From Diverse Online
Current News
Julianne Malveaux Named Bennett
College President
By David Pluvoise
Mar 26, 2007, 21:21
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In a move that surprised many within academia,
Though many unfamiliar with
Bennett’s presidential search progress expressed surprise upon hearing of
the selection, Malveaux was received enthusiastically by hundreds of cheering
students, faculty and staff members who assembled on campus Monday morning for
her formal introduction.
“I couldn’t be more
pleased and more humbled by the reception that I got in Steele Hall this
morning. I really couldn’t be more overwhelmed at the lengthy standing
response — some of the students I taught here coming out and they were
right there, front and center."
“I think that people were
concerned about what transition would be like, Dr. Cole has been such a
powerful and phenomenal leader that people were concerned about who would come
next and I think that I’ve allayed their concerns,” Malveaux said.
Though many in the Bennett community
have come to know Malveaux through her teaching as a diversity-in-residence
scholar this past year, some academics familiar with her often-polarizing
punditry wonder if her hard-charging style will mesh well with the demands put
upon a college president.
“She can be controversial at
times, and she has issues with conservatives, because they see her as a
neo-liberal,” says Dr. Lavonne Jackson Leslie, a professor in
Malveaux’s “reputation
in the Black community is mixed, I would say. I believe the criticism might
come from mainstream
Nevertheless, Malveaux, aided by her
celebrity status, is poised to continue the successful fund-raising drives started
by her predecessor.
“I have seen her impact with
the corporate community as a part of our chief diversity officer’s forum
where she speaks often, so I know that she will be an effective fund raiser.
She makes an impact, she’s impressive, she works well with people, and so
I have no doubt that she will carry on the tradition Dr. Cole has started with
significant fund raising here at Bennett College,” says Dr. Arthur
Affleck, Bennett’s vice president for institutional development.
However, Leslie says Malveaux will
have to overcome a view in academic circles that despite her MIT doctorate in
economics, she’s seen “more as a journalist, versus an
academician.” Nevertheless, Malveaux says her plans to a continue Bennett’s
momentum around fund raising, revamp Bennett’s curriculum to include a
freshman research and writing seminar by the fall of 2008, and take a listen,
learn, and lead approach will win over the entire community as it won over
Bennett’s board.
“I have been a faculty member
… given 1,000 campus speeches. Certainly the work that I did at Diverse Issues was very helpful, I covered
higher education for 15 years, and if you look at the range of my columns,
you’ll see something that’s quite comprehensive that deals with
things as minor as the pay of graduate students to as major as the survival of
historically Black colleges and universities.
Aside from running her own
consulting business, Malveaux serves on the boards of the Economic Policy
Institute, Women Building for the Future — Future PAC, The Recreation
Wish List Committee of Washington, D.C., and the Liberian Education Trust.
“I think that my entire
background [makes] a perfect pairing for Bennett and for me,” she added.
Current President Dr. Johnnetta B.
Cole said, “Serving as the 14th president of
Malveaux received bachelor’s and master’s
degrees in economics from
--David Pluvoise
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