MSIs To Get New Help in Going ‘Green’

MSIs To Get New Help in Going ‘Green’: A new grant to the United Negro College Fund should help a cross-section of minority-serving institutions - including Hispanic-serving universities and tribal colleges - promote environmentally friendly building practices in the years ahead.

The $1.8 million grant from The Kresge Foundation will go to UNCF for the Building Green at Minority-Serving Institutions Initiative. The chief goals are to build knowledge and capacity so these under-resourced colleges and universities can build faculty expertise and develop more sustainable, energy-efficient facilities.

The goal is for MSIs to build 'better, smarter, more intelligent' buildings, said William F.L. Moses, program director at the foundation. While environmentally friendly, such buildings also can reduce long-term operating costs by up to 50 percent through less use of electricity and water.

'Minority-serving institutions want and need to become as green as possible as fast as possible,' said Michael Lomax, UNCF president and chief executive officer.

The Unfinished Business of HBCUs

The Unfinished Business of HBCUs: Public historically Black colleges and universities have served the under-represented well in the years since Adams v. Richardson, but states can no longer continue to underfund HBCUs if these schools are to become 'comparable and competitive' with traditionally White institutions, a panel of former and current HBCU leaders concluded Thursday at a conference at Morgan State University.

'The magnitude of disparity between public HBCUs and historically White institutions remains particularly great,' said Lezli Baskerville, president and chief executive officer of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, the facilitator of the Presidential Round Table panel entitled 'The Unfinished Business of Parity in the Adams States: The Promise and the Perils.'

The problem is, 'public higher education is disengaging from educating the growing populations in their states,' she said, referring to African American, Latino and Asian American populations.

In the nearly 40 years since the Adams case, which required federal education officials to monitor the desegregation of public colleges in states with separate higher education systems for Blacks and Whites, little has been done to make HBCUs truly competitive. Inequitable public funding, program duplication at nearby schools, and a reluctance to fully integrate the student bodies are among the problems holding back HBCUs, the panel said.

Minorities use the Web to adjust the color on TV - washingtonpost.com

Minorities use the Web to adjust the color on TV - washingtonpost.com: ... Web television has been around since the '90s, but in the past year edgy new shows by, for and about minorities are proliferating on the Internet. Many of the new series take the form of webisodes -- episodes that usually last about five minutes, aimed at the short-attention spans of the all-mighty Millennium Generation.

"You can look at this as revolutionary," says Jonathan Moore, founder and CEO of Rowdy Orbit, which was launched in February. "It is giving people a voice and a platform to express themselves without judgment or red tape holding you down. Now they can go from idea to production to distribution."

For years, minority writers, producers and actors have complained about the lack of diversity on television. Last year, the NAACP Hollywood bureau criticized a "virtual whiteout" in broadcast television. "At a time when the country is excited about the election of the first African American president in U.S. history, it is unthinkable that minorities would be so grossly underrepresented on broadcast television," NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous said in a statement.

Robert Thompson, a white professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, says the lack of diversity in programming is counterintuitive, given the breakthrough success of programs such as "Roots" and "The Cosby Show." "The general politics of people who run television may have at some point been close to admitting diversity and people of color, but the fact remains when the NAACP did its report, the results were shocking," says Thompson.

New Study Examines Gender-based Pay Gaps in Academia

New Study Examines Gender-based Pay Gaps in Academia: A paper in the new issue of Psychology of Women Quarterly examines gender-based pay gaps among U.S. faculty using two methodologies. The multiple regression and resampling simulation approaches are different, yet they lead to the same conclusion - a gender-based pay gap exists.

The paper's three authors are faculty at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. The study focuses on quantitative data gathered from the university's 14 colleges. Dr. Cheryl B. Travis, who is associated with the psychology and women's studies departments, says Tennessee has conducted salary studies for many years. This paper includes a new statistical methodology conceptualized by co-author Dr. Louis J. Gross of the Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Mathematics.

'We wanted to do a salary study using his new methodology, resampling, and have a comparable standard multiple regression study to see would they find similar outcomes,' Travis says.

Schools Shun Kindle, Saying Blind Can't Use It

Schools Shun Kindle, Saying Blind Can't Use It: SAN FRANCISCO--Amazon's Kindle can read books aloud, but if you're blind it can be difficult to turn that function on without help. Now two universities say they will shun the device until Amazon changes the setup.

The National Federation of the Blind announced Wednesday that the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Syracuse University in New York state won't consider big rollouts of the electronic reading device unless Amazon makes it more accessible to visually impaired students.

Both schools have some Kindles that they bought for students to try this fall, but now they say they won't look into buying more unless Amazon makes changes to the device.

CSU Chancellor Expects Minority Enrollment to Remain Steady Amid Budget Cuts

CSU Chancellor Expects Minority Enrollment to Remain Steady Amid Budget Cuts: Despite massive cuts and closed enrollments at the California State University system, the percentage of minority students is not expected to drop, Chancellor Charles B. Reed said Tuesday in a press briefing.

“We are going to try not to do that,” Dr. Reed said to Diverse. He notes that some 54 percent of the system’s 450,000 students are “people of color” and that no changes in that level are expected. “We are holding workshops and are holding meetings to make sure of this,” he said.

Even so, the nation’s largest university system is undergoing unprecedented stress as it tries to cope with California’s budget crisis. A $564 million budget reduction is forcing to school to raise fees, furlough staff and close enrollments.

Chantilly Pyramid Minority Student Achievement Committee Celebrates 25th Anniversary

Chantilly Pyramid Minority Student Achievement Committee Celebrates 25th Anniversary: The Chantilly Pyramid Student Achievement Committee celebrated its 25th anniversary Sunday in Fairfax, Va. Since its founding by late Chantilly High School (Chantilly, Va.) Parent-Teacher Association member Shirley O. Nelson in 1984, the Committee - an organization of parents working in partnership with Fairfax County Public Schools and the community to help minority students improve their academic aspirations - has evolved from an ad hoc church committee to a 501 tax-exempt nonprofit with an all-volunteer 15-member executive board and approximately 100 members annually.

Mixed Race Americans And A 'Blended Nation' : NPR

Mixed Race Americans And A 'Blended Nation' : NPR: The 2000 U.S. census was the first to give Americans the option to check more than one box for race. Nearly 7 million people declared themselves to be multiracial, a number that's expected to shoot up in the 2010 count. As more of the nation's population identifies itself as of mixed race, the authors of a new book say Americans' ideas of racial identity are in for a challenge.

Comedian urges Hispanic students to stay in school - washingtonpost.com

Comedian urges Hispanic students to stay in school - washingtonpost.com: Los Angeles comedian Ernie G has a message for first-generation college-bound students in Washington.

'No matter how much education you get and how much success you achieve, if you grew up in the barrio, if you grew up in the 'hood, you will always have a little ghetto in you.'

The message is not meant to discourage. It's meant to show that college and ghetto can coexist.

The self-described Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Russian, French, Catholic Jew (G stands for Gritzewsky) is the spokesman for the Washington-based Hispanic College Fund. He's also a comedian who is moving from the nightclub circuit to the high school circuit so he can encourage the country's fastest-growing group of high school students to stay in school and go to college.

One in five Hispanic teens drops out of high school, according to U.S. Education Department statistics. That's about twice the rate for black students and more than three times the rate among white students. Only 12 percent of Hispanics ages 25 to 29 have a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 31 percent of the general population, according to an analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Tribal Leaders: ‘We Need to be Respected’

Tribal Leaders: ‘We Need to be Respected’: WASHINGTON - Before the largest gathering of tribal leaders in U.S. history Thursday, President Barack Obama pledged $50 million in funding for tribal colleges and vowed his administration would work to address problems facing Native Americans, from health disparities to economic development.

At the Tribal Nations Conference, held at the Department of the Interior, the president also signed a memorandum calling on every cabinet agency to give him a detailed plan to improve the relationship between the government and tribal communities.

'You will not be forgotten as long as I'm in this White House,' Obama said to a sustained ovation.

Tribal leaders and Native American scholars had expressed optimism about the outcome of Obama's tribal conference, but some remain skeptical that the administration can bring about substantive changes.

Racism without racists - Short Stack

Racism without racists - Short Stack: Racism without racists

Rich Benjamin spent two years traveling through white America and discovered a country filled with kind and endearing white individuals. In his book 'Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America,' published by Hyperion in October, Benjamin reveals that he also found something else: a legacy of racial segregation and division resulting from habits, policies, and institutions that don't explicitly discriminate. In the following contribution, Benjamin, a senior fellow at Demos, a nonpartisan think tank, describes the nature of structural racism.

First Chinese-American Congresswoman in US sworn in CCTV-International

First Chinese-American Congresswoman in US sworn in CCTV-International: Judy Chu, Congresswoman, Democrat-California, said, 'Thank you. I'm so honored to be here. This is an overwhelming moment and I'm very humbled and honored to be here serving Congressional District 32, and to be here at a time of great change.'

Asked about the influence of her Chinese background, Chu said it benefits her greatly.

Judy Chu, Congresswoman, Democrat-California, said,'I think that many Chinese-Americans have suffered hardships in coming to America.'

Chu said her major task now is to help push forward the medical reform plans in Congress.

Before Chu, only two male Chinese-Americans have served in the US Congress. The House praised Chu for her 24 years' dedication to public service and commitment to the essential issues of the American nation, such as its economic strength, education of children and the health of all Americans.

Television - Same Street, Different World - ‘Sesame’ Turns 40 - NYTimes.com

Television - Same Street, Different World - ‘Sesame’ Turns 40 - NYTimes.com: IT is almost too perfect that the first African-American president of the United States was elected in time for the 40th anniversary of “Sesame Street.” The world is finally beginning to look the way that PBS show always made it out to be.

So it is to the credit of this daunting cultural landmark — a program that has taught generations of children to count, countless parents how to teach and is seen in 125 countries around the world — that Tuesday’s anniversary is not a frenzy of preening self-celebration. Episode No. 4187 is as child-centric and respectful of routine as any other.

The special guest — the first lady, Michelle Obama — doesn’t make her appearance alongside Big Bird until midway into a show crammed with the usual preschool didactics. The letter of the day comes first — H as in help and hug and healthy.

The only real difference is that on this day, viewers have to count to 40

Sports of The Times - Sluggish Pace of Integration in Baseball Still Echoes - NYTimes.com

Sports of The Times - Sluggish Pace of Integration in Baseball Still Echoes - NYTimes.com: ... Bernard Diggs is a 61-year-old Philadelphian who is a die-hard Eagles fan. But he has no bond with the Phillies, a coolness that stems from the history of the 1950s and not just the whimsy of a boy who liked one team’s colors over another.

For Diggs, the problem has always been the Phillies’ failure to integrate until almost every other major league club had already done so. In 2009, two of the Phillies’ stars — Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins — are African-Americans, which puts Philadelphia ahead of many other teams. Still, their presence has not swayed Diggs.

“They seem like the kind of folks I would like to meet,” Diggs said of the two players. “I really do like them as individuals in terms of their contribution to the Phillies and how they carry themselves.”

So how would he explain to them why he has not pulled for their team during the World Series — or ever, for that matter?

“I’d give them a history lesson,” Diggs said.

Reporter’s Query

Reporter’s Query: Does it seem like, during hard economic times, diversity initiatives are the first to go? A good number of students and faculty from colleges and universities around the country have started to cry foul because many of budget cuts have come in diversity-themed offices and among their staff. Diverse is documenting these cuts but we need your help. Have you heard about diversity/equity cutting or downsizing at your institution? Have these programs/offices/departments been disproportionately affected by the cost-cutting efforts? Share your story or tip with Arelis Hernandez at ahernandez@diverseeducation.com.

Confinement Too Costly For Middle-class Black Women

Confinement Too Costly For Middle-class Black Women: When Dr. Lisa B. Thompson names modern women who fit the iconic 'Black lady' mold - Coretta Scott King, Anita Hill, Condoleezza Rice and Michelle Obama - you know exactly whom she is trying to liberate. Chances are your mother played this role. You probably do, too, if you are a Black woman involved in higher education.

It is time for middle-class Black women to break the mold, Thompson argues in her book, 'Beyond the Black Lady, Sexuality and the New African American Middle Class' (New Black Studies Series), University of Illinois Press. Being this 'lady' is not all it is cracked up to be. The role is far too confining, and it comes at the high cost of denying any claim to what she calls 'sexual agency.' Such women do so in a valiant effort to 'uplift the race' by countering intractable stereotypes of Black women as 'promiscuous, seductive and sexually irresponsible,' she writes.

To pull it off, they 'have to be so morally upright they are almost inhuman,' she tells Diverse.

NFL player from Sierra Leone gives $2 million to U-Md. - washingtonpost.com

NFL player from Sierra Leone gives $2 million to U-Md. - washingtonpost.com: At 9, Madieu Williams immigrated to Prince George's County from Sierra Leone, one of the poorest nations on Earth. The move gave his family a sense of perspective. His mother told him over and over that if he ever found himself in a position to make a difference, he should do it.

At 28, Williams finds himself in a relatively prosperous position: He plays free safety for the Minnesota Vikings. And Wednesday, he made a difference.

In a morning news conference, the University of Maryland announced the creation of the Madieu Williams Center for Global Health Initiatives. The former U-Md. star is providing a $2 million endowment. It is the largest gift to the flagship school from an African American alumnus and the largest sum donated by someone so young.

Staten Island Elects Its First Black Council Member - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com

Staten Island Elects Its First Black Council Member - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com: Staten Island has long been unique in this racially diverse city: a borough where whites constitute the vast majority. But over the last few decades and particularly in recent years, people of other races have been increasingly calling the island home.

From 1990 to 2000, the percentage of residents who identified themselves as black increased to 8.9 percent from 7.4 percent, according to census data [pdf], and in the most recent survey from 2008, the figure increased to 10.1 percent.

Now, for the first time, Staten Island will have a black City Council member. Deborah L. Rose, a Democrat who also ran with the backing of the Working Families Party, easily won the race on Tuesday with 57.3 percent of the vote, with the rest split by candidates on the Republican and Conservative lines.

A lifelong Staten Island resident who was a longtime member of Community Board 1 and runs a program at the College of Staten Island that discourages local students from dropping out of high school, Ms. Rose was making her third bid for City Council.

Obama To Host Nation-To-Nation Conference

Obama To Host Nation-To-Nation Conference: President Barack Obama on Thursday will host the White House Tribal Nations Conference, meeting with representatives from the 564 federally recognized tribes.

'I look forward to hearing directly from the leaders in Indian Country about what my administration can do to not only meet their needs but help improve their lives and the lives of their peoples. This conference will serve as part of the ongoing and important consultation process that I value, and further strengthen the Nation-to-Nation relationship,' Obama said last month in announcing the conference.

“From what I understand, 90 percent of our tribal leaders are going. We’re looking forward to this historical event,” said Darrell Flyingman, governor of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes, according to Native American Times.

The meeting is long overdue, Muscogee Creek Nation Principal Chief A.D. Ellis, told the publication.

U.S. May Not be Lagging Behind Internationally, Report Says

U.S. May Not be Lagging Behind Internationally, Report Says: The headlines are emblazoned with the gloomy tales of America’s academic decline as drop-out rates skyrocket and adult educational attainment sags behind international competitors, but one educational statistician, in a newly released report, said it's nothing more than propaganda.

“They quote this stuff because people like to be told how bad they are. We get hung up on how bad we are doing,” said Dr. Cliff Adelman, senior associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy and a former researcher at the U.S. Department of Education. “I’m not out to tell you how good you are, but to provide an honest picture as opposed to a purposely dishonest picture.”

For the past couple of years, international education agencies have monitored the degree-completion numbers as nations like Canada, Korea and Japan caught up with the United States. In all those countries, the proportion of the population earning bachelor’s degrees or their equivalent increased while the U.S. seemed to drop in the rankings.

Justice of the Peace who refused to marry interracial couple resigns -

Justice of the Peace who refused to marry interracial couple resigns -: The Louisiana Justice of the peace who refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple has resigned, WDSU reports.

Louisiana Secretary of State's Office spokesman Jacques Berry said Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwelll's resignation is effective Tuesday, WDSU says.

Republican Gov Bobby Jindal and Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu had both called for Bardwell to step down.

The Associated Press reports that Bardwell offered only a one sentence statement to Louisiana Secretary of State Jay Dardenne and no explanation of his decision: "I do hereby resign the office of Justice of the Peace for the Eighth Ward of Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, effective November 3, 2009."

The controversy in Hammond, La., erupted after Bardwell refused to issue a marriage license to a white woman and a black man. They were later married by another official.

Bardwell denied that he was a racist and said his concern is with the impact that an interracial marriage has on children. He says he has married white couples and black couples, but refers interracial couples to another JP.

Schools improve certification for school lunches - washingtonpost.com

Schools improve certification for school lunches - washingtonpost.com: WASHINGTON -- Schools are doing a better job of identifying students who are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches, but some states are much better than others, the Agriculture Department says in a report to Congress.

In 2008-2009, 78 percent of schools identified eligible students by using government records of which households already receive aid like food stamps. Use of the so-called direct certification method, the most efficient way to enroll school children in subsidized lunch programs, was up 11 percentage points from the previous year, according to the report, which is being delivered to Congress on Tuesday. A copy was obtained by The Associated Press.

40 years after riots, Pa. city elects black mayor - washingtonpost.com

40 years after riots, Pa. city elects black mayor - washingtonpost.com: YORK, Pa. -- The central Pennsylvania city of York has elected its first black mayor, 40 years after violent race riots led to the death of a white police officer and a black woman.

Democrat Kim Bracey beat Republican Wendell Banks in Tuesday's general election. Democratic voters in York outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1.

Bracey is the city's former director of community development.

York was the site of weeks of race rioting in 1969. The killings of a white police officer and black woman went unsolved for decades.

Bracey says she embraces the significance of her election. She calls it a historic accomplishment and says she's pleased voters trust her to lead the city.

Diary of a Mad Black Professor: A Critical Race Therapy Moment

Diary of a Mad Black Professor: A Critical Race Therapy Moment: ...Critical Race Therapy

So how does one go about negotiating this madness? Madness intervention. For me, it has been through years of a critical form of interventional therapy — critical race therapy — coupled with large doses of creative extremism to reduce the possibility of the onset of an early relapse or, worse yet, living the simple life of a pathetic assimilationist.

CRT is the sort of therapy that one uses to combat racial battle fatigue, microaggressions, nihilism, paradigmatic shift lag, white supremacy, racial commodification and a host of other race-related illnesses. I think folks stumble upon the cure by accident, but are unfamiliar with the name for the therapy. After all, you cannot find a critical race therapist in the phone book and there are no formal CRT support groups — at least that I know of. Nevertheless, I can point out instances when I have seen critical race therapy working at its best.

New Hampshire Scholar-Lawmaker Wants Monument to Slaves

New Hampshire Scholar-Lawmaker Wants Monument to Slaves: CONCORD, N.H.- In 1779, Prince Whipple and a small group of other New Hampshire slaves petitioned the state Legislature to free them.

Whipple eventually was freed by his owner, not the Legislature, which ignored the petition and did not ban slavery in New Hampshire until 1857. By then, census records showed no slaves remained in the state.

Now 230 years later, state Rep. Dr. David Watters wants New Hampshire to create a monument to acknowledge and commemorate New Hampshire's slaves.

'There's no public place we can acknowledge and recognize this history,' said Watters, D-Dover.

Watters' bill would establish a commission to research the names and numbers of people enslaved in New Hampshire from 1645 to 1840, the year the last record of a slave was noted by a census-taker at B.G. Searle's farm in Hollis.

Best & Brightest: From Homelessness to Inaugural Fellow

Best & Brightest: From Homelessness to Inaugural Fellow: Several weeks after she applied for inaugural 2009 James H. Ammons fellowship, Joane Theodule drove four hours this past spring for an unannounced visit to Florida A&M's campus to ensure she was chosen.

'I didn't know she was coming! Something about that just impressed the heck out of me,' said Dr. Chanta Haywood, the dean of graduate studies and research at Florida A&M who approved Theodule's fellowship.

'Anybody who drives that far without an appointment, (then) I better see them. I have never seen anybody so focused.'

Forced to live on her own as a teenager, at first in her car and later in an apartment she financed from part-time jobs, Theodule had to be focused.

'That's when I was determined to finish high school and pursue higher education because no one in my family went to college,' she said. 'Nothing was going to stop me.'

'Texas in Queens': Junior wranglers find refuge with black cowboys - CNN.com

'Texas in Queens': Junior wranglers find refuge with black cowboys - CNN.com: NEW YORK (CNN) -- Boney D and Rabbit come from rough parts of Brooklyn, places that could be unfavorably compared to the Wild West.

You wouldn't expect that they'd escape their environments at a rugged 25-acre ranch in nearby Queens, riding horses and hanging out with cowboys.

'I've seen a guy get shot dead, point [blank] range, right in front of me -- dropped him, boom,' D'vonte 'Boney D' Jemmott, 15, said of the neighborhood where he grew up. 'I've seen dudes get beat up, chased home, all sorts of things. I've seen all sorts of different drugs being ran around.

'If I wasn't down here,' he said, 'I'd probably be involved with things like that -- robbing people, probably hurting people -- because I've seen a lot of that stuff done around my way.'

Jemmott's mother has been taking him to Cedar Lane Stables since he was a toddler. The Federation of Black Cowboys, founded in 1994, has called Cedar Lane home since 1998.

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous reaches out to a changing membership - washingtonpost.com

NAACP President Benjamin Jealous reaches out to a changing membership - washingtonpost.com: WARREN, MAINE -- Benjamin Todd Jealous pulls in front of the prison compound, passes through the only unlocked door in the building and surrenders his BlackBerry and driver's license to guards. He is ushered quickly through a metal detector, then past a heavy green door that clangs shut.

A guard hands him a big beeper to clip to his tailored gray suit. 'Push the red button if you feel threatened,' he is told. The beepers are given only to the prison's most important visitors, and Jealous -- the national president of the NAACP -- qualifies.
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He is led down a concrete path into a courtyard surrounded by a four-story-high chain-link fence topped with glinting barbed wire. He then passes through another heavy door that locks with a click and finally into a large room where 92 inmates are waiting.

Minority Lawmakers: No Census Citizenship Question

Minority Lawmakers: No Census Citizenship Question: WASHINGTON — A coalition of Black, Latino and Asian lawmakers has expressed opposition to a proposal that would require next year's census forms to ask about the status of a person's citizenship.

The House lawmakers criticized a proposal by Sens. David Vitter, R-La., and Bob Bennett, R-Utah, as a political ploy designed to discourage immigrants from participating in the high-stakes count, which begins April 1.

They also echoed warnings from the Census Bureau that making a last-minute change to the census would add burdensome costs to print new forms and prevent the head count from being completed on time, as legally required.

Obama Community College Proposal May Not Be Enough

Obama Community College Proposal May Not Be Enough: INDIANAPOLIS - Arthur Call commutes three hours roundtrip to his anatomy class at community college because similar courses on campuses closer to his Indianapolis home are packed this semester.

'Classes around the state were just full,' says Call, a full-time student who takes the rest of his classes in Indianapolis. 'Thank God it's only Tuesdays. I just have to drive there once a week.'

President Barack Obama wants to invest some $12 billion in community colleges with the aim of seeing an additional 5 million students graduate by 2020. This goal comes while many schools are already bursting at the seams with droves of displaced workers hit by the recession competing with traditional students seeking an education bargain.

'All community colleges are not prepared to take on those potentially large numbers of students,' said Dr. Debra Bragg, a professor and director of the Forum on the Future of Public Education at the University of Illinois.

Racial Achievement Gap Still Plagues Schools : NPR

Racial Achievement Gap Still Plagues Schools : NPR: American schools have struggled for decades to close what's called the 'minority achievement gap' — the lower average test scores, grades and college attendance rates among black and Latino students.

Typically, schools place children who are falling behind in remedial classes, to help them catch up. But some schools are finding that grouping students by ability, also known as tracking or leveling, causes more problems than it solves.

Integrated And Segregated
Columbia High School in Maplewood, N.J., is a well-funded school that is roughly 60 percent black and 40 percent white. The kids mix easily and are friendly with one another. But when the bell
rings, students go their separate ways.

Teacher Noel Cooperberg's repeat algebra class last year consisted of all minority kids who had flunked the previous year. There were only about a dozen students because the school keeps lower-level classes small to try to boost success. But a group of girls sitting in the middle never so much as picked up a pencil, and they often disrupted the class. It was a different scene from Cooperberg's honors-level pre-calculus class, which had three times as many students — most of them white.

These two classes are pretty typical for the school. Lower-level classes — called levels two and three — are overwhelmingly black, while higher-level four and five are mostly white. Students are assigned to these levels by a combination of grades, test scores and teacher recommendations.

Facing Identity Conflicts, Black Students Fall Behind : NPR

Facing Identity Conflicts, Black Students Fall Behind : NPR: Second in a series about the minority achievement gap in schools

The identity issues facing middle-class black and Latino teenagers might be a clue as to why they don't do as well academically as their white and Asian counterparts, some researchers and educators say. The teens often live in dual worlds: the suburban one they live in, and the rougher street life they see glorified in the media.

Known as the 'minority achievement gap,' the lower average test scores, grades and college attendance by black and Latino students have long perplexed researchers. Many have focused on the values and attitudes of students and whether black students think doing well in school is 'acting white.'

Stereotypes And Students' Self-Image
Columbia High School sociology teacher Melissa Cooper begins class by projecting a collage of faces onto a screen and asking students what they would think if they saw these people walking down the street. The students say the Latino-looking guy is a drug lord. The white guy in a tweed suit is smart.

'How does he look like he's smart?' Cooper asks.

Tough Times: African-American Realities Beneath the Breakthroughs

Tough Times: African-American Realities Beneath the Breakthroughs: When the Congressional Black Caucus held its annual legislative conference in Washington last month, there was much to crow about.

Since its gathering in the fall a year ago, the Black lawmakers and their nationwide network of supporters had played a key role in helping turn out the vote that helped elect Illinois Sen. Barack Obama as the nation’s first Black president.

With the new Congress, several caucus members had risen to the chairmanships of key committees in the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, more Black people with clout have been appointed to key positions in the new administration, from chief of the Environmental Protection Agency to U.S. Attorney General. The new attorney general, Eric Holder, has since promised more renewed focus on enforcing civil rights laws and reviewing mandatory minimum prison sentences.

Beneath the exciting veneer, however, at various meetings during the conference and as participants went back to their hometowns across the country, the mounting troubles besetting Black America – from HIV/AIDS to the soaring unemployment triggered by the economy’s collapse last year— sobered up even the most euphoric. The test of America’s mettle to survive is fast becoming an acute stress test for Black America on many fronts.

New Minority Engineering Leader Stresses K-12 Exposure to Careers

New Minority Engineering Leader Stresses K-12 Exposure to Careers: Describing the past decade's growth of African-Americans, Latinos and Native Americans in the engineering profession as 'marginal at best,' diversity efforts have to increasingly target under-represented K-12 students, according to the president and CEO of the National Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. (NACME).

'Each of those groups has shown marginal increases in the baccalaureate degree production in engineering and in the engineering work force, but the reality is, there is a huge problem with proportionality,' Dr. Irving Pressley McPhail said.

The percentage of engineers from each minority group is still far below each group's percentage in the overall population, he said, and it's important to 'create an engineering work force that looks like America.'

College Enrollment Set Record in 2008, Study Says - NYTimes.com

College Enrollment Set Record in 2008, Study Says - NYTimes.com: ...Enrollment has been rising at two- and four-year colleges alike for decades. And most young adults still prefer four-year colleges, even though they are more expensive.

But the increase in the rate of students going to college reflected in the Pew report was attributable almost entirely to increased community-college enrollment. About 3.4 million, or 11.8 percent, of young adults were enrolled at community colleges, up from 3.1 million, or 10.9 percent, in 2007.

Enrollment at four-year colleges was essentially flat, at about eight million, or 27.8 percent of young adults, the Pew report said.

College enrollment varies by race and ethnicity. Nearly 41 percent of white 18- to 24-year-olds were enrolled in college in 2008, compared with about 32 percent of black young adults and 26 percent of Hispanics in that age group.

Obama signs bill expanding hate protection to gays - washingtonpost.com

Obama signs bill expanding hate protection to gays - washingtonpost.com: When a gay Wyoming college student was slain in 1998, congressional Democrats pledged to broaden the definition of federal hate crimes by the end of that year to include attacks based on sexual orientation.

The effort instead turned into a decade-long proxy war between liberal groups that want to expand gay rights and conservative groups that do not. But Wednesday, President Obama signed the bill and then hosted a White House reception for gay activists and the parents of the slain student, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard.

"After more than a decade of opposition and delay, we've passed inclusive hate crimes legislation to help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray or who they are," Obama said after the signing.

Former senator Edward Brooke receives Congressional Gold Medal - washingtonpost.com

Former senator Edward Brooke receives Congressional Gold Medal - washingtonpost.com: The crisp cadence of a fife-and-drum corps reverberated through the Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday morning, the august room packed with nearly 500 people craning their necks to see the remarkable tableau arranged on a stage before them.

There sat Edward William Brooke III, who grew up in a segregated neighborhood not far from the Capitol, fought in a segregated Army in World War II and returned to Washington in 1967, the first African American elected to the Senate by popular vote -- and on this day, the recipient of the highest honor Congress can bestow, the Congressional Gold Medal.

And there sat President Obama, whose stunning electoral journey to the White House seemed no more improbable than the one made four decades earlier by the 90-year-old man who sat beside him, a black Protestant Republican who won in the overwhelmingly white, Catholic, Democratic state of Massachusetts. After Obama heralded Brooke for a life spent "breaking barriers and bridging divides," the two men embraced tightly. It was a reminder of how much this country has changed in their lifetimes.

Temple University's Commitment to Diversity Questioned

Temple University's Commitment to Diversity Questioned: When budgetary cuts become necessary at a college, the programs and departments most vulnerable are often the least fundamental to a school’s central mission. But when an institution has been ranked as the most diverse student body in higher education, it can be difficult to explain why an office that caters to multicultural students was downsized dramatically.

Rhonda Brown, the first associate vice president of multicultural affairs and director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMCA) at Temple University, said sweeping cuts to her department have crippled her operation, reducing her staff of 10 to five and relocating the program to a smaller, inaccessible office. Worst of all, Brown said, she wasn’t consulted about the deep cuts.

“There are budget crises going on everywhere and we were required to take a budget cut that was supposedly across the board — and we did,” said Brown, who lost clerical staff when she did initial cost-trimming. “Our budget was cut a second time by people above and beyond me. I found out just a few days before they were made and I was not consulted or made aware until later.”

Obama Restores Asian American Initiative, Gives Ed. Dept. a Lead Role

Obama Restores Asian American Initiative, Gives Ed. Dept. a Lead Role: Two years after the Bush administration let its authority lapse, President Barack Obama has reinstated the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders with the U.S. Education Department in a major leadership role.

Obama this month signed an executive order re-establishing the White House Initiative, to be co-chaired by Education Secretary Arne Duncan. The Education Department also will house the initiative. The department already is home to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.

The chief goal of the latest initiative is to improve the quality of life for underserved Asian communities through greater participation in federal programs. In announcing the initiative, President Obama also noted that some Asian communities have high school dropout rates, low college enrollment rates, health disparities and high poverty rates.

Minority Graduate Students Urged to Address Pipeline Issues

Minority Graduate Students Urged to Address Pipeline Issues: ARLINGTON, Va. — A panel of senior professors and researchers told attendees at the largest annual gathering of U.S. minority graduate school students that earning their Ph.D.s and becoming faculty will help make them effective advocates for expanding the educational pipeline of students of color seeking higher education.

During the session, “The Need to Examine and Address the Current Status of Minority Males in Higher Education,” at the Compact for Faculty Diversity's 16th Annual Institute on Teaching and Mentoring on Friday, panelists urged students to channel their eventual Ph.D. success into becoming role models and advocates for programs that could boost the numbers of young minority males completing college and graduate school. The Compact for Faculty Diversity, a national partnership of regional, federal and foundation programs that focus on minority graduate education and faculty diversity, held the annual institute in Arlington, Va., this past weekend.

Perfectionism: Just Stop It!

Access Granted with Dr. Marybeth Gasman

University of Pennsylvania professor Marybeth Gasman explores issues of access and retention for students and faculty of color and Historically Black Colleges and Universities, among other things.

Perfectionism: Just Stop It!: The best piece of advice received in my academic career thus far was given to me by Dr. Wayne Urban, an historian and professor at the University of Alabama. During my first year as a faculty member, I walked into his office and asked, “Wayne, how do you write so much excellent scholarship, how did you become a full professor?” His response was, “I am not a perfectionist.”

These words have stuck with me and I learned immensely from them. Wayne also noted that doctoral students and young assistant professors often succumb to perfectionism and become immobilized in terms of sending out their work for review. He told me reviewers and editors are our friends and they help us to take good work and make it better. I have lived by Wayne’s words through my time as a faculty member and I think I have benefited.

Haskell Indian Nation U. President Faces Backlash on Tuition

Haskell Indian Nation U. President Faces Backlash on Tuition: LAWRENCE, Kan.— Dr. Linda Sue Warner had big ambitions when she arrived in 2007 as president of Haskell Indian Nation University, the only four-year college operated by the federal government for American Indians. Now she wonders whether those ambitions could cost her the job.

She envisioned major campus improvements and an expansion of the college's programs. But she also proposed to increase the extremely small fees paid by Haskell's roughly 1,050 students —$215 per semester, including room and board — to $1,000.

And that was where she ran headlong into the belief among many Haskell students and alumni that the government owes them a free or nearly free education, both by treaty and as compensation for generations of cultural oppression.

Students protested and members of the Board of Regents called for Warner's ouster.

“I feel strongly that these kids shouldn't have to pay to go to school here,'' said Haskell alumnus and Kickapoo tribal chairman Russell Bradley.

In September, amid the furor, Warner was sent to New Mexico on what the government said was a temporary assignment.

Ayers Settlement Falls Short of Funding

Ayers Settlement Falls Short of Funding: A legislative watchdog panel this month gave a generally rosy report about how Mississippi is meeting its obligations in a decades-old college desegregation case, but a closer examination reveals flaws with a private endowment that has failed to reach its goals.

The settlement of the case in 2002 put an end to litigation that began in 1975 when Jake Ayers Jr. filed suit with a group of other students, accusing Mississippi of operating an unequal system of higher education— one for Black students, and another for White students.

Lawmakers put the settlement package together in 2002 but no money was allocated until the last appeal was exhausted in 2004.

In the settlement, there was a $70 million publicly funded endowment and a separate, privately funded $35 million endowment. The private endowment has only $1 million.

Seven years after a federal judge signed off on the settlement, state officials agree there is no organized campaign to raise private money.

Resolution may be near between students and bar accused of racism - CNN.com

Resolution may be near between students and bar accused of racism - CNN.com: CNN) -- An agreement could be reached before week's end between Washington University students and an Illinois nightclub that allegedly barred six African-American students while admitting nearly 200 of their white classmates.

Fernando Cutz, senior class president at the university in Missouri, said the aggrieved students have been in contact with lawyers representing Original Mother's, a bar in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood.

The two sides expect a resolution to their dispute as early as Wednesday, Cutz said. He did not, however, say what the students were demanding or why he was optimistic that a deal could be struck.

The students complained to state and federal agencies after six African-American members from their senior class trip celebration were denied admission to the club on October 17.

Federal programs give disadvantaged extra help in college - washingtonpost.com

Federal programs give disadvantaged extra help in college - washingtonpost.com: ... The federal Student Support Services program, launched during the Nixon administration, is part of a larger effort to help disadvantaged students overcome academic and cultural barriers to success in higher education. The program is part of TRIO, a group of national initiatives that have proven their ability to raise the odds that a disadvantaged student will stay in college, get good grades and graduate.

Yet supporters say the programs have languished through years of fiscal neglect. Total funding to the TRIO programs -- $848 million in the fiscal year that began this month -- has risen about 1 percent in the past five years. TRIO serves 838,591 students, fewer than it did in 2003.

The support programs are closely linked to the federal Pell grant, a $25 billion fund that helps students from low-income families pay for college. Unlike TRIO, funding for Pell has increased by more than one-third over the past three years. A student aid bill that cleared the House last month would add $40 billion to Pell over the next decade but does not address TRIO.

The House Rules

The House Rules: The House Rules
by Dr. Pamela D. Reed, October 21, 2009

Morehouse College has laid down the law. And not a moment too soon..."

As you might imagine, the institutional decree has caused quite a stir — and it has been met with mixed reviews. Some argue that the policy is draconian and designed to stifle self-expression. Others — present company included — view the stance of the Morehouse administration as courageous and long overdue. (The only thing missing is a restriction on conspicuous tattoos!)

Of course, as long as they don’t infringe on the rights of others, everyone has the right to live as they will. And certainly young adults have the right to dress according to their personal tastes; however, Morehouse is a private college. As such, it should have the right to impose whatever standards deemed appropriate for its student body (as long as bodily harm is not involved). Mind you, anyone unable to abide by the said rules also has the absolute right to matriculate elsewhere.

Community Colleges May Soon Start Turning Students Away

Community Colleges May Soon Start Turning Students Away: Nicole Rodriguez has been waiting a year to get into Pima Community College’s nursing program. But she’s running out of patience.

The Tucson-based Hispanic-serving institution has nearly 340 people on the waiting list to get into the program. The next available semester is spring 2011, according to the college, but Rodriguez, 24, says she was told she would have to wait three years to get admitted. She told Diverse she lost her original place on the list because she did not immediately respond to an email from the school asking her if she wanted to stay on it.

“So I’m probably starting all over again, which makes me really upset,” Rodriguez adds. “If all else fails, I’ll probably end up going to another school in another state that doesn’t have three-year waiting lists.”

Reforms Across Multiple Policy Areas Key to Eliminating Health Disparities, Experts Say

Reforms Across Multiple Policy Areas Key to Eliminating Health Disparities, Experts Say: WASHINGTON — A panel of health policy experts Tuesday told congressional staff members and policy professionals that, while health care reform could play a powerful role in reducing health disparities between minorities and Whites, major policy reform in areas such as housing, transportation, agriculture and labor will also prove necessary to close the health care gap.

“We need multiple strategies across a variety of sectors. These are not just problems for public health; these are problems for the housing sector, the transportation sector and others,” said Dr. Brian Smedley, vice president and director of the Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

UW Bothell Chancellor Champions For Diversity Among College Leadership

UW Bothell Chancellor Champions For Diversity Among College Leadership: The under-representation of minorities, particularly Asian-Americans, in U.S. college presidencies can be due to the fact that many potential minority leaders in the faculty ranks are “ignored” and “overlooked,” said University of Washington Bothell Chancellor Dr. Kenyon S. Chan, who encourages chancellors to think hard about how they develop leadership on their campuses.

“There’s a lack of real mentorship” for minority faculty who want to move up in the ranks, Chan said during a meeting Tuesday with the editorial board of Diverse. “People of color are overlooked.”

For Asian-Americans, particularly, “I think a lot of it has to do with being ignored and being invisible as a potential leader for an institution,” he said. “Many institutions have never had a person of color as a leader. … Asian-Americans are still quite rare, and quite unique.”

Jack Nelson dies at 80 - Michael Calderone - POLITICO.com

Jack Nelson dies at 80 - Michael Calderone - POLITICO.com: Jack Nelson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter best known for his coverage of the civil rights movement, has died. He was 80.

The Associated Press reports that Nelson died Wednesday at his home in Bethesda, Md. He had been suffering from pancreatic cancer.

Born in Talladega, Ala., Nelson worked in the late '40s and '50s at the Biloxi Daily Herald and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. At the Journal-Constitution,Nelson won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on malpractice at a state mental hospital.

In 1965, he joined the Los Angeles Times, where he spent more than 35 years, before retiring as chief Washington correspondent in 2001. LA Times columnist described Nelson to the AP as a "reporter's reporter."

Nelson wrote about his experience on the civil rights beat in recent years for Nieman Reports:

It was a story where the issue seemed so cut and dry and the injustices so stark that reporters struggled to remain objective, though many found it difficult not to become emotionally involved. Seeing hard-eyed state troopers (always described as hard-eyed—and they were) in Selma slamming their clubs against the skulls of blacks who were demonstrating for the right to vote left reporters feeling there weren’t two sides to this story. And there seemed to be only one side to Jim Crow justice when the only black you could find at a county courthouse would be a defendant or one pushing a broom.

Latinos may be 'future' of U.S. Catholic Church - CNN.com

Latinos may be 'future' of U.S. Catholic Church - CNN.com: ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN) -- 'I'll take two chili, uh...' a hungry customer stammers at the front of a two-hour-long line. 'Chile rellenos,' the money-handler trills back in perfect Spanish. This is not a trendy Tex-Mex restaurant; and it's more than 1,000 miles from the Mexican border.

The stuffed pepper causing the stutter is the hottest menu item at St. Cecilia's Lenten fish fry in St. Louis, Missouri. Chile rellenos, a traditional Mexican dish, have replaced fish as the main draw for Catholics giving up meat on Fridays. This century-old parish founded by German immigrants has turned 85 percent Hispanic.

"It's the browning of the Catholic Church in the United States," says Pedro Moreno Garcia, who until last month led the Hispanic ministry for the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Moreno Garcia points to St. Cecilia's Spanish-dominant Mass schedule as a sign of the times.

"Hispanics are the present and Hispanics are the future of the Catholic Church in the United States," says Moreno Garcia.

One-third of all Catholics in the United States are now Latinos thanks to immigration and higher fertility rates, according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. While St. Cecilia's parish has relished the growth, elsewhere, the Latino population boom has rocked the pews.

Vassar Professor Examines Black Women's Film Stardom

NEW YORK — Dorothy Dandridge was the first Black woman nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. Almost 50 years passed before another Black woman Halle Berry won the award.

They and three others Pam Grier, Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey are subjects of the new book Divas on Screen: Black Women in American Film.

'These women have pushed the racial boundaries for audiences, setting new standards for beauty and body type,' said author Dr. Mia Mask.

She took on the book because, while Black male stars are now enjoying huge success, little has been written about their female counterparts as performers who can headline a film, said Mask, who teaches film and drama at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie , N.Y.

Pardon for black boxer jailed for interracial dating waits on Obama - CNN.com

Pardon for black boxer jailed for interracial dating waits on Obama - CNN.com: The White House refused to indicate Monday whether President Obama will issue a posthumous pardon for Jack Johnson, the African-American boxing champion convicted in 1913 for dating a white woman.

The House of Representatives on July 29 unanimously passed a resolution urging Obama to grant a pardon; the Senate passed a similar measure by a voice vote on June 24.

The push for a rare posthumous pardon has been spearheaded for years by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Rep. Peter King, R-New York, two of Congress' top boxing enthusiasts.

"It is our hope that you will be eager to agree to right this wrong and erase an act of racism that sent an American citizen to prison," they wrote Friday in a letter to Obama.

Johnson, the first African-American to win the heavyweight title, was convicted for violating the Mann Act, which outlawed the transportation of women across state lines for "immoral" purposes.

Removing a justice of the peace in Louisiana no cakewalk - CNN.com

Removing a justice of the peace in Louisiana no cakewalk - CNN.com: Two disgruntled Louisiana newlyweds have called for the dismissal of a justice of the peace who refused to marry the interracial couple, and have even been joined in their fight by the governor, who said the official's license should be revoked.

But unseating a Louisiana justice of the peace isn't easy.

Beth and Terence McKay -- who are now married -- stepped into the national spotlight when Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace for Tangipahoa Parish's 8th Ward, refused them a license.

Bardwell told Hammond's Daily Star last week that he was concerned for the children who might be born of the relationship and that, in his experience, most interracial marriages don't last.

"I'm not a racist," Bardwell told the newspaper. "I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house. My main concern is for the children."

Despite a national uproar and a call by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal for him to lose his license, Bardwell, 56, said he has no regrets. "It's kind of hard to apologize for something that you really and truly feel down in your heart you haven't done wrong," he told CNN affiliate WAFB on Saturday.

Reinventing Remedial Education

Reinventing Remedial Education: When Kafayat Olayinka graduated from Spingarn High School in Washington, D.C., with a 3.5 grade-point average, she was certain those kinds of grades would help her zip right through college.

Sure enough, Olayinka received a letter of acceptance from the University of the District of Columbia, along with a request that she take a battery of tests given all freshmen. Soon, though, she realized something was wrong.

“I couldn’t solve problems in basic math,” Olayinka says, recalling the summer of 2007 when she took the placement exams. “I was surprised. I thought I was going to pass the tests.”

Despite the disappointing experience that made her doubt her readiness for college, Olayinka was notified she had been accepted into a special eight-week pre-college program at UDC called the Gateway Academic Program, or the GAP. It wasn’t until the end of the GAP, when Olayinka was tested again, that she learned her true academic story. She and her cohorts selected for the GAP had posted the lowest scores in English and math of all entering freshmen who took the original placement tests. By the end of the eight weeks of rigorous classroom work aimed specifically at the deficiencies found in her first tests, she was tested again and her performance on the second tests cleared her to enter the school as a full-fledged freshman.

Profile of Nobel Prize Winner Carol Greider, a Johns Hopkins Molecular Biologist - washingtonpost.com

Profile of Nobel Prize Winner Carol Greider, a Johns Hopkins Molecular Biologist - washingtonpost.com: Partway through an interview, Carol Greider's cellphone emits the special ring she has set to indicate the caller is one of her two children. Greider, a molecular biologist at Johns Hopkins who this year became one of only 10 women to win the Nobel Prize in medicine, is at her phone in a split second. The caller is her 9-year-old daughter, Gwendolyn, who has gotten out of school.

'How was Spirit Day?' Greider asks. They chat -- a babysitter is at home -- then she rings off. Nearby is a pile of handmade cards from Gwendolyn's fourth-grade class, the members of which have different ideas about for what, exactly, Greider has won the prize.

Twenty-five years ago, as an exceptionally gifted graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley, Greider, now 48, visited her lab to check an experiment, and discovered evidence of an enzyme called telomerase. The enzyme helps maintain telomeres, the caplike structures that protect the ends of chromosomes. The discovery was a breakthrough -- telomerase is implicated in cancer and genetic disease -- the import of which would become clearer over time, as possible therapies emerged.