The Female Factor - Equal Rights for Women? Survey Says - Yes, but . . . - NYTimes.com

The Female Factor - Equal Rights for Women? Survey Says - Yes, but . . . - NYTimes.com: NEW YORK — People around the world say they firmly support equal rights for men and women, but many still believe men should get preference when it comes to good jobs, higher education or even in some cases the simple right to work outside the home, according to a new survey of 22 nations.

The poll, conducted in April and May by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project in association with the International Herald Tribune, shows that in both developing countries and wealthy ones, there is a pronounced gap between a belief in the equality of the sexes and how that translates into reality.

In nations where equal rights are already mandated, women seem stymied by a lack of real progress, the poll found.

Giving Proper Gravestones to Negro Leagues Players - NYTimes.com

Giving Proper Gravestones to Negro Leagues Players - NYTimes.com: ...For almost 50 years, William M. Gatewood lay in obscurity in an unmarked grave here at Memorial Park Cemetery. But that ended Tuesday, when three baseball fans continued their quest to locate every former Negro leagues player without a headstone and do their share to right the wrong.

Gatewood was a star pitcher and manager in the early Negro leagues who is credited with giving James Bell his nickname, Cool Papa, and teaching Satchel Paige his hesitation pitch. Gatewood died in Columbia in 1962 with no one to arrange for a grave marker.

On Tuesday, he became the 19th player for whom the Negro Leagues Grave Marker Project has provided a headstone. The project volunteers track down unmarked graves, raise money for headstones and install them, often with their own hands.

“These were great ballplayers who don’t deserve to be forgotten, but they have been,” said Dr. Jeremy Krock, a 52-year-old anesthesiologist from Peoria, Ill., who began the effort seven years ago.

Colleges Instructed to Make Blind-friendly Gadgets Available to Students

Colleges Instructed to Make Blind-friendly Gadgets Available to Students: Federal officials are requiring colleges that use Kindles and other electronic book readers in the classroom to make sure the gadgets have accommodations for blind and vision-impaired students.

The U.S. Departments of Justice and Education sent a letter to college and university presidents Tuesday instructing them to find alternatives for blind students if the devices are required in the classroom.

Not doing so would be a violation of federal law, said Russlynn Ali, assistant secretary for civil rights at the Education Department.

Top Ranks of Bloomberg Managers Are Largely White - NYTimes.com

Top Ranks of Bloomberg Managers Are Largely White - NYTimes.com: Since winning a third term in November, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has announced a parade of major appointments: bringing aboard three new deputy mayors and six commissioners and trumpeting most of those arrivals in the Blue Room at City Hall.

All nine are white. All but one is a man.

Those selections are hardly anomalous. Despite a pledge he made when he took office to make diversity a hallmark of his administration, Mr. Bloomberg has consistently surrounded himself with a predominantly white and male coterie of key policy makers, according to an analysis of personnel data by The New York Times.

The city’s non-Hispanic white population is now 35 percent, because of an influx of nonwhite immigrants and other demographic changes in the past two decades.

Higher Education Summit on Asian and Pacific Americans Convened

Higher Education Summit on Asian and Pacific Americans Convened: The lack of federal education assistance targeting struggling Asian and Pacific Islander American students and families drove Neil Horikoshi, president and executive director of the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF), and fund supporters to organize the first annual APIASF Higher Education Summit on Thursday in downtown Washington.

More than 400 students, scholars, and community leaders attended the daylong summit, whose speakers included Dr. Martha Kanter, under secretary of the U.S. Education Department, and Kiran Ahuja, the executive director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Summit speeches and sessions largely explored the obstacles that underserved Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students encounter in their pursuit of a college education.

Supreme Court Rules Law School Justified in Shunning Student Group That Barred Gays

Supreme Court Rules Law School Justified in Shunning Student Group That Barred Gays: An ideologically split Supreme Court ruled Monday that a law school can legally deny recognition to a Christian student group that won't let gays join, with one justice saying that the First Amendment does not require a public university to validate or support the group's 'discriminatory practices.'

The court turned away an appeal from the Christian Legal Society, which sued to get funding and recognition from the University of California's Hastings College of the Law. The CLS requires that voting members sign a statement of faith and regards 'unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle' as being inconsistent with that faith.

But Hastings, which is in San Francisco, said no recognized campus groups may exclude people due to religious belief or sexual orientation.

National Scholarship Program Rewards Academically Talented Black Students

National Scholarship Program Rewards Academically Talented Black Students: The Ron Brown Scholars program is among those rare entities that boasts a 100 percent graduation rate.

Many of the scholarship winners chosen in the highly competitive program grew up in abject poverty. Yet, not a single one has failed or dropped out because the program gave them the support they needed to succeed. During its 13-year history, more than half of the scholars have matriculated at Ivy League institutions. Another 21 percent have enrolled at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford and Duke universities.

Given that a majority of its candidates are on their way to elite universities before receiving their scholarships, program executive director Michael Mallory is often asked why the Ron Brown Scholars program focuses its efforts on students who are on a solid trajectory, rather than those struggling at community colleges or small historically Black institutions.

Lack Of Grant Aid Keeps Low-Income Students From College: Report

Lack Of Grant Aid Keeps Low-Income Students From College: Report: A new report details how students from low- and middle-income families are having difficulty going to, and succeeding at, four-year colleges because of lack of grant aid.

The report, authored by the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance and titled 'The Rising Price of Inequality,' found that as the price of college has risen, the number of students from low- and middle-income families has fallen.

Some key points from the report:

* College enrollment rates of low-income students fell from 54 percent in 1992 to 40 percent in 2004. For middle-income students, enrollment rates dropped from 59 percent to 53 percent.

* 62 percent of low-income parents rated college expenses as 'very important' in 2004, as compared with 49 percent in 1992. In 2004, 17 percent of high-income parents rated college expenses as 'very important.

* 75 percent of low-income students in college persist four years or more, down from 78 percent.

Harvard Case Spotlights Deportation Debate : NPR

Harvard Case Spotlights Deportation Debate : NPR: Immigrant advocates are hoping the high-profile case of undocumented Harvard student Eric Balderas will help boost the cause of other illegal immigrants like him.

Balderas, 19, is an academic superstar at Harvard, studying molecular biology and hoping one day to help cure cancer. He was brought to the U.S. by his mother when he was four and went on to become his high school valedictorian and to win a full scholarship to Harvard. He was trying to fly back to school after a visit with his mom in Texas when he was stopped by immigration authorities and led away in handcuffs.

His story immediately made headlines. Advocates rallied for his release and within days authorities agreed to give Balderas a break.

HBCUs Struggle With Lag in Academic Progress by Student Athletes

HBCUs Struggle With Lag in Academic Progress by Student Athletes: There’s a memory burned into Walter Harrison’s brain. Harrison, the co-chair of the NCAA’s Committee on Academic Progress, recalled a 2003 meeting to hammer out details on the NCAA’s latest academic reform effort. The late Clinton Bristow Jr., then president of Alcorn State University, said something to Harrison that has stayed with him.

“He looked across the table and said, ‘I hope you’re not getting into this to ensnare HBCUs,’” said Harrison, president of the University of Hartford. “I said, ‘Of course not. That’s not my intention at all.’ I have carried that pledge ever since."

Brooklyn Diocese Seeks Sainthood for Priest - NYTimes.com

Brooklyn Diocese Seeks Sainthood for Priest - NYTimes.com: ...Nobody from Brooklyn has ever been made a saint.

But at a special church service on Thursday night, Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn opened what is known as a “canonical inquiry” into the cause of sainthood for a Brooklyn priest, Msgr. Bernard J. Quinn.

Monsignor Quinn, who died in 1940 at age 52, championed racial equality at a time when discrimination against blacks was ubiquitous in America, even inside the Catholic Church. In the Depression-era heyday of the anti-Semitic, pro-Fascist radio broadcasts of the Rev. Charles E. Coughlin, Monsignor Quinn encountered sharp resistance from some fellow priests when he proposed ministering to Brooklyn’s growing population of blacks, many of them fleeing the Jim Crow South or migrating from the poor Caribbean countries.

Advocates Work To Develop Asian Pacific American-serving Higher Education Sector

Advocates Work To Develop Asian Pacific American-serving Higher Education Sector: When social conflicts arise within their communities, Pacific Islanders have a particular way of finding solutions. They sit in a circle and engage in informal storytelling to find the answers.

The tradition, called TalkStory, is one of many tools that leaders at South Seattle Community College (SSCC) use to engage Asian Pacific American students and their families in confronting their biggest challenges: English language acquisition, poverty, and cultural divides.

Students along with others sit together, sharing personal stories of struggle and triumph in an environment where most assume Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), or Asian Pacific Americans (APA), are excelling. Yet, many are not.

Native Americans embrace tradition to defeat diabetes - USATODAY.com

Native Americans embrace tradition to defeat diabetes - USATODAY.com: Finding a Native American in Towaoc, Colo., who does not have diabetes or know someone with diabetes is rare.

'It is the exception,' says Gerald Pond, general manager of the Ute Mountain Casino Hotel and Resort.

Pond, whose roots are with the Assiniboine tribe in Montana, comes from a family of nine. Seven members have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, he says.

Of the 3.3 million American Indians and Alaska Natives in the USA, about 16% have diabetes, most of them type 2, says the Indian Health Service, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. That's almost twice the rate of diabetes in whites.

Thousands of scientists are gathering this weekend in Orlando for the American Diabetes Association's 70th scientific sessions, an annual conference that focuses on advances in diabetes research and the needs of patients, including high-risk groups such as Native Americans and African Americans.

American Indians Grow Wary of Genetics Research

American Indians Grow Wary of Genetics Research: The much-publicized settlement between Arizona State University (ASU) and the Havasupai tribe over alleged misuse of DNA samples collected from tribal members sheds light on the often-uneasy relationship between indigenous peoples and academia.

For many American Indians, the case is an example of the paternalism that that has dominated the relationship between academic researchers and tribes for generations.

“There continues to be a sense that Western ways of knowing and understanding are more important and therefore give researchers the right of way in understanding the world,” says Dr. Sonya Atalay, a member of the Anishinabe tribe and an assistant professor of anthropology at Indiana University.

Spreading the Word on Asian American Diversity

Spreading the Word on Asian American Diversity: Decades after being labeled the “model minority,” Asian Americans struggle with a stereotype that obscures significant socioeconomic, education, and health disparities within a group made up of more than 30 ethnicities in the U.S.

For Kiran Ahuja, the executive director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI), communicating an accurate picture of Asian American diversity to policymakers across the federal government represents a fundamental task of the office she has been leading since this past November.

“It’s our job to make sure our colleagues have a good understanding of the unique issues that impact our community and how diverse we are,” Ahuja said during an interview at the U.S. Department of Education headquarters. “All Asian Americans are not doing well.”

Mississippi University for Women Bets on Online Education

Mississippi University for Women Bets on Online Education: COLUMBUS, Miss. – Mississippi University for Women's turnaround is about to begin, but it won't happen on campus. It will happen online.

Dr. Bill Mayfield, dean of the School of Professional Studies at MUW and director of its new e-college, says plans are in motion to make MUW a major player in the burgeoning online education movement, beating state schools like Mississippi State University, University of Mississippi and University of Southern Mississippi to the well.

MUW's yet-to-be-named e-college is the product of Mayfield's business experience—he’s the former dean of the business college at the Indiana Institute of Technology—and the vision of outgoing MUW president Claudia Limbert to expand the school's reach beyond its geographic area.

Courtland Milloy - Tolerance of white militias exemplifies racial double standard

Courtland Milloy - Tolerance of white militias exemplifies racial double standard: Imagine that the inauguration of President George W. Bush had sparked an explosive rise in African American militia groups. Suppose thousands of heavily armed black men began gathering at training camps in wooded areas throughout the country, devising military tactics for 'taking back their country' after what they believed was an electoral coup.

Do you think Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney would have reacted to a black militaristic buildup as coolly as President Obama has to the phenomenal growth of white militias?

Since Obama took office last year, the number of white militias has shot up from about 170 to more than 500, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist groups in the United States. Armed with enough firepower to take on a police department, some of these groups are honing their sniper skills using photographs of Obama for target practice.

About New York - Descent Into Slavery, and a Ladder to Another Life - NYTimes.com

About New York - Descent Into Slavery, and a Ladder to Another Life - NYTimes.com: ...Mr. Gutierrez had gotten to the other side of slavery, climbing a ladder of second chances.

More than a decade ago, he was part of the nameless, unseen cast of a horror story. Lured from Mexico on promises of prosperity, he and 56 other people lived as prisoners in two row houses in Queens. By day, they sold key chains and miniature screwdriver kits in the subways, at airports, on roadsides. At night, they turned over every penny to the bosses of the houses.

All of the peddlers were deaf. Mr. Gutierrez, the youngest, had arrived in the United States at age 15, fluent only in Mexican Sign Language.

Race-Based School Team Names Face Ban In Wisconsin : NPR

Race-Based School Team Names Face Ban In Wisconsin : NPR: School team nicknames like the Chieftains and Braves may soon be a thing of the past in Wisconsin, where a new law allows the state to ban race-based mascots and logos. If a complaint is upheld, school districts face fines of up to $1,000 a day.

The day Wisconsin's new sports-mascot law took effect, Oneida tribal member Carol Gunderson and her husband, Harvey, drove three hours to the state capital, Madison, to file their complaint in person.

The reason, Carol Gunderson says, is 'because it's the first law in the whole United States that addresses this issue. We didn't want it to get lost in the mail.'

Assessing Arizona

Assessing Arizona: Since its enactment in April, the Arizona law that gives local and state police the ability to arrest and detain people they suspect to be undocumented immigrants has spurred a whirlwind of discussion and activism concerning immigration policy and race relations.

With the specter of racial profiling and civil rights violations looming, a coalition of civil rights groups and activists around the country has condemned the law (SB 1070). The National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) are among groups that have called for an economic boycott of Arizona.

Diverse interviewed three prominent Mexican-American academics about the law, its impact on Arizona colleges, and what they hope to see in real immigration reform moving forward.