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INSIDE MOREHOUSE, OCTOBER 2008
HBCU Week Highlights Importance
of Nation's Black Colleges
NEWS BRIEFS
Morehouse Named One of the
Nation's Best HBCUs
Morehouse has again been rec
ognized by a national publication as
one of the country's top historically
black colleges and universities
(HBCUs).
The U.S. News and World Re
port named Morehouse as the na
tion’s number three HBCU. The
magazine ranked Spelman College
first and Howard University second.
The magazine based its rankings on
six factors: peer assessment, reten
tion, faculty resources, student se
lectivity, financial resources and
alumni giving rate.
Alumni Association
Names Collie Burnett 72
New Executive Director
Collie Burnett
72 was appointed
executive director
of the Morehouse
College Alumni
Association,
succeeding Joe Draper '57.
Burnett, president and CEO of At
lanta Interfaith Broadcasters (AIB),
has also worked for WSB-TV, the
Metro Atlanta Regional Transporta
tion Agency, Atlanta Regional
Commission, Georgia Cable Televi
sion and Media One.
Burnett's appointment became
effective July 1,2008.
Bipartisan Congressional
Group Forms Caucus to
Advocate for HBCUs
Historically black colleges and
universities will have another voice
in Washington D.C. as more than two
dozen members of the U.S. House of
Representatives have formed a new
caucus to promote the interests of
HBCUs.
The caucus, which was intro
duced during a recent United Negro
College Fund breakfast, was formed
to create bipartisan dialogue in Con
gress that focuses on legislative pri
orities of HBCUs, said co-founder. Rep.
Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas).
Morehouse Awarded Cost
Reduction Act Grant
The U.S. Department of Educa
tion has awarded Morehouse a
$961,197 College Cost Reduction and
Access Act Grant for four programs
during fiscal year 2008-09.
The projects approved for
funding the under the CCRAA grant
include:
• SACS Quality Enhancement Plan
Implementation (curriculum-re
lated projects), activity director
Ron Sheehy
• Instructional Facilities Mainte
nance Projects in Sale Hall, Hope
Hall and McBay Hall, activity di
rector Curtis Davis
• Support for Library Acquisitions,
activity director. Woodruff
Library staff
• Procurement of Instructional
Materials and Lab Equipment,
activity directors Wallace Sharif,
biology; Jeff Etheridge and Robert
Tanner, music ■
By DENISE MOORE, director of the
Office of Government Relations
When President Robert M.
Franklin Jr. ’75 addressed sessions at
the 2008 National Historically Black
Colleges and Universities Week
Conference in Washington, D.C., he
shared his vision of producing Ren
aissance men with a social con
science and suggested that all
HBCUs consider the same.
The conference was sponsored by
the White House Initiative on
HBCUs, whose goals are to advocate
for and strengthen the fund-raising
capacity of HBCUs. Conference
participants shared information on
research and funding trends, educa
tional opportunities, equipment,
grant and contracting opportuni
ties, faculty development and in
ternships.
By ADD SEYMOUR JR.
Former Burundi President Pierre
Buyoya told a group of students,
faculty and staff that Africa is
emerging from a dark backdrop of
war, poverty and chaos that has
shrouded the continent for decades.
“Africa is changing,” Buyoya said
during his lecture at Sale Hall’s
Chapel of the Inward Journey on
Sept. 10. “In different corners of the
continent, African leaders are work
ing to make those changes possible.
Peace and stability are becoming the
top priority of the African Union
and the countries in Africa.”
Buyoya’s lecture was part of a
two-day visit to Morehouse, jointly
sponsored by the Leadership Center
at Morehouse College and the
African Presidential Archives and
Research Center (APARC) at
Boston University. The Leadership
Center is part of the African and
American Universities Collabora
tive, which unites institutions on
both continents through APARC.
Buyoya, Burundi’s president
from 1987 to 1993 and 1996 to
2003, is at Morehouse as the Lloyd
G. Balfour African President-in-
Residence. Previous presidents-in-
residence have come from Zambia,
(continued from the cover)
The history comes in a series of
potential firsts. The son of a white
Midwestern white mother and a
black African father, Obama is the
first black major party presidential
nominee, putting him one step
With the theme, “HBCUs: Estab
lished to Meet a Need, Evolving With
the Times,” the conference celebrated
September 7-13 as National HBCU
Week. Highlights included speeches
by Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice and U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Clarence Thomas.
Franklin spoke at the Third Ple
nary Session, sharing the dais with
The Honorable Ben Bernanke,
chairman of the Board of Gover
nors of the Federal Reserve System,
and at the Commemorative Dinner,
where honorees included R8cB leg
ends The Commodores; Patricia de
Stacy Harrison, president and CEO
of the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting; entertainment mogul
Oprah Winfrey; Academy Award
winner Denzel Washington; and
Brian Cooke, vice president of Tech
nology and Manufacturing, Building
Botswana, Liberia, Mauritius and
Cape Verde.
“This relationship that we’ve
crafted...has gotten sweeter as the
years have gone by,” said Ambassa
dor Charles R. Stith, APARC direc
tor. “We must know the stories of
our past if we are to craft relative vi
sions for the future.”
away from the White House.
On the other side, Palin could
become the nation’s first female
vice president while McCain, a dec
orated war veteran, could become
the oldest man ever to be elected
president.
Efficiency, Johnson Controls, Inc.
Morehouse was well represented
throughout the conference. Besides
Franklin’s two appearances, More
house Police Chief Vernon Worthy,
founder and immediate past presi
dent of the HBCU-Law Enforcement
Executives Association (LEEA),
served as a panelist on Securing the
Campus - Meeting the Challenges for
Students and Community.
David Morrow ’80, director of the
Morehouse College Glee Club, was a
regional conductor of a national
choir representing 105 HBCUs dur
ing the world premiere concert of
105 Voices of History at the Kennedy
Center. Toni Award-winning actress
Phylicia Rashad was mistress of cer
emony and harpist Jeff Major made a
special appearance. Student Tyrone
Clinton ‘10 represented Morehouse
in the choir.
During his lecture, Buyoya told
stories of the chaotic history of Bu
rundi, an East African nation of
eight million people. Ethnic strife
between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes
has caused sporadic warring since
the late 1950s. But Buyoya said
stronger leadership, along with the
democratization of African coun-
“I’m witnessing one of those
Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Mar
shall and the desegregation-of-
schools moment,” said English
professor Stephane Dunn, who at
tended the Democratic National
Convention. The possibility of
[Obama becoming president] and a
shift in America’s faulty foreign pol
icy and a dent in the politics of busi-
A surprise nod to the College
came in the opening plenary session
when Stephanie Monroe, assistant
secretary for Civil Rights, Depart
ment of Education, brought re
marks. Monroe told of the superb
treatment she and her son received
during a recent college tour of a
HBCU. Monroe was most impressed
when, at the end of the tour, they
were invited to an impromptu 45-
minute visit with the school’s dean of
admissions. The dean took time with
her son, adopted a “fatherly role” and
“challenged [her] son” to do more
and go further and “live into his po
tential,” she recalled.
“Now, this could have happened
at any HBCU, but it happened at
Morehouse College,” she said as
she recognized Sterling Hudson,
dean of Admissions, seated in
the audience. ■
tries like Burundi, has ushered an
era of peace and stability into the
region.
“It is obvious Africa still faces a
lot of challenges,” he said. “But there
is optimism...This process is not
quite over. But I think there is no
threat to peace in Burundi now.” ■
ness-as-usual on Capitol Hill is the
great surge that drove me to Denver.
I not only had to go to be there to
bear witness, but I had to go be
cause I’m part of it all. This is my
moment, too.”
Adds Ebenezer Aka, chairman of
Urban Studies: “It’s exciting. I
haven’t seen anything like this. This
is history in the making.” ■
AFRICA IS CHANGING'
Former Burundi President Pierre Buyoya Sees a Brighter African Future
Pierre Buyoya, former president of Burundi, speaks to faculty and staff during his visit to Morehouse.
2008 Presidential Election Excitement Grips
Campus Community