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4 C/3 N i \ VS 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