SECTOR NEWS
EWC in Jacksonville is now Edward Waters University
Edward Waters College in Jacksonville — Florida’s first historically Black college — became Edward Waters University on Wednesday.
“It’s exhilarating,” said EWU president A. Zachary Faison. “This has been a long time coming, and so, we are just excited and ecstatic to have reached this historic milestone in the prestigious history or our institution.”
Notably, EWU will begin offering its first master’s degree program starting during the fall semester. It’s an online MBA program, and applications are being accepted. (News 4 Jax)
Southern University in Baton Rouge is ‘falling into the river’ and needs $32 million to stop erosion
Maurice Pitts, the director of facilities at Southern University in Baton Rouge wanted to make it clear Monday that what he was saying about the campus’ worsening erosion problem is “no exaggeration.” The campus, situated on the Mississippi River is “falling into the river,” Pitts said. “It has become a safety hazard.”
Much of the land behind the Student Health Center has caved in and has had to be barricaded off for safety reasons, Pitts said Monday, as he gave a reporter a tour of campus. He said the erosion is a threat to human safety and that “historic oaks, architecture, and vital utility systems” are all threatened “unless action is taken to stop eroding conditions on the campus.” (Louisiana Illuminator)
‘How we can make Tennessee State whole again?’ Legislators promise to settle up missing land-grant funding
Hundreds of millions of dollars owed to Tennessee State University will likely be paid out over time by the state. As one of Tennessee’s two land-grant universities, TSU is partially funded by the federal government and the state matches it.
Much of that funding was disregarded for five decades, and according to legislative financial analysts, the school could be out $544,000,000.“It is only because Tennessee State was embraced by the community that Tennessee State was able to put together unique ways of finding the dollars [and] that they were able to graduate students at the rate that they did,” said Representative Harold Love Jr. (News Channel 5 Nashville)
Xavier student raises millions to help others avoid student debt
It is her mission to ensure students, like her, can attend and graduate from college debt free. Now Normandie Cormier, a 20-year-old Lafayette, La., native, has set out to tackle what she sees as the biggest crisis facing her generation: student debt.
“Student debt is crazy in America,” said Cormier, who started the company XollegePass to help students find ways to pay for college. “I think making sure every student had the pivotal academic and financial resources available to succeed and graduate debt-free was really important to me,” Cormier said, adding that she believes education should be a right, and not a privilege.
Cormier is taking her own lessons to help future college students. She earned $9.4 million in scholarships from 144 colleges she received acceptances from in 2019. She has since worked to help college-bound students earn almost $400 million in scholarships and grants while a neuroscience major at Xavier University of Louisiana. (Louisiana Weekly)
Delaware State completes acquisition of Wesley College
Delaware State University and Wesley College officials marked the acquisition of the 50-acre downtown campus by DSU.
DSU will preserve the Wesley name in a health sciences campus housed on the downtown Dover camps. (Delaware Business Now)
INDUSTRY NEWS
Inside the numbers of Pennsylvania’s plan to consolidate its higher education system (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
Facing a white-collar worker shortage, American companies seek a blue-collar solution (Hechinger Report)
Black workers stopped making progress on pay. Is it racism? (New York Times)
Florida college presidents pledge their support for Dreamers (University of Miami News)
Oklahoma State announces new professional studies degree in Tulsa (Black Wall Street Times)
