At a time when higher education is facing enormous challenges, including attracting and retaining good leaders, Dr. Alvin J. Schexnider — a retired university president — has given us much to reflect upon in his newly published memoir titled, Confessions of a Black Academic (McFarland & Company, Inc.).
Schexnider — the former chancellor of Winston-Salem State University and the former executive vice president and interim president of Norfolk State University — draws upon his diverse experience as a faculty member and administrator at a number of colleges and universities, including Southern University, Syracuse University, Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Thomas Nelson Community College.
Dr. Alvin J. Schexnider recently published a memoir titled, Confessions of a Black Academic (McFarland & Company, Inc.).
“In an era when diversity and inclusion give the appearance of heralding a new millennium, America’s HBCUs have led by example since their inception,” writes Schexnider, adding that HBCUs are “iconic institutions with a vaunted legacy that is without comparison.”
With both personal and professional anecdotes, Schexnider details, for example, his upbringing in Lake Charles, Louisiana, where he was confronted with the “harsh realities of racism from the time I was born until I left for college.”
It was in Lake Charles — a racially segregated city — that young Alvin and his siblings were encouraged to aim for excellence.
“My childhood was fairly typical of a Black boy growing up in the segregated South in the 1950s and 1960s,” writes Schexnider. “My parents poured everything possible into their children.”
