Each week, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education will provide links to online articles that may be of interest to our readers. The links presented direct the reader to articles from many different points of view that deal with issues of African Americans in higher education. The articles selected do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial board of JBHE. We invite subscribers to e-mail us with suggestions of articles for inclusion in this feature. Washington University Grad Doubles ACT Score, Launches Test Prep Startup St. Louis Post-Dispatch Has South Africa Truly Defeated Apart ..read more

Here is this week’s news of grants or gifts to historically Black colleges and universities or for programs of particular interest to African Americans in higher education. The Thurgood Marshall College Fund has received a $500,000 grant from Honda to award scholarships for students in band programs at historically Black colleges and universities. The grant will provide 41 students with need-based scholarships of up to $5,000 per semester during the 2024-2025 academic year. California State University has announced it will allocate over $4.6 million in funding to its 23 universities ..read more

William Strickland, long-time professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, passed away on April 10 at the age of 87. Strickland’s career in higher education began in 1966 as a visiting lecturer in Black history at Columbia University in New York. He first joined the University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty in 1973 as a professor of political science in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies. He taught courses on Black politics and the civil rights movement for four decades. Upon his retirement in 2013, he donated a collection of his papers to the university’s Robert ..read more

The Dana Foundation has announced a new partnership with the University of California, Los Angeles and the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, the only historically Black institution west of Texas, to better align the neuroscience field with the local Los Angeles community. Through $9.8 million in funding, the Dana Foundation will establish the UCLA-CDU Dana Center for Neuroscience & Society. The new center will provide scholars from both institutions the opportunity to collaborate on research and community-outreach efforts. The research initiative will be a multidisciplina ..read more

The American Academy of Physician Associates has launched a new initiative called PAthways, which aims to increase diversity within the physician associate (PA) field. The program is funded by Pfizer. PAthways will include two outreach efforts to better address minority representation in the PA field. The program plans to raise awareness and interest in the field among freshman and sophomore college students at minority-serving institutions across the country. Additionally, the initiative will provide seniors and recent graduates of color with mentoring and shadowing opportunities. “Increasing ..read more

James W. Crawford has been selected as the sole finalist for president of Texas Southern University. Under state law, university governing boards must name presidential finalists at least 21 days prior to an official appointment. The university expects Crawford to assume his presidency by the end of May. Texas Southern University is a historically Black university located in Houston. The school enrolls roughly 6,800 undergraduate students and 1,800 graduate students. African Americans represent 84 percent of the undergraduate population. Crawford has spent the last two years as president of Fe ..read more

A new report from the Institute of Education Sciences has analyzed the postsecondary enrollment, completion, and financial aid outcomes of students who were in ninth-grade in 2009. The findings are from the Postsecondary Education Administrative Records Collection of the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, which tracked students from their ninth-grade year in 2009 through their postsecondary experiences through 2021. Out of all student participants who enrolled in some form of postsecondary education, 53.2 percent were White and only 12.9 percent were Black. Within this group, over half of ..read more

Twinette Johnson has been named dean of the Saint Louis University School of Law in Missouri. She will assume her new position on July 1. Dr. Johnson’s new appointment marks a return to Saint Louis University, where she first began her career in academia. She started out as an associate professor of legal writing, eventually serving as associate director of bar preparation programs and interim director of student activities and leadership. After her initial tenure with Saint Louis University, she went on to serve as an associate professor of law and director of academic success at Souther ..read more

A new study led by Monica Swahn, dean and professor at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, has found that the vast majority of women are unaware alcohol use can be a risk factor for developing breast cancer. Black women were more likely to be unaware of this risk factor than White women. For their study, the research team surveyed more than 5,000 women over the age of 18 on their awareness that alcohol use increases risk for breast cancer, personal alcohol consumption, and sociodemographic characteristics. The results revealed that only 24.4 percent of all respondents were aware of the conne ..read more

Marc E. Morris has been selected to serve as the permanent dean of the College of Business and Analytics at Southern Illinois University. He has held the position in the interim since January 2023. Dr. Morris first joined the faculty at Southern Illinois University as an instructor in 2004. Four years later, he was promoted to assistant professor of accounting with a joint appointment in the Simmons Law School. He has held the rank of full professor for the past three years. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate level courses in taxation, accounting, business, finance, and law. As a schol ..read more