HBCU Leaders Gather for ‘Seizing Capacity to Thrive’ HBCU Conference: At the 2009 National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Conference this week in Washington D.C., the baton of leadership at the White House Initiative on Black Colleges and Universities will switch hands. Bush administration appointee Dr. Leonard Haynes will pass the baton to Dr. John Wilson, an Obama administration appointee.
In July, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced Wilson executive director of the White House Initiative. As executive director, Wilson will work with the presidentially appointed HBCU Board of Advisors and assist Duncan in advising President Barack Obama on important matters concerning Black colleges.
And while both Haynes and Wilson are Black college graduates who care about preserving the legacy of these institutions and sustaining their future, pundits suggest that the change in leadership could represent a new and more progressive agenda for the nation's Black colleges and universities.
