Yesterday we invited every two and four year college and university in the state to a conference featuring Dr. Shaun Harper, assistant professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania. Shaun was on the cover of Diverse Issues in Higher Education last fall for his work on Black men. I invited him because in Arkansas, one out of four Black men who start college finish in 6 years- that's it. We are actually a little above the state average, but way too low. So we invited Shaun to offer some ideas, and we thought we'd share with the state.

The event was very educational. He provided some tangible steps we can take in order to improve Black male student success. I think one of the key points was finding ways to engage the unengaged, and that will mean working differently with this group. He also favored unstructured mentoring programs so that students can find persons whose interests match their. We currently have a structured program, but have not been successful with finding enough mentors, so some of us have multiple students.

We also had great news coverage. Below is a story that was aired on the local Fox affiliate.

http://www.fox16.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=c784463f-f0c9-4747-945c-0a7c9f70e0fc

 

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No, not Latifah! (Only true hip-hop heads got the reference.

Our chapel today was a celebration of Miss PSC, Lauren Allen. Lauren is a sophomore presidential scholar from Kansas City. She took my honors orientation course last year and was definitely an excellent student- she killed in the debate we did against the other honors class. She aspires to become an attorney, and my wife is her mentor.

Men's basketball team

SGA

 

She was showered with gifts from the different clubs and organizations, and some campus offices. And of course the Kimbrough family gave a gift as well.

 

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James Carville kicked off Bless the Mic tonight in style, with over 600 in attendance- standing room only. I'll offer some more thoughts tomorrow, but we received excellent news coverage. Here are two TV station reports.

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http://www.todaysthv.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=72672&catid=2&GID=VO3IdBIjGukZCkM+iJpot1zao7KCapPMHLW/KAfRvZ0%3D

http://arkansasmatters.com/content/fulltext/news/?cid=114091

I attended an interesting program today. New students who signed up for mentors were able to go through a speed mentoring program if you will, where they spent one minute at a table with a faculty or staff member, and asked questions like "Why are you interested in mentorin?" "What do you do in your spare time?" and "What do you do to get to know your mentee?" We also had a list of questions to ask them, but I went off script (like "How would your best friend describe you if I asked him or her?"

So it was a creative event- I enjoyed getting to talk to some of the new students. I even picked up 3 more mentees (so 4 all together). We just needed more faculty and staff to be involved. I know folks are busy, but this is the key for small, liberal arts colleges.

 

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This past Thursday we held our opening convocation. The speaker was the Rev. Eugene Rivers from Boston. Rivers grew up in Chicago and Philadelphia, and was involved in gang activity. But he was able to leave that life and graduate from Harvard. In fact, his 2 children are at Harvard, as well as his wife doing a Ph.D.

He talked about how the chief engine of politics today is religion, and that since 9/11 there have been religious-based activists. As he spoke I thought about the number of times at the Republican convention I heard "radical Islamic terrorists." So he called this a post-secular reality.

He talked about coming full circle, with the civil rights movement beginning with the church, and that it was faith based. He argued that today we also need a faith-based leadership.

He was clear to say that the problems in Black America today are cultural, and that the denigration of hip hop is a reflection on the civil rights movement in that as people prospered, they left the neighborhoods and allowed single parents to try to raise kids on their own. Essentially, there was an absence of proper cultural supervision.

So he called for a new movement: the politics of the Spirit. He said that 50 years ago, we tried to get out of Egypt. Today, we have to get Egypt out of us.

 

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The evidence is clear. Almost 30% of black PhDs in the sciences over the past decade attended an HBCU as their undergraduate institution. 30% from schools that enroll about 12% of Black students.

http://insidehighered.com/news/2008/09/02/phds

 

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Yesterday we held the first chapel program of the year. This is my chance to present some ideas for the Philander community. My subject was "What Would King Do?" Yesterday was such an historic event being the 53rd anniversary of the murder of Emmitt Till, and the 45th anniversary of the March on Washington and King's "I Have a Dream" speech. With Obama giving his acceptance speech last night, I wanted to talk about what King might think about this day. In short, he would sob, celebrate, and sacrifice.

So I think the students got the message and why it is important for them to be involved in their communities. I ended with the new John Legend song that was performed Monday night. It is a great message about understanding that we all are the leaders we look for, and we had better get to work right now because the future started yesterday and we're already late.

 

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We had a nice piece written about us in the blog done by Diverse Issues in Higher Education by Dr. Marybeth Gasman:

http://diverseeducation.wordpress.com/2008/08/24/thinking-about-justice-in-little-rock-philander-smith-college/

 

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