As a follow-up to my previous post about the Black male/Black female gender gap at Cornell university, I decided to educate myself a little bit more on past and present concensus on this issue, its causes and its solutions.

Here’s are a few of the opinions that — whether I agreed with the substance of the argument or not — I certainly found most intriguing:

 …at all eight Ivy League institutions today, black women outnumber black men…The black gender gap is smallest at Cornell…The growing presence of black women on the campuses of the Ivy League institutions has far-reachign implications for black men as a whole. If black women are increasingly winning places at the nation’s most selective undergraduate colleges, it is reasonable to assume that these women will be selected for the nation’s top graduate schools and recruited as well for the top jobs int he corporate sector. Nationwide, black women who are college graduates already have median earnings greater than those of white women college graduates, whereas educationally qualified black men are still far behind white men.

— “The African-American Gender Gap in Ivy League Enrollments,” Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Summer 1995 

…among well-educated, professional black women — a group that is growing rapidly — the [gender] gap is a chasm. Surely, that progress for black women is good news that shouldn’t be overlooked. However, as black women advance, black men a falling even further behind…In fact, the most successful a black woman becomes, the more likely she will end up alone, Walter Farrell, a University of North Carolina professor, said in a March 2002 Washington Monthly article. As a result, professional black women are having fewer children, ,eamomg that a growing percentage of black children are being born into less educated, less affluent families.

— Salim Muwakkil, “The Gender Gap in the African-American Community,” on the Modern Tribalist blog, June 16, 2005

[African American graduate student] Chris Catching says that African-American men are being left behind.

A doctoral student in education at Rutgers University, he doesn’t think higher education knows what to do with black men. So he wants to show them. He’s studying his fellow students and learning why they are staying in school.

“So much of the research focuses on the pathological,” Catching said. Instead, they should find out what works, he added.

…

Catching, the Rutgers doctoral student, said African-American men who succeed in college share many characteristics. In particular, he said, they all had several mentors who have helped them.

“Some of the key things have been mentors at all levels of their life, mentors in their community, parental support and sensitivity on behalf of educators,” Catching said. “Those mentors help you get through those roadblocks.” He said mentors helped him graduate from Montclair State University in 1999.

— Paul H. Johnson, “The Growing Gender Gap,” in The Easterner, March 1, 2006

 I led a research team in a five-year study of a nationally representative inner-city, predominantly black high school…

 What we discovered surprised us.

Contrary to popular belief, these youth had very high self-esteem. Although it is a common myth that black youth are likely to have low self-esteem, studies in the last few decades have shown them to feel just as good, if not better, about themselves and as self-confident, in general, as white youth.

However, what we did find was that black boys, relative to black girls, thought themselves less capable academically and didn’t feel confident about their ability to read and write and do schoolwork. They scored lower on academic self-efficacy — what we might call academic self-esteem.

By contrast, the girls had more favorable attitudes toward the academic process. They also felt they had more social support — that people around them thought it was important that they graduate and expected them to graduate.

To complete each school year, the boys also needed to believe that school would pay off in the long run. The black boys seemed to be saying, “Show me the money.”

— Larry E. Davis, “A Gender Gap in Black and White: Explaining Why African-American Boys Lag in School — and Deciding What to Do About It,” in the Pittsburg Post-Gazette, July 29, 2003

Posted by Ajuan Mance

In an interview last year, Dalton Conley, director of NYU’s Center for Advanced Social Science Research, compared two hypothetical kids — one from a family with some money and the other from poor parents. Both are born with the same level of intelligence, both are ambitious and both work hard in school. In a meritocracy, the two would enjoy the same opportunity to get ahead. But the fact that one might graduate from college free and clear while the other is burdened with $50,000 in debt makes a huge difference in terms of their long-term earnings prospects.– From Alternet.com, “The American Dream is Alive and Well … in Finland!” By Joshua Holland, posted on December 11, 2007

Student loan debt matters. Conventional financial wisdom holds that student loan debt is one of only a few instances of “good debt.” Like a mortgage, the student loan represents and investment that is likely to pay off in the long run. But sometimes college debt can be too much of a good thing.

If Joshua Holland is correct in his assertion that heavy student debt can have a long-term impact on graduates’ earning power, then one of the best investments a college can make is to channel its scholarship funds into debt relief. Several colleges and universities have already taken this approach, supplanting what would traditionally have been the loan portion of their high-need students’ financial aid packages with additional grants. Some colleges have even extended this loan relief to a portion of its middle-class enrollees.

For colleges this makes good sense. For one thing, it removes financial strife as a possible retention issue. In addition, in boosting the potential earning power of graduates– by removing the debt burden — the college is investing in its own long-term future, as alumni with higher earning power are more likely to support their institutions financially in the future.

For HBCUs, many of whose students graduate with significant student debt, this would be an especially wise move. Many of the nation’s HBCUs report disturbingly low levels of alumni contributions, a fact that no doubt contributes to the financial strife experienced by so many of these institutions. Strong financial support from alumni builds strong endowments, and swapping 50,000 dollars in loans for 50,000 in scholarship funds during at students’ undergraduate years could mean a return of 4 to 5 times that amount in future donations.

Not surprisingly, it has been those institutions with the strongest endowments and the highest levels of alumni contribution that have taken the lead in eliminating student loan debt, Harvard and Princeton among them. In the end, however, It will be those schools with the lowest levels of alumni contribution and the least secure financial profiles that will gain the most from instituting these enhanced aid programs. A focus on eliminating student debt will transform the opportunities availble to graduates from HBCUs and other institutions that serve economically diverse student populations.

Without the burden of substantial loan payments, such students will have the opportunity to buy homes earlier, begin investing earlier, and even to enroll in non-funded (and income boosting) graduate programs much earlier than their loan-free counterparts. Institutions that replace loan aid with grant aid could reap the benefits of their graduates’ increased economic opportunity for many decades to come.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

… then who benefits when HBCUs use their scholarship dollars to lure top Black SAT scorers to their campuses.

Consider, for example, the Lewis and Elizabeth Dowdy Scholars program at North Carolina A&T. Spearheaded by A&T chancellor Stanley F. Battle,  this program, aimed at drawing a greater proportion of Black academic stars, raises some interesting and important questions  about the most effective and ethical use of scholarship funds.

In an effort to replicate the success of Florida A&M University (FAMU), which made headlines back in 1997 years ago for 73 of the nation’s highest scoring Black SAT takers to its Tallahassee campus. Much attention was lavished on FAMU’s recruitment strategy, which combined individualized attention (often from upper-level administrators) with generous scholarship offers.

Though FAMU has fallen on difficult times of late, its continued success in enrolling and graduating high-achieving Black students has not gone unnoticed by its fellow HBCUs. North Carolina A&T’s Dowdy Scholarships are intended to bring elements of its Florida rivals’ recruitment strategy to its own admissions process.

Here is a brief summary of the Dowdy Scholarships award classifications:

• Students with a GPA of 3.75 and higher, combined with an SAT score of at least 1200 may earn 100% tuition scholarship.
• Students with a GPA between 3.5 and 3.749, combined with an SAT score between 1100 and 1200 may earn a 75% tuition scholarship.
• Students with a GPA between 3.25 and 3.49, combined with an SAT score between 1000 and 1099, may earn a 50% scholarship.

(Source: Newscholarships.org)

According to Newscholarships.org, the Dowdy Scholarships are backed by a $1.6 million dollar fund.

Here’s the question: Who wins and who loses when a historically Black institution like North Carolina A&T channels a generous gift like the Dowdy funds into merit-based, rather than need-based, financial aid?

In considering this question, think about these facts:

• Higher SAT scores are linked to economic privilege. Across ethnicities, higher scores on this and other standardized tests are associated with greater family income.
• Based on the relatively affluent Black student populations at selective institutions that attract enroll many of the highest Black SAT scorers, it appears that there is heavy overlap between strong standardized test performance, high grades in honors and AP academic tracks, and economic privilege. This is confirmed in a recent report in the JBHE. According to the repoty, “A new study from researchers at Princeton University and the University of Pennsylvania finds that large numbers of black students at the nation’s most selective colleges and universities are either financially well off or have parents who were born in foreign nations.“
• A recent Ball State study (2006) found that, “[t]here was a greater achievement gap in SAT scores based on family income levels and parents’ education levels than racially between blacks and whites. The achievement gap based on high school GPA was similar across these factors.” Thus education appears to be a stronger determinant of SAT performance than race or ethnicity.
• Greater parental education levels are associated with higher individual and household income. In 2003, for example, the average income of a bachelor’s degree holder was $66, 728, while the average income of a high school graduate with no college degree was $36, 835.

Based on the correlation between high SAT scores, high parental education levels, and higher household income, the Dowdy Scholarships’ heavy reliance on SAT scores represents a troubling turn for A&T, in which scholarship funds that might otherwise be used to alleviate the student debt burden of those undergraduates from the most economically marginalized backgrounds will instead be distributed to students who, based on prevailing trends, are likely to be among the most economically secure.

In some ways, I suppose that the Dowdy Scholarships represent a positive move toward equality. If majority white universities can used their funds to “buy” academically talented students, then so can HBCUs. Still, I would like to think that since HBCUs were originally founded on the moral high ground (embracing race blind admissions while their white counterparts remained exclusive), that their strategies for recruitment would continue to stand that ground.

Lincoln University’s new science building represents a more positive approach to the recruitment of the highest achieving Black students. Improvements to facilities (academic and residential), the hiring of high-profile faculty members, the expansion of library collections, and careful attention to groundskeeping benefit all students, and attract that target population of high Black SAT scorers.

HBCU administrators would do well to remember that some of the most successful recruiters of Black high SAT scorers offer only need-based financial aid. Yes, I am aware that A&T, FAMU, and similar institutions cannot depend on name recognition to the degree that Yale or Princeton or Stanford can; still, these schools draw students based on the association of their names with high academic achievement, state-of-the-art facilities, and cutting-edge research.

Without the name recognition of the Ivy League, Stanford, or Berkeley, HBCUs have to be a little more creative in conveying to prospective students that high-quality and cutting eduge intellectual work takes place and is supported on their campuses. But this is not an impossible task. If the standards are high, the students will come. Witness the successes of Xavier University and, especially, of Spelman College, the most selective of all HBCUs, and one of the most selective institutions in the U.S.

Posted by Ajuan Mance 

Ivy League science powerhouse Cornell University and Cedar Valley College (in the Dallas County Community College District’s ) may not have much in common in terms of region, endowment, selectivity, and mission, but they do have one thing in common. Each institution serves its constituency effectively and consistently, with one exception — both Cornell University and Cedar Valley College are failing their Black male students.

Actually, to say that these institutions are “failing their Black male students” might be a little too harsh. With a 75% graduation rate for African American men, and a roughly 86% graduation rate for African American students overall (including an average rate of roughly 90% for Black women), Cornell University has one of the highest Black graduation rates of any college in the United States (and a higher rate than any of the HBCUs).

In the case of Cedar Valley College, the flagging graduation rates for Black men reflects a larger national trend. This trend hits community colleges harder than 4-year institutions, largely because community colleges welcome a broader range of students, including many whose academic qualifications, financial status, and personal circumstances would identify them as “at-risk” for delayed graduation or attrition.

In an effort to address the gender achievement gap at this majority Black institution, both the chancellor of the Dallas Community College District and the president of Cedar Valley have joined a nationwide initiative to recruit and retain Black male students on community college campuses. (Click HERE to read a CBS report on Cedar Valley’s efforts).

So, while neither Cedar Valley nor Cornell are actually failing Black men (Cornell still graduates Black male students at a very high rate, and Cedar Valley is actively responding to this problem), that both the non-selective Cedar Valley and the highly selective Cornell are experiencing the same challenges in the area of Black male achievement points to the perplexing nature of this dilemma.

In the November 29th edition of The Cornell Daily Sun, Vice Provost for Social Science David Harris cites racism as one of the root causes of the Black male/Black female achievement gap on his campus — especially, “the negative stereotypes many people associate with black men, which can add to the difficulties blacks already face as underrepresented minorities on campus.” Click HERE to read the Daily Sun article.

Student leaders also offer these additional reasons for both race- and gender-based achievement gaps at Cornell:

Ernie Jolly ’09, Black Students United co-president, said that one issue for black and Latino students is “how comfortable they feel on campus.”

He said that it can be intimidating for a black student to be the only black person in a large lecture class and noted that sometimes professors have “different expectations” for their black and Latino students.

Enongo A. Lumumba-Kasongo ’08, Black Students United senior co-president added that oftentimes black students “haven’t had comfortable relationships with administrators or authority figures in the past,” and may have a hard time contacting and approaching professors or other members of Cornell’s faculty.

Although many students at Cornell come from lower socio-economic statuses, this is another difficulty faced by many minority students. The responsibility of “splitting studying with working,” creates difficulties for some students according to Iris Delgado ’09, vice president of ALANA, the African, Latino, Asian, Native American Programming Board.

Additionally, many minority students may be the first in their families to attend college and lack the familial guidance and support that other students take for granted.

That Cornell University is experiencing a racial achievement gap comes as no surprise to me. Despite their efforts , Ivy League and similar institutions do, simply by virtue of their disproportionately privileged student body, remain uncomfortable settings for many Black undergraduates.

The Black male/Black female gender gap, however, is more surprising. While Cornell’s Vice Provost Harris is correct in his observation that the negative stereotypes associated with their group hamper Black men’s adjustment and success on majority white college campuses. It is also true, however, that Black women must cope with the negative stereotypes associated with their group; and Black male and female students must confront many of the same stereotypes. Indeed, a number of the stereotypes most closely intertwined with Blacks’ presence on college campuses apply equally to men and women (that Black people are hypersexual and under-intelligent, that all Black people are only on campus because they have “stolen the place” of a more qualified white student, that Black people are incapable of high levels of academic achievement).

What, then, is the basis for this intra-racial gender gap? Perhaps it has something to do with the difference between gender stereotypes based on the high visibility of Black men as hypermasculine and gender stereotypes based on the invisibility of Black women as feminine. Perhaps it also is related to the role that Women’s Studies programs and feminist tools of analysis have played in giving women tools for externalizing prevailing stereotypes and then dismantling them.

Whatever the reasons for the achievement gap between Black men and Black women, there are two fundamental truths that institutions simply must bear in mind as they develop strategies to interpret and address this issue:

First, it is essential that all of us who are concerned about Black communities and Black education must remember that the existence of a gender gap in which women are graduating at higher rates than men is not, in and of itself, a problem. A difference of 5 percentage points or less, for example, might be ascribed to the greater opportunities available for men in the military, in the trades, in sports, and in other similar realms in which there are dramatically fewer possibilities for women. The 10 – 15 point differences that have become common in the Black community, however, suggest something other than young Black men opting to pursue career paths than do not require a bachelor’s degree; rather a gap of this size suggests that the great majority of those young men are falling between the cracks.

Second, and more importantly, we must not let our intra-racial comparisons (which paint Black women as relative sucesses on college campuses) obscure the fact that African American women, too, are struggling to complete their studies. As we consider the wisdom and effectiveness of developing specific strategies to address the needs of Black male matriculants, we must maintain our interest in and committment both to sustaining existing support systems for Black women students, and to developing new onse. We must not allow the fact that Black women’s overall college graduation rate is approximately 11 percentage points higher than that of their male counterparts distract us from the fact that, at 47%, the overall graduation rate for Black women is still low enough to suggest a desperate need for intervention.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

“High school facilities have been superior … but we will change the face of Lincoln University.”

 That was University President Ivory Nelson at the groundbreaking of the new $40.5 million dollar science building. When it is complete, the Science and General Classroom High Technology Building will be the second largest structure on campus. It will house seven computer labs, 10 high tech classrooms, and 21 labs for biology, chemistry, and physics. 

At 113,000 square feet, this building will place Lincoln far ahead of many of its fellows HBCUs in terms of the construction of state-of-the-art science and technology facilities. I expect to see a dramatic increase not only in the number of Black science majors who graduate from Lincoln, but also in the share of all U.S. Black science graduates who complete their studies at this institution.

I believe that in the coming years we can expect to see Lincoln take its place beside Florida A&M and Xavier University as top producers of African American scientists; and with the addition of a third well-funded, technologically current science facility, we should also see greater numbers of Black America’s strongest young minds in the sciences applying to study at HBCUs.

In constructing this new and up-to-date science facility, Lincoln University is creating additional options for Black high school seniors some of whom have felt forced to choose between a historically Black institution and a top quality academic program. This perception has created obstacles in many Black colleges’ efforts to draw significant numbers of National Merit and National Achievement finalists and other highly sought-after applicants.

Hopefully news of Lincoln’s and other HBCUs’ extraordinary achievements, dedicated faculty, outstanding facilities, and unequalled support for Black success will draw greater numbers of applicants at all levels and, of equal importance, greater support from alums, and increased visibility as cutting-edge academic institutions.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

History and Overview: The University of Maryland – College Park was founded in 1856. UM admitted it’s first Black undergraduate in 1951. Today Black students make up 13 percent of the University of Maryland ‘s 25, 857 undergraduates and 8 percent of UM’s graduate student body.

Note: All milestones listed below refer to the University of Maryland’s flagship campus at College Park.

• 1850s — The Maryland Agricultural College (later renamed UM – College Park) opens “with slaves constructing the college’s buildings and working on the farms.” Founder Charles B. Calvert is a pro-slave unionist. (Source: University of Maryland Diversity Timeline)
• 1859 — Benjamin Hallowell becomes the first president of the Maryland Agricultural College. An abolitionist, Hallowell accepts his appointment “on the condition that the school not use slave labor on its farms.” (Source: University of Maryland Diversity Timeline)
• 1950 — Parren Mitchell successfully sues the then segregated University of Maryland and becomes the first African American to enroll in graduate courses at UM. Mitchell graduates with an M.A. in sociology in 1952, becoming the first Black student to complete at graduate degree at UM. In 1970 Mitchell would become the first African American to be elected to the U.S. Congress from the state of Maryland.
• 1950 — Juanita Jackson Mitchell becomes the first African-American graduate of the University of Maryland Law School.

Juanita Jackson Mitchell

• 1951 — Hiram Whittle becomes the first Black undergraduate to enroll at the University of Maryland.
• 1955 — Elaine Johnson becomes the first Black woman to enroll in UM’s undergraduate programs.
• 1964 — The UM administration rejects the application submitted by a student group wishing to open a chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) on campus. The students reorganize as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and continue to fight against racial segregation.
• 1965 — Billy Jones becomes the first African American basketball player at the University of Maryland, and the first Black athlete in the ACC.
• 1967 — Black Explosion Newspaper is formed as the first African American newspaper at the University of Maryland.
• 1968 — The African American Studies Department opens under the leadership of Mary Frances Berry and John Blassingame.
• 1971 — The Nyumburu Cultural Center is established to serve the cultural, social and intellectual needs of Black students.
• 1982 — John B. Slaughter becomes the first African-American Chancellor of a major state university when he is appointed chancellor of the University of Maryland.
• 2001 — UM establishes the David C. Driskell Center For The Study of The Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and The African Diaspora<strong</strong. The center is named for the highly respected African American professor and former UM Art department chair, David C. Driskell.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

The University of Kansas opened its doors on September 12, 1866 to an entering class of 55. Ten years later KU admitted its first African American student. It was not until 1885, however, that the first Black enrollee would graduate from the University.

Today Black students make up between 3 and 4 percent of KU’s 28,890 undergraduates, and Black professors make up about 3 percent of the KU faculty. In 2006, the Black graduation rate at KU was 38 percent.

• 1876 — Lizzie Ann Smith becomes the first African American student to enroll at the University of Kansas.
• 1885 — Blanche K. Bruce becomes the first African American to graduate from the University of Kansas.*
• 1936 — John B. McLendon, Jr. becomes the first African American student at the University of Kansas to earn a degree in physical education .
• 1941 — Edward Vernon Williams becomes the first African American to graduate from the University of Kansas Medical School.
• 1952 — LaVannes Squires becomes the first African American basketball player at KU. C. Kermit Phelps becomes the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from KU.
• 1954 — Maurice King becomes the first African American starter in KU basketball history.
• 1968 — Black Student Union is established on the KU campus.
• 1970 — Elmer C. Jackson, Jr. becomes the first African American appointed to the Kansas Board of Regents. In 1975 he becomes the first Black Regents chair.
• 1999 — Andrew B. Williams becomes the first African American to graduate from KU with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering.

*This Blanche K. Bruce is Blanche Ketene Bruce, not to be confused with Blanche Kelso Bruce, the former slave who went on to become the first African American to serve a full term in the U.S. Senate.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

“LSU has nine black graduate students getting Ph.D.s in chemistry this year,” he said. “That’s more than Harvard has had in 370 years!” –Henry Louis Gates, Jr., speaking at Louisiana State University in 2000

The institution that would become LSU first opened its doors in 1860. The Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana was located near Pineville. The Seminary was closed twice during the Civil War, but re-opened when the war was over. The Pineville campus building burned in mid-October of 1869, but re-opend two weeks later in Baton Rouge, changing its name to The Louisiana State University one year later.

Today, Roughly 9% of LSU’s 30,000 students are Black. The proportion of Black faculty is much lower, at only 3.4 percent of the total professorate.

• 1946 — African Americans attempt to enroll at Louisiana State University, but are rejected.
• 1953 — A. P. Tureaud, Jr. enrolls in LSU under court order, becoming the first African American admitted to the school. The order is overturned by a higher court, however, and he is forced to withdraw. Eventually the U.S. Supreme Court would reverse the higher court’s ruling; but Tureaud, Jr. would choose to continue his studies at Xavier University, a historically Black institution.
• 1954 — Ernest Nathan “Dutch” Morial becomes the first African American to earn a law degree at LSU. Morial would go on to become the first African American mayor of New Orleans (1977).
• 1957 — Ollie H. Burns becomes the first African American to graduate from LSU with an M.S. in Library Science.
• 1961 — Pearl Andrews becomes LSU’s first Black student to graduate with an M.Ed.
• 1964 — Federal courts mandate full intergration for LSU. Freya Anderson Rivers becomes the first Black woman to enroll in LSU as an undergraduate. Maxine Crump becomes the first Black student (male or female) to live in a Louisiana State University residence hall.
• 1967 — Poet and scholar Pinkie Gordon Lane becomes the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. at LSU (English).
• 1971 — Collis Temple Jr. becomes the first African American basketball player at LSU.
• 1972 — Kerry Pourciau becomes the first African American to serve as student body president of LSU. Harambee House Black student center is established on the LSU campus.
• 1973 — Lora O. Hinton, Jr. becomes LSU’s first African American varsity letterman in football. He is also the first African American to attend LSU on a football scholarship. Albert J. Doucette, Jr. becomes the first African American to graduate from the LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources (Masters in Fisheries).
• 1976 — Julian T. White becomes the first Black professor at LSU (Architecture). Christine Minor becomes the first Black female tenured professor at LSU.
• 1989 — Carolyn Collins becomes LSU’s first African American dean of an academic college.
• 1991 — Renée Boutte becomes LSU’s first African American homecoming queen. Minority Services office is established (in 1993 it would become the Office of Multicultural Affairs).
• 1998 — Herb Tyler becomes LSU’s first African American quarterback.
• 2002 — Daphne LaSalle becomes the first Black female Corps Commander for the LSU Corps of Cadets. Ebony Spikes becomes the first Black student to be awarded a Marshall Scholarship.
• 2006 — Natasha U. Francis becomes the first Black student to complete the LSU joint MBA/JD program. The Black Faculty Association forms.

Posted by Ajuan Mance

It seems that hard work on the playing field does translate into hard work in the classroom.

The current issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that among all but one demographic (white males), athletes at Division I institutions are graduating at higher rates than their non-athlete peers, most often by double-digit proportions. Consider the statistics for Black student athletes:

Male African-American athletes graduated at a rate of 49 percent, 10 percentage points higher than the rate for male African-American students over all. For female African-American athletes, the rate was 63 percent, 13 percentage points higher than the rate for their counterparts in the student body at large.

These statistics were compiled based on the number of students who “who began college as freshmen in the 2000-1 academic year,” and who “were completing their degrees within six years of enrolling.”

These numbers are a refreshing antidote to the reports of student-athlete  misconduct and academic failure that dominate coverage of this much-storied demographic.

For African Americans, these numbers should hold particular interest. For my part, I would encourage all who are interested in Black educational achievement to consider these statistics alongside other related findings that show increased academic engagement and higher completion rates among high school students who are involved in music and art programs. Considered in light of The Chronicle‘s findings on student-athlete success, the path for advocates of Black educational progress seems clear. Students who have a passion for a non-academic area — art, music, drama, sports — will often transfer the focus, work habits, time management skills, and confidence essential for success and pleasure in the extracurricular field to their academic subjects.

…just a little good news about U.S. Blacks in higher education…

Posted by Ajuan Mance

History and Overview: The school that would become Yale University was founded in 1701 as an institution, “wherein Youth may be instructed in the Arts and Sciences [and] through the blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Publick employment both in Church and Civil State.” In 1718 the school was named for Elihu Yale, a Welsh merchant whose contributions helped to insure it’s prosperity. Yale graduated its first African American student in 1847, and its first African American undergraduate in 1872.

Between the mid-1920s and the mid-1960s Yale practiced a from of de-facto segregation that reduced the already scant numbers of Black undergraduates to almost none. In the mid-1960s, though, legendary University President Kingman Brewster announced plans to re-open the college to Black students and other students of color, declaring that, “Yale will cease to be a finishing school on Long Island Sound and become a place that better reflects the demographic and regional composition of the country at large.”

Today, approximately 400 of Yale’s roughly 5300 undergraduates identify as Black or African American.

Although it is a northern institution, Yale’s history is deeply entertwined with the history of U.S. chattel slavery. Click HERE to see my blog post on this subjet.

Black Milestones at Yale University:

• 1857 — Dr. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Creed becomes the first African American to graduate from Yale Medical School.
• 1874 — Edward Bouchet becomes the first African American to earn a Bachelor’s degree from Yale and the first African American in the United States to be nominated to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society (Bouchet was ranked 6th in his class out of over 120 students). Solomon M. Coles, a former slave, becomes the first African American to graduate from Yale Divinity School. In 1872 he had become the first African American to enroll in Yale Divinity School.
• 1876 — Edward Bouchet earns a doctorate in Physics, becoming the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Yale or any other American university. He also becomes only the 6th American of any ethnicity to earn a Ph.D. in Physics.
• 1903 — Thomas Nelson Baker becomes the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale.
• 1904 — Yale Divinity School graduates its first African Student, Oreshatekeh Faduma of Sierra Leone, a member of the Colored Yale Quartet.
• 1926 — Otelia Cromwell completes her Ph.D. and becomes the first Black woman to earn a degree from Yale.
• 1931 — Jane Matilda Bolin becomes the first African American woman to graduate form Yale Law School. She would later become the first Black woman judge in the United States.
• 1949 — Evelyn Boyd Granville earns a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Yale, becoming one of the first two Black women to earn doctorates in this field, both in 1949 (the other is Marjorie Lee Browne, at the University of Michigan).
• 1962 — Michael G. Cooke (B.A., Yale; M.A., Ph.D., UC Berkeley) is appointed an instructor in the English Department, becoming the first African American told hold tenure in Yale 261-year history.
• 1967 — The Black Student Alliance at Yale (BSAY) is founded “in response to an urgent need for collective action to counter injustice and a desire to address the issues facing Black students” (source: BSAY website).
• 1971 — Michael G. Cooke is appointed the Bird White Housum Professor of Literature, becoming the first African American to hold tenure at Yale.
• 1973 — More Black students matriculate at Yale than in any year since.
• 2007 — Paulette McCrae becomes the first African American to graduate from Yale with a Ph.D. in Neurobiology.

Posted by Ajuan Mance