Search | The EDU Ledger

Welcome to The EDU Ledger.com! We’ve moved from Diverse.

Welcome to The EDU Ledger! We’ve moved from Diverse: Issues In Higher Education.

Section: Opinion

Should HBCUs take a Page from Obama’s Notebook on fundraising? Yes!

Liberals and conservatives alike have raved about Barack Obama’s innovative approach to fundraising. In recent months, I have seen article after article lauding Obama’s campaign for using technology in new ways and paying attention to the small donor. After careful review of the Obama campaign’s strategies, I’m convinced that Black colleges and universities should follow […]

July 29, 2008

CNN’s Black in America Sounds Clarion Call To Do More

I am black in America so the recent two-part series produced by CNN entitled “Black in America” did appeal to me. This special program to my mind was not only for black people but for white people as well. For whatever judgment you rendered about the series let us give both CNN reporter Soledad O’Brien […]

July 28, 2008

Go to college or get paid? Mr. Jennings I Ain’t Mad At You!

Last Tuesday, Arizona University basketball recruit Brandon Jennings decided to make an unprecedented move to forgo playing in college and instead pursue a professional career in Europe next season before likely entering the 2009 NBA draft. While David Stern and the National Basketball Association (NBA) are well prepared for the subsequent trend Jennings may incite, […]

July 27, 2008

HBCUs Here and in South Africa — Common Missions, Common Challenges

I just returned from leading a study abroad program in South Africa, which focused on the country’s higher education system, history, and culture. This was my fifth visit to the country and, just as in the past, I learned immensely from the experience. What is always most interesting about taking students to South Africa is watching […]

July 21, 2008

Native American Studies Making Strides

Many administrators are reticent to inaugurate Native American studies where no program currently exists because of concerns about programs and departments having a “universal” appeal. The problem with this line of thinking is that many of these same administrators still see the field of Native American studies (NAS) generating a curriculum aimed at narrow constituencies, […]

July 15, 2008

A Reverend Jackson: Hi Hater

I know very little about politics, but I have realized the enormity of the pending Barack Obama presidency. With that said, Reverend Jesse Jackson, as many others have said, needs to, in all due respect, be silent. Not only should Jesse be totally silent, but also he should be virtually invisible. Jesse Jackson is an […]

July 13, 2008

An Obama Presidency and the Color of Fear

Barack Obama’s meteoric rise has caused joy for some, dismay for others and racial repellency for some Whites. Among those who are both overjoyed and nauseated at the same time are White supremacists and other hate groups. “I haven’t seen this much anger in a long, long time,” Russellville, Arkansas’ Billy Roper, a 36-year-old who […]

July 6, 2008

Not Just One Dark Body: Scaling the Intercultural Mountain in the HBCU Classroom

It is no secret that classrooms at historically Black colleges and universities are becoming increasingly culturally diverse, both with regard to faculty and students. More and more, international students and faculty contribute in a singularly significant way to this heterogeneous mélange. Whether they hail from the African continent, the Caribbean, South or Latin America, or […]

July 2, 2008

Accreditation of Black Colleges: Future Success?

On Thursday, June 26, 2008, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) removed Florida A & M University (FAMU) from its list of institutions on accreditation probation. The historically Black institution seems primed for success, with President James Ammons including all of the campus constituents in his plan for the future of the institution. Since Black colleges […]

June 30, 2008

The Miseducation of a Negro Male Assistant Professor

When I thought about pursuing my terminal degree I really dedicated little thought to all the components of a J-O-B in academia. I pondered the research I would have to do, but the teaching and service components were truly afterthoughts. I assumed these elements would naturally come with the territory – you know they would […]

June 28, 2008

An HBCU Learns the Benefits of Appreciating its Alumni

According to Diverse’s May 1 feature “A Fundraising Blueprint” and most recently Tuesday’s Chronicle of Higher Education daily update, Howard University raised $275 million in a five-year fundraising campaign. Howard’s success surpassed the institution’s expectations and solidified its role as a leader in Black college fundraising. Interestingly, Howard University trustees originally set the goal for […]

June 23, 2008

I Know From Whence I Speak: Black Studies and the HBCU

The 20th anniversary of the doctorate in African-American studies in the American academy is, undoubtedly, cause for jubilant celebration. W. E. B. Du Bois must surely be smiling down from his perch amongst the African ancestors. Yet, as we hail this monumental milestone, at the same time, we can no longer overlook the tragic and […]

June 22, 2008

A Post-Racial America?

In a June 13, 2008 Op Ed in The Wall Street Journal, Ward Connerly proclaimed that “Obama is no ‘Post Racial’ Candidate. Connerly’s conclusion is based on the fact that Obama acknowledges the continuing significance of race in an ostensibly ‘post racial’ America. More importantly Obama does not support Connerly’s attempts to outlaw Affirmative Action. […]

June 18, 2008

Ph.d.’s in African American Studies at HBCUs: A Response to Where are They?

This week Diverse: Issues in Higher Education ran a story entitled “Black Colleges Still Lacking Ph.D. African American Studies Program.” The article rightly told the story of the development and expansion of doctoral programs in African American studies at historically White institutions and chastised Black colleges for having no programs — none at all. According to […]

June 18, 2008

No First Amendment Right to Call for Obama’s Assassination

The 2008 Presidential election is testing how America deals with the enduring question of racism. With Barack Obama as the presumptive Democratic nominee, America is beginning to confront its racial pedigree. The results speak for themselves. One such test occurred recently when performance artist, Yazmany Arboleda, put race, penis envy and sexism on Front Street. […]

June 18, 2008

New Books Related To Black Colleges

Recently, there have been several new books published related to historically Black colleges and universities. I suggest that you check them out. They include: Joy Ann Williamson’s Radicalizing the Ebony Tower: Black Colleges and the Black Freedom Struggle in Mississippi (New York: Teachers Colleges Press, 2008). Joy is a dynamic professor at the University of […]

June 15, 2008

Black Colleges Continue to Provide An Excellent Education

Historically black colleges and universities have been educating students, the majority of them being African American, for centuries now. I am a graduate of Johnson C. Smith University located in Charlotte, N.C. There are hundreds of graduates of HBCUs who have achieved prominence at every level. The employment landscape is full of men and women […]

June 15, 2008

“Best and Brightest” Seek a Nurturing Environment at HBCUs

This past week Diverse: Issues in Higher Education ran a story about a 14-year old kid who scored a 30 on the ACT. Despite being courted by Stanford, Harvard, Yale and Princeton, Polite Stewart Jr., decided to attend a Black college – Southern University at Baton Rouge. Interestingly, when asked why he chose to […]

June 15, 2008