cuny - Blogs - TheBlackList Pub2024-03-28T23:37:07Zhttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/cunyMedgar Evers Under Threat of {Hostile?} Takeover From CUNYhttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/medgar-evers-under-threat-of-hostile-takeover-from-cuny2012-10-09T13:00:00.000Z2012-10-09T13:00:00.000ZGloria Dulan-Wilsonhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/GloriaDulanWilson<div><div><br /> By Gloria Dulan-Wilson ~<br /> <br /> <span style="color:#993300;"><i><b>The Original Title from the Medgar Evers Coalition was "Medgar Evers Poised for CUNY Takeover". But, I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I just received a communique from the Medgar Evers Coalition, who have been struggling for more than three years now to get Pollard removed. So now that there is a CUNY take over in the works,should we rejoice, or should we be alarmed. After all, they could have remedied this situation three years ago, once the faculty, staff, students and administration sounded the alarm that there was something seriously amiss with the newly appointed "college president" William Pollard.</b></i></span> <br /> <br /> While I haven't written much about it over the past few months, the fact that the struggle - the effort - to relieve the college of a President who turned out to be a pariah is much to the credit of stalwarts who will not allow an interloper to come in and drag the school back to the days before Edison Jackson turned it around and made it a class-A educational institution - not to CUNY, who seems to actually be more than pleased with the predicament. . <br /> <br /> Hopefully, it will be in time, because Pollard has pretty much eviscerated the school of all that Jackson, the faculty, staff, administration, and community worked so hard to establish. <br /> <br /> However, rather than rehashing the entire scenario, you can can visit my Blog archives <b><u><a href="http://www.gloriadulanwilson.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">www.gloriadulanwilson.blogspot.com</a>. </u></b> Additionally, I'm including below the latest update from the Medgar Evers Coalition. I'm sure they would appreciate your support and words of encouragement. Additionally, I know they are going to need massive assistance in re-instating, and re-establishing the quality that has been systematically destroyed by an individual who should never have been allowed to set foot on the campus, let alone occupy the position of President of the only African American college in New York.<br /> <br /> It's a travesty that it had to take this long for things to devolve to this level before CUNY would take action (or was it their plan to begin with? hmmmmm!) At any rate, if you are interested in showing support with these valiant standard bearers for quality education, and the rights of our Black youth to have a campus that represents them, make sure you do so immediately, if not sooner.<br /> <br /> Their article follows (<span style="color:#993300;"><b>naturally the comments in red or in brackets are mine):<br /></b></span><div><b>Overview: </b> The College is now facing a $Three million budget deficit. The faculty, students, staff, community and elected leaders must continue to work collaboratively to change the leadership at Medgar Evers College. The Chancellor and the CUNY Board of Trustees must <span class="font-size-3"><strong><span style="color:#993300;">ACT NOW. We cannot allow the destabilization and downward spiral of the Medgar Evers College to continue.</span></strong></span> The mission and legacy of our institution, founded to serve the residents of central Brooklyn, must be preserved.</div><div>President Pollard must be replaced by an interim <span style="color:#993300;"><font size="4"><b>{BLACK</b></font></span>} president, a transitional leader who is independent with no previous history at the College. The interim president must be able to lead the College as it undergoes the process of a comprehensive search for a president who has a history of scholarship, community involvement, and the ability to garner resources.</div><div>CUNY, it appears, has begun the process of replacing President Pollard. At its September 24 Board of Trustees Meeting, an agenda item indicated that President Pollard would be appointed to the Graduate School of Social Work at Hunter College, effective September 1, 2012. Faculty, staff, students and members of the community, upon learning of this agenda item, were poised to move to the next step in the search for an interim and subsequent permanent president; however, it quickly became apparent that President Pollard was not to be removed immediately.</div><div><b>In appointing {the ersatz} President Pollard to the Graduate School of Social Work at Hunter College, the Chancellor has only given Pollard a place to go when he is removed {<span style="color:#993300;"><i>their own form of a golden parachute for a job well done in demoralizing and nearly destroying Medgar Evers so that CUNY can effect a hostile take over and continue to dismantle it so that it is no longer viably a predominantly Black college</i>} He is stalling and is allowing Pollard and his administration to continue the destruction and dismantling of the academic, social and cultural mission and infrastructure of the College.</span></b><span style="color:#993300;"> </span></div><div>Rather than immediately remove Pollard, he has indicated that he will appoint an <span style="color:#993300;"><b><i>external team to evaluate the President and that he will conduct a random survey with the college community.</i></b></span></div><div>These actions reveal that the Chancellor and CUNY Board of Trustees are positioning the College for a CUNY takeover, the apparent intention from the very start{<span style="color:#993300;"><b>told you</b></span>}! The facts reveal a clear case of institutional racism and the complicity of those who are self-absorbed and have benefited from their relationship with Pollard and his administration.</div><br /><div><b>See the facts, questions and ongoing problems</b>.</div><div><b> What the Faculty Has Done: </b> Upon learning of the President’s appointment to the Graduate School of Social Work at Hunter College, the Medgar Evers College Faculty Senate immediately wrote and asked for clarification of Pollard's appointment and timetable for his removal. They have received no response. <i><b>This comes after two votes of "No Confidence" from both faculty and staff</b></i>.</div><div><b>What Students Have Done: </b> Student groups have demonstrated and sent petitions celebrating the anticipated removal of someone who has continued to cut services, disregarded student complaints and caused the reduction of enrollment and the fleeing of students who are transferring from Medgar Evers because of its disorganization and overall disintegration of services.</div><div><b>The Facts: </b> The Chancellor states there will be an independent review of the President. <i><b>Why? The faculty, staff, students and community have {already} spoken.</b></i> The Chancellor states that a random survey of the college community will be taken re: its perception of the President. Why? Nothing is objective and who determines random?</div><div><span style="color:#993300;"><i><b>A random survey is VERY questionable!</b></i></span></div><div>{Pollard} announced that there was a projected deficit in the budget of approximately three million dollars for the current fiscal year. He stated that the problem was due, primarily to low enrollment this fall and that the College was approximately 300 students under its projected enrollees.</div><div><i><b><span style="color:#993300;">How is a reduction of 300 students a rationale for a budget deficit of 3 million? Even if we had 300 fewer students, this would only account for $300,000 at most. Where is the other $2,700,000 shortfall for this $ Three million dollar deficit?</span> </b></i></div><br /><div><i><b> </b></i> </div><div>There must be other factors: such as, excessive hiring of consultants & administrators, mismanagement of finances, excessive receptions, etc. We suspect enrollment is down much more than 300. The TAP audit last year produced a shortfall of at least $Two million.</div><div>{Pollard} suggested the following as remedies for addressing the deficit.</div><div> Canceling Spring 2013 classes by 20% to 50%;</div><ul><li>Firing more adjuncts; </li><li>Restructuring and consolidating departments;</li><li>Instituting a hiring freeze;</li><li>Reducing basic skills classes and the Freshman Year Program</li><li>Eliminating majors such as Biology, English and Math</li></ul><div><span style="color:#993300;"> </span><i><b><span style="color:#993300;">WHAT DOES THIS SOUND LIKE TO YOU? ALL OF THESE ACTIVITIES WILL FURTHER REDUCE THE RETENTION OF STUDENTS! {POLLARD'S} RECOMMENDATIONS will harm students, further position the College for a CUNY takeover AND WILL FURTHER DESTROY THE IMAGE AND MISSION OF THE COLLEGE</span>.</b></i></div><div><b>Critical Questions</b></div><ul><li>Where is POLLARD's accountability?</li><li>Why has the past budget and projected budget not been shared with the College?</li><li>What is the past budget?</li><li>How were non tax levy dollars spent? All College budgets at CUNY are largely tax levy dollars, plus non tax levy dollars.</li><li>How were monies spent in relationship to debts accrued?</li><li>What impact does a $Two to Three million TAP budget deficit have on the current budget?</li><li>Why were 14 faculty hired this semester when there is an ALLEGED $Three million budget deficit?</li><li>Is the administration poised to fire adjuncts and non-tenured full-time faculty at our next round of appointments and reappointments if academic Chairs do not cut courses and sections?</li><li>How much money has the fundraiser-in-chief, Pollard,raised since taking office?</li><li>How do you fire the VP for Enrollment Management and Student Development, replace him with a VP for Student Development who works half a day and keep the former VP for Enrollment Management as Executive Director of Enrollment Management without resources and then blame him for the deficit because student enrollment has declined by nearly 400 students?</li><li>Why was the former VP of External Relations (who had to be removed for incompetence) appointed Associate Dean for School of Liberal Arts and Education?</li><li>Why was a new administrative position created for the former VP of External Relations?</li><li>Why does the College owe money to so many vendors?</li></ul><div><i><b>tHE facts above represent examples of egregious mismanagement.</b></i></div><br /><div><b>Ongoing Problems</b></div><div> Major retention problems</div><ul><li>Still No Writing Center</li><li>Learning Center tutors working without getting paid. </li><li>Learning Center in jeopardy of closing due to lack of support. </li><li>A decrease in tutoring for all disciplines.</li><li>A lack of planning, thus causing the closing of Student Computer Labs for three weeks at the start of the semester! Student petitions and protests forced the administration to get computer labs in place.</li><li>No resources given for basic skills courses although basic skills courses were integrated into academic departments (math and English).</li><li>Lack of computers for Basic Skills labs.</li><li>Arbitrary removal of online courses for students</li><li>Placing of responsibility for PMP targets on faculty rather than the President and administrative leadership </li><li><span style="color:#993300;"><i><b>Having served on the Medgar Evers Coalition Committee, I can attest to the fact that they are made up of community, educators, faculty, staff, all of whom have sacrificed their time to save the college. I can also attest to the fact that Pollard was a shill, a trojan horse to begin with, and the intention was to take over the college so that it could become something other than a predominantly Black college - you can read between those lines. If you continue to sit idly by in the surrounding communities of Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx and Queens and allow yourselves to be systematically pushed out, you have no one to blame but yourselves. Medgar Evers is symptomatic of a larger issue that won't go away by just wishing and praying. It takes real action and involvement. The Medgar Evers Coalition has been doing the heavy lifting on behalf of you, your children and the community. Now it's time for you to get up off of it, and help them save the school, the community and the jobs are being removed from the community as the result of the pawn, who tried to pass for college president, being put in place with impunity at Medgar Evers to be a traitor to his own people. It's time to clean house.</b></i></span></li><li><span style="color:#993300;"><i><b> </b></i></span></li><li>Stay Blessed &</li><li>ECLECTICALLY BLACK</li><li>Gloria Dulan-Wilson</li></ul><p>PS: <span class="font-size-4"><strong><span style="color:#993300;">VOTE FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA NOVEMBER 6, 2012</span></strong></span></p></div></div>CUNY Chancellor& MEC President Mock the Memory and Legacy of Medgar Wiley Evers: Attack on Center for NU Leadership and the MEC Black Think Tankhttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/cuny-chancelloramp-mec2011-03-07T13:31:07.000Z2011-03-07T13:31:07.000ZTheBlackList Newshttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListNews<div><div><a target="_blank" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9HiRqRhD2pk/S5rhtBSaC9I/AAAAAAAAAC8/AUlXfdUVyGo/S220/Gloria%2BDulan-Wilson"><img class="align-full" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9HiRqRhD2pk/S5rhtBSaC9I/AAAAAAAAAC8/AUlXfdUVyGo/S220/Gloria%2BDulan-Wilson" alt="Gloria%2BDulan-Wilson" /></a>By <a href="http://gmail.com" target="_blank">Gloria Dulan-Wilson</a><br /><br />I’m going to start this off with a quote from Dr. Divine Pryor. It’s so heavy I didn’t want to leave it to the end of this article:<br /><br />“For the past seven years, The Center for NU Leadership on Urban Solutions has successfully created opportunities for people entangled in the law to access higher education as a way to transforming their lives. Our attempt to secure a multi-million dollar grant was only an effort to formalize what we have been doing informally over the past seven years. It’s unfortunate that President William Pollard and his administration could not appreciate the fact that members of the Center for NU Leadership are living, breathing examples of what is possible when an individual decides to transform their lives after making a mistake. <br /><br />It’s ironic that we can be proud of the fact that New York City has one of the most effective garbage recycling systems in the world, but somehow President Pollard doesn’t believe that a human being can be recycled.” Dr. Divine Pryor, March 6, 2011<br /><br />Now for those of you who have been following these issues, or who are embroiled in the task of saving the school, the Medgar Evers College situation continues “to get curioser and curioser” - to paraphrase Alice in Wonderland. Speaking of which, given the specious assertions and allegations on the part of CUNY’s legals, one has to wonder what they’re up to really. <br /><br />It kind of pivots between “here we go again,” and “oh no! Not that stupid stuff again!” You can decide after I outline the facts.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fact</span>: Center for NU Leadership was founded by Dr. Divine Pryor some 7 years ago to help those who had run afoul of the law, lead better lives by providing them with a college education, so that they could make a positive contribution to society and their communities.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fact</span>: Dr. Edison O. Jackson, then President of Medgar Evers College, in wanting to provide services to a broader range of the population in and around Brooklyn and the greater New York Area, invited Dr. Pryor to establish an office for the Center for NU Leadership, so that those previously incarcerated who were looking to change their lives could matriculate at Medgar Evers College. Additionally, they maintained an open door policy, so that applicants and participants could come in from the street and be assisted in obtaining the education needed to provide them with career strategies and goals.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Fact</span>: Over the past 7 years Center for NU Leadership has successfully assisted over 200 applicants graduate from Medgar Evers and enter into such arenas as legislative offices, corrections, the court systems, district attorney’s offices and non-profit organizations.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fact</span>: For such a small staff that’s a major track record - particularly since they are still fully employed, and continuing to make positive contributions to the community, setting a positive example for the youth and peers with whom they interact.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fact:</span> President William Pollard doesn’t get it. His allegation that the program exposed the campus to criminal elements, which, by the way, has not been a problem in the entire 7 years they have been affiliated with the campus, is a sad indictment on a person who looks like us, has a similar pigmentation, but it all stops there - scratch that surface, and there is something completely different lurking underneath. Howard Johnson, who serves as provost, is equally culpable, as evidenced by his hostile and aggressive actions against Center for NU Leadership, the Bunche DuBois Center, faculty, staff, and students. But, in addition to his not getting it - is the even sadder (read sicker) fact that he apparently doesn’t care. <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Fact:</span> Chancellor Goldstein apparently really doesn’t care - about Pollard, about Medgar Evers College, about the Black students, about the Brooklyn Community. He is about the “my way or high way” approach. The only thing is that the strings are showing and the puppet and puppet master are both about to be caught up in them.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Fact:</span> The eviction of Center for NU Leadership on Urban Solutions from Medgar Evers College was heinous and unconscionable. It was based on racism and stereotypes. It was an affront to the men and women who have worked diligently to turn their lives around. And an even greater affront to Dr. Pryor who has dedicated his time, talent, intelligence and energy to developing what the prisons systems could or would not do, a viable program that spoke (speaks) to the needs of those in our community who have been disenfranchised by a system that would rather criminalize them than provide them with the education they deserved.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Fact:</span> The confiscation of the Center for New Leadership’s computers (which they owned outright), and the confiscation of their hard drive was not only egregious, but criminal on the part of CUNY and Medgar Evers College. It not only violates their rights as an organization, but there are certain intellectual property laws, copyright infringement, as well as other rights to privacy that have been trampled in this newest racist attempt to denigrate this organization.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fact:</span> The allegation of a criminal investigation being their cause for seizing Center for NU Leadership‘s property, as alleged by the legals of CUNY, has no basis in fact. Not only were there no presentations of warrants, or any of the other protocols that would precede a search and seizure procedure, there has never been any necessity for an investigation of any type until the fabrication on the part of MEC’s new administration. <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Fact</span>: There is so little regard for Black people on the part of the CUNY administration, that they apparently disrespected the Black elected officials who tried to meet with them to ameliorate the problem and bring, what they had hoped would be a positive solution to a problem that has now mushroomed out of proportion. One community leader stated very matter of factly: “White people having no regard for Black people is not new. We’ve lived with that all our lives. But to have a person who is supposed to be Black, participate in the dismantling of an institution that has been built by the efforts of a community dedicated to educating their youth, and providing them with a legacy, goes to very heart of self-hatred; and cannot be tolerated.”<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Fact:</span> State Supreme Court Judge Kramer, who presided over the hearing, Friday, March 4, 2011 in the Supreme Court in Brooklyn, could not believe that the legals of CUNY were refusing to return the hard drive from the Center for NU Leadership’s computers. (Judge Kramer had ordered Medgar Evers to return to NuLeadership computers that the administration had confiscated in<br />mid-December but that were purchased independently by the center).<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br /><br />Fact:</span> Subsequent hearing date set for April 8, 2011, during which time the CUNY legals will try to make those allegations hold water. While we put nothing past their trying to justify their actions, and prove their allegations (given the nature of the individuals involved), through manufactured evidence, the fact still remains that there is not now, nor has there ever been any reason to seize the materials, equipment, supplies owned and operated by the Center for NU Leadership.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Fact</span>: The Medgar Evers faculty issued a vote of no confidence in Pollard, stating he is betraying the mission of a college presumably dedicated to the academic needs of the urban poor and working class. <br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fact</span>: On March 8, 2011, the New York City Council is holding hearings on academic excellence and the necessity of cultural programs to round out the educational millieu. The hearings will be held at 250 Broadway, 14th Floor hearing room at 2:00PM. We are holding a press conference on the steps of City Hall at 1:00pm. Would like to have as many people from the community present as possible.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Fact: MEC/CUNY’s stupidity Brooklyn's loss and SUNY’s gain.</span> SUNY has offered to house the Center for NU Leadership, blowing holes in the allegation that they presented a criminal element on the MEC campus. If there was so much danger, why would SUNY offer them a considerable increase in funding as well as space and support. What Goldstein, Pollard and Johnson have essentially done is deprived the Brooklyn community of an essential program that has provided services for the growing number of ex-offenders who are returning to the community. <br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">NB:</span> While SUNY will be housing the program on their campus, that should not obviate the <span style="font-weight:bold;">demand that a branch of the center be re-established at Medgar Evers with full staff and equipment, immediately, if not sooner. In fact, faculty, staff, programs that were in existence upon Pollard’s arrival, must be completely reinstated and MADE WHOLE, WITHOUT PREJU</span>DICE.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Fact:</span> Under the leadership of President Edison O. Jackson, Medgar Evers College had amassed some of the greatest minds in Black culture, politics, history and leadership, including former New York State Assemblyman Roger Green, Congressman Major Owens, Dr. Zulema Blair, Dr. Brenda M. Greene, Dr. Betty Shabazz (deceased), Ambassador Pursoo. It was a magnate for some of the greatest minds and leaders who frequented the campus affording the students an opportunity to be involved in leading edge issues and endeavors. The underhanded manner in which these and others have been treated has left a stain on the schools reputation as a center for higher learning and a magnate for genius.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Fact:</span> Under the tyranny of Goldstein, Pollard and Johnson, more damage has been done to revert the campus back to pre-Jackson days when the school was floundering for an identity and direction.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Fact:</span> If the Brooklyn Community, and the greater New York Community, the elected officials, and the students, parents, and faculty, don’t act immediately and take a stand for Medgar Evers College, the dream and goal of a COMMUNIVERSITY will have been destroyed, right along with so many other important programs and institutions we and our predecessors have fought long and hard to establish in the Black community. THAT MUST NOT HAPPEN.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />Fact:</span> My father used to say, “there’s nothing worse than an educated fool, or the person who knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing.” There is also nothing worse than a people or a community who will sit idly by and allow the educational and cultural future (and present) of their children to be trampled on, with out taking a stand.<br /><span style="font-weight:bold;"><br />QUESTION: NOW THAT YOU KNOW, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?<span style="font-style:italic;"> </span></span><br /><br />Contact and support the <a href="mailto:MECCoalition@gmail.com" target="_blank">MECCoalition@gmail.com</a> <br /><br />Stay Blessed & <br />ECLECTICALLY BLACK<br />Gloria Dulan-Wilson<br /><br />PS: I could not close this article without quoting someone else that Ive admired for a long time, Dr. Robert Schuller of the Crystal Cathedral in California. He always spoke about <span style="font-weight:bold;">"Turning your scars into stars."<span style="font-style:italic;"> </span></span> And to me that is precisely what Dr. Divine Pryor has been doing with the Center for NU Leadership on Urban Solutions.</div><div><div><span>Posted by <span>Gloria Dulan-Wilson</span></span> <span>at <a title="permanent link" href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/2011/03/cuny-chancellor-mec-president-mock.html" target="_blank"><abbr title="2011-03-07T03:45:00-05:00">3:45 AM</abbr></a></span> <span> </span><span><span><a title="Email Post" href="http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=8661755859413500477&postID=5512873350437212738" target="_blank"><img src="http://img1.blogblog.com/img/icon18_email.gif" height="13" width="18" alt="icon18_email.gif" /></a></span> <span><a title="Edit Post" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8661755859413500477&postID=5512873350437212738" target="_blank"><img src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif" height="18" width="18" alt="icon18_edit_allbkg.gif" /></a></span></span></div><div><strong>Follow Gloria Dulan-Wilson's Blog at <a href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com" target="_blank">http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com</a>/</strong></div><div><span><span><br /></span></span></div></div></div>Medgar Evers Coalition for Academic Excellence Makes a Big Showing at the Black, Puerto Rican & Asian Caucushttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/medgar-evers-coalition-for2011-03-01T04:31:23.000Z2011-03-01T04:31:23.000ZTheBlackListhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackList<div><div><div><div><div><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/10697937958373924179" target="_blank"><img alt="My Photo" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9HiRqRhD2pk/S5rhtBSaC9I/AAAAAAAAAC8/AUlXfdUVyGo/S220/Gloria+Dulan-Wilson" height="60" width="80" /></a> <br /><span><span> </span></span></div>
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<div><div><div><div><h2><span>Monday, February 28, 2011</span></h2>
<div><div><div><a></a><div>By <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><a href="http://gmail.com" target="_blank">Gloria Dulan-Wilson</a></span><br /><br />Well now that I've recouped from one of the busiest weekends of Black History Month, I have finally gathered up the strength and energy to write this article. <br /><br />The MEC Coalition took its concerns to Albany last weekend, during the 40th Annual Black and Puerto Rican and Asian Legislative Caucus and placed it squarely on the plates of the elected officials. <br /><br />Armed with petitions, flyers, parent, student and educator support, they spoke individually and collectively with the elected officials in regards to the egregious acts that have been lodged against New York's only predominantly Black college.<br /><br />The center of the controversy, William Pollard, newly selected president chosen to replace the outgoing Edison Jackson, who retired after 20 years of successfully leading and expanding the college from a near failure to one of immeasurable success; closely followed by his hand-picked provost Howard Johnson, appeared to have had the same idea. They sponsored a bus with students from Medgar Evers, in an effort to put on a dog and pony show, to persuade the officials that they were doing a positive job. <br /><br />However, their efforts fell far short of their mark, despite a well crafted speech delivered by State Senator Eric Adams. His support of academic excellence, is of course, laudable. Something all can agree to. However, his speech, eloquent though it was, does not assuage the fact that Pollard and Johnson have eviscerated several essential programs that were part and parcel of what made Medgar Evers such a great success: The Center for NU Leadership, started by Dr. Divine Pryor, and recruited on to the campus as an integral part of their outreach by Dr. Jackson; and the DuBois Bunche Institute, founded and fostered by former Assemblymember Roger Green, Congressman Major Owens, among others, were both ousted from the campus - for what purpose? And what did the termination of these programs have to do with academic excellence? Additionally, MEC had the only Black Think Tank on campus, comprised of historical figures, entrepreneurs, political leaders, formerly elected officials, all of whom were drawing cards for other programs and funding sources. (It should also be noted that the program ended abruptly after Senator Adams' speech, and members of the audience were not afforded the opportunity of asking questions or making comments).<br /><br />But back on the subject of academic excellence: One wonders what the rationale could have been for curtailing open enrollment for students who were aspiring to new career goals? Congressman Owens, who was part of the originating members who supported the establishment of Medgar Evers reminded us all that the premise of the school was based on the concept of <span style="font-weight:bold;">COMMUNIVERSITY<span style="font-style:italic;"> </span></span>. And that there were several contracts drawn between the community and the CUNY bigwigs have been thrown under the bus. <br /><br />It's clear that things are very much amiss at the college. In fact, anyone walking through the corridors, which were once alive with engaged students, will readily notice the ghost-town like appearance of the halls. Gone are the encouraging bulletin boards, the announcements of opportunities for student participation and achievements that used to populate the walls.<br /><br />Albany became the line drawn in the sand. At a meeting held Saturday, February 19, caucus members came to hear the concerns of the MEC Coalition, and left determined that there would be no additional funding or other concessions until things were rectified at the campus.<br /><br />Chancellor Goldstein, who backs Pollard and Johnson, has taken out full page ads in predominantly African American papers trying to thwart the growing discontent among the faculty, staff, and community. The Amsterdam News recently ran a headline stating the students at MEC were "clueless" about what was transpiring at the campus. The facts, however, are that the student organizations have been threatened with funding cuts if they participate in, or evidence any concern about the new regime. A regime that has largely targeted them for extinction, while simultaneously looking to replace them with students outside the boundaries of the Brooklyn community from which a large majority of the student body originates. <br /><br />Actually, the more telling problem is that they are actually looking to supplant the New York student body completely by giving priority to foreign students who are coming in from other countries, paying high prices to attend CUNY Schools while the neighborhood gets priced out of the market. As it is, prices have crept up for education at our city "owned" university over the past few decades, with students who would otherwise have the right to a free education, paying almost as much as they would to go to a private college or university. In spite of that factor, the CUNY system is constantly crying broke - wonder who is monitoring their budgets? <br /><br />Medgar Evers was, for all intents and purposes, not supposed to succeed. In fact the first four presidents, prior to the hiring of Edison Jackson, were major disasters. It was as if the CUNY higher ups were deliberately picking miscreants, who were clueless about the mission and intent of the college, which was named after slain Civil Rights leader, Medgar Wiley Evers. The appointment of the current president, is reminiscient of the earlier selections, who had no understanding or concern for the community; had little respect for or alliegience to the faculty and staff, and were largely there as place holders while the school slowly declined. <br /><br />Such a decline would open the door for the CUNY higher ups to step in conveniently and take over the school, reshaping it so that it no longer serves the purpose of providing a quality educational millieu for African/African American/Caribbean students who have found success in a school that has been the underpinning of their success over the past two decades. (Pollard is alleged to have made threats to curtail financial assistance for several Caribbean-American students, stating they were receiving the assistance illegally).<br /><br />When compared to other HBCUs, Medgar Evers existence is a drop in the bucket, having only been here a mere 26 years. But their progress has been meteoric. That is until the 2009. <br /><br />The upshot of the Caucus weekend, however, is that the efforts to make it appear as if all was well at MEC, may well have backfired. Several of the pols who attended the meeting with the coalition, most notably Senator Kevin Parker, and Assemblymember Inez Barron, have vowed not to provide any additional funds to CUNY in general and Medgar Evers in particular until the problems are rectified, the programs are reinstated, and person more in keeping with the mission of Medgar Evers is brought on board to lead the college. This time a full fledged search must be launched to make sure that the right one is appointed- no more hastily selected individuals of questionable backgrounds. <br /><br />Assemblymember Jeffries, and other elected officials are planning to hold hearings into the circumstances under which the current president was selected, as well as to the recent discontinuations of programs that had been beneficial to the campus, and the blocking of grants that would have enhanced several programs that had been in existence for quite some time. (Still don't understand why Carver Bank's ATMs were taken out and replaced by CitiBank. It may not be in the purview of the elected officials, but inquiring minds want to know.)<br /><br />The New York State Panhellenic Council (comprised of the major Black Fraternities and Sororities) have likewise agreed to look into what is happening with Medgar Evers' students, and the policies that appear to be aimed at undermining its status as the only Black college in New York. It should be remembered that prior to her untimely, tragic death, Dr. Betty Shabazz, Director of Institutional Advancement and Public Affairs, was a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Former President, Edison Jackson, was an active member of Phi Beta Sigma, hosting many student orient programs and scholarship award ceremonies at the campus. Irregardless of whether there are active faternities or sororities at Medgar Evers, the Pan Hellenic Council deem it important to take an active interest in the preservation of Medgar Evers as a predominantly Black college. This is refreshing, since Pollard has claimed that he was not brought to Medgar Evers to head a Black college. <br /><br />Rev. Al Sharpton stated in his address to the Caucus church goers at the Wilborn Temple in Albany, we have far too many among us who have title without responsibility; who are in positions of power, but are not standing for those made it possible for them to be in that position. Who serve more as a blockage to progress, than a conduit.<br /><br />It appears that Pollard has been brought into this situation for that purpose; in a which he is not suited- at least not by our standards of quality (though he may well be serving the purposes of the chancellor). And since he was not brought here to be the president of a Black college; it may well have been a case of mistaken identity. He does look a lot like us. But there the similarity ends sharply: <span style="font-weight:bold;">MEDGAR EVERS IS A BLACK COLLEGE.</span> It was from the inception, and will continue to be so, despite his or Johnson's or Goldstein's efforts to the contrary. <br /><br />Academic excellence is not born of destroying programs; it comes from bringing in quality faculty; it comes from providing a millieu of growth, exploration, creativity, and progressive programs. It does not come via demoralization an0d intimidation, inuendos and reprisals. It comes through attracting the brightest and the best via those who are already a beacon for the school; not undermining that beacon, and engendering the ire of an entire community.<br /><br />A series of television broadcasts via Manhattan Neighborhood Network, (MNN), will further discuss these and other concerns roiling around Medgar Evers College. Check your satellite and cable listings for dates and times. (Of course I will post it as part of my even alert as soon as I have additional information.)<br /><br />But the main point is this -- to Brooklynites, and all residents of New York, whether or not you have or ever plan to attend Medgar Evers College - this is yet another attack on a Black institution. This is another incursion into our community, with the aim and goal of decimating us, demoralizing us, and depriving us of something that we have worked hard for and built with blood, sweat, tears, pride and respect. <br /><br />My question to you is this: <span style="font-weight:bold;">NOW THAT YOU KNOW, WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT?</span> <br /><br />To lend your support contact the <span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="mailto:meccoalitation@gmail.com" target="_blank">meccoalitation@gmail.com</a>,</span> contact your churches, elected officials, community based organizations, and make yourselves a committee of one to demand the cessation of the dismantling of Medgar Evers and the reinstatement of programs that have been unfairly curtailed; and the reinstatement of open enrollment for students in the Brooklyn community. You are the people with the power; this is your community; Medgar Evers came about as the result of your efforts. Stand up, be seen, be heard, be counted, be respected. <br /><br />STAY BLESSED &<br />ECLECTICALLY BLACK<br />Gloria Dulan-Wilson</div>
<div><div><span>Posted by <span>Gloria Dulan-Wilson</span></span> <span>at <a title="permanent link" href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/2011/02/medgar-evers-coalitiion-for-academic.html" target="_blank"><abbr title="2011-02-28T20:13:00-05:00">8:13 PM</abbr></a></span> <span><span><a title="Email Post" href="http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=8661755859413500477&postID=7795356431109351128" target="_blank"><img src="http://img1.blogblog.com/img/icon18_email.gif" height="13" width="18" alt="icon18_email.gif" /></a></span> <span><a title="Edit Post" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8661755859413500477&postID=7795356431109351128" target="_blank"><img src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif" height="18" width="18" alt="icon18_edit_allbkg.gif" /></a></span></span></div>
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</div></div>Black Women and the Radical Tradition 2009https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/black-women-and-the-radical2009-02-11T15:27:39.000Z2009-02-11T15:27:39.000ZSendMeYourNewshttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/SendMeYourNews<div>A National Conference presented by Brooklyn College Graduate Center for Worker Education
<b>Saturday March 28, 2009
ALL DAY (come early- seats are limited!)
City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue
(at 34th Street)
New York City</b>
<a href="http://www.blackwomen2009.org">http://www.blackwomen2009.org</a>
On March 28, 2009 the Graduate Center for Worker Education at Brooklyn College will welcome some of the leading activists and scholars to take part in a national conference that will discuss the historical and current accomplishment of black women in the United States.
Black women have been leading the struggle for social transformation dating from the American Revolution to the present struggle for the presidency of the United States. This conference will examine the multifaceted leadership contributions of Black women as presented by leading scholars and social activists.
The Conference will include a tribute to Charlene Mitchell, the first African-American women to run for president of the United States in 1968.
FEATURING
<b>* Angela Davis
* Manning Marable
* Genna Rae McNeil
* Leith Mullings
* Erik McDuffie
* Bill Fletcher, Jr.
* Gerald Horne
* Frances Fox Piven
* Mary Louise Patterson
* Carole Boyce Davies
* Kimberly Springer
</b>
Keynote Speakers:
* Angela Davis, currently serves as a graduate studies Professor of History of Consciousness at the University of California and Presidential Chair at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She works for racial and gender equality, and for gay rights and prison abolition. She is a popular public speaker, nationally and internationally, as well as a founder of the grassroots prison-industrial complex-abolition organization Critical Resistance. Ms. Davis is known for her notable contributions to the Civil Rights Movement, and is currently a member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism.
* Genna-Rae McNeil, is a distinguished professor of history at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She is the author of Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggle for Civil Rights, Historical Judgments Reconsidered, (co-edited by Michael R. Winston), African Americans and the Living Constitution, (co-edited with John Hope Franklin), and African-Americans and Jews in the Twentieth Century: Studies in Convergence and Conflict, (co-edited with V.P. Franklin and Nancy Grant). Dr. McNeil is a specialist in African-American History and U.S. social movements of the 20th century. She is currently researching a project on Joan Little and "The 'Free Joan Little' Movement."
* Manning Marable, is one of America's most influential and widely read scholars. Since 1993, Dr. Marable has been Professor of Public Affairs, Political Science, History and African-American Studies at Columbia University in New York City. For ten years, Dr. Marable was founding director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, from 1993 to 2003. Under Dr. Marable's leadership, the Institute became one of the nation's most prestigious centers of scholarship on the black American experience.
* Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a public intellectual, regularly featured on television and radio.. Starting in the labor movement as a rank and file member of the Industrial Union of Marine and Shipbuilding Workers of America, he eventually became the highest ranking African American in the AFL-CIO. He served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of TransAfrica Forum, a national non-profit organization organizing, educating and advocating for policies in favor of the peoples of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. After serving that role for four years, he was appointed Belle Zeller Distinguished Visiting Professor at Brooklyn College from 2005 to 2007. Fletcher was formerly the Vice President for International Trade Union Development Programs for the George Meany Center of the AFL-CIO. Combining labor and community work, he struggled to desegregate the Boston building trades. A graduate of Harvard University, Fletcher is a prolific author of dozens of articles. He co-authored The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the Formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1934-1941.
* Gerald C. Horne, is a Professor of Communications and African-American Studies at the University of Houston and the author of over twenty books. His recent publications include Fire This Time: The Watts Uprising and the 1960s Race Woman: The Lives of Shirley Graham DuBois, Class Struggle in Hollywood: Moguls, Mobsters, Stars, Reds and Trade Unionists, 1930-1950, and From the Barrel of a Gun: The U.S. and the War Against Zimbabwe, 1965-1980. Fire This Time was a finalist for the American Sociological Association's Robert Park Award in 1996. His present research projects include: Black Labor at Sea: Ferdinand Smith, from the National Maritime Union to the Communist Party to Jamaica; Race War! White Supremacy Vs. Blacks and Asians in the Japanese Attack on Hong Kong and the British Empire, 1930-1950, Black and Brown: African-Americans and The Mexican Revolution, 1910-20. Professor Horne earned his M.A. and PhD from Columbia University
* Leith Mullings, is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York Graduate Center . She received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. Professor Mullings' research and writing has focused on structures of inequality and resistance to them. Her research began in Africa and she has written about traditional medicine and religion in postcolonial Ghana, as well as about women's roles in Africa. In the U.S. her work has centered on urban communities. Through the lens of feminist and critical race theory, she has analyzed a variety of topics including kinship, representation, gentrification, health disparities and social movements.
* Erik McDuffie, is an Assistant Professor in African American Studies and in the Gender and Women's Studies Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign. Professor McDuffie's research and teaching interests include African American women's activism, black feminism, black radicalism and internationalism, and the making of the African Diaspora. His current book project re-evaluates the histories of the Black Freedom Movement, American radicalism, and U.S. Women's Movement by arguing that the Communist Party, USA (CPUSA) helped nurture a radical black feminism and provided a small group of black women radicals with unique opportunities to lead social movements with links to the global stage. His most recent publication appears in Michael Gomez's edited collection Diasporic Africa: A Reader (NYU Press, 2006).
* Eileen Boris, is Hull Professor and Chair of Women's Studies and affiliate professor of history, black studies, and law and society at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is copresident of the Coordinating Council for Women in History (CCWH) and president of the board of trustees of The Journal of Women's History; she was co chair of the program committee for the 2005 Thirteenth Berkshire Conference on the History of Women. She is author of Art and Labor: Ruskin, Morris, and the Craftsman Ideal in America (1986) and Home to Work: Motherhood and the Politics of Industrial Homework in the United States (1994), which won the Philip Taft Prize in Labor History. She is also coeditor of Major Problems in the History of American Workers (2002) and The Practice of U.S. Women's History: Narratives, Intersections, and Dialogues (2007).
* Kimberly Springer, is a senior lecturer at Kings College, London. Her current research uses television historiography to examine the role of television producer Norman Lear's 1970s sitcoms in transmitting the ideals of the era's social movements. Her most recent publication, "Queering Black Female Heterosexuality," Yes Means Yes, advocates for both an interrogation of historical stereotypes about black women's sexuality while highlighting those instances of unabashed sexual subjectivity. She has published single-authored and edited volumes on black women's activism including Living for the Revolution: Black Feminist Organizations, 1968-1980 (Duke University Press, 2005) and Still Lifting, Still Climbing: Contemporary African American Women's Activism, editor (New York University Press, 1999). Her co-edited volume Stories of O: the Oprahification of American Culture(University of Mississippi Press, forthcoming) critiques "the Oprah Culture Industry," which is the hegemonic apparatus evolving from the cultural output of media mogul Oprah Winfrey.
* Frances Fox Piven, is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the City University of New York Graduate Center, she has taught at Boston University, Columbia University, New York University Law School, the Institute of Advanced Studies in Vienna, the University of Amsterdam, and the University of Bologna. She is past Vice-President of the American Political Science Association, has served as program co-chair of the annual political science meetings, and is a past president of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. She is currently President of the American Sociological Association. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the President's Award of the American Public Health Association, and the American Sociological Association's Career Award for the Practice of Sociology, as well as their award for the Public Understanding of Sociology. Her books deal with the development of the welfare state, political movements, urban political, and electoral politics. Among them are Regulating the Poor, Poor People's Movements(1977); The New Class War (1982); Why Americans Don't Vote (1988); The Mean Season(1987); Labor Parties in Postindustrial Societies (1992); The Breaking of the American Social Compact (1997); Why Americans Still Don't Vote (2000); The War at Home (2004); Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America (2006).
* Carole Boyce Davis, is Professor of Africana Studies at Cornell University. She is the author of Black Women, Writing and Identity: Migrations of the Subject (1994) and Left of Karl Marx. Claudia Jones, Black/Communist/Woman (2007). In addition to numerous scholarly articles, Boyce-Davies has also published the following critical anthologies: Ngambika: Studies of Women in African Literature (1986); Out of the Kumbla. Caribbean Women and Literature (1990); and a two-volume collection of critical and creative writing entitled Moving Beyond Boundaries (1995): International Dimensions of Black Women's Writing (volume 1), and Black Women's Diasporas (volume 2). She is co-editor with Ali Mazrui and Isidore Okpewho of The African Diaspora: African Origins and New World Identities (Indiana University Press, 1999) and Decolonizing the Academy. Currently, Dr. Boyce Davies is writing a series of personal reflections called Caribbean Spaces. Between the Twilight Zone and the Underground Railroad, dealing with the issue of transnational Caribbean/American black identity, and is preparing an edition of the writings of Claudia Jones entitled Beyond Containment: Claudia Jones, Activism, Clarity and Vision.
* Premilla Nadasen, is an associate professor of history at Queens College (CUNY). Her book, Welfare Warriors: The Welfare Rights Movement in the United States (Routledge 2005) won the Franklin Prize from the American Studies Association and outlines the ways in which African American women on welfare forged a feminism of their own out of the political and cultural circumstances of the late 1960s and 1970s. A longtime community activist and scholar, she has written for Feminist Studies, Ms. Magazine, Working USA, Black Women, Gender and Families, and the Progressive Media Project, and has given numerous public talks about African-American women's history and social policy. Her article, "Expanding the Boundaries of the Women's Movement: Black Feminism and the Struggle for Welfare Rights," (Feminist Studies) won the 2002 Berkshire Conference Article Prize. She is currently working on a book-length project on the history of domestic worker organizing in the United States.
* Ruth Feldstein is an Associate Professor of American Studies, Department of History at Rutgers University. She is the author of Motherhood in Black and White: Race and Sex in American Liberalism, 1930-1965 (2000), and has written articles and reviews for the Journal of American History, the Journal of Cold War Studies, Reviews in American History, Not June Cleaver: Women and Gender in Postwar America, and Race, Nation, and Empire in American History. Her article, "`I Don't Trust You Anymore': Nina Simone, African American Activism, and Culture in the 1960s," was awarded the Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Prize, Association of Black Women Historians, for Best Article on Black Women's History. Her current research focuses on internationally famous black women entertainers who participated in the American civil rights movement. Her book-in-progress, Do What You Gotta Do: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement explores links between feminism, a global mass culture, black activism, and anti-colonial internationalism.
* Bettina Aptheker, is Professor of Feminist Studies and History at the University of California at Santa Cruz where her "Introduction to Feminisms" course, which emphasizes the multiplicity of feminism and women's experiences, is one of the most popular on campus. She is the author of several books including Intimate Politics: Autobiography As Witness; The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis; and If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance (co-authored with Angela Davis) and Woman's Legacy: Essays on Race, Sex, and Class in American History.
* Barbara Winslow is a historian who teaches in the School of Education and for the Women's Studies Program. Her areas of specialization are in social studies curriculum development, integrating computer based multi-media technology into the urban classroom at both the elementary and secondary school level. She also specializes in integrating class, race and gender into the elementary and secondary curriculum. Her research focuses on the intersection of gender, class, race and sexuality on women in social protest movements. Her first book, Sylvia Pankhurst: Sexual Politics and Political Activism, (1996) tells the story of an important suffragette, peace campaigner, anti- colonialist, anti-fascist, international socialist and feminist. She is presently writing a history of the women's liberation movement in Seattle Washington . Winslow is also researching how class, race and gender affect pedagogy, in particular with regard to technology. She is the founder and project Director of the Shirley Chisholm Project of Brooklyn Women's Activism 1945 to the Present.
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Registration Fees
Early Registration $50.00 (until March 1, 2009)
Students $40.00
$75.00 (After March 2, 2009)
$100.00 at the Door
To register simply fill out the form: <a href="http://www.blackwomen2009.org/registration.html">www.blackwomen2009.org/registration.html</a>
Within 24 hours you will receive a conformation number that MUST be submitted with your payment.
Payment must be in the form of a check or money order made payable to Brooklyn College and mailed to:
Brooklyn College
Graduate Center for Worker Education
ATTN: Black Women 2009
25 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10004
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Contact Information
Brooklyn Graduate Center for Worker Education
25 Broadway, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10004
212.966.4014
Email: <a href="info@blackwomen2009.org">info@blackwomen2009.org</a>
<a href="http://workereducation.org">workereducation.org</a>
Professor Joseph Wilson Program Director
Annie Jagoo Executive Assistant
Stacy Warner Maddern, Coordinator Research & Development</div>