Roll Call: Hank Mobley: Amazon.ca: Music Amazon.ca. Hank Mobley had reached the peak of his career. Roll Call is a very different animal. 7 rows Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for Roll.

Starting with Soul Station, tenor saxophonist Hank Mobley embarked on a powerful series of recordings for Blue Note in the 1960s. His sixteen releases recorded during the decade tapped into virtually every musical trend, including bossa nova, boogaloo, funk and soul.

All featured Mobley at his peak, exhibiting a bossy muscularity with a smooth, slippery articulation on solos. What's more, he was paired with a wide range of top artists, giving each album a different feel. One of the finest (and I hesitate even to use that word, since all of his albums during the '60s had admirable qualities) was Roll Call. Recorded in November 1960, the album featured Mobley (ts), Freddie Hubbard (tp), Wynton Kelly (p), Paul Chambers (bs) and Art Blakey (d). Everyone on this album is at their peak. Blakey's drumming will raise hairs on your arm.

Kelly's piano is frighteningly fluid. Chambers is rock solid. Hubbard is searing.

And listening to Mobley is like watching a heavyweight boxer hit a heavy bag. Mobley also was a terrific hard-bop composer. On Roll Call, Mobley was responsible for the title track, My Groove Your Move, Take Your Pick, A Baptist Beat and The Breakdown. The balance was a standard, The More I See You.

On Roll Call, Mobley's originals are sterling. The title track is a minor-key tour de force, with Blakey driving the show with cymbal crashes, press rolls and intricate drum patterns. My Groove, Your Move is a sassy walker with standout solos, particularly by Mobley.

Take Your Pick features a terrific hard bop line that sounds as if it belonged on Freddie Redd's The Connection album. And dig Kelly's piano solo! Smooth as glass. A Baptist Beat is a funky blues. And the album closer, The Breakdown, is a barn burner with Blakey dropping random drum bombs and cymbal crashes. At one point, Blakey sounds as if he has has kicked his entire kit down a flight of stairs. To be sure, Mobley's 1950s releases are solid and engaging.

But they're not quite as dynamic and eclectic as his 1960s work. There's a maturity in his '60s recordings that put him firmly in charge.

Best of all are his originals, demonstrating once again that Mobley was vastly underrated quintet composer. Hank Mobley died in 1986. JazzWax clips: Here's The Breakdown. This story appears courtesy of JazzWax by Marc Myers.

Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.

Category: HBCU Lifestyle – Black College Living The Second Annual National HBCU Pre-Law Summit & Law Expo is scheduled to take place on Friday, September 25, 2015 and Saturday, September 26, 2015 at The Center for Civil and Human Rights in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. This groundbreaking event is the only event of its kind in the entire country focused on addressing the unique issues, concerns and challenges facing HBCU students and graduates interested in going to law school and becoming lawyers. Students and graduates from all HBCUs across the country are invited to meet and come together in Atlanta this fall to take part in two intensive and power-packed days (with two more optional days) designed to expose them to game-changing information, resources, and connections designed to help them achieve success in a demanding educational endeavor and field in need of greater diversity.

The summit will provide inspirational keynote sessions featuring prominent and dynamic attorney speakers. Confirmed keynote speakers include Joseph K.

West, Esq., President and CEO of the Minority Corporate Counsel Association and Paulette Brown, Esq., Partner and Chief Diversity Officer at Locke Lord LLP and President of the American Bar Association. Attorney Brown has recently made history by becoming the very first African American woman to be elected to that prestigious post. Both keynotes are proud graduates of historically Black universities. In addition to outstanding keynote speakers, there will also be panel discussions including an unprecedented HBCU Deans Panel featuring the deans of HBCU law schools including Katherine S. Broderick, Esq., Dean at The University of the District of Columbia (Washington, DC), Phyliss Craig-Taylor, Esq., Dean at (Durham, North Carolina), Dannye Holley, Esq., Dean at, Texas Southern University (Houston, Texas), and Danielle Holley Walker, Esq., Dean at (Washington, DC). The event will also include special guests including John Crump, JD, Historian and Executive Director Emeritus of the National Bar Association, the largest and oldest association made up primarily of African American lawyers, Ricky Anderson, Esq., top entertainment attorney to numerous A-list celebrities including Steve Harvey, Rickey Smiley and Mary Mary, and L.

Chris Stewart, Esq., trial lawyer and attorney to the family of Walter Scott, a Black man who was shot and killed by a White police officer as he fled in North Charleston, South Carolina. There will also be a few surprise guests who will provide short remarks and words of encouragement to attendees. Further, the event will showcase panel discussions on critical topics for aspiring lawyers including law school admission, the law student experience, and what it takes to have a successful legal career. These panels will include knowledgeable law school administrators, law students and lawyers who will share their own experiences and directly address issues of concern to HBCU students and alumni which are commonly ignored in general law school informational events. What is particularly special about these sessions is that all of the panelists have an understanding of and genuine interest in the success of students who attend or have attended HBCUs, most having attended HBCUs themselves. Also planned is a special session dealing with how financial aid packages are determined, negotiating scholarship offers and managing student loan debt, which are all very timely, important and major concerns of those interested in pursuing law school today. In addition, a law school expo will take place on both major days of the summit where students will have the opportunity to meet with law school representatives from schools across the country to find out about their law programs and get answers to their questions.

Special networking receptions are scheduled to take place where attendees will have the opportunity to enjoy food and drinks as they participate in both structured and informal networking activities designed to help them connect with other aspiring law students, current law students, and lawyers. There will also be two bonus days open to conference registrants. The Thursday prior to the summit will provide early attendees with the opportunity to tour all three Atlanta law schools including, Georgia State University School of Law and Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School. Students will also have the opportunity to sit in on classes and to participate in a special mock law class designed just for them that they must prepare for and be prepared to participle in.

The Sunday after the summit is an optional day of leisure and learning where participants will have the opportunity to register for and take part in a historic Black Atlanta history group bus tour to visit many sites of historical significance to African Americans and the American Civil Rights Movement. Admission to the Summit and Law Expo is completely free of charge, open to the public, and seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Payments are required to purchase tickets for viewing the exhibits at The Center for Civil and Human Rights ($10) and for participating in the ATL Black History Tour ($35) – and both are optional. All aspiring lawyers, their pre-law and career advisors, professors, parents, supporters and others interested in attending are all welcome and requested to register online prior to the event. To register and for more information, please go to the summit’s official website. Death of Elson Floyd a ‘profound loss’ for WMU and higher education Elson S.

Floyd, the former Western Michigan University president, is being remembered for his work in higher education across the United States. Elson Floyd “I know I speak for the entire university community when I say the death of Dr. Floyd represents a profound loss for both Western Michigan University and higher education as a whole,” said WMU President John M. Dunn in a statement. “He went on from his very successful presidency at Western Michigan University to take other important leadership positions and carve out a national reputation,” Dunn said of WMU’s sixth president.

Floyd, 59, died Saturday, three weeks after he’d taken a for treatment of colon cancer. Floyd served as WMU president from August 1998 until January 2003.

He came to Kalamazoo from North Carolina, where he worked under the chancellor of the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill, handling the business operations of the state’s flagship university. At Western, Floyd was instrumental in establishing the university’s Business Technology and Research Park, which has “had a tremendous impact on our community’s economy and has meant hundreds of news jobs in dozens of high-tech businesses,” Dunn said.

During Floyd’s time in Michigan, WMU became one of 102 public universities to be classified as a Doctoral/Research-Extensive University by the Carnegie Foundation, while the aviation program in Battle Creek became the university’s seventh college. “Here at WMU, we are still building on some of the accomplishments of his presidency and the initiatives he launched,” Dunn said. Floyd is also noted for his acumen dealing with state legislature — as he worked to win support for various university projects in Michigan and Washington.

In February 2002, President George W. Bush appointed Floyd to the Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and said a year earlier during a visit to WMU: “He does a fabulous job for this important institution.” Floyd left WMU to become president of the University of Missouri in 2003, and became president of Washington State in May 2007. In Pullman, Washington, Floyd is credited for growing student enrollment to record highs and thrusting Washington State into the nation’s top 11 percent for research funding, according to a tribute posted on Washington State University’s website. At WSU, Floyd oversaw completion of 30 major construction projects and helped establish the university’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication and a medical school.

Floyd is being remembered as a friend and visionary. “I learned lifelong leadership lessons from Elson,” said U.S. Fred Upton, R-St. Joseph, in a statement Saturday. “He helped the community in the areas of economic development and was wonderful at Washington State University He was a true friend.” Floyd’s “great work at Western Michigan University propelled him into the ranks of top college presidents in the United States,” Upton added. Meanwhile, Washington Gov.

Jay Inslee said Floyd was “wholly devoted to serving his state and expanding opportunities” and “loved inspiring students and challenging them,” as reported in his obituary. In Kalamazoo, Floyd’s legacy will live on, according to Dunn. “Our deepest condolences go to his family for this loss, too early, of their loved one,” Dunn said.

“We will focus in the coming days, months and years on honoring the special legacy of this university’s sixth president.” Funeral services for Floyd are pending, Deal Is Reached to Keep Sweet Briar College Open Next Year Virginia’s attorney general announced on Saturday that an agreement had been reached to keep Sweet Briar College, which abruptly announced in March that it this summer, open next year after all. The announcement of the women’s college’s closure on and off the campus, as well as a flurry of legal challenges, and for other small institutions.

The announced by the attorney general, Mark R. Herring, would provide for the dismissal of the litigation involving the college. The parties in the legal disputes are expected to meet before a judge on Monday to seek approval of the settlement. The agreement requires Saving Sweet Briar, an alumnae group that has been challenging the college’s closure, to deliver $12 million in donations for the college’s operations in the 2015-16 academic year, and $2.5 million of that money must be delivered by July 2. Herring’s office would also agree to release restrictions on $16 million from the college’s endowment to support Sweet Briar’s operations. The agreement also includes an overhaul of the college’s leadership. It stipulates that at least 13 members of Sweet Briar’s Board of Directors, and its president, James F.

Jones Jr., must resign after the deal is approved. Herring’s office said Phillip C. Stone, a former president of was expected to be appointed by the new board as president. Stone was chairman of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges from 2007 to 2009, according to a posted on his law firm’s website. “After seeing the extraordinary passion, courage, and strength of the Sweet Briar alumnae, I feel privileged to be asked to join their heroic efforts to save this great college,” said Mr. Stone in a statement on Sunday night.

Black Americans are more than twice as likely to be unarmed when killed during encounters with police as white people, which found 102 of 464 people killed so far this year in incidents with law enforcement officers were not carrying weapons. An analysis of public records, local news reports and Guardian reporting found that 32% of black people killed by police in 2015 were unarmed, as were 25% of Hispanic and Latino people, compared with 15% of white people killed. The findings emerged from a database filled by a five-month study of police fatalities in the US, which calculated that local and state police and federal law enforcement agencies are killing people at twice the rate calculated.

The database names five people whose names have not been publicly released. Read more The Guardian’s statistics include deaths after the police use of a Taser, deaths caused by police vehicles and deaths following altercations in police custody, as well as those killed when officers open fire. They reveal that 29% of those killed by police, or 135 people, were black. Sixty-seven, or 14%, were Hispanic/Latino, and 234, or 50%, were white. In total, 102 people who died during encounters with law enforcement in 2015 were unarmed. The figures illustrate how disproportionately black Americans, according to census data, are killed by police.

Of the 464 people counted by the Guardian, an overwhelming majority – 95% – were male, with just 5% female. Steven Hawkins, the executive director Amnesty International USA, described the racial imbalance as “startling”. Hawkins said: “The disparity speaks to something that needs to be examined, to get to the bottom of why you’re twice as likely to be shot if you’re an unarmed black male.” Relatives of unarmed people killed by police in high-profile incidents during the past year – including Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tony Robinson and Walter Scott – described the Guardian project as a breakthrough in the national debate over the use of deadly force by law enforcement. “Giving this kind of data to the public is a big thing,” said Erica Garner, whose father’s killing by police in New York City last year led to international protests. “Other incidents like murders and robberies are counted, so why not police-involved killings? With better records, we can look at what is happening and what might need to change.” The initiative was also praised by a range of policing experts and by campaigners who are urging government authorities to make the official recording of fatalities mandatory for all 18,000 police departments and law enforcement agencies operating in the US.

“It’s troubling that we have no official data from the federal government,” said Laurie Robinson, the co-chair of Barack Obama’s task force on 21st-century policing. “I think it’s very helpful, in light of that fact, to have this kind of research undertaken.” Beginning on Monday, the Guardian is publishing The Counted, a comprehensive interactive database monitoring all police killings in the US through 16 data points including age, location, gender, ethnicity, whether the person killed was armed and which policing agency was responsible. Read more The Counted logs the precise location of each fatal incident, providing what is the most detailed map of police killings ever published.

California, America’s most populous state, has the highest total with 74 fatalities so far this year. However, an analysis of location data shows that Oklahoma, where 22 people have died through encounters with law enforcement, is the state with the highest rate of fatal incidents per person in 2015, at one fatality per 175,000 people over five months. Over the weekend, Nehemiah Fischer, a 35-year-old pastor, was shot dead by an Oklahoma state trooper after getting into a fight when told to evacuate his truck in rising flood waters south of Tulsa. Police have but have not explained whether he was armed during the confrontation.

The database, which will combine Guardian reporting with verified crowdsourced information, has logged 464 police killings for the first five months of 2015. The US government’s record, which is run by the FBI, counted 461 “justifiable homicides” by law enforcement in all of 2013, the latest year for which official data is available. The vast majority of deaths recorded – 408 – were caused by gunshot.

Of the 27 deaths that occurred after a Taser was deployed by law enforcement, all but one involved an unarmed person. On Sunday, Richard Davis, an unarmed black 50-year-old, died after being shocked with a Taser by police in Rochester, New York. Davis was said by authorities to have run from his truck towards officers with clenched fists after being told to put his hands up following a crash. Relatives said he was a veteran of the US marines. The Guardian has also identified 14 officer-involved deaths following altercations in custody. The total includes Freddie Gray, the 25-year-old resident of Baltimore whose death from a broken neck sustained in a police van led to protests, rioting and. Another 12 people died following collisions with law enforcement vehicles.

The family of Bernard Moore, who was 62, are calling for the criminal prosecution of an officer who fatally struck Moore with his squad car in Atlanta, allegedly while speeding without emergency lights or sirens on. By logging each law enforcement agency involved in the 464 deaths, the Guardian can also now report that the Los Angeles police department, the country’s third largest local police department, has been involved in the highest number of deaths of any local department. This year, 10 people have died in encounters with LAPD officers, of whom five were unarmed. The Oklahoma City police department and the Los Angeles sheriff’s office were both involved in five deaths, two individuals in both of these jurisdictions being unarmed.

High-profile cases in Los Angeles, like the death of unarmed Charly “Africa” Keunang, shot dead by LAPD officers on 1 March, garnered national attention. But cases like those of Sergio Navas, an unarmed Hispanic man shot dead by LAPD officers in the same month as Keunang, after police said he stole a vehicle and was chased down, have had less media scrutiny. Navas’s family have launched an excessive force lawsuit against the LAPD and accused them of a covering up the circumstances of the 35-year-old’s death The Guardian has also monitored whether mental health issues were identified, either by family members, friends or police following each fatal encounter. In total 26% of people killed by police exhibited some sort of mental illness, with at least 29 cases identified where the person killed was suicidal.

For example, Monique Deckard, a black woman with a long history of mental illness, was shot and killed by police officers in Anaheim, California, after she was accused of stabbing a woman at a laundromat and allegedly charging at officers. Her family had called police just hours before the attack, warning that they could not get in contact with her and that she might be trying to find a gun.

The average age of a person killed by police in 2015 was 37, but The Counted identifies a huge diversity in the ages of those killed. The oldest, 87-year-old Louis Becker, was killed during a collision with a New York state trooper patrol car in upstate New York. Eighty-two-year-old Richard “Buddy” Weaver was killed by Oklahoma City police after he allegedly raised a machete at an officer who opened fire; neighbors later described Weaver as having schizophrenia. The three youngest people identified were all 16 years old.

A’donte Washington, a black American, was shot dead by Millbrook police officers in Alabama on 23 February during an alleged burglary after the teenager was described as pointing a weapon at arriving officers. His family have questioned the police narrative, while the city mayor described the shooting as “110% justified”. Read more A week earlier, on 14 February, Jason Hendrix, a white 16-year-old was shot dead in a gunfight by Baltimore County police after the teenager murdered his mother, father and sister in Corbin, Kentucky, and drove to Maryland, where he is reported to have opened fire on an officer after a car chase. Six returned fire and killed him. A month later, on 19 March, black 16-year-old Kendre Alston was shot dead by a deputy of the Jacksonville sheriff’s office in Florida. Police claimed Alston fled from a stolen car and brandished a weapon at the pursuing official who then opened fire. Deneane Campbell, Alston’s mother, claimed in an interview two weeks later she had not been given any further details by police.

Some relatives of people killed by police said they had been unaware of the dearth of publicly available information on police-involved fatalities until their family became affected. Anthony Scott, whose brother Walter was in North Charleston, South Carolina, said the lack of public information “came as a surprise”. “I was not informed, I was not aware, I just had an idea these situations were happening in the United States,” Scott told the Guardian.

“The public need to know what is happening and be made more informed. With them being more informed they would be able to react differently, in a positive way, to make changes, to make sure some of these things don’t happen again.”. Louis Officer Breaks Down Troubling Trend That Turns ‘Good’ Cops Into ‘Bad’ Cops These days it seems more difficult than ever to define what police officers really are.

Are they a force plagued with racism who are willingly taking the lives of Black citizens all across the nation? Are they the heroes of today who valiantly serve their communities and have now been vilified thanks to the misdeeds of a few crooked cops? According to a Black ex-cop who spent years serving with the St. Louis Police Department, the answer is somewhere in the middle. In an essay published by Vox, Redditt Hudson explains one theory about the entire police force that he still believes based on his own experiences in the force.

“15 percent of officers will do the right thing no matter what is happening,” Hudson writes. “Fifteen percent of officers will abuse their authority at every opportunity. The remaining 70 percent could go either way depending on whom they are working with.” It’s because, according to Hudson, the actual culture that thrives within police departments is somewhat contagious.

Whether it’s by encouraging officers to follow in the footsteps of a corrupted cop or simply pushing officers into silence as they witness discrimination and abuse, it’s a culture that can render that 70 percent of officers to easily fall into the grasps of racism regardless of their own race. “It is not only white officers who abuse their authority,” Hudson writes. “The effect of institutional racism is such that no matter what color the officer abusing the citizen is, in the vast majority of those cases of abuse that citizen will be black or brown. That is what is allowed. And no matter what an officer has done to a black person, that officer can always cover himself in the running narrative of heroism, risk and sacrifice that is available to a uniformed police officer by virtue of simply reporting for duty.” So while the vast majority of officers are not necessarily malicious villains, the environment created by corrupt officers and a culture of a lack of accountability could still push “good cops” to wear the mask of an evil doer on certain occasions. It’s a part of the sheer power of corruption.

“About that 15 percent of officers who regularly abuse their power: a major problem is they exert an outsize influence on department culture and find support for their actions from ranking officers and police unions,” he continued. He pointed to the now infamous Chicago Police commander, Jon Burge, as a prime example.

Even if you haven’t heard Burge’s name before, it’s far more likely that you have heard about the. From the 1970s to the early ’90s, Burge served as the head of an entire group of rogue cops who brutally beat innocent citizens until they provided the officers with false confessions to crimes they didn’t commit.

Many would like to believe that if any other officers knew about the band of crooked cops, they would have taken the necessary action to put an end to their reign of terror. Hudson insists that’s a very optimistic and unlikely idea.

“How many officers ‘under the command’ of Commander Burge do you think didn’t know what was being done to these men,” he questioned. “How many do you think were uncomfortable with the knowledge? Ultimately, though, they were okay with it. And Burge got four years in prison and now receives his full taxpayer-funded pension.” While the 15 percent of blatantly malicious cops don’t make up the majority of the force, it’s their impact on others that poses such a widespread problem in police departments across the globe. Hudson even recounted his own experience of seeing his colleague snatch a young Black man on crutches from his home and slam him to the ground before brutally punching him in the face and groin.

By the time another officer arrived on the scene, the female officer who beat the young man told the other officers that the Black boy had assaulted her. Hudson knew that wasn’t the case and before his very eyes he witnessed the young man’s brutal arrest due to nothing more than a lie.

The unfortunate reality is that such lies are extremely common in law enforcement even though such corruption is hard for many to believe. As Hudson pointed out, very few would have believed the story about a police officer fatally shooting an unarmed man in the back multiple times and then planting his Taser next to him to support his story of a struggle when there wasn’t one.

It’s a false story that could have easily allowed South Carolina officer Michael Slager to avoid any and all accountability while Walter Scott’s family was left burying a loved one whose life was taken entirely too soon. But the cellphone video captured by a bystander allowed the entire nation to be reminded of the existence of dishonest police officers that have become comfortable living above the law. “If not for that video recording that later surfaced, the report would have likely been taken by many at face value,” Hudson continued.

“Instead we see that Slager shot Scott repeatedly and planted the Taser next to his body after the fact.” For that reason, Hudson believes “every officer in the country should be wearing a body camera that remains activated throughout any interaction they have with the public while on duty.” Redditt Hudson In addition to police body cameras, Hudson says citizens must be made to feel comfortable filming police while on duty as long as they are not interfering with their duties. It won’t be enough to solve the issues plaguing law enforcement but at the very least it could help hold more officers accountable for their actions. But in the midst of such a dark realization — that the very men and women hired to protect us are easily susceptible to corruption at the hands of the theoretical 15 percent — there still remains the other 15 percent that Hudson describes. The percentage of officers who truly want to combat police brutality, the ones who joined the force for the right reasons and the ones who truly want to dedicate themselves to finding justice for all people regardless of their race. Many of these officers belong to the National Coalition of Law Enforcement Officers for Justice, Reform and Accountability.

It’s a “new coalition of current and former law enforcement officers from around the nation” who want to “fight institutional racism in our criminal justice system and police culture,” Hudson explains. It’s a group that serves as a glimmer of hope that perhaps one day, a system created on a systematically racist foundation, will one day evolve into true a collection of neighborhood heroes who are ready to defend and protect all citizens — including Black ones. Who Wants to Be an HBCU President?

Would you take a job, in any industry, that requires you to run a multi-million dollar company with hundreds of underpaid employees, thousands of clients who can’t afford your product which, in the marketplace, you constantly have to defend as a worthwhile buy? And with that job, would you also be willing to serve as the unofficial mayor of the town in which your company is stationed, because you are expected to have a stake in crime prevention, economic development, and social justice? And by the way, you would also, in your spare time, have to serve as a political lobbyist, recruiter for new clients, and manage relationships with corporate stakeholders who typically aren’t in position to finance your company until they are near or past retirement age, those who vocally think the company is headed in the wrong direction, and the majority of which, you can’t even find to ask for their opinion. If you wouldn’t take that job, you can imagine why people with PhDs and more sense than ego wouldn’t want it either. And somewhere in between governing boards with no fundraising desire or higher education acumen and dwindling financial resources for students, the shrinking talent pool for HBCU presidents, administrators and faculty members is becoming yet another black college crisis. Like many students, talented black professors and executives are being recruited to predominantly white schools, government and non-profit organizations to lend their expertise and passion in far less stressful ways, in settings with far more resources.

The few willing and selected to lead HBCUs soon become so disenchanted with the nature of higher education – the political backroom deals, the resistance to new strategy, the lack of resources and the reality that government is actively seeking to further reduce accessibility for students from working class and poor families, they leave and never return. In HBCU communities, this nature which pervades white and black schools alike is always tagged as ‘black folks not being able to run a school the right way,’ simply because black schools don’t have the money or political clout to mask serious issues from becoming publicly glaring problems.

No one can serve two masters; at HBCUs, a president serves several thousand. Campus CEOs can be covertly fired by governors, state legislators and alumni, and publicly fired by faculty and students. Most presidents don’t recognize this fact until they are being pushed out of the door in disgrace and confusion, leaving the campus humiliated, and HBCU culture at large to suffer yet another presidential search with little optimism for a positive outcome. Campuses are left typically with sobering choices in leadership outcomes. Boards choose an unqualified candidate from a barren talent pool because no one else wants the job, and retain the bad choice because it would be too embarrassing and costly to pay the outgoing president and to find a new one.

Because they don’t want to be criticized for ‘recycling’ presidents, proven and talented leaders like Mary Sias, Dianne Suber, Charlie Nelms, M. Christopher Brown II, Maurice Taylor, Keith Miller and others are hoping that a board soon comes to its senses. And because many HBCUs continue to be allergic to youth and don’t invest in talent spotting, people like Tiffany Jones at the Southern Education Foundation, Crystal deGregory of HBCU Story Inc., William Broussard at the Southern University System, Tashni Dubroy at Shaw, Jason DeSousa at UMES, John Lee at FAMU, Adriel Hilton at Western Carolina, and Zachary Faison at Virginia Union have either not yet been recruited to, or are two years behind in their grooming to be HBCU presidents and chancellors. Schools like Howard, West Virginia State, Coppin State, Lincoln (Mo.) Harris-Stowe State, Tuskegee, Florida Memorial, Philander Smith, Dillard, Delaware State and Paul Quinn have gotten younger, and from all indications, better by way of their selections.

Other schools like Edward Waters, North Carolina A&T, Bennett and Savannah State selected more seasoned candidates, and have thrived. There is a good president out there for every HBCU. And yes, finance, politics, and culture make it naturally difficult to be an HBCU president. But we must demand for our boards and legislators to bring in more resources and to help cultivate better search processes to find the right fit at the highest position on campus. Because when you are offering a job nobody wants, and charging candidates to sell a product that no one can afford in a marketplace with growing options, the right salesperson is your last and most important resource.

4 Signs Your College Might Go Out of Business Earlier this month, Sweet Briar College, a private, all-female liberal arts college near Lynchburg, Va., announced that it would shut down at the end of the 2014-2015 academic year. In a statement, the school blamed “” for the closure.

“[T]here are two key realities that we could not change: the declining number of students choosing to attend small, rural, private liberal arts colleges and even fewer young women willing to consider a single-sex education, and the increase in the discount rate that we have to extend to enroll each new class is financially unsustainable,” said in a statement. Students, faculty, staff, and alumnae of the 114-year-old college were stunned by the news. “A piece of me is dying,”. “My daughter is heartbroken and I am absolutely disgusted with this school. She is in debt up to her knees for her first two years of school and now she can’t even finish at her school of choice,” commented Lelia Blackwell on announcing the closure.

Sweet Briar alumnae have already created a nonprofit organization and gathered to help save the college. These last-ditch efforts to prevent the school’s closure may be successful. But if not, the school will shut down permanently on August 25. Students will have to transfer to other schools to complete their education, and faculty and staff will have to find new jobs.

The financial situation that led Sweet Briar trustees to vote to close the school isn’t all that unique. Declining enrollments, shrinking endowments, and other financial problems are issues for many colleges across the U.S. Here are some of the warning signs that a college might be in danger of shutting its doors. Source: Thinkstock 1. Offering too many tuition discounts Case study: Sweet Briar College When a college decides to close its doors, there are usually multiple underlying causes.

For Sweet Briar College, one trigger was the shrinking number of young women interested in attending a small, rural school or in pursuing a single-sex college experience. But another major issue was the high number of students receiving discounted tuition. When Standard & Poor’s from stable to negative in fall 2014, it cited the school’s “very high” tuition discount rate of 57% as a cause for concern, noting that it might “cause the college to rely more on already high endowment spending.” Colleges frequently offer reduced tuition in order to attract more students or to make an education accessible to people who are not able to pay the full sticker price.

Tuition discounting comes with big risks for colleges, however. “Because of high institutional discount rates and large percentages of students receiving grants that cover a substantial portion of tuition and fees, average growth in net tuition revenue per freshman has been limited in recent years” for many schools, according to a recent survey on the practice by the Less tuition revenue can put strain on a college’s finances, particularly at schools with few students and relatively small endowments, as colleges still have to pay professors, maintain facilities, and meet their other financial obligations. As with any business, if the revenue coming in is not sufficient, a college may eventually find itself in a position of no longer being able to continue operations. Source: Thinkstock 2. Losing access to federal student aid money Case study: Corinthian Colleges is a major source of revenue for many colleges and universities, so when the government turns off the tap, it can spell disaster.

At four-year public and non-profit private colleges and universities, more than 30% of first-year, full-time students received federal aid in the 2011-2012 school year. Colleges receive much of that money in the form of tuition and fees.

But at private, for-profit colleges, the percent of students receiving federal aid is far higher — 76% according to the, which means they’re even more dependent on student loan money to stay in business. Not just any school can receive federal student aid money. The government imposes certain in order to ensure that money is flowing to accredited institutions that are actually educating students. If a school isn’t meeting its obligations, the federal government can make it more difficult, or even impossible, to receive federal aid money, as it recently did with for-profit Corinthian Colleges because of concerns the school was using fake job placement data in order to convince prospective students to enroll. In June 2014, the announced that it was increasing financial oversight of the 107-campus Corinthian Colleges chain and its subsidiary institutions, including WyoTech and Everest College, requiring the school to wait 21 days after submitting enrollment data before drawing down aid money. As a result, the Corinthian claimed it would likely “.” Soon after, the company announced plans to either and was.

It’s also being sued by the because of its deceptive marketing practices. Unsurprisingly, many former Corinthian students are upset about the school’s closure and feel they’ve been duped.

Some are engaging in a “” and refusing to pay back the student loans they took out to attend the college. “I didn’t have debt before, and now I have to struggle to pay these loans back.

I was scammed. Two years of my life are gone. I can’t get that back,” former Everest College student and debt striker.

Source: Thinkstock 3. Problems with accreditation Case Study: Wilberforce University Accreditation woes can spell big trouble for a college or university. The accreditation process involves a third-party review of a school’s faculty, finances, curriculum, and other qualities to make sure that a school is legitimate. “Accreditation doesn’t guarantee quality, but does provide more assurance that there is oversight regarding the instruction and their authority to issue degrees,” Susan Aldridge, a senior fellow at the of State Colleges and Universities told. While diploma mills frequently operate without accreditation, when a legitimate college loses its accreditation, it’s often seen as a death knell for the school, particularly since students at unaccredited schools aren’t eligible for federal.

Schools don’t lose accreditation overnight though. Accreditation agencies issue warnings to schools that are in danger of losing their accreditation, as the Higher Learning Commission recently did to Ohio’s Wilberforce University. Wilberforce University, America’s oldest private historically black college, is in because of its failure to address financial challenges, failure to set annual goals, and a deteriorating campus and deferred maintenance, among other issues. The Higher Learning Commission will make a final determination on Wilberforce’s accreditation status this June.

If the school does lose accreditation it “would almost certainly prove fatal to the institution,”. At that point, it could face a fate similar to that of Morris Brown College, another historically black college, which lost its accreditation in 2002. Most students went elsewhere to earn their degrees and enrollment fell to. The school recently sold much of its property in a, though it hopes to after it emerges from bankruptcy.

Source: Thinkstock 4. Declining enrollment Case Study: Antioch College Shrinking enrollment numbers is a major warning sign that a college could be at risk of closure, according to a report from the (TICUA). “On the revenue side, small enrollments tend to be associated with lower tuition revenues and smaller amounts of private giving. On the expense side, many fixed and overhead costs are deferred through economies of scale that happen with larger enrollment institutions,” TICUA noted. That was precisely the problem faced by Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, which shut down in 2008.

Though the school had a storied history — it was founded by educational reformer Horace Mann in 1852 and was one of the first colleges in the U.S. To admit women and African-Americans — enrollment at the main undergraduate campus, which has space for 2,700 students had plunged to, as reported by InsideHigherEd. Low enrollment contributed to a, including faculty and staff cuts and deferred campus maintenance, and the trustees voted to close the doors. The Antioch story has a happy ending, though. In 2012, four years after the college closed, the, after a group of alumni banded together to purchase the campus, rights to the school’s endowment, and other institutional assets. Currently, all admitted students receive four-year, full-tuition scholarships.

Shaw University Names Dr. Tashni Dubroy President Shaw University’s Board of Trustees Chairman Dr. Bell announced the election of Dr. Tashni Dubroy as Shaw’s 17th Shaw University Names Dr. Tashni Dubroy President May 30, 2015 -Shaw University’s Board of Trustees Chairman Dr. Bell announced today the election of Dr. Tashni Dubroy as Shaw’s 17th president.

Dubroy was voted president during a special meeting today of the Board of Trustees. President-elect Dubroy previously served as the special assistant to the president for process optimization and the chair of Shaw’s department of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Dubroy’s appointment is effective August 1, 2015. A press conference will be held on Monday, June 1, 2015 at 1:00 p.m. On Shaw’s campus (Estey Hall Lawn) to formally introduce Dr. Dubroy as the new president.

Media coverage is invited. The Oldest Private HBCU Promises Free Tuition to Select Students Founded in 1856 by members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Wilberforce is the first predominantly African-American private university in the nation. Wilberforce was originally formed to provide an intellectual Mecca and refuge from slavery’s first rule: ignorance. Following the same lines the institution is going one step forward and seeking to break the barriers of poverty in education.

As according to a recent report, very few parents are able to save for their kid’s college education, the new Wilberforce Promise has come to rescue. Under the program, nearly 100 students will be provided free tuition and they will graduate with a bachelor’s degree debt free. Students would get a combination of scholarships, grants, and/or work study to cover the entire four years of tuition including food and housing. The promise makes it clear that the students from all economic backgrounds are equally welcome at the university and they can count on it for education. In fact, it’s much more than a financial aid program. It’s a University’s commitment to support the success of scholars from beginning till the end. Claflin student wins $25k UNCF scholarship Claflin University sophomore Dennis Richmond Jr.

Recently accepted a $25,000 United Negro College Fund scholarship as a Target Rising Star recipient. Richmond was honored at the 36th annual taping of “UNCF: An Evening of Stars,” which aired live on BET networks. UNCF, known for its continuous efforts to support the education of African-American students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, hosted the “UNCF: An Evening of Stars” in collaboration with leading artists, major corporations and personal foundations to garner support for HBCU student scholarships.

The event raised more than $500,000 in scholarship money. Twenty students were selected to receive portions of the scholarship money.

Richmond was one of only six sophomores across the country chosen as honorees. “Paying for college has been an issue for me in the past,” Richmond said. “I’ve taken out student loans – a lot of student loans. Up until this point, my mother’s retirement savings has paid the majority of my college education.” The aspiring genealogist majors in African diaspora studies at Claflin. Without the UNCF scholarship, Richmond said he would have accumulated “over $50,000 in student loan debt” by his graduation date. “The valuable part about this whole experience is learning that hard work pays off,” he said. The 20-year-old sophomore, who maintains a 3.7 GPA at Claflin, is no stranger to hard work.

At age 13, he was already conducting research to begin his first genealogical company. By the time he was 18, he had established his own company, Westchester Genealogical Services. Richmond said he enjoys helping people research their family trees and looks forward to pursuing the career full time after graduation.

He said his clientele includes New York State Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, renowned poet Nikki Giovanni, actor/producer David Banner and Claflin President Dr.

Henry Tisdale. In addition to helping others research their ancestry, the Yonkers, New York, native is passionate about students receiving an HBCU education. Richmond was recently featured in The Times and Democrat for starting the New York State HBCU Initiative to help students in his hometown become more aware of HBCUs. “Students in New York don’t know about HBCUs and the opportunities that they have because most HBCUs are down south,” he said. “I want to give back to my community with my HBCU initiative.

The students are our future. We have to invest in them in order to see a brighter day.” To Richmond, the scholarship funds he’s received will do more than just help him complete his HBCU education. Being able to attend and finish school at an HBCU helps him “continue a legacy,” he said. “To continue the dream that the early founders of our HBCUs had is beautiful,” he said. Although he had the opportunity to meet celebrities like Anthony Anderson, Jermaine Dupri and Big Tigger at “UNCF: An Evening of Stars,” Richmond said that wasn’t his favorite part of it.

“The best part of this whole experience is having the opportunity to encourage others,” he said. “I can tell others to work hard, and they’ll tell their communities to work hard as well. If you see people working hard, you’ll want to do it, too.” Two Saint Augustine’s University Grads are Accepted into a Combined 19 Law Schools For graduates Shaquitta Monique Clark and Antwoine Lamont Coleman Jr., it was not a matter of being accepted to law school. Their biggest decisions were which ones to attend. Clark was admitted to 11 law schools. Coleman was admitted to eight law schools.

After much deliberation, Clark, a native of District Heights, Md., is headed to Atlanta, Ga. In August to Emory University. Clark also received offers from Michigan State, The Ohio State University and the University of Maryland to name a few Coleman, a native of Richmond, Va., decided to attend.

He also received admission offers from schools such as Michigan State,, Campbell University and Florida Coastal University. Clark, who has been a presidential scholar for all four years, shared her initial reaction when she received her first acceptance letter. “I felt a sense of relief,” said Clark, who has a 4.0 grade point average. “When I received my second acceptance letter, my third letter, my fourth letter and so on, I was so excited and screamed that I am going to law school. Prayer definitely works!” However, being accepted has not always been easy for Clark.

In one of her personal statements that she submitted to a law school, Clark revealed how her father had to choose between cocaine and her. “My father chose cocaine,” wrote Clark in her statement. “My grandparents stepped in and saved me. A few years later, my grandfather was murdered—by his son, my uncle. I was forced to move back in with my mother, who worked 60 hours a week. I speak of these experiences not as sob stories or as pity seeking, but as proof of my belief in the following statement: there is almost nothing that I cannot overcome. Growing up, I had no voice; I could not speak for myself, and there was no one to speak for me, to give advice or to advocate for me.

My passion for law burns out of this silence.”. At the age of 10, Clark always knew she wanted to be a lawyer. However, Clark did not major in political science nor criminal justice. “During my freshman year at Saint Augustine’s University, I decided to major in psychology because I have always been a person who asks why,” said Clark, who plans to be a corporate attorney. “I chose to attend Saint Augustine’s University because the institution illustrated its commitment to my success and welcomed me—and other students—without reservation. The student-to-faculty ratio is small, which allowed me to receive the one-on-one time I desired, and also provided the opportunity for my professors and me to get to know each other on a personal level. Coleman, who has 3.92 grade point average and has also been a presidential scholar for four years, agrees with Clark.

“Saint Augustine’s University is very nurturing,” said Coleman, who is a first generation college student. “I love the family environment.” Coleman, who is the oldest of six children, expressed his thoughts about being accepted to eight law schools.

“God is good!” said Coleman, whose eyes beamed with joy. “I am extremely excited and truly humbled. I plan to pursue criminal law because it is a lawyer’s responsibility to serve as an advocate for justice.”. The Mississippi Legislature approved $2 million this past legislative session to establish the school. Last week, the Mississippi Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning authorized the school to be created at JSU.

“This is a tremendous achievement for Mississippi, and we are grateful to the governor, the lieutenant governor, the speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives and all of our Mississippi legislators for ushering this through,” said JSU President Carolyn W. “The action is groundbreaking. There currently is no School of Public Health in the state of Mississippi,” Meyers said.

“Not only will it solidify the Capital City as a premier health care provider for the state and region, but it will provide a national model for meeting professional health care needs.” “Health care in Mississippi is an industry of necessity. Not only can our state benefit from more health care providers and professionals, our economy can benefit from growth in the health care sector,” Gov. Phil Bryant said. “In my Executive Budget Recommendation, I recommended that the Legislature appropriate $2 million for the JSU School of Public Health, and I am very pleased that we secured this funding.

This program will be a very important part of the health care landscape in Mississippi.” “We need more public health professionals to study and practice here, particularly in the rural areas,” Lt. Tate Reeves said. “The School of Public Health at JSU will help address our challenges in building a healthy Mississippi.” “Healthcare is one of the most important issues we deal with day to day and will drive the economy and jobs into the future,” said Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn. “Creating a School of Public Health at Jackson State University will produce students who can work in the public health arena. Representative Angela Cockerham worked closely with me to achieve the required funding and we are all proud that we got this done for our state.” “Mississippi’s health challenges are well documented,” said Aubrey Patterson, president of the Board of Trustees. “All of our universities share the task of addressing these issues, and Jackson State University’s new School of Public Health is an excellent example of this.

Through education, research and treatment, our universities are helping to improve the health and quality of life of all Mississippians.” Creating a School of Public Health was identified in the Jake Ayers settlement as a program to be established at Jackson State. Brown, dean of the College of Public Service that oversees JSU’s allied health programs. Brown, dean of the College of Public Service that oversees JSU’s allied health programs. “The board’s action puts into play our longstanding goal to address the health care needs of the residents of Mississippi,” said Dr. Brown, dean of the College of Public Service that oversees JSU’s allied health programs.

While JSU has been wanting to create such a school for the past 16 years, he said, the idea was put into action as a blueprint by President Meyers last year. A national search is under way for the dean of the new school, Meyers said. JSU School of Public Health dean search committee members include: • Chair, Dr.

Loretta Moore, vice president for Research and Federal Regulations, Jackson State University • Dr. 3ds Max 4 26 Download Youtube. Mary Currier, director of the State Department of Health, • Dr. Manoj-Shaima, professor of Behavioral Health Promotion, College of Public Service, Jackson State University • Dr. Issac Perkins, professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Service, Jackson State University • Dr. Wilbur Walters, associate dean, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, Jackson State University • Dr.

Glenda Windfield, chair of the Faculty Senate, Jackson State University • Dr. Beach, associate vice chancellor of Rural Health, professor of Family Medicine, • One undergraduate student representative to be named at a later date • One graduate student representative to be named at a later date The Board approved the school because of several factors that made JSU perfectly positioned to provide this critical service for Mississippi’s health care needs, according to Dr. Renick, provost and senior vice president for academic and student affairs. Those factors include: • Jackson State offers the Masters of Public Health and the Doctorate in Public Health, the only doctoral public health degree program in the state. • Ayers-funded and supported (1999) public health degree programs, housed in the School of Health Sciences and accredited by the Schools (CEPH), is structured around a core curriculum and three areas of concentration including: Health Policy and Management, Behavioral Health Promotion and Education and Epidemiology. • Enrollment in JSU’s Masters of Public Health and the Doctorate in Public Health programs is projected to increase approximately 10 percent each year for the next five years.

“Taken as a whole, this action allows us to support moving Mississippi health care to the forefront,” Meyers said. Diverse Conversations: The Sources of HBCUs’ Pain historically Black colleges and universities have had a tremendous impact on the education levels of the Black community. Since their founding, these campuses have served underdog students—first-generation, minority and other at-risk college attendees.

The question of HBCU relevance is constantly floated in education circles but lately I’ve been pondering an even more poignant query: Is there a conspiracy to destroy HBCUs? Of course the word “conspiracy” makes it sound like a top-secret, well-orchestrated attempt to eliminate these colleges from the higher education landscape.

I don’t believe that is particularly the case, but there are certainly some factors that seem to harm HBCUs more than PWIs. Policies that hurt HBCUs For those who believe there is a conspiracy afoot, there are all sorts of reasons they believe so. Here are a couple of the most common: Changes in the PLUS Loan program. In October 2011, the U.S. Department of Education adjusted its lending policies for these popular—and, in many cases, necessary—loans to align more closely with what a traditional bank would require in the way of income and creditworthiness. All colleges took a hit with these changes, but HBCUs lost an estimated $50 million in the first full year these changes took place. For many HBCUs, the college population is made up of first-generation students with parents who often have not set aside the funding for a college education but want to contribute financially.

When PLUS Loan eligibility changed, it felt like a blow directed at HBCUs. Online schools targeting minorities. Perhaps the largest factor crippling HBCUs today is the prevalence of online college programs. From schools like the University of Phoenix, which is completely online, to individual programs offered by traditional campus schools, students who need college-work-family flexibility are finding it outside HBCU campuses.

All demographics have flocked to online schooling, but minorities have been especially targeted. HBCUs traditionally have been viewed as places for underdogs, but online schooling programs have overtaken that space with the combination of convenience and a wide array of programs. Policies to merge HBCUs. Governors like Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal and Mississippi’s former governor Haley Barbour have announced plans to merge HBCUs with each other or other predominantly White institutions in moves that are intended to slash state operating costs. Treating any two HBCUs as institutions that are alike enough to merge without incident is flawed though.

Planning to merge an HBCU with a predominantly white school is even more off-base. These individual schools have their own histories, their own student cultures. Perhaps it makes financial sense to merge HBCUs with others similar in size or scope, but it undermines the collective institutions, undercutting their autonomy and what they can offer to potential students. Ways HBCUs hurt themselves Of course HBCUs cannot completely play the role of victim here. I’m a dean at an HBCU and completely believe in the message—but even I can see that there are things we do collectively that are hurting our student populations and chances for longevity. We need to change that, together, and that starts with recognizing where we have made mistakes.

Slow adaptability. We’ve spent too much time wringing our hands and not enough time looking for solutions. Why were predominantly white institutions better prepared when the PLUS Loan changes took place? Could we not have come up with our own solutions too? When it comes to online schooling, most HBCUs are just finally implementing full-degree online programs and embracing the idea that our students don’t need to be on a physical campus to benefit. Yes, the campuses of HBCUs are their biggest advantages, steeped in history and a palpable air of shared struggle.

This doesn’t mean we should force our students to set foot on our campuses or not come at all. The inability to move quickly and keep up with the higher education times has hurt HBCUs but hopefully not permanently.

Lack of diversity. HBCUs are getting better at recruiting all students to their campuses and programs, but this is another area where we’ve done too little, too late. HBCUs are no longer the only option for students of color and haven’t been for decades. So why have we spent so little time rebranding ourselves as institutions that welcome all students and help those students succeed?

The number of Latino, white and Asian students on HBCU campuses is rising slowly, but relying on our historically largest segment of students (after it became clear they did not need us as much as we needed them) has hurt us. Lack of stability in administration. Over the past decade, too many HBCU presidents have seemingly disappeared in the middle of the night without explanation. South Carolina State University, for example, has seen 11 different presidents since 1992 but why? Often the answer lies in the fact that a board of trustees clings to the past or spends too much time micromanaging and not enough looking at the future and big picture of the HBCU landscape. Such instability at the top cannot inspire confidence for faculty or students. To really plant roots for the future, there needs to be consistent leadership that aligns with the long-term goals of the HBCU.

Not appreciating students. This may sound petty but alumni who do not feel that their universities really gave them a world-class education, or at the very least an adequate one, are less likely to give back financially. This hurts HBCUs more than PWIs, I think.

An essay written by a recent HBCU graduate who declined to name her school specifically expressed shock at the under-sophisticated classrooms and technology resources at her HBCU. While she points out the social atmosphere was top-notch and ultimately the reason she stayed until graduation, she says she would rather see her former school be shuttered than donate money to it.

This is only one story, of course, but it rings true with other graduates I’ve met and read about who believe they received a sub-par educational experience at an HBCU (sometimes on very basic levels) and who have no desire to donate money back. This is no way to maintain long-term student pride or bring in future students. The combination of outside factors and internal issues has created a perfect storm when it comes to declining enrollment and revenue at HBCUs. I still believe these institutions have an important place in the U.S.

College landscape but will have to fight just a little bit harder to stay relevant. Matthew Lynch is dean of the School of Education, Psychology, and Interdisciplinary Studies, and an associate professor of Education at Virginia Union University. Cheyney University failed to track $50 million in student aid When the federal government awards college students grants and loans, campuses that hold the money in trust are required to verify that each recipient is aid-eligible and that the money is not misused.

But for three years, that vital record-keeping practice was not performed adequately at Cheyney University, one of the nation’s oldest historically black colleges and a state-owned university whose distressed financial condition has become a growing concern to the State System of Higher Education, officials said. So a consultant is now reconciling nearly $50 million worth of federal awards made to Cheyney students during those three years to determine if and how much of that money the school must return to the U.S.

Department of Education. State System officials this week provided limited information about the matter. They said officials were unsure why the examination of financial records for discrepancies, known as “reconciliation,” had not occured at Cheyney those years and said they will not know the liability’s extent until the consultant, Atlanta-based Financial Aid Services, completes its review. In recent days, the matter has attracted the attention of Moody’s Investors Service, the credit rating agency, which mentioned the problem in a published rating April 17 of a proposed refinancing of $95 million in State System revenue bonds. Moody’s cited as one of the system’s challenges “distressed operations” at Cheyney “and an anticipated liability to Federal Department of Education for improperly awarded financial aid by the university.” Kenn Marshall, a State System spokesman, said officials learned of the problem about a year ago as some Cheyney students expressed concern over the processing of their aid awards. In spring 2014, a management team from State System Chancellor Frank Brogan’s office was dispatched to Cheyney to restructure its financial aid division, but ultimately, it was decided an outside consultant was needed, Mr.

Marshall said. The reconciliation of $48.9 million in aid covers years 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14, Mr. Marshall said.

The current academic year was reconciled on schedule. “Once the reconciliation is complete, the U.S. Department of Education will determine any amount that would have to be repaid,” Mr. Marshall said Thursday. “That really is all I can provide you at this point.“ The Education Department said it had no comment on any discussions involving Cheyney.

Campus officials had no immediate comment, and a call to Financial Aid Services Thursday was not returned. Marshall said the consultant has an $872,000 contract with the system and is providing both the reconciliation and managing financial aid services for Cheyney going forward. Financial aid expert Mark Kantrowitz, senior vice president and publisher of Edvisors Network Inc., said many times failure by schools to follow the complex federal rules can be a minor issue, though some cases can be more extreme. The 14-state-owned universities belonging to the State System have been hit hard by deep state appropriation cuts and enrollment losses approaching 20 percent on some campuses since 2010. Matters have been even worse at Cheyney. Its full- and part-time enrollment last fall was 1,022, down 16 percent over the last year alone and 36 percent from 2010.

In December, Cheyney secured a $2 million loan from the State System having earlier borrowed $4.75 million to meet payroll and other operating expenses, Mr. Marshall said.

In releasing results of a performance audit on Cheyney in December, state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale described the school’s future as “bleak and projected to worsen.” He said its “ability to continue to operate is questionable” without drastic action. The audit examined five years ending June 30, 2013, and the last three of those years Cheyney’s total operating expenses outstripped revenues, leaving it with a negative net position equal to $12.3 million on operating expenses of $46.6 million, Mr. DePasquale said. Its 2014-15 budget projected a shortfall of $5.5 million, the auditor general found.

The audit cited among Cheyney’s problems excessive bad debt, including student loans. But the audit did not examine financial aid awards and was finished before questions were raised about the awards, officials said. Category: Groundbreaking Federal Judge Says Current Supreme Court Is as Bad as the Court That Handed Down Dred Scott Decision in 1857 U.W. Clemon It’s been 158 years since the U.S. Supreme Court in the Dred Scott decision ruled that African-Americans were not American citizens and had no rights.

But a groundbreaking federal judge believes the current Roberts Court is the worst court the nation has seen in the area of civil rights since the Dred Scott decision was handed down. Clemon, who became Alabama’s first Black federal judge when he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, presented his withering analysis of the current Supreme Court during an appearance on Democracy Now. “It was Charles Evans Hughes who once said that the Constitution means at any given point in time only what five members of the Supreme Court say that it means,” Clemon, 71, told host Amy Goodman while attending ceremonies in Selma, Alabama, over the weekend. “And we have seen, in the last quarter-century, a Supreme Court as reactionary as the Taney Court which decided the Dred Scott decision. This court today is as amorous of states’ rights, which we thought we had fought a great Civil War over, thought we had settled that issue —but this Supreme Court has resurrected states’ rights, and it’s now a constitutional principle.” By turning back the Voting Rights Act in the Shelby ruling, Clemon said, the court has allowed states to usher in the kind of voting restrictions that he fought against 50 years ago in Alabama.

Clemon knows of what he speaks: He confronted the infamous Sheriff Bull Connor over Birmingham’s segregation laws when he was still a student at Miles College in 1962, marched with activists like Dr. Martin Luther King, and personally desegregated the Birmingham Public Library. It’s a legacy that gives him a clear historical picture of what’s going on today in America.

Taking a long view of American history, Clemon goes all the way back to the 19th century to find a court as racially regressive as the one presided over by John Roberts. Clemon has seen some race wars during his time in the South: As a civil rights lawyer in Alabama, he sued Paul “Bear” Bryant in 1969 to desegregate the University of Alabama’s football team, and he brought employment discrimination cases against some of the largest employers in Alabama. Asked by Goodman whether he would call today’s court a “Jim Crow court,” Clemon didn’t back down.

“Well, I would say that this Supreme Court is — yes, it’s a flamethrower,” he said. “And it is, in my judgment, the worst Supreme Court in terms of civil rights since, as I said, 1857, the decision that caused the Civil War.” Ted Shaw Clemon currently practices law in Birmingham, after retiring from the judiciary in January 2009. Ted Shaw, the former president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and currently a professor of the University of North Carolina Law School as well as director of the school’s Center for Civil Rights, told Democracy Now that many Americans are afraid of the country’s changing demographics. “It’s causing them to literally act in ways that are mad,” Shaw said. “I don’t mean angry mad; I mean like insane mad.

And it’s infected our politics. And race is very much at the center of a lot of these issues. They’re afraid of not being in the majority anymore, even though they’ll still have disproportionate power. So, you know, I think we’re in a dangerous time and a dangerous place. The Voting Rights Act is still important, the right to vote sacred. This is political disempowerment that’s followed from Shelby County, or potential political disempowerment.

So, the struggle continues. It may change in some ways, but it continues.” Join us in our effort to change our world with Empowering Narratives. Share this empowering narrative on your social network of choice and ask others to do the same.

What will be the implications for Louisiana HBCU’S? R LSU, a good offense has always proved to be the best defense. But now the school that hosts the nationally ranked Tigers is facing a foe that makes the Crimson Tide seem weak: budget cuts.

Louisiana’s public colleges are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst as they face a drop in state funding of up to 82 percent. As the state legislature fails to make headway covering a $608 million shortfall in higher education spending, its public colleges are bracing for the prospect of budget cuts so deep some institutions — including the state’s biggest public flagship — might have to declare financial exigency. That’s college funding-speak for something akin to bankruptcy. The potential threat to Louisiana’s public colleges is unprecedented, said Jordan Kurland, associate general secretary of the National American Association of University Professors. “I don’t know if anything that drastic has occurred anywhere in modern times or perhaps ever,” he said. “It’s hard to know what cuts of that magnitude will amount to.” “I don’t know if anything that drastic has occurred anywhere in modern times or perhaps ever.” Under financial exigency, a bankruptcy-like status that gives institutions a legal pathway to change contracts or other financial obligations, schools would have more freedom to lay off tenured professors or eliminate programs and departments. “We need to have every tool at our disposal to survive,” said F.

King Alexander, president and chancellor of the Louisiana State University system, who added that the school still hoped to avoid exigency. “We’re optimistic that we can get through this but as managers of the institution, we’ve got to play out every scenario,” he said. Worst-case scenario But without a rescue from lawmakers, Alexander said programs could be dropped or entire departments shuttered under a worst-case scenario.

“Specifically, we don’t know which programs or departments we’re talking about [but] it would require us to utilize every tool possible,” he said. Even if the worst-case scenario doesn’t come to pass, it’s possible students could find themselves paying more, through increases in tuition and fees or decreases in the state’s TOPS scholarship program. Lawmakers have historically been reluctant to raise tuition — currently $8,758 for tuition and fees for in-state students at LSU — but there is discussion about giving schools themselves more freedom to do so. Administrators say students have already been asked to shoulder a growing amount of the cost and can’t take on any more. “We’ve gone from being very state funded-intensive to being tuition-dependent, and we’ve got 40 percent of our students that are Pell [grant] eligible,” said Sandra Woodley, president of the University of Louisiana system, which consists of nine universities throughout the state.

Since 2009, tuition and fees have climbed by 61 percent while state funding has dropped by 55 percent, a drop of $90 million. “We’ve already shifted to mostly being funded by tuition revenue in a state that has a relatively low income population,” Woodley said. Further cuts would just hurt the most vulnerable. “We need the legislature to find general fund dollars to fill the gap,” she said. “We’re no longer able to shift the burden to the students.”. Alexander said other options LSU is discussing with its student government include implementing or increasing fees on services ranging from tutoring to mental-health counseling.

Facilities like computer labs or the school health center could have their hours of operations pared back. Enrollment declines Whatever the outcome, the legislative gridlock is hurting the state’s public higher education infrastructure, Woodley said. “We’re already starting to see enrollment declines all across our system,” she said.

“I think a good part of that is due to the affordability issues.” The fiscal uncertainty also could affect schools’ borrowing ability. Earlier this month, Moody’s Investors Service LSU’s outlook, citing “limited prospects for sustained revenue growth due to potential reductions in state operating funding,” among other factors. “More people [who] have the means to do so will leave Louisiana for college and get their college educations elsewhere,” Kurland said. He added that the threat of exigency would make it harder for state schools to attract good tenure-track professors. This could hurt Louisiana’s ability to compete for businesses and jobs, Kurland said. “[If] the skilled workforce is not being developed it’ll discourage industry from investing money because the prospects will look so bleak,” he said. Rather than pour money into training workers, companies seeking to start up or grow will look elsewhere.

Woodley said the UL system was already trying to double the number of STEM majors it graduates to keep up with demand and make the state more competitive, but those efforts risk being derailed for a lack of funds. “The momentum we had in higher education in conjunction with development is the biggest thing that’s in jeopardy,” she said.

Notable Spring 2015 HBCU Commencement Speakers It’s graduation time for the nation’s HBCU’s and they have once again lined up an impressive roster of speakers for their upcoming commencement ceremonies. From entertainers, celebrity personalities to top professionals and political figures, these commencement speakers are a diverse group of internationally recognized African American leaders. Take a look at this year’s lineup. Alabama State University: Dave Zuchowski Dave Zuchowski-president and CEO of Hyundai Motor America (HMA) will deliver the commencement address at Alabama State University on Saturday, May 9. Due to his exceptional leadership qualities and commitment to excellence, Hyundai as a brand is strong and respected not only in Alabama but across United States. Bowie State University: Congressman Elijah E. Cummings Bowie State is honored that U.S Rep.

Elijah Cummings will deliver a commencement speech at the school’s graduation ceremony on May 23. A community advocate and a longtime public servant, Cummings will address approximately 625 students and their families at the Xfinity Center in College Park. Coppin State University: Johnny C. Taylor and Dr. Donald Wilson Coppin State University is excited that not one but two highly respected names will deliver the commencement speeches at the campus this year. Taylor, president and CEO of Thurgood College Marshal Fund (TMCF) will address students receiving Bachelor’s Degree on May 16, 2015 at 10 a.m in the Physical Education Complex.

Whereas, for students receiving their Masters, the spring 2015 commencement will be addressed by Dr. Donald Wilson, Distinguished Professor and Dean Emeritus, University of Maryland School of Medicine on May 15, 2015 at 4 p.m in the James Weldon Johnson Auditorium. Dillard University: Denzel Washington Two-time academy award winner actor Denzel Washington will deliver the commencement address to the 247 graduating students at Dillard University on May 9 at 8 a.m. He won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance of a corrupt officer in 2001’s ‘Training Day’ and was awarded for Best Supporting Actor for his role in ‘Glory’ as a runaway slave fighting during the Civil War. The actor also received other nominations and had much admired roles in movies like ‘Malcolm X,’ ‘Hurricane,’ and ‘Flight.’ Florida A&M University: Producer Will Packer and Tom Vilsack Tom Vilsack – nation’s 30 th secretary of agriculture and the leader of the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) will address FAMU graduates at the 2015 spring commencement ceremony scheduled for 9 a.m May, 2, 2015.

The renowned filmmaker Will Packer will serve as the commencement speaker for the 2 p.m ceremony same day. Howard University: Ursula M. Burns Ursula M. Burns, chairman and chief executive officer of Xerox Corporation, will deliver the 2015 Commencement address to Howard University students, faculty, staff, and guests on Saturday, May 9, at 10 a.m., on the upper quadrangle of the University’s main campus. The University will also award honorary degrees to award-winning actor and director, Morgan Freeman; President of Spelman College, Beverly Daniel Tatum; and, philanthropists Eddie C. Sylvia Brown. Morehouse College: Deval Patrick.

Former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick will be the graduation speaker at the Morehouse College on Sunday, May 17, 2015 at 8 a.m. Patrick is an American politician and civil rights lawyer who served as the 71 st Governor of Massachusetts. The Commencement will be streamed live via the web at www.morehouse.edu. North Carolina A&T State University: U.S. John Lewis On May 9, beginning at 8:30 a.m., civil rights leader U.S. John Lewis will deliver the spring commencement address at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in the Greensboro Coliseum.

Recognized as one of the most effective and courageous leaders of the civil rights movement, he will also be awarded the Human Rights Medal 2015 presented by N.C. Philander Smith College: David Banner Activist, rapper, record producer and actor David Banner is slated to be the keynote speaker at Philander Smith College’s 127th Commencement, which will take place at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 2 at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock, Arkansas. Born in Jackson, Miss. As Lavell William Crump, Banner is a graduate of Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., and pursued a master’s degree in education at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

Spelman College: Donna Brazile. Donna Brazile is a senior political strategist and the first African American to lead a major presidential campaign has been proudly named commencement speaker for the Spelman College, the top ranked HBCU in the United States. Brazile will address around 435 graduates on May 17, 2015 at the Georgia International Convention Center. Tuskegee University: First Lady Michelle Obama First Lady Michelle Obama will deliver the address at Tuskegee University’s 130th Spring Commencement Ceremony. Obama will address approximately 500 graduates as well as their friends, family and members of the university community on Saturday, May 9, 2015, at 11 a.m. CST in the Gen.

Daniel “Chappie” James Arena. A live stream webcast of the ceremony will be available at www.tuskegee.edu/live. Voorhees College: Danny Glover Voorhees College will hold its 118th commencement convocation on Saturday, May 9 at 11 a.m. At the Leonard E. Dawson Health and Human Resources Center.

Award-winning actor, producer and humanitarian Danny Glover will be the speaker for commencement. Glover, whose performance career spans more than 30 years has distinguished himself as one of his generation’s most consummate actors. Winston-Salem State University: Common Winston-Salem State University will hold its Commencement Ceremony on Friday, May 15, 2015 at 9:45 a.m. At Bowman Gray Stadium. Oscar Nominated Actor, Oscar, Golden Globe and Grammy Winning Musician, Author and King of Conscious Hip-Hop Common will be the speaker for the commencement.

Common, a graduate of Florida A&M University is a two-time Grammy Award winner who won the 2015 Academy Award and the 2015 Golden Globe Award for best original song for his work with John legend on “Glory” from the film “Selma”. This 159-year-old college is spending millions of dollars in a last-ditch effort to stay alive A decade ago, Wilberforce University was struggling but stable. The storied historically black university (HBCU), and enrollment was. But it didn’t seem like Wilberforce — the oldest private HBCU in the county — would soon be in danger of closing. However, following two problematic presidencies, widespread student protests, and various internal issues, Wilberforce now finds itself in a fight to stay alive. Wilberforce’s leadership has recently played host to a group of visitors who may determine the future of the HBCU — an accreditation board that will soon determine if the university has improved enough to keep its accreditation.

If it loses that accreditation, it’s much more likely Wilberforce will close. “To keep its accreditation, Wilberforce must address its ballooning debts, deteriorating buildings and leadership shortcomings,” in June, after the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) threatened. An unprecedented crisis facing HBCUs HBCUs like Wilberforce with unequal government funding, declining enrollment, and poor leadership. Many of them are on their last legs —, which saw enrollment fall to 11 students this semester and suspended classes for the fall semester. “With majority institutions, when a recession hits, they might go from brie to eating cheddar cheese,” University of Pennsylvania education professor Marybeth Gasman has told BI.

“HBCUs go from cheddar to nothing.” After nearly 160 years, Wilberforce may soon face the same fate. Founded in 1856, Wilberforce was the first college owned and operated by African-Americans. Its founding president became the first African-American to lead a university. Wilberforce’s professors included the author W.E.B.

DuBois, and its graduates include civil rights leader Bayard Rustin and sociologist William Julius Wilson. But much has changed at Wilberforce over the past decade.

A decade in “free fall” “Wilberforce has had two disastrous presidents and administrations,” Richard Deering, a Wilberforce economics professor, told. “We’ve been in free fall for the last several years.” When Wilberforce President John L. Henderson retired in 2002 after 14 years, he left behind a distinguished legacy including new dorms and a student center. He also left a lot of debt. The university’s board of trustees “sought a replacement who crackled with star power, someone with the name recognition to serve as a powerful fund-raiser,”.

REUTERS/Tami ChappellFloyd Flake Wilberforce alumnus and former congressman Floyd Flake took over in 2002. The school let its new star president remain as senior pastor of a 15,000-member mega-church in Queens. He spent just one day a week on campus, Deering told Insider Higher Ed. Flake cut majors and installed his allies in key administrative posts, according to Inside Higher Ed. Faculty members accused him of while the school suffered.

(In 2012, though, Ohio’s attorney general found Flake’s salary was “.”) In 2007, the in his leadership. The university’s provost, Patricia Hardaway, replaced Flake but encountered her own problems in 2012-2013, when hundreds of students protested over what they argued were paltry course offerings and a deteriorating campus. Many.

“Students are tired of being walked over and we’re going to stand up and fight until we get the quality education we deserve,”. The faculty also voted “no confidence” in Hardaway, who announced her retirement in 2013. Protest at the WU “Transformative change agent president” The university has now put its faith in Algeania Freeman, who took over as president in September. Since Freeman became Wilberforce’s president, she’s had a clear mission — to keep the university accredited. Crucially, she has experience leading Martin University and Livingstone College in their battles to retain accreditation. Wilberforce University President Algeania Freeman “I am the person who is called when institutions get into trouble with their accreditation, with their deficit spending, with low student enrollment.

I am that transformative change agent president,”. She has her work cut out for her. Wilberforce has millions of dollars in debt. Wilberforce’s campus has been in a state of disrepair, and it lacks the infrastructure to support its students, according to the letter threatening to revoke accreditation that was sent in June. While Wilberforce once hosted six student dormitories, the Cleveland Scene reports, only two remain operational. The university’s new leadership has also had to deal with rapidly declining enrollment. Wilberforce’s proposed 2014 budget was based on 500 students even though it had just 377 students,.

Perhaps more distressing was the university’s yield rate, the percent of admitted students who enroll. Of for fall 2014, it accepted 482. But only 32 students, or 6% of the acceptances, ended up enrolling. Signs that Wilberforce could survive Since Freeman has taken over at Wilberforce, she’s brought in almost an entirely new administration to run the university’s finances, enrollment, and academics.

“We came with our eyes wide open and we have labored non-stop, many 24-hour days, to make sure we put the institution in the place it should be in terms of operating effectively and efficiently,” Freeman told Business Insider. Wilberforce University Baccalaureate Ceremony 2014 Wilberforce has spent well over $2 million restoring the campus in recent months, and the new president is making a concerted effort to ensure students feel they have a voice in governing the university. The efforts may be paying off. Wilberforce’s enrollment saw a 9% bump for spring 2015. Freeman argued that this could also be seen as a 109% rise in enrollment, as it retained 100% of students from the previous semester and added 9% in new ones.

Freeman said the numbers for next year were promising as well. “We have received over 1300 applications so far, as opposed to 1200 applications last year,” she said. “And we still have about four to five months to go.” However, with current enrollment down to a few hundred students, classes have become tiny. This could be seen as a strength, though, as students get individual attention. “There’s only five, six students in a class sometimes,” one Wilberforce student told the Cleveland Scene.

“The professor will call you on your cellphone and say, ‘Where y’all? Get your ass to class.’ You know what they do at Ohio State? You’re a number. You log in to class with a number.” We reached out to Floyd Flake and Patricia Hardaway for comment and will update this post if we hear back. Senate Confirms Loretta Lynch as Attorney General After Long Delay WASHINGTON — After one of the nation’s most protracted cabinet-level confirmation delays, the Senate Thursday approved Loretta E.

Lynch to be attorney general. She is the first African-American woman to hold the position.

Lynch, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, was confirmed 56 to 43, with 10 Republicans voting for her. Her confirmation took longer than that for all but two other nominees for the office: Edwin Meese III, who was nominated by President Ronald Reagan, and A. Mitchell Palmer, who was picked by President Woodrow Wilson, according to the Congressional Research Service. Republicans have found themselves in a quandary for months. They longed to replace Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., and they agreed that Ms. Lynch was qualified for the job.

But they opposed her because Ms. Lynch defended President Obama’s executive actions on immigration. What’s more, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and majority leader, had held up the nomination until the Senate voted on a human trafficking bill, a process that dragged on for weeks. The measure passed on Wednesday by a vote of 99 to 0. And some Republicans continued to strongly oppose Ms. “We do not have to confirm someone to the highest law enforcement position in America if that someone has committed to denigrating Congress,” Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, said on the Senate floor Thursday. “We don’t need to be apologetic about it, colleagues.” In the end several Republicans — to the surprise of many of their own colleagues — voted aye for Ms.

Lynch, including Mr. Some conservative groups had called on Senate Republicans to block a vote on Ms. Lynch altogether because of her stance on the president’s immigration policies. Many Senate Republicans feared the party would face serious political repercussions if it blocked an African-American woman with strong credentials and enthusiastic support from many in law enforcement. Opponents still forced a procedural vote before her final confirmation, an unusual requirement for such a high position.

The nomination moved along easily, by a vote of 66 to 34. “She is a historic nominee, but also Senate Republicans are making history,” said Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont. “And I would say for the wrong reasons.” He added: “I can only hope that Senate Republicans will show her more respect as the attorney general of the United States than they did as a nominee. She has earned this respect. Her story is one of perseverance, of grace and grit.”The vote also served as a lens on the 2016 elections.

“The Republican majority if it so chose could defeat this confirmation,” said Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, a Republican presidential candidate, who called Ms. Lynch “lawless.” Mr. Cruz’s comments were immediately answered by several Democrats, who came to the floor to defend Ms. Lynch, recall her personal and professional accomplishments, and assail Mr.

Cruz and his colleagues who opposed her. “This should be a happy day for America,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat Missouri. She said Republicans opposed Ms. Lynch merely because “she agrees with the man who selected her,” a posture Ms. McCaskill called “beyond depressing — it’s disgusting.” Senator Kelly Ayotte, a New Hampshire Republican who faces re-election next year, was among those in her party who voted for Ms.

Lynch is a well-respected U.S. Attorney with a proven record and significant experience handling difficult cases,” Ms. Ayotte said in a prepared statement. “After meeting with her and reviewing her qualifications, I believe she is clearly qualified and has the necessary experience to serve as Attorney General.” Another Republican running for re-election, Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, also gave Ms. Lynch a thumbs-up. Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education to Address NCCU Grads No (NCCU) announced today that U.S.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will deliver the keynote address to graduates during the 125th Baccalaureate Ceremony at 8 a.m., Saturday, May 9, 2015, in O’Kelly-Riddick Stadium on the campus. Secretary Duncan, the ninth U.S. Secretary of education, was confirmed by the U.S.

Senate in 2009 following his nomination by President Barack Obama. The secretary sent personal greetings in a video to the NCCU Class of 2015 expressing his excitement over being asked to serve as the ceremony’s keynote speaker.. Secretary Duncan also has worked to strengthen the Federal Pell Grant program, which helps young Americans attend college and receive postsecondary degrees.

The funding increase supports President Obama’s goal of rebuilding the nation’s college graduation rate to surpass that of all other countries by 2020. In addition, the secretary has made strides in ensuring that colleges and universities provide more transparency around graduation, job placement, and student loan default rates. With the income-based repayment program introduced during Secretary Duncan’s tenure, student loan payments are being reduced for college graduates in low-paying jobs, and loans will be forgiven after 10 years for persons in certain public service occupations, such as teachers, police officers and firefighters.

More than 650 undergraduate degrees will be awarded during the May 9 ceremony, according to preliminary estimates from NCCU Registrar’s Office. A separate ceremony for graduate and professional students will take place May 8.

North Carolina Central University prepares students to succeed in the global marketplace. Flagship programs include science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines, nursing, education, law, business and the arts. Founded in 1910 as a liberal arts college for African-Americans, NCCU remains committed to diversity in higher education. Our alumni are among the nation’s most successful scientists, researchers, educators, attorneys, artists and entrepreneurs. Visit www.nccu.edu. Southern’s Jacqueline Hill Joins the Nursing Hall of Fame Hill, the associate professor and chair of the Southern’s School of Nursing and ‘s Undergraduate Nursing Program, was inducted into the honored group in recent ceremonies at the 14th annual Louisiana Nurses Foundation Nightingale Awards and Gala.

To be included in the hall fame, Hill said, “means that as a little girl I made the right decision to pursue nursing as a career. Moreover it means that the contributions I’ve made to the profession of nursing are enduring and valued by my peers.” Hill has been an educator in the nursing program for 21 years. She was a member SU’s 1988 graduating class, the school’s first nursing class. The Hall of Fame award recognizes a Registered Nursing’s lifelong commitment to the profession of nursing and its impact on the health and/or social history of the.

Hill also becomes the first graduate of Southern’s nursing school to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. To be recognized as a member of nursing Hall Fame “says that my hard work and dedication to the profession has made a significant difference in the lives of others, and that the education I received at prepared me to be the nurse leader and educator I am today,” Hill said.

Hill is the immediate past president of the Louisiana State Nurses Association Inside Look at Ratings Plan The U.S. Department of Education has set aside more than $4 million to develop the Obama administration’s college ratings system, newly released federal documents show. The department has hired a nonprofit research company to analyze data about colleges, test different ratings models and build a website for the ratings. It has so far paid at least $1.8 million for the firm, Research Triangle Institute, to get started on that work. Inside Higher Ed obtained a with Research Triangle Institute (also called RTI International) last week after making a Freedom of Information Act request in January. The agreement, Dec.

31, expands an existing contract the department had with the firm for other data-related projects. Aside from providing the first glimpse at the direct costs associated with the ratings system — which the administration has previously declined to disclose — the document is a snapshot of officials’ thinking about the ratings system as of the end of December. The contract shows, for instance, that the department has considered forming a panel to vet the technical integrity of the ratings system, creating a formal process for colleges to challenge their data and allowing colleges to provide a narrative statement next to their ratings.

Funding the Ratings The ratings work comprises just a fraction of RTI International’s overall $81.4 million contract with the department that is aimed at improving various government data collections. The department’s December amendment to the contract adds more than $4 million worth of college ratings-related tasks, of which the department has provided funding for $1.8 million. That figure reflects the “bulk of money that has been spent so far on ratings,” a department official, who declined to be named, wrote in an email Friday. Other costs, the official said, include staff time and hosted by the department to solicit public feedback on the ratings system. The several million dollars of funding for the college rating system is relatively small in the context of the department’s roughly $70 billion budget. But critics of the administration’s ratings proposal have seized on the funding as means of blocking the department from carrying out the project.

Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the Republican who chairs the Senate education committee, and other members of Congress have prohibiting the department from spending money on rating colleges, which they argue is an inappropriate role for the federal government. After its to develop the ratings system went nowhere in Congress last year, the Obama administration dropped the request from this year’s budget. Department officials that they could complete the ratings with existing resources and staff. The department has previously declined to say how much it has spent — or plans to spend — on the ratings system. Republicans on the Senate appropriations subcommittee overseeing the Education Department’s budget pressed Secretary Arne Duncan on the issue at a. They demanded that the department provide the personnel costs associated with the rating system. Duncan did not provide an answer at the hearing, but a department official said the agency would respond to the request.

A Range of Possibilities The contract outlines some of the that officials directed Research Triangle Institute to develop. The site must, for instance, be compatible with smartphones and provide an option for users to share their searches by email and on social media. The list of website requirements, however, that colleges would be rated individually on various metrics or assigned an aggregate rating, or both. The contract also features optional tasks relating to the ratings system that are at the discretion of department officials, such as forming a technical review panel or allowing colleges to challenge to the data. It is unclear which of those tasks the department has actually directed the company to complete. A department official cautioned that the inclusion of an optional provision in the contract “does not necessarily mean that they will all be exercised for the ratings project.” Federal records that were posted to a government procurement database over the weekend show that Education Department officials modified the December ratings contract as recently as. But it was not immediately clear whether that change affected the college ratings provisions of the contract. The December document does, meanwhile, provide some insight into the range of ratings system ideas that were under serious consideration at the time.

Data Challenges for Colleges? Department officials have contemplated a formal process for colleges to challenge or request corrections to the underlying data in the ratings system. One optional contract, for instance, proposes to give all colleges “the opportunity to verify the cohorts of students and/or data and methodology used to calculate institution-level metrics.” The quality of data underlying the college ratings system has been among the surrounding the proposal. Opponents of the ratings argue that federal data about colleges’ performance on many metrics are too incomplete to derive meaningful ratings. In addition, the department has considered, the contract shows, allowing colleges the opportunity to include a narrative statement next to its performance on the ratings system website. Such a would allow colleges “to provide context and explain how their unique circumstances may impact the ratings displayed,” the contract says.

Terry Hartle, the senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education, said colleges would welcome the opportunity to review and annotate data in the ratings system. “Institutions will regard that as welcome news,” he said. “This is something that we had asked for because institutions already have the opportunity to challenge department data or calculations in other areas like cohort default rates.” Still, Hartle said, colleges worry that the department is moving ahead under a “compressed timeline” to get the ratings system done. The contract floats the possibility, for example, of forming a technical review panel in the spring of 2015 to vet the department’s ratings models, but that has not yet happened. The contract shows that officials were looking to finalize a ratings methodology over the summer with a for “version 1.0” of the ratings website.

It’s not clear whether the department or the research firm is still following that schedule, but it is consistent with department officials’ to release ratings by the start of the 2015-16 school year. “The first version of this will clearly be a beta version,” Hartle said. “They call it version 1.0 here, but it should really be called 0.5 and come with a ‘use at your own risk’ warning, because they haven’t had the external consultation needed.” Department officials have also considered, according to the contract, ways to deal with an influx of once it is up and running as well as methods for gauging students’ and families’ engagement with the site Racial disparity in Charlotte traffic stops grows, study finds One traffic stop outside of Charleston has intensified the country’s debate on racial justice. Of 1.3 million stops made over 12 years by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department illustrates the wariness between officers and black drivers. Though African-Americans make up less than a third of the city’s driving-age residents, they are pulled over by police more frequently, receive more tickets and are the subjects of roadside searches twice as often as whites,by a UNC-Chapel Hill research team. This past week, a witness released a video that showed a North Charleston, S.C., police officer fatally shooting an African-American driver he had pulled over for a broken brake light. The victim, Walter Scott, was 50.

In Charlotte, black drivers account for almost 60 percent of the city’s so-called “vehicle equipment” stops by police. Black men 50 and above here have a better chance of being searched during a traffic stop than white and black women face in their lifetimes. Yet, it’s younger black males, ages 16-30, who draw the most attention from Charlotte-Mecklenburg police. They are almost three times as likely to be searched as the average driver. Attorney Harold Cogdell, a former chairman of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, says police have singled out young minority males for years.

He says he has had numerous black and Latino clients who have been pulled over then asked by police to agree to a search of themselves or their cars. If the drivers say no, they are frequently detained until they change their minds or police get a search warrant, Cogdell says.

“The question is: What’s the real intent of the traffic stop?” says Cogdell, who adds that he believes he has been racially profiled twice by Charlotte-Mecklenburg patrol officers in the past six years. Depending on race and location, he says, “Drivers are being treated in different ways.”. To be sure, the overwhelming majority of traffic stops in Charlotte and around the country are peaceful. But when roadside tensions do escalate, they are far more likely to do so when black drivers and passengers are involved, says UNC political scientist, the author of the study. Police officers report encountering force three times as often when black drivers and passengers are involved, Baumgartner says.

Charlotte officers use force more than twice as often against black drivers and passengers as whites. As part of their study, Baumgartner and his team analyzed the traffic-enforcement records of almost 500 CMPD officers. They found that more than a fourth of them searched blacks during stops at least twice as often as whites. Only 2 percent searched whites twice as often as blacks.

The data did not include the race of the officers or where the stops were made. Black communities in Charlotte and other cities have long complained about being targeted by police. Now both sides acknowledge that tensions between them have escalated because of police shootings of unarmed African-Americans in North Charleston, Ferguson, Mo., Cleveland – and “There’s an overwhelming distrust on both sides,” says the Rev.

Tiffany Thomas, pastor of South Tryon Community Church. “It’s not the police’s fault.

It’s not black people’s fault. It’s not only Charlotte; it’s national. It could lead to violence if we don’t start working to heal it.”.

In Charlotte, black drivers account for almost 60 percent of the city’s so-called “vehicle equipment” stops by police. Black men 50 and above here have a better chance of being searched during a traffic stop than white and black women face in their lifetimes. Yet, it’s younger black males, ages 16-30, who draw the most attention from Charlotte-Mecklenburg police. They are almost three times as likely to be searched as the average driver. Attorney Harold Cogdell, a former chairman of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, says police have singled out young minority males for years. He says he has had numerous black and Latino clients who have been pulled over then asked by police to agree to a search of themselves or their cars. If the drivers say no, they are frequently detained until they change their minds or police get a search warrant, Cogdell says.

“The question is: What’s the real intent of the traffic stop?” says Cogdell, who adds that he believes he has been racially profiled twice by Charlotte-Mecklenburg patrol officers in the past six years. Depending on race and location, he says, “Drivers are being treated in different ways.”. To be sure, the overwhelming majority of traffic stops in Charlotte and around the country are peaceful. But when roadside tensions do escalate, they are far more likely to do so when black drivers and passengers are involved, says UNC political scientist, the author of the study.

Police officers report encountering force three times as often when black drivers and passengers are involved, Baumgartner says. Charlotte officers use force more than twice as often against black drivers and passengers as whites. As part of their study, Baumgartner and his team analyzed the traffic-enforcement records of almost 500 CMPD officers. They found that more than a fourth of them searched blacks during stops at least twice as often as whites. Only 2 percent searched whites twice as often as blacks.

The data did not include the race of the officers or where the stops were made. Black communities in Charlotte and other cities have long complained about being targeted by police. Now both sides acknowledge that tensions between them have escalated because of police shootings of unarmed African-Americans in North Charleston, Ferguson, Mo., Cleveland – and “There’s an overwhelming distrust on both sides,” says the Rev. Tiffany Thomas, pastor of South Tryon Community Church.

“It’s not the police’s fault. It’s not black people’s fault. It’s not only Charlotte; it’s national. It could lead to violence if we don’t start working to heal it.” In Charlotte, black drivers account for almost 60 percent of the city’s so-called “vehicle equipment” stops by police. Black men 50 and above here have a better chance of being searched during a traffic stop than white and black women face in their lifetimes. Yet, it’s younger black males, ages 16-30, who draw the most attention from Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.

They are almost three times as likely to be searched as the average driver. Attorney Harold Cogdell, a former chairman of the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, says police have singled out young minority males for years. He says he has had numerous black and Latino clients who have been pulled over then asked by police to agree to a search of themselves or their cars. If the drivers say no, they are frequently detained until they change their minds or police get a search warrant, Cogdell says. “The question is: What’s the real intent of the traffic stop?” says Cogdell, who adds that he believes he has been racially profiled twice by Charlotte-Mecklenburg patrol officers in the past six years.

Depending on race and location, he says, “Drivers are being treated in different ways.”. To be sure, the overwhelming majority of traffic stops in Charlotte and around the country are peaceful. But when roadside tensions do escalate, they are far more likely to do so when black drivers and passengers are involved, says UNC political scientist, the author of the study. Police officers report encountering force three times as often when black drivers and passengers are involved, Baumgartner says. Charlotte officers use force more than twice as often against black drivers and passengers as whites. As part of their study, Baumgartner and his team analyzed the traffic-enforcement records of almost 500 CMPD officers. They found that more than a fourth of them searched blacks during stops at least twice as often as whites.

Only 2 percent searched whites twice as often as blacks. The data did not include the race of the officers or where the stops were made.

Black communities in Charlotte and other cities have long complained about being targeted by police. Now both sides acknowledge that tensions between them have escalated because of police shootings of unarmed African-Americans in North Charleston, Ferguson, Mo., Cleveland – and “There’s an overwhelming distrust on both sides,” says the Rev. Tiffany Thomas, pastor of South Tryon Community Church. “It’s not the police’s fault. It’s not black people’s fault. It’s not only Charlotte; it’s national. It could lead to violence if we don’t start working to heal it.”.

We asked Commie to share a tip with fellow and future classmates. “When you think that you cannot do it—is when you truly can! That is when you are closer to your mark than you realize, so keep pushing.” Finally, we asked Commie what keeps her motivated while in her degree program, and she writes, “So far, I am motivated by my instructors and my peers.

My instructors have a passion for what they are teaching, and so far they have encouraged me to give my best. My peers are have such a quest for knowledge which keeps me motivated.” Commie, thank you for your amazing testimony!

You are a wonderful example for your children and your classmates, and all of us here at Averett are so very proud of you! We are honored to have you as a member of the, we look forward to celebrating your ASB graduation with you this year, and your BBA graduation in 2017! Congratulations on all of your accomplishments! Category: Mary Schmidt Campbell Is Next President of Spelman College Dear Spelman Community, I am incredibly pleased to announce the Spelman College Board of Trustees has unanimously and enthusiastically elected as the 10th president of Spelman College. Campbell is dean emerita of the Tisch School of the Arts and university professor in the Department of Art and Public Policy at New York University. Campbell’s appointment is effective August 1, 2015, following the completion of Dr.

Beverly Daniel Tatum’s 13 years of outstanding leadership and service. I invite you to learn more about Dr. Campbell’s journey to Spelman, and I would like to share precisely why the Board voted unanimously to appoint her. Quite simply, Dr.

Campbell is the right leader at the right time. She joins Spelman during a period of momentous change in higher education, and the College’s unique history, mission and proven success provide a solid foundation from which I am confident she will chart a clear and bold direction for the future. The next phase of Spelman’s growth calls for a visionary with a solid administrative track record to further elevate Spelman’s leadership on issues of critical importance to our nation and indeed our world – issues such as college access and completion, affirmation of the value of a liberal arts and sciences education, global integration, health disparities, technology innovation and many more. A graduate of Swarthmore College, Dr.

Campbell has a master’s of science degree in art history and a doctorate in humanities from Syracuse University. She is an accomplished scholar and a leader in both the public and non-profit sectors. Campbell elevated the profile and stature of Tisch, increased the recruitment of a more diverse faculty and student body, and led an unprecedented capital campaign for the school. One of her biggest accomplishments was spearheading efforts to integrate art and design into the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) disciplines at NYU. As STEAM (the integration of art and design into the STEM equation) becomes a larger part of the conversation for 21st century institutions, Dr. Campbell has been in the vanguard of those promoting STEAM efforts at Tisch and in the broader New York University system. In fact, throughout her entire career, Dr.

Campbell has been a driver of innovation with a particular commitment to organizations that advance the achievement and inclusion of people of color. Most notably, she was responsible for shepherding the first accreditation of a Black fine arts museum in the nation as the executive director of the Studio Museum in Harlem.

When she assumed the helm of the organization, she transformed what was simply a rented loft into a space housing groundbreaking exhibitions, an acclaimed artist-in-residence program and permanent exhibitions. She literally put the museum on the map and many of the exhibitions are regarded as hallmarks in literature regarding Black and American culture. Campbell also previously served as New York City’s cultural affairs commissioner and in 2009, she was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as the vice chair of the Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, a non-partisan advisory group. In this role, Dr. Campbell led the effort to conduct a pilot study that re-affirmed the arts as one of the ingredients essential to a quality education and a student’s long-term academic success. Campbell integrates her exemplary professional life with a full family life. She is a native of Philadelphia and graduated from Philadelphia High School for Girls.

Campbell’s father graduated from Cheyney University and went on to serve as president of its council of trustees. She is the mother of three sons, one of whom serves as provost at Morehouse College and who is married to a Spelman alumna.

Her youngest son is a graduate of the Naval Academy, another son is an attorney, and Dr. Campbell is the grandmother of six grandchildren. She has been married for 47 years to Dr. George Campbell, Jr., president emeritus of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and, together, they enjoy outdoor activities including skiing, cycling, walking and swimming. A board’s most important responsibility is to attract and support an outstanding leader and we did not take the charge to find the next steward of our beloved Spelman lightly. The members of the (PSC), led by Dr. Celeste Watkins-Hayes, C’96, vice chair of the board, developed an issues-driven process that was well-executed, appropriately inclusive and appropriately transparent.

In fall 2014, the committee gathered information about our community’s aspirations and expectations for the future, resulting in a robust. It is this profile and the issues identified by our stakeholders within that drove this process. The result was a strong, diverse and inclusive pool of approximately 300 prospects encompassing alumnae and individuals from traditional and non-traditional backgrounds, as well as a wide variety of disciplines and institutions. Through a rigorous assessment process, the PSC narrowed the pool and ultimately recommended Dr. Campbell as a finalist to visit campus. Following a successful campus visit and upon reviewing the feedback gathered from a community-wide online survey, the PSC made its recommendation to the Board of Trustees for final approval.

I want to again thank the Presidential Search Committee for its astute stewardship of the search process and ongoing efforts to ensure the leadership succession will be seamless. Mary Schmidt Campbell is enterprising and exhibits tremendous clarity in responding to challenges with sustainable solutions. She is a true interdisciplinary scholar with exemplary skills to guide us as we consider our unique role in developing and supporting women leaders of African descent who intentionally make “a choice to change the world” in meaningful ways.

Sincerely, Rosalind Gates Brewer, C’84 Chair, Spelman College Board of Trustees Tiger Woods Gifts $10K to UMES Golf Management Fund Tiger Woods is the first individual donor to a new scholarship fund that will honor the memory of Dr., the late professional golfer. Woods is joining with the university to pay tribute to the man who broke the color barrier on the in the early 1960s. Woods’ personal gift of $10,000 will launch the Sifford Fund, which UMES is creating to “provide need-based scholarships to highly talented students who demonstrate a passion for the game of golf and who are from populations underrepresented in the golf industry.” UMES is the nation’s lone historically black university that offers a bachelor’s degree in professional golf management accredited by the PGA of America. “The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is honored to accept this generous gift from Tiger Woods to support our professional golf management program and to partner with us in acknowledging Dr. Sifford’s role as a sports pioneer,” UMES President Juliette B.

Sifford died Feb. 3 at the age of 92, a passing that prompted the golf and sports worlds to pause and reflect on what he accomplished. Many looked to Woods, who called Sifford “the grandpa I never had.” the day he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in a White House ceremony. Sifford joined Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus as the only golfers to receive the nation’s highest civilian honor. Sifford and his extended family expressed delight that evening in meeting UMES students, many of them African-Americans, pursuing careers in the golf industry. Billy Dillon, UMES golf management program director, said the feeling was mutual among his students.

“It was a special moment for a lot of them,” Dillon said. “Some knew about what Mr. Sifford accomplished, and when others learned why he was being recognized, I think they realized the importance of the moment.” Back in the limelight just weeks before his passing refocused attention on Sifford’s difficult journey as a 20th century athlete of color attempting to play a sport professionally that was segregated. Encouraged by the turnout at its tribute reception for Sifford, UMES immediately began exploring ways it might “honor the life and legacy of Dr. Sifford, and further his aspirations for the sport that he loved.” In Sifford’s autobiography, “Just Let Me Play,” he wrote: “I want golf to reach out to people from all walks of life and to be the sport that puts itself above issues of race and class and economic levels,” Sifford wrote.

“We should give everybody equal access to the game, with equal facilities to play and we should give them the same opportunities to pursue the game throughout their lives.” Using Sifford’s words as inspiration and its distinctive platform, UMES is not only preparing diverse leaders for careers in the golf profession, but is also expanding involvement in golf among populations currently underrepresented in the industry, including women and minorities. UMES’ professional golf management program currently enrolls 44 students, more than half of whom are women and minorities. Upon graduation, they will be positioned for careers in recreational or competitive golf, business, marketing, media and hospitality. On Woods’s Twitter account after learning of Sifford’s death, Woods wrote: “We all lost a brave, decent and honorable man. I’ll miss (you) Charlie.” Morris Brown College “Victoriously Emerges” From Bankruptcy In a bit of good news in a landscape in which many Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are, a trustee from Morris Brown College announced on Thursday that the school has “victoriously emerged from bankruptcy.” Morris Brown Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Rev. Williams II on the 6th District AME church’s website expressing “great joy and thankfulness” that the school is on its way to solvency. Williams also noted that this is a “bittersweet” moment in the school’s 134-year history.

Williams statement reads in part: Morris Brown College’s Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization has been approved by the Bankruptcy Court. This action, approved at a confirmation hearing yesterday, and confirmed by a signed order of Judge Barbara Ellis-Monro today, will allow the college to exit bankruptcy and move forward to regain its accreditation. This is a bittersweet ending to a long and complex process. Bitter, because we had to sell property that had historical significance to many people. Sweet, because we emerge from bankruptcy fully functional and current with all of our debt obligations.

Thus, as is the case with much of life, we must accept the bitter with the sweet and keep pressing forward. The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports that Morris Brown filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in August 2012 to prevent foreclosure and sale of the school at auction.: As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, the college sold 26 acres of property and buildings to InVest Atlanta and Friendship Baptist Church for $14.7 million, but retains ownership of the school’s administration building, Griffin Hightower Classroom building and Fountain Hall.

Friendship Baptist is one of two churches that sold to make way for the future $1.3 billion Atlanta Falcons stadium just steps from the Morris Brown property. Williams said the college has remained in operation throughout the Chapter 11 reorganization process, and received financial support from alumni, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, trustees, staff and faculty. Williams also confirmed that Morris Brown is scheduled to graduate 21 students on May 16, 2015. C’Evon Jones is the first indoor national champion in Virginia Union history It took C’Evon Jones 7.35 seconds to make it into the Virginia Union history books.

Jones won the 60 meter dash at the Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships in Birmingham, Ala., on March 14, becoming the first indoor national champion in school history. Jones’ is the school’s first national title since the men’s basketball team’s championship in 2005. “I’m still speechless,” Jones said, “because I didn’t know that I did that much. I thought I just won a national championship. I didn’t know that I made history like that.” “I’m still overwhelmed with my accomplishment.” But there wasn’t a lot of time between the end of the indoor season and the beginning of outdoor season, which Jones is currently in the midst of.

Panthers coach Wilbert Johnson said Jones’ success this year is largely attributed to a disappointing finish to her outdoor season a year ago. “Last year we had a situation where she didn’t make it to the national championships during outdoor in the 100 meters, which is one of her specialties,” Johnson said.

“That was a little downfall for her, but we recommitted ourselves this upcoming year and it’s to the point where she doesn’t have to wait on me to get things done. Actually, now, she’s calling me, like ‘coach where are you?’” Jones finished second in the 60 meters at the CIAA Championships in February, which was, to her, another disappointing finish that meant she had to work that much harder.

One day after practice, Jones and her coach had a talk. “He said ‘look, we’re going to have to make some sacrifices,’” Jones said. “And I looked at him crazy, I’m like what?

What are you talking about? ‘We’re going to have to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and go practice at Boo Williams (in Hampton).’” “But I said, ‘I don’t care. You know coach I’m ready to win this thing,’ because I was still kind of upset from conference. I was ready to do whatever it takes.” After the start of her early mornings and before Birmingham, Jones received a phone call from her mother with sad news. “During my training I had got a call from my mother, my uncle had died, probably a few days before I went to Alabama,” Jones said. “So it was hard trying to keep my emotions from the race, but the God I serve, he just brought me through it and I held in there.” “Before he left, he told my mom he’s proud of me, he wants to me keep excelling.

I’m going to keep the bar high.” She’s also proud to be a role model to the track athletes at Blanche Ely High School (Fla.), her and coach Johnson’s alma mater. “Now that I am (a national champion), I feel like I really set the bar for my community back at home because I really encourage them, especially my high school.

The high school that I came from, we are a winning school. The tradition never stops, it continues and now I see that they are raising the bar in track as well, too.” Jones is known for her fast starts, key to her success in the 60 meters. Johnson calls it “one of the most amazing starts I’ve ever been able to coach. As a high school, college or whatever athlete, point blank, she has a great start.” Now the races are 100 meters and outside.

Jones’ fast start is more of an advantage in the shorter 60 meter distance, but the Florida native is looking forward to running outside. “What I like about outdoor? When it gets hot, I start rolling,” she said. “I’m from Florida so I love the heat.” 158 Private Colleges Fail Government’s Financial-Responsibility Test By one measure at least, the 2012-13 academic year was a healthier year financially for private colleges than 2011-12 was. Fewer degree-granting colleges missed the passing mark on the Department of Education’s financial-responsibility test that year, according to a Chronicle analysis of data the department released Thursday night. A total of 158 private colleges—108 of them nonprofit, the rest for-profit—failed to achieve a passing score on the department’s test of financial health. (See an interactive table of scores for all 1,880 institutions in the latest test, below.) That’s 10 fewer than The department calculates the scores by taking into account such factors as colleges’ debts, assets, and operating surpluses or deficits, and developing a single composite score for each institution.

The latest scores cover institutions’ fiscal years ending from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2013. For colleges whose fiscal year ends on July 1 or later, the data cover their 2012 fiscal years. For colleges whose fiscal year ends before July 1, the data are for 2013. The scores were designed as a tool to help with oversight on federal student-aid funds, but they also are one of the few publicly available nationwide indicators of the financial health of private colleges. Although the scores often highlight financial problems that are a precursor to colleges’ being sold, merged, or closed, they aren’t always a perfect predictor.