By Olivia Drake
University News
September 23, 2011
WASHINGTON – Michael L. Lomax, Ph.D., president and chief executive of the United Negro College Fund, was the keynote speaker and received a Doctor of Humane Letters at the University’s 144th Convocation. Lomax emphasized the importance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the United States.
“We cannot afford to lose any more black colleges,” Lomax said. “[They] need to all perform at the top of their game.”
As UNCF president, Lomax leads the nation’s largest private provider of scholarships and other educational support to minority and low-income students. Lomax encouraged administrators, faculty and the student body to promote civility and dialogue within academia.
“Great colleges must not be complacent,” said Lomax, the former president of Dillard University. “They must welcome the struggle to become stronger.”
He lauded Howard as a leader among HBCUs. He said current alumni and students at the event, as future alumni, would have to step up as donors to “become our alma mater’s funder of first resort.”
“Howard was there for you, now Howard needs you,” Lomax said.
Lomax had oversight of 450 programs at UNCF, including the UNCF Gates Millennium Scholars Program, a $1.6 billion project whose 14,000 low-income minority recipients have a 90 percent college graduation rate. Lomax also launched the UNCF Institute for Capacity Building, which seeks to strengthen 39 private historically black colleges and universities around the country.
Prior to joining the UNCF, Lomax served as president of Dillard University in New Orleans for seven years and a professor of literature at Morehouse and Spelman Colleges. He was also chairman of the Fulton County Commission in Atlanta, the first African American elected to that post.
WHUT-TV will broadcast the Opening Convocation on Sunday, Oct. 16 at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.
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