awarded a South Carolina State University student half a million dollars Wednesday for injuries he received from a broken dorm window.

Gerald Wayne Brooks claimed that S.C. State, through its maintenance contractor Sodexo, left the window broken for seven months despite being told of the problem.

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From CNN.com:

“Lift Every Voice and Sing” is an uplifting spiritual, one that’s often heard in churches and popularly recognized as the black national anthem. Timothy Askew grew up with its rhythms, but now the song holds a contentious place in his mind.

“I love the song,” said Askew, an associate professor of English at Clark Atlanta University, a historically black college. “But it’s not the song that is the problem. It’s the label of the song as a ‘black national anthem’ that creates a lot of confusion and tension.”

The song and its message of struggle and hope have long been attached to the African-American community. It lives on as a religious hymn for several protestant and African-American denominations and was quoted by the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery at Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration.

After studying the music and lyrics of the song and its history for more than two decades, Askew decided the song was intentionally written with no specific reference to any race or ethnicity.

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FROM BVBuzz.com:

Actor Idris Elba recently returned from hosting 21 students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities on an excursion to South Africa for Coca-Cola’s first “Open Happiness Tour.”

“This was a life-changing and moving experience for me,” Elba told BV Buzz. “I’ve been to Africa a couple of times since my father was from Ghana and mother Sierra Leone, but this was one of the most moving and powerful trips I’ve ever had.”

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