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
