Sadness...

Yesterday I witnessed one of the most heart-wrenching and appalling acts that any HU student could witness during their matriculation. I witnessed two freshman female girls fighting (full out) during a Intro to Mass Comm lecture. The reason for the fight: one student was repeatedly talking and the other could not hear. It amazes me that two university students find that the only way they can get their point across is to physically fight in a classroom auditorium. Explicit language was used between the students and even to the teacher, and it took a few minutes to cause some young gentleman to get up and separate the fight. It saddened my heart yall deeply saddened my heart.

Black Student College Graduation Rates Inch Higher But...

Black Student College Graduation Rates Inch Higher But a Large Racial
Gap Persists

Nationwide, the black student college graduation rate remains at a
dismally low 43 percent. But the college completion rate has improved by
four percentage points over the past three years. As ever, the
black-white gap in college graduation rates remains very large and
little or no progress has been achieved in bridging the divide.

(The full text of this article is published in the Winter 2006/2007
issue of The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.)


Throughout the nation, black enrollments in higher education have
reached an all-time high. But a more important statistical measure of
the performance of blacks in higher education is that of how many black
students are completing school and earning a college degree.

The economic gains that come from a college degree are transparently
obvious. Department of Education data shows that, as expected, black
students who earn a four-year college degree have incomes that are
substantially higher than blacks who have only some college experience
but have not earned a degree.

Most important, in view of the huge penalty race discrimination has
imposed on African Americans in the United States, is the fact that
blacks who complete a four-year college education have a median income
that is now near parity with similarly educated whites.

But the good news is severely tempered by the unacceptably low college
completion rate of black students. According to the most recent
statistics, the nationwide college graduation rate for black students
stands at an appallingly low rate of 43 percent.* This figure is 20
percentage points below the 63 percentage rate for white students. On
this front, the only positive news is that over the past three years the
black student graduation rate has improved by four percentage points...

Graduation Rates at Historically Black Colleges and Universities

We
come now to a most disappointing set of statistics. The graduation rate
of African-American students at the nation's historically black colleges
and universities (HBCUs) tends to be much lower than the graduation rate
for black students at the nation's highest-ranked institutions. Yet the
graduation rate at a significant number of HBCUs is well above the
nationwide average for black student graduations, which, as stated
earlier, currently stands at an extremely low rate of 43 percent.

By a large margin, the highest black student graduation rate at a
historically black college belongs to the academically selective,
all-women Spelman College in the city of Atlanta. In fact, the Spelman
black student graduation rate of 77 percent is higher than the black
student graduation rate at 12 of the nation's 56 high-ranking
predominantly white colleges and universities referred to earlier.
Spelman's unusual strength shows in the fact that it has a higher black
student graduation rate than do such prestigious and primarily white
colleges as Bates, Colby, Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, Claremont McKenna,
Chapel Hill, and Carnegie Mellon.

Following Spelman in the rankings, the next-highest black student
graduation rate among the HBCUs was at Fisk University. At Fisk, 63
percent of the entering black students go on to graduate within six
years. Claflin University also has a black student graduation rate of 63
percent. Hampton University, Miles College, Howard University, Morehouse
College, and Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina sadly are
the only other HBCUs that graduate at least half of their black students
within six years.

Here is the worst news of all: At 20 HBCUs two thirds or more of all
entering black students do not go on to earn a diploma. The lowest
graduation rate was at the University of the District of Columbia, where
only 8 percent of entering freshmen go on to earn a bachelor's degree.
At Texas Southern University in Houston, 15 percent of entering students
complete college.

The low graduation rates at black colleges are due to a number of
reasons. Many of the students enrolled at these institutions are from
low-income families, often ones in which there are few books in the home
and where neither parent nor grandparent went to college. In addition,
the black colleges on the whole have very small and totally inadequate
endowments. They often lack the resources necessary to generate funds
for student financial aid. Often they are unable to furnish sufficient
aid packages for upperclassmen to permit them to stay in school. This
circumstance appears to be a major factor in accounting for the low
black student graduation rate at these schools. But probably the most
important explanation for the high dropout rate at the black colleges is
the fact that large numbers of African-American HBCU students do not
come to college with strong academic preparation and study habits. The
graduation results at the HBCUs are worsened by the fact that flagship
universities in the southern states often tend to shuttle the
lowest-performing black applicants into the state-controlled black
colleges in their states.

The discussion comments ranged greatly; however, most believe that
ranking is determined by admission practices. Schools with a liberal
admission practice tend to rank lower. On the other hand, schools
ranking high practice a more restrictive admission program. To read the
entire article, please log on at
http://www.jbhe.com/preview/winter07preview.html.

Keeping Up Appearances

its hard to keep up with commitments that s why we cherish and respect those who manage to keep up appearances

Overheard @ The Mecca - Meccanisms

Overheard @ The Mecca - Meccanisms

Ethnic Notions

Remember...

Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams, Jan. 1
Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting in downtown Denver early Jan. 1. Williams, a second-round pick in the 2005 draft out of Oklahoma State, started nine games as a rookie due to injuries. This season, he took over as the starter for Lenny Walls alongside Champ Bailey, and was second on the team with four interceptions and tied for third with 86 tackles.




Spinners singer Billy Henderson, Feb. 2
Singer Billy Henderson, right, a member of the band the Spinners who sang "I'll Be Around" and other hits, died of complications from diabetes on Feb. 2. He was 67. The 1972 song "I'll Be Around" was part of a string of top 20 Spinners hits that included "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love,""Then Came You" and "The Rubberband Man." Henderson is pictured with other Spinners members, from left John Edwards, Bobby Smith, Henry Fambrough and Pervis Jackson.
(AP/Marty Lederhandler)



Funk Brother Joe Hunter, Feb. 2
Joe Hunter, left, , Motown's first bandleader and a three-time Grammy winner with the Funk Brothers, died on Feb. 2. He was 79. Hunter was a diabetic, but the cause of his death was not known at press time. Hunter was Motown legend Berry Gordy Jr.'s first hire. He backed up acts such as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles on piano in the late 1950s and also served as Motown's first bandleader in the early days. He is pictured with other Funk Brothers members, Eddie Willis, center, and Joe Messina.
(Karen Sas)



Singer Barbara McNair, Feb. 4
Singer Barbara McNair, who became a film and television star in an era when such opportunities were opening up for black women, died on Feb. 4 after a battle with throat cancer. She was 72. McNair made her Hollywood acting debut in 1968 in the film, "If He Hollers, Let Him Go." She later starred opposite Sydney Poitier in "They Call Me Mister Tibbs" and with Elvis Presley in "Change of Habit." She hosted television's "The Barbara McNair Show," a musical and comedy program in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a singer, one of her biggest hits was "You Could Never Love Him."
(AP/Racine Journal Times, Ron Kuenstler)



Olympic medalist Willye White, Feb. 6
Willye White, a two-time Olympic medalist in track and field and the first woman to compete for the United States in five Olympics, died of pancreatic cancer on Feb. 6. She was 67. White competed in five consecutive Olympic Games between 1956 and 1972. She was a 16-year-old high school sophomore when she won a silver medal in the long jump at the 1956 Games in Melbourne, Australia. She won her second silver medal in 1964 as a member of the 4x100-meter relay team in Tokyo.
(Chicago Tribune/Ovie Carter)

Movies

Smokin Aces
was a cool movie. Action packed of course. I don't think I would have cared about it if I didn't love the actors in it. The actors....not the acting. There is a wonderful scene with Alicia Keys and Common....so powerful.... I can't wait to find that actual clip and post it...

Hannibal Rising

This movie sucked. Waste of time and money. I saw it and will most likely never speak of it again.

anti-terrorism dolphins

Navy may deploy anti-terrorism dolphins By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer
Mon Feb 12, 11:04 PM ET



SAN DIEGO - Dozens of dolphins and sea lions trained to detect and apprehend waterborne attackers could be sent to patrol a military base in Washington state, the Navy said Monday. In a notice published in this week's Federal Register, the Navy said it needs to bolster security at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, on the Puget Sound close to Seattle.

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The base is home to submarines, ships and laboratories and is potentially vulnerable to attack by terrorist swimmers and scuba divers, the notice states.

Several options are under consideration, but the preferred plan would be to send as many as 30 California sea lions and Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins from the Navy's Marine Mammal Program, based in San Diego.

"These animals have the capabilities for what needs to be done for this particular mission," said Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Program.

LaPuzza said that because of their astonishing sonar abilities, dolphins are excellent at patrolling for swimmers and divers. When a Navy dolphin detects a person in the water, it drops a beacon. This tells a human interception team where to find the suspicious swimmer.

Dolphins also are trained to detect underwater mines; they were sent to do this in the Iraqi harbor of Umm Qasr in 2003. The last time the animals were used operationally in San Diego was in 1996, when they patrolled the bay during the Republican National Convention.

Sea lions can carry in their mouths special cuffs attached to long ropes. If the animal finds a rogue swimmer, it can clamp the cuff around the person's leg. The individual can then be reeled in for questioning.

The Navy is seeking public comment for an environmental impact statement on the proposal.

The Navy wanted to deploy marine animals to the Northwest in 1989, LaPuzza said, but a federal judge sided with animal-rights activists concerned about the effects of cooler water, as well as how the creatures would affect the environment. Water in the Puget Sound is about 10 degrees cooler than in San Diego Harbor, which has an average temperature of about 58 degrees, LaPuzza said.

Since then, the Navy has taken the dolphins and sea lions to cold-water places like Alaska and Scandinavia to see how they cope.

"They did very well," LaPuzza said. If the animals are sent to Washington, the dolphins would be housed in heated enclosures and would patrol the bay only for periods of about two hours.

Stephanie Boyles, a marine biologist and spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said that sea mammals do not provide a reliable defense system, and that they should not be kept in small enclosures.

"We believe the United States' citizens deserve the very best defense possible, and this just isn't it," Boyles said, adding that dolphins are easily distracted once in open water. "They don't understand the consequences of what will happen if they don't carry out the mission."

Dolphins can live as long as 30 years. LaPuzza said the Navy occasionally gives its retired animals to marine parks but generally keeps them until they die of old age.

The Navy has been training marine mammals since the 1960s and keeps about 100 dolphins and sea lions. Most are in San Diego, but about 20 are deployed at Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Ga.

The Navy hopes eventually to downsize its marine mammal program and replace the animals with machines.

"But the technology just isn't there yet," LaPuzza said. "The value of the marine mammals is we've been doing this for 35 years, and we've ironed out all the kinks."

___

I can do it too...

So I'm watching Rachel Ray's Talk Show... from 30 Minute Meals to Network TV... she is doing big things. This just proves however that everyone and anyone can have a talk show. I want one. Today. Besides that, on here they are talking about step parenting and they have a life coach speaking. A life coach? quite possibly the most unnecessary job on the face of the earth. Life coaches are friends, family, coworkers, bosses, just about nyone who can give you advice. How does someone get to experience so much that they get to be deemed...life coach. I am sure this black woman who is on this episode doesn't know everything about counseling Rachel Ray's 99% caucasian female audience.

I finished my media project and I had a fun time making it. The best part was the editing.... and the photography. I love taking pictures. Amateur shots of course... I do not claim to be any type of professional. I will try to upload it to google video so that people can see what I did. So far this year has pretty much sucked but this week seems to be where it is levelling out. Hopefully the next few weeks will prove to be more positive and beneficial to my psyche...

Talking with some friends

Earlier today a friend challenged me to find a cute black man who goes to Howard, that was single, and that I did not consider a whore.... I found one... Is that my problem or someone elses?