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NEWS
INSIDE MOREHOUSE, OCTOBER 2013
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Biology Department chairman David B. Cooke III (second from left) accepts the Vulcan Materials Company Morehouse
Faculty Member of the Year for 2013-14 from (left to right) President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. 79, former associate vice
president for Academic Affairs Anne Watts and former provost Willis B. Sheftall Jr
Teaching is Relating, Says Faculty
Member of the Year David Cooke Ml
BY ADD SEYMOUR JR.
DON’T MAKE THE MISTAKE of looking at
biology department chairman David B. Cooke
III as just a doctor, chairman or professor.
The style of teaching he has used in 27
years at Morehouse is to show students that
He is just like them especially if you add the
fact that Cooke has been a professional pool
player; will stay up half the night to work on
replica helicopters that he flies around his
house; or has traveled the world taking pic
tures of jazz musicians.
“I talk about all that with my students,”
he said. When a student comes in and sees
someone like myself, they think I’m floating
this high off the ground, not realizing I’m no
different than they are.
“So when I sit down and tell them about
my interest in music or the pool game or
staying up half the night trying to get the
blade tracking just right on the helicopter,
they hear that and say, 'Oh, wow. This guy
is really no different from me. So I can have
that, too. I can do that, too.’”
His style of relating and connecting to
students helped Cooke win this year’s Vulcan
Materials Company Teaching Excellence
Award as the Morehouse Faculty Member of
the Year for 2013-14. He is the 10th person to
win the award.
Former associate vice president for
Academic Affairs Anne Winbush Watts said
Cooke is “known as a master teacher whose
enthusiasm is infectious, who makes learning
fun and thereby removes the veil of fear from
the eyes of determined students.”
While Cooke loves to impart his
years of knowledge in the sciences, he first
wants students to know their only differ
ence from him is in age.
“Once you make that connection, spe
cifically in the environment of Morehouse
that holds advisement in high esteem, then
from advisement can potentially come men
torship,” he said. “And then if that sinks
within the student, following mentorship
comes apprenticeship where they will make
the environment of the department that they
are associated with their home.”
Cooke’s road to Morehouse is an inter
esting one. He came from Durham, N.C.,
to attend Morehouse, but after his freshman
year of socializing, ended up with a “bologna
sandwich and bus ticket home,” he said.
Cooke quickly realized his mistakes
and went to North Carolina College (now
North Carolina Central University) where he
got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He
taught at St. Augustine’s; got his doctorate at
Howard University; and did a fellowship at the
Linebarger Cancer Center at the University of
North Carolina
And to finish what he began, Cooke
joined the Morehouse faculty in 1987.
It’s like I’ve had a second chance,” he
said. “And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it.
Now I want my students to share in it.” ■
HBCU NEWS
HBCU Past Presidents Featured in Video
Interviews and Book on Oral History Project
THE ROBERT W. WOODRUFF Library Atlanta University Center Library has com
pleted an oral history project documenting the experiences and administrative contri
butions of living former presidents of historically black colleges and universities.
The materials produced from the project—video interviews and an accompany
ing book titled The Politics of Success: An HBCU Leadership Paradigm—are free
and available to the public. The project was funded by a grant from The Andrew W.
Mellon Foundation.
Eighteen former presidents of HBCUs participated in the project, including
Samuel DuBois Cook ’48 (Dillard University), Johnnetta B. Cole (Spelman and
Bennett Colleges), Nathaniel R. Jackson (Mary Holmes College), and Joseph B.
Johnson (Grambling State University and Talledega College). In roundtable discus
sions and individual interviews, the presidents discuss issues of American higher
education within the context of the HBCU experience and the unique educational
value HBCUs provide. Topics include qualities of leadership, institutional mission,
governance, fundraising, and issues of gender, race and national educational policies.
The companion book authored by Barbara R. Hatton, former president of South
Carolina State University and Knoxville College, with preface by Loretta Parham,
chief executive officer and director of the AUC Woodruff Library, offers an overview
of the development of HBCUs since their inception in the 1860s and the challenges
the leaders of these institutions have overcome.
The video interviews and a digital copy of The Politics of Success: An
HBCU Leadership Paradigm are accessible at “http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/
hbcupres%3Chttp://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/hbcupres/%3E”http://digitalcom-
mons.auctr.edu/hbcupres<http://digitalcommons.auctr.edu/hbcupres/>.
Miss Maroon and White Third in HBCU Pageant
Miss Maroon and White 2013-14 Jasmine Walker (second from left) placed third in
the Miss HBCU Hall of Fame Pageant during the National Black College Alumni Hall
of Fame s 28th Annual Hall of Fame Weekend Conference in Atlanta, Sept. 26-29.
SUSTAINABILITY CORNER
STD DENTS, FACULTY AND STAFF now have the
opportunity to recycle and help Morehouse decrease
its carbon footprint.
The Morehouse College Sustainability Program
has opened the Morehouse College Recycling Center.
Located on the lower level of Mays Residence Hall (in
the Print Shop’s former office), the Recycling Center
will be open to take the following items:
• Used ink/toner cartridges
• Fusers from copy machines
• Batteries (only alkaline, AAA.AA, C, D, and
9-volt batteries)
Cell phones (batteries alone will not be accepted)
The Recycling Center is open Monday through
Friday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Also, don’t forget the blue recycling cans located
throughout the campus are used for single stream
recycling of aluminum, glass, paper, cardboard, news
papers, magazines, catalogues, junk mail and plastic.
Morehouse continues to seek out innovative
ways to recycle and save energy and water. If you have
any questions or suggestions, contact us at mhgoing-
green@morehouse.edu. ■
Sandra VanTravis is the campus’ environmental health
and safety officer.