Begin forwarded message:

> From: jbhe <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu Mar 27, 2003  12:27:01 PM US/Central
> To: JBHE Subs:;
> Subject: JBHE Weekly Bulletin
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> THE JOURNAL OF BLACKS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
> Weekly Bulletin
> March 27, 2003
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> * YOUR ADVERTISEMENT CAN GO HERE: Want to reach thousands of decision
> makers in higher education with a timely message? Do you have a
> notice of an employment opportunity at your college or university?
>   Place your advertisement in the JBHE Weekly Bulletin at very
> reasonable rates. There are also package deals for advertising here,
> at JBHE.com, and in the print version of our journal.
>   For more information, contact Elaine Kursch at (212) 399-1084.
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> * MICHIGAN AFFIRMATIVE ACTION CASES: ALL THE FRIEND OF THE COURT
> BRIEFS ARE NOW IN: Next Tuesday the Supreme Court is scheduled to
> hear oral arguments in the two cases currently before the Court
> dealing with race-sensitive admissions programs at the University of
> Michigan.
>   More than 100 friend of the court briefs were filed in the case, an
> all-time record. Among the signatories to the briefs were 300
> organizations including most of the nation's prestigious colleges and
> universities and many of the nation's largest corporations.
>   Another brief was signed by a group of the nation's most revered
> retired military officers including Norman Schwarzkopf.
>   It appears from all areas of American life, the establishment is
> firmly in the corner of the University of Michigan.
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> * FORMER U.S. SOLICITOR GENERAL POINTS TO MAJOR FLAW IN GOVERNMENT
> BRIEF OPPOSING AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: Solicitor
> generals in the United States are responsible for conducting
> government litigation in the Supreme Court. Ordinarily, solicitor
> generals rarely criticize the work of their successors.
>   Not so in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases which
> will be argued next Tuesday in the Supreme Court.
>   Former U.S. Solicitor General Walter E. Dellinger III, now Douglas
> B. Maggs Professor of Law at Duke University, is sharply critical of
> the brief filed in the case by current Solicitor General Theodore
> Olson.
>   The root problem with the Olson brief, according to many critics,
> is that it does not name a workable alternative for law schools or
> universities to adopt to obtain diversity if race-sensitive admission
> programs are struck down by the Court.
>   Dellinger told the Legal Times, "It is one of the intellectually
> weakest briefs I've ever seen the United States file. It has a hole
> in the middle of it the size of Detroit. It's as if some pages fell
> out of the undergraduate brief on the way to the printer, and they
> were stuck back into the law school brief by mistake."
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> * COMMUNITY COLLEGES FACE THE BUDGET AX IN CALIFORNIA: Earlier this
> month all full-time faculty at Compton Community College in
> California received notices that they might have to be laid off due
> to the state's budget crunch and resulting reductions in
> appropriations for two-year colleges in the state of California.
> Compton Community College has 9,400 students, nearly 40 percent of
> whom are black.
>   All 108 community colleges in California are facing significant
> budget cuts. The state reduced appropriations to community colleges
> by $161 million in the current fiscal year. Governor Gray Davis had
> asked for $288 million in cuts. Next year the governor is calling for
> an additional $404 million in cuts for community colleges. In
> addition, credit fees at the community colleges will be doubled.
> Overall, Davis predicts the tuition fees and budget cuts will reduce
> community college enrollments by 6 percent.
>   These cuts are threatening an important stepping stone to a college
> degree for tens of thousands of the state's African-American
> students, many of whom do not have the academic credentials to win
> admission to the University of California or California State
> University systems.
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> * INCREASING BLACK AND MINORITY STUDENTS IN DENTAL SCHOOL: Less than
> 8 percent of all dentists in the state of California are black,
> Latino, or American Indian. Only 5 percent of all dental school
> students in the state are members of one of these three minority
> groups. To overcome the small number of minority dentists in the
> state, the California Endowment has announced a $6.3 million grant to
> increase the enrollment of blacks and other minorities at four dental
> schools in the state. The participating university dental schools are
> Loma Linda University, the University of the Pacific, the University
> of California at Los Angeles, and the University of Southern
> California.
>   The grant money will also be used to improve access to dental care
> in minority communities. A program will be funded in which dental
> school students will be used to provide care in community health
> clinics.
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> * ACADEMIC OPPONENTS OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION
> QUESTION VALUE OF RACIAL DIVERSITY: A study published in the current
> edition of the International Journal of Public Opinion Research finds
> that racial diversity in higher education actually reduces the
> quality of education and leads to more cases of racial
> discrimination. The study was authored by Stanley Rothman, a
> professor of government at Smith College, Seymour Martin Lipset, a
> professor of public policy at George Mason University, and Neil
> Nevitte, a professor of political science at the University of
> Toronto.
>   The study found that as black student enrollments increase, there
> is a corresponding growth in dissatisfaction with the educational
> process. As the number of black students increased, students of all
> races agreed that the quality of education and the work ethic of
> students at the college decreased. Similar beliefs about the quality
> of the educational experience in schools with large percentages of
> black students were voiced by faculty members at these institutions.
> The authors state that previous studies showing the value of racial
> diversity in higher education "suffer from the subjective nature of
> survey responses." By this they mean that the survey questions were
> unfairly designed so that a large majority of respondents would be
> obligated to answer positively or risk being perceived as racist by
> questioners.
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> * EDUCATIONAL RESEARCHERS DEFEND STUDIES SHOWING VALUE OF RACIAL
> DIVERSITY: In response to the study mentioned in the previous item,
> the heads of the American Educational Research Association, the
> American Association for Higher Education, and the Association of
> American Colleges and Universities held a news conference this past
> Monday. They stated that the evidence is overwhelming that racial
> diversity provides significant benefits to the nation's system of
> higher education. They further observed that the educational research
> in the area showing the benefits of racial diversity to the education
> process is solid and that the methodology is sound.
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> * MINORITY PROGRAMS AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY UNDER REVIEW: Cornell
> University is the latest private institution of higher learning to
> receive a letter from the Center for Equal Opportunity and the
> American Civil Rights Institute challenging the legality of several
> programs on campus that are geared toward blacks and other
> minorities. The programs under question at Cornell are the Travelers
> Summer Research Fellowship Program for Premedical Minority Students,
> the Gateways to the Laboratory program, and an internship for
> minority students planning to major in the biomedical sciences.
>   Cornell said it is currently reviewing the programs but hinted that
> the university would not take a position until after the Supreme
> Court ruled in the University of Michigan affirmative action cases.
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> * SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT COMES UNDER FIRE: Dr. Press Robinson
> has been chancellor of Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
> for less than one year. Already the president of this historically
> black university is coming under fire from the faculty. The Faculty
> Senate is considering a resolution of no confidence in the president.
> The controversy began when Robinson terminated the contract of a
> tenured professor of business, supposedly because the program in
> which he teaches was being eliminated. Robinson also was criticized
> for appointing department chairs without consulting the Faculty
> Senate.
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> * RACIAL GRAFFITI ON CAMPUS: According to internal reports of
> university police, there have been 67 incidents of "racial, obscene,
> offensive, or profane" graffiti on the campus of California State
> University at Sacramento this past year. But only one of these
> incidents was reported to Sacramento police. The city's police chief
> has asked that every incident of offensive graffiti be reported so
> that investigations could be made as to whether any criminal
> violations have occurred.
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> * SBC FOUNDATION CREATES COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS FOR BLACK STUDENTS IN
> FIVE STATES: The SBC Foundation has made a gift of $125,000 to the
> United Negro College Fund to create college scholarships for students
> in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. Students eligible
> for the $5,000 scholarships must be juniors attending a UNCF member
> institution and majoring in business, finance, economics,
> mathematics, accounting, engineering or computer science.
>   The SBC Foundation is the charitable arm of SBC Communications, a
> Baby Bell company that provides voice, data, and Internet services.
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> * APPOINTMENT: Lonnie Williams was appointed associate vice
> chancellor for student affairs at Arkansas State University in
> Jonesboro. He was assistant vice chancellor for student affairs at
> the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> * AWARD: Louis Dale, professor of mathematics and associate provost
> for minority and special programs at the University of Alabama at
> Birmingham, received the Presidential Award for Excellence in
> Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.
>
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> STATISTIC OF THE WEEK:
> * In the year 2000, the percentage of all 850,000 home-schooled
> students in the United States who were black: 1%
> * In the year 2003, the percentage of all 1.7 million home-schooled
> children in the United States who are black: 5%
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> * SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION: For an in-depth analysis of the status
> and progress of African Americans in higher education, subscribe to
> the quarterly print version of The Journal of Blacks in Higher
> Education. To subscribe, simply log on to http://www.jbhe.com and
> click on the "Subscribe Online" button on the top left-hand corner of
> the home page.
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> To contact The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, e-mail us at
> [log in to unmask] or call (212) 399-1084.
>   To unsubscribe from this e-mail newsletter, simply send a blank
> e-mail with the word "Unsubscribe" in the subject line.
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> © 2003 The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
> All rights reserved.
>
>