Prairie View A&M University has suspended intake activities for all campus groups as the university reviews its policies for student organizations.

From Black College Wire

According to university president, George C. Wright the Organization Review Board (ORB), made the moratorium decision based upon several critical factors. First, the university thinks that many students don’t see actions that surround hazing as wrong. Secondly, the university thinks that students have created a code of silence against actions of wrongdoing, called “no snitching.” The third factor surrounding the board’s decision was based on a personal concern of the university president.

Wright explained, “I am in my seventh year as president here at Prairie View, and in each of 12 semesters I’ve spent here, there has been a complaint or a report made about hazing or inappropriate behavior. We made this decision to ensure that students know how to police themselves when doing extracurricular activities. I’m all for student organizations, if their membership processes are done accordingly.”

When a group of more than 200 hundred graduating seniors from Washington University in St. Louis headed to Chicago a night of fun, they didn’t expect to file complaints with the Chicago Human Rights Commission, the Illinois Attorney General, or the U.S. Department of Justice when they returned.

At least six African-American students were denied entry into the Original Mother’s bar for what security personnel deemed as inappropriate dress.

Okay, that happens from time to time. However when a black student switched pants with his white friend and still wasn’t admitted, many in the group thought that race played a larger role in the situation than attire.

The Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) pulled no punches when he met with a group of education officials.

John Wilson said in order for HBCUs to survive and compete for African-American students, the institutions have to stop whining about what they do not have and instead come up with innovative ways to raise money and recruit students.

From 2TheAdvocate.com

HBCUs must stop feeling sorry for themselves, he said, and switch their focus from playing violins to trumpets.

“We play the violin too much,” Wilson said. “We think people owe us something.”

Many HBCUs are facing financial difficulty due to declining enrollment and increasing costs. The recession has also tightened the wallets of businesses and charities that typically donate and support HBCUs.

Wilson also called out HBCU alumni who “will go to Homecoming” but refuse to give back to their alma mater.

A lot of that is a failure of the colleges to treat their students and alumni well, he said.

“If they (students) have built up an attitude with the financial aid office, which had an attitude with them, they’re going to leave here with an attitude and they’re not going to write a check,” Wilson said. “They’re going to come back for Homecoming, but they’re not going to open their checkbooks.”

Wilson is a graduate of Morehouse College.

Three former members of the Southern University Marching Band were given probation for their involvement in a hazing incident that placed two fellow band members in the hospital last fall.

According to reporting from the Clarion Star Ledger/Associated Press, Lagarian Bridgewater, 23, of Baton Rouge, Clifton Taylor, 21, of Baker, Mississippi and Carlo Carter, 20, of Stone Mountain, Ga, were all placed on active supervised probation for two years.

The hazing incident was part of a Nov. 25 initiation into the marching band’s unofficial French horn fraternity “Mellow Phi Fellow”. As part of the initiation one of the aspirants was hit more than 50 times with a paddle.

Four other defendants, Joseph Webb, 22, of Columbus, Ga., Jeremy Dixon, 23, of Natchez, Mississippi., Aubrey Harris Jr., 21, of Canton, Mississippi and Harvey Harrison, 20, of Atlanta are to be sentenced in by the end of the year.

Gay Marriage Catches On

Following the lead of the District of Colombia this week, lawmakers voted in favor of same-sex marriage in New Hampshire and Maine. Since Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts already have laws on the books approving gay marriage, tiny Rhode Island stands alone as the New England state without legislation in favor of the issue. Read the rest.

 
Foster Mom Taped Pacifier to Baby’s Mouth

A 30-year-old foster mother in Georgia was arrested Wednesday on charges that she killed a 9-month-old boy by taping a pacifier to his mouth to keep him quiet. Read more.

Norfolk State Gets $3.5 Million Gift The president of historically Black Norfolk State University said she’s not sure where the windfall came from, but she was happy to receive a $3.5 million donation – the largest in school history – during these tough economic times, Black College Wire reports. “We have no idea who gave that money, but we have a lot of people taking credit for it,” university President Carolyn Meyers joked. Jevonya Hughes reports that Meyers announced the gift at last month’s Board of Visitors meeting. A total of  $3 million has been designated to provide financial assistance for NSU students, according to Black College Wire. A second gift of $500,000 will assist the institution in meeting its priorities in areas such as faculty support, research and equipment. “I love the fact that someone donated to the university, because NSU can use that money for so much. The donor should be honored that they gave; they should not want to be kept anonymous,” sophomore music education major Anthony Moody told Hughes. Said Meyers, “We want to make the donor proud to invest in us.”

With the economic crisis kicking America’s butt for 15 straight months, it’s Black folks with four-year college degrees who’re feeling the most pain. While there were relatively few college-educated Whites without jobs – about 3.8 percent, according to national employment figures for March 2009 – there were nearly twice as many jobless Black degree-holders (7.2 percent). That is a 4.5 percent higher than a year earlier, when the recession officially began. Job-holding Latinos and Asian Americans with bachelor’s degrees (both at 5 percent) fared worse than Whites but better than Blacks. The findings suggest that while education is viewed as an avenue to decent job, particularly for African Americans, it cannot be viewed as a surefire means to employment. In fact, at every level of education, Blacks are far more likely to be without a job than their White counterparts and, according to labor experts, even if Blacks earned the same number of degrees as Whites they would still have significantly higher unemployment. This reality, they say, begs for a higher commitment to anti-discrimination efforts in employment and job creation in the Black community.

White men run college sports. The recent dismissals of Washington’s Ty Willingham and Kansas State’s Ron Prince leave the number of Black NCAA football coaches at a 15-year low, a report shows. Of 119 schools, Black head coaches represent just four, according to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. “While the percentages are slightly better, the general picture is still one of White men running college sport,” says Richard Lapchick, co-author of the study. “Overall, the numbers simply do not reflect the diversity of our student-athletes. Moreover, they do not reflect the diversity of our nation where we have elected an African-American as president for the first time.”

When he’s not debating the merits of art with Ice T, what do you guess that Soulja Boy is thinking about? Higher education, of course. While insisting that he won’t quit music, the performer tells World Star Hip Hop that he wants to attend college. “I wanted to be a flash animator – I know that sounds kinda gay,” he laughs. “I know there’s more to life than just living period.

Movie about Black soldiers called inaccurate. Director Spike Lee is defending his work on the newly released Miracle at St. Anna, even as Italian crowds call it historically inaccurate. The movie depicts the plight of Black World War II soldiers who question their purpose in America’s conflict as they enjoy greater freedoms in Italy than in the States. Media at a Miracle at St. Anna news conference in Rome this week questioned Lee and writer James McBride about their portrayal of a key scene in the film and the storyline’s link of an anti-Fascist group with Fascist murders. “I’m very sorry if I have offended the partisans,” McBride told the Italians. “I have enormous respect for them. As Black Americans, we understand what it’s like for someone to tell your history, and they are not you. Lee, however, said: “I am not apologizing for anything. I think these questions are evidence that there is still a lot about your history during the war that you have got to come to grips with.”

President Michael Lomax wants Congress to guarantee education for all

The United Negro College Fund wants America to guarantee that students of color – poor and otherwise – get an opportunity to  students get an opportunity to go to college and graduate.  On Tuesday, one of the nation’s oldest minority education advocacy groups issued “The ABC Agenda for Higher Education,” which calls for increased access and affordability. “If ever there was a time to push for what our students and colleges need, this is it,” said UNCF President Michael L. Lomax.  Find out more about the plan at BET.com/News.

He said he didn’t realize his comments about Barack’s “big lips” were offensive.
College Republican chief is forced to resign. The head of the Pennsylvania Federation of College Republicans gave up his seat this week after getting slammed for a racist comment he posted online about Sen. Barack Obama. In late July, Adam LaDuca, 21, a senior at Kutztown University, wrote on his Facebook page that Obama has “a pair of lips so large he could float half of Cuba to the shores of Miami (and probably would.)” But it’s not the first time LaDuca has fired off barbs at prominent Black leaders. Among his other gems, he called Martin Luther King Jr. a “pariah” and a “fraud” and that “Man, if sayin’ someone has large lips is a racial slur, then we’re ALL in trouble.” But his slurs were even too much for his fellow College Republicans, who asked him to step down. The remarks blew up after they were publicized in the Pennsylvania Progressive, a blog written by a Democratic committeeman from Berks County. “The comments were completely uncalled for and very offensive,” said Anthony Pugliese, 22, a senior at West Chester University and chairman of the College Republicans, which has more than 50 chapters statewide. “The P-A College Republicans do not accept or tolerate racism in any way.” DaLuca said he wishes he hadn’t published the big-lips comment. “In hindsight, when you read it a second time, it’s like, ‘oops,’” he said. “It was just a dumb move on my part to make a statement like that public.”