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MOREHOUSE
A CAMPUS NEWSLETTER FOR FACULTY, STAFF AND STUDENTS
MAY 2012
Morehouse track team wins
seventh consecutive title
ESPN HOUSEsports honors
legends
A look at the class of 2012
Introducing Miss Maroon and
White and her Court 2012-13
COMMENCEMENT/REUNION 2012
‘Franklin’s Men’ to Take Lessons of Renaissance to the World
President Franklin, Joyner and Sharpton to Deliver Addresses
BY ADD SEYMOUR JR.
I n 2007, President Robert M. Franklin ’75 initiated a renaissance among the student body that
would see the development of Morehouse Men who embodied the Five Wells - well read, well
traveled, well dressed, well spoken and well balanced - as they became leaders.
Approximately 530 Renaissance men with a social conscience and global perspective remember his
words to them about his vision four years ago.
“As Renaissance Men nurtured at Morehouse, you will have the opportunity to inject new energy
and hope into communities that desperately await a Renaissance,” Franklin said to the class of 2012
during their New Student Orientation in 2008.
Now four years later, more than 10,000 family and friends will gather on the College’s Century
Campus for the College’s 128Commencement as the group that now calls themseh
Men” actually become Morehouse Men and Franklin, who is stepping down in 2012, presides over his
last Commencement ceremony.
Jamaji Nwanaji-Enwerem T2, who will deliver the valedictory, said becoming a Morehouse Man
and being a valedictorian is keeping in line with Franklin’s wishes.
“It’s a great honor, but it also means that 1 have been moved into a position to where I’m a role
model for others,” he said. “That responsibility I plan to live up to and to take with me, no matter
where I go.”
Also speaking during the ceremony will be Tom Joyner, host of the nationally syndicated radio
show, “Tom Joyner Morning Show.” He will receive an honorary degree, as will Chick-fil-A found
er and chairman S. Truett Cathy; Elaine Tuttle Hansen, executive director of the Johns Hopkins
University Center for Talented Youth; and Econet Wireless founder and chairman Strive Masiyiwa.
A day before Commencement, the Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and chairman of the National
will give the Baccalaureate address in the Martin Luther King Jr. International
are required for seating in King Chapel, as well as satellite venues, for this event.
It will also be Reunion Weekend as Morehouse alumni honor their newest members and cel
ebrate old friendships and classmates. Receptions are planned for Friday and Saturday evening, and a
cookout will be held Saturday afternoon.
The Baccalaureate and Commencement ceremonies will be web streamed live on www.morehouse.edu.
For more information about Commencement/Reunion 2012 see the full schedule on page 8 or go
to http://www.morehouse.edu/commencement/index.html. ■
President Rftbert M. Franklin 75
S. Truett Cathy
Strive Ma
SPEAKERS OF THE 'HOUSE
College’s Debate Team Garners National Rankings
BY ADD SEYMOUR JR.
IN THE FILM “The Great Debaters,” Wiley College
of Texas defeated Harvard in an inspiring debate
that proved a small historically black college wasn’t
intellectually inferior to the Ivy League.
The only problem is that match didn’t hap
pen, though Wiley did debate the University of
Southern California.
This spring, the Morehouse College debate
team actually did debate an Ivy League school
- Yale University - and, according to popular
sentiment, won.
It capped a season that debate team direc
tor Kenneth Newby ’97 calls a resurgence for the
debate program at Morehouse.
“We had some members of the team -
freshmen and even upperclassmen - who had
never debated before this year, but have gone on
to achieve remarkable things,” he said. “I’m very
proud of the team.”
Debate has a long, successful history at
Morehouse, but in recent years participation had
waned. Newby, who was a member of a national
(continued on page 2)
Morehouse debate team members deliberate during a match against Howard University.
