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V MOREHOUSE Founder's Day 2015 Morehouse Celebrates 148 Years of Black Male Excellence BY ADD SEYMOUR JR. Tech Platform Upgrade to Provide State-of-the-Art Technology at Morehouse BY ADD SEYMOUR JR. THE COLLEGE’S information technolo gy infrastructure is in the midst of a huge improvement program, primarily through the $6.8-million Technology Platform Upgrade project Spearheaded by gifts from members of the Morehouse College Board of Trustees, the proj ect is an effort to raise money to create a state- of-the-art technology platform at Morehouse. Integral in making the upgrade happen have been Board Chair Robert C. Davidson Jr. ’67, the Board’s development committee chair Dale E. Jones ’82 and committee member John Wallace. Nearly $3.8 million had been raised by late January through an anonymous donor, board members, gifts from corporate partners and $700,000 in Microsoft software that came as a grant from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Those gifts are already being used for things such as making needed improvements to Banner, implementing new residence hall software and drastically improving Wi-Fi access across campus. “There are two things we are going for - more consistently reliable technology wherever you touch technology and greater efficiency,” said provost and senior vice presi dent for Academic Affairs Garikai Campbell. “In the past, I think we have been plagued with the question of could you rely on a piece of technology being up and running at a par ticular moment,” he said. “Our hope is for people not to be thinking about whether or not it’s going to be out or whether if s going to be up. So reliability is one really key feature. “Also, I think greater efficiency because we have a lot of processes that are manual or by paper,” Campbell said. “We are trying to move away from that so we can have greater efficiency in the way we do things. Some of that means not just implementing new software, but doing the process redesign that goes along with it.” President John Silvanus Wilson Jr. ’79 charged Cliff Russell, the College’s chief information offi cer, with evaluating the College’s technology infra structure strengths, weaknesses and needs. After his evaluation, Russell has begun implementing many of his suggestions. “The major thing we are going to see are radical improvements in our management structure,” he said. “Things like Blackboard, Banner and Banner Mobile. Students are going to see tangible user tools that they sim ply did not have before. They’ll have Banner Mobile so they can better manage their course schedules. They will have a much eas ier access to technology through the network refinements that we’ll be able to put into place, and it will all be secure.” H “THERE ARE TWO THINGS WE ARE GOING FOR - MORE CONSIS TENTLY RELIABLE TECHNOLOGY ... AND GREATER EFFICIENCY." A CAMPUS NEWSLETTER FOR FACULTY, STAFF AND STUDENTS FEBRUARY 2015 I t was in the evenings, inside the basement of the Springfield Baptist Church, when the light began to shine. Forty students were in the first class es at what William Jefferson White founded as the Augusta Institute in February 1867. Now, 148 years later, that institution has evolved into Morehouse College and celebrates a long history of developing and producing men who have influenced history and the world. This week, the College has been commemorating White’s work with the Founder’s Day celebration: from Cornel West’s Founder’s Day Convocation speech, to honoring men who have made signifi cant marks in the world, to remembering the spiritual base of the College during Sunday’s worship service. Henry Goodgame ’84, director of Alumni Relations and the chairman of the Founder’s Day Steering Committee, said this year is special as West and Candle Award honoree U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder are part of the celebration. “Both of them look at what impacts African American men, the African American community, from two different vantage points,” he said. “They are very prominent in the social activism space when it comes to black males, so it’s appropriate that they come to Morehouse during a time when the plight of African American males has been such an issue.” Holder is one of six men who will be honored with a Bennie or Candle Award during the 27th Annual “A Candle in the Dark” Gala on Saturday evening. The oth ers are Robert Crews, Thomas Moorehead, Paul Judge ’98, Grant Hill and Eugene Wade ’92. They also will speak to stu dents and the public during “Reflections of Excellence” Saturday at 11 a.m. in the Ray Charles Performing Arts Center. The Rev. Joe Samuel Ratliff, senior pastor of Houston’s Brentwood Baptist Church, will end the four-day celebration with the Founder’s Sunday Worship ser vice in King Chapel. A number of other events will take place throughout the next few days. Goodgame said it all points to the excel lence that White and others saw for the future of what has become Morehouse College. “We celebrate the African American male and we’re going to give you every example of why,” he said. “That’s what we do at Morehouse.” ■ Moot Court Team Becomes First HBCU to Win National Title Rodje Malcolm, Professor Winfield Murray, Emmanuel Waddell BY ADD SEYMOUR JR. IN ONLY THEIR second year of existence, the Morehouse College Moot Court team is now the best in the country. The team defeated defending champion Patrick Henry College 3-2 to claim the 2014-2015 national championship at the American Collegiate Moot Court Association’s 2015 national tournament. The event was held at Florida International University in Miami, Fla., Jan. 16-17. The Morehouse team of Rodje Malcolm and Emmanuel Waddell, the only team from a historically black college or university in the competition, became the first HBCU squad to win the national title. They did it by defeating a Patrick Henry College team that had won the title seven years in a row. Malcolm and Waddell were the nation’s only team to go undefeated for the entire academic year. “Rodje and Emmanuel are stellar students who worked extremely hard to win this competition,” said the team’s coach, Winfield Murray. “They repre sented Morehouse superbly and without fault.” “Schools across the country have recognized that moot court better pre pares students for law school and law careers than any other forensic program,” he said. “Students have to understand judicial precedent, how to brief case law, how to argue appellate matters before the U.S. Supreme Court and how to address a tribunal en banc. These skills are normally taught in law school, so we are well ahead of the curve in preparing our lawyers of tomorrow.” I Tim Sams Brings His Touch to Student Development Talented Maroon Tigers Hoops Team Looks for Postseason Success Review of Morehouse’s Month of King Meet the 2015 Bennie and Candle Award honorees Inside