We just finished our second year of Platinum By Design. This program is targeted toward the holistic development of women on campus, not just in the class but out of it. Their culminating event was a dinner with a Q&A with the author, Sapphire. She indicated to me that she was VERY impressed with the program and the women, and enjoyed the time with them.

We also have finished our third year with our Black Male Initiative. Well over 50% of all male students participated in at least one BMI event this year, which is always our goal. Many of them assisted with the Platinum By Design dinner by assisting with the meal service.

Both groups have some identifying paraphernalia. The women have scarfs with the logo, and the men have ties. As you can see, many faculty and staff joined in with the students.

The Prez

 

Season 5 of Bless the Mic ended Wednesday night with one of the hottest authors in the country- Sapphire. She became a household name after her novel, Push, was made into the Academy Award winning movie, Precious.

Once again, PSC made history as this was the first HBCU to invite Sapphire to speak. She noted the cultural conservatism of many of our schools, and if you have read the book or seen the movie, you know the subject matter is pretty tough.

But her visit was perfect timing, and she spoke as she opened about the crisis in the Black community regarding STDs. I noted in my introduction that April is both STD Awareness month and Sexual Assault Awareness month, two issues raised in Push and Precious. Sapphire discussed how historically, Black women's voices in literature were written by others, and not until the 1960s or so did Black women give voice to their own issues. Even the early slave narratives were impacted.

Sapphire viewed fiction as the only way to tell the truth in some of those instances, where people did not want to believe the women and their accounts. But she indicated that Push was about the importance of literacy as a liberating tool, and literacy in the novel was placed over love. Many of the books Precious mentions in the novel were works by some of Sapphire's favorite authors. She reemphasized that education can make a difference in women's lives.

 

The Prez

Here are some of the winners at our recent Renaissance Awards, an annual awards program started by Student Affairs 3 years ago.

The Prez

Dr. Juliana Mosley, VP for Student Affairs, presents faculty member of the year to Lawrence Hamilton, director of cultural affairs

Dr. Mosley presents the staff member of the year to Chris Watson, Title III

Dr. Mosley presents the student of the year to Sade Daniels.

Freshman library award winners

Religious Life award winners

Sorority woman of the year, Carissa Rodgers

Sorority of the year, Sigma Gamma Rho

Fraternity man of the year, Chris Bell

Fraternity of the year, Alpha Phi Alpha

Platinum By Design winners

Financial aid workstudy student of the year, Joelle Ettienne

Street Team members of the year, LaRissa Connett and Camron Bradford

Diaper Dandies (freshmen of the year): April Cotton and Anthony McIntosh

2 of our bus crash heros, Jeremy Carter and Donte "Tay Man" Marshall

Most Valuable Educator, Beverly Richardson

Here are some pics of our new residence hall going up. This building, the first of 4, will house 60 students.

The Prez

This is the second year we've participated in the new game, budgetball. Created by the National Academy of Public Administration, the game teaches how to better understand our national debt. It is high energy, but strategy is needed to determine how much to spend, and how much to save, in order to gain advantages in the game. Here are some scenes from this year's event.

The Prez

On Tuesday morning I had the pleasure of hearing Jackson Katz at a men's leadership breakfast. Katz is an activist addressing gender related issues, including sexual assault.

He shared lots of shocking statistics, but one of the most important to me is that between 20 and 25% of college women will experience either an attempted or successful sexual assault. 65% of my students are women, so this hits close to home. And with the close nature of our campus, I have had conversations with students who have been assaulted. And as Katz indicated, not some random stranger, but a father, a relative, a boyfriend.

Katz argued that we need to stop calling this a woman's issue because 99% of the perpetraotrs are men. So he called for those men in that room to be engaged in this issue and take a real stand against sexual assault.

Below is a news story about sexual assault in Arkansas, one of the few places that has experienced an increase.

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=102206

The Prez

Over 300 potential students, parents, and family members came to campus this past Saturday to visit PSC. We had a great day all around, and hopefully landed some new students.

The Prez

I was really looking forward to our lecture this past Thursday night. Dr. Tricia Rose is one of if not THE foremost scholar on hip hop, with her first book dating back to the early 1990s. She was joined on the program by Capri Courtney of Chicago and April Cotton of Little Rock.

Her new book is called "The Hip Hop Wars" and discusses the arguments on both sides for and against hip hop. In a profound analysis, she mentioned that hip hop had become the perfect vehicle for maintaining racial stereotypes. Hip hop after all is the first mainstream Black music form.

Most of the audience didn't understand Soundscan. Dr. Rose explained how this computerized system began to accurately track album sales, and 2 weeks after Soundscan debuted, the gangsta rap group NWA reached the top of the billboard charts. Sounscan also determined, by zip codes, who brought the music, and we know that 70% of the hip hop music is purchased in white suburbs. So this changed how hip hop was marketed.

She talked about the power of stories, and asked what if Lil Wayne turned his gift for the use of metaphor to talk about something. She stated, "The stories we tell ourselves teach us who we are." If the stories we tell didn't matter, she argued, then we wouldn't get so irate about racist images which appear from time to time.

In a very energetic and engaging lecture, Dr. Rose gave us lots of food for thought. I would LOVE to take a class from her- she was excellent.

The Prez