The Black Excel Newsletter

                                                                             May, 2000

                                           First of a Monthly Series

 

In this issue:

   1) Howard University to Offer an Online MBA
   2) Fisk Inaugurates Dr. John L. Smith, Jr. as 12th President
   3) Five Oldest Historically Black Colleges and Universities
   4) Motorola's $1 Million Gift to Morehouse College
   5) Group Predicts Odds Of Getting Into U-Va.
   6) Are Black Students Losing Out Under Proposition 209?
 
 

                  Howard University to Offer an Online MBA
                          And Other Graduate Degrees

Soon available from Howard University will be an online MBA focusing on e-commerce. Other master's degrees will be in environmental engineering and an online MS/post-graduate certificate in nursing. All this was announced on April 21st at Howard University's new Digital Auditorium, located in the Blackburn University Center.

Historically Black Howard University is located in the nation's capital. At Howard, over 10,000 students engage in more than 120 areas of academic study. The university continues to produce more on-campus African-American doctorate degrees than any other college or university in the world.
 
 

 Fisk Inaugurates Dr. John L. Smith, Jr. as 12th President
 

NASHVILLE, Tenn.

Dr. John L. Smith, Jr. was inaugurated Saturday, April 8, 2000 as the 12th president in Fisk University's 134-year history. Founded in 1866, Fisk University is a small, historically African-American university with a strong liberal arts and science emphasis.
 
 

  Five Oldest Historically Black Colleges and Universities
                           (4-year Public and Private)

    1. 1837 Cheyney University of Pennsylvania (Cheyney, Pa.)
    2. 1854 Lincoln University of Pennsylvania (Lincoln University, Pa.)
    3. 1856 Wilberforce University (Wilberforce, Ohio)
    4. 1857 Harris-Stowe State College (St. Louis, Mo.)
    5. 1862 LeMoyne-Owen College (Memphis, Tenn.)

      Source: College Board Annual Survey of Colleges
 
 

          Motorola's $1 Million Gift to Morehouse College
 

April 6, 2000

The Motorola Foundation has announced a $1 million gift to help construct a state-of-the-art, 63,000-square-foot Leadership Center at Morehouse College. The gift is the Foundation's largest ever to an Historically Black College. Founded in 1867, Morehouse is the nation's only historically Black, private college for men. The college enrolls approximately 3,000 students and confers bachelor's degrees on more Black men than any other institution in the world.
 
 

                  Group Predicts Odds of Getting into U-Va.
                      (Info created from a Washington Post article dated April 27, 2000)

A Washington-based think tank has taken steps to end alleged racial preferences at the University of Virginia. The tank has created a website (UVA Admissions Test) that is an "admissions predictor." The test claims to show an applicant's odds of getting into the school based on various factors, including ethnicity.

A student first types in their  SAT score, class ranking, sex, whether they live in Virginia or not, and other data. The site then breaks down the student's chances of admission to the school based on ethnicity. Supposedly, this method shows that Blacks and Hispanics (with lower test scores) had a much higher probability of getting into the school than did Asians and non-Hispanic whites.

For example, the group's predictor says that a male Virginia resident with a 1200 SAT score (600 math, 600 verbal), whose parents did not go to U-Va. and who had grades in the 93rd percentile of his high school class would have had a 50% chance of admission if he were white and a 55% chance if Asian. But the same student would have a 99 % chance of admission if black and an 83% chance if Hispanic. The group's point is that it's not fair.

Yes, you can go to the URL at http://ceousa.org/ and take the test. Stay tuned?
 
 

   Are Black Students Losing Out Under Proposition 209?
 

April 5, 2000

Hugh B. Price of the Urban League has spoken with displeasure about the impact of California's Proposition 209. He says that 209 has hurt our numbers at most competitive campuses in the California university system. Abolishing affirmative action in the college admissions process, he says, has led to minorities "cascading" down to less selective campuses.

Some facts? Minority enrollment is way down at Berkeley and UCLA, the most highly rated and selective schools in the California university system. At the same time, our enrollment is up at the campuses of Irvine, Riverside and Santa Cruz, the less competitive schools. Price's point is that we are being "redistributed" to the less selective campuses.

"The SAT scores of George W. Bush and Bill Bradley," Price says, "indicate that students with modest SAT scores can become national leaders." Bradley, he notes, became a Rhodes Scholar. Attending certain schools, he seems to be saying, has some advantages. Price concludes that "the net loss of minority students in the most competitive colleges is a severe blow to the hopes and aspirations of African American and minority students." Indeed, if there are "best" schools, why shouldn't we be there?

(Information provided by Black Excel/Isaac Black)
 

Isaac Black is the CEO of Black Excel: The College Help Network. His book, The African American Student's College Guide, will be published later this year by John Wiley & Sons.
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