Dillard University Academic Web Content Template created by Dr. V. German, Public Health

Dillard University Academic Web Content Template created by Dr. V. German, Public Health

Minutes from Dillard University Chairs & Deans Retreat May 18 2011

Minutes from Dillard University Chairs & Deans Retreat May 18 2011

Dillard University Flexible Work Schedules Summer 2011

To the Dillard University Community:

Following consultation with the Senior Cabinet, I have granted Division Vice Presidents the authority to implement flexible work scheduling within their respective areas. The modified forty-hour work schedules will be effective Monday, June 6, 2011 through Friday, July 29, 2011. Schedules must maintain the required forty-hour work week and be appropriate to ensure the effective and efficient operation of all departments.

It is my desire that such scheduling will provide much-deserved flexibility for our staff to attend to personal matters as well as minimize the use of university facilities, thus allowing Dillard to realize energy and cost savings.

Thank you for your support and cooperation in this matter. Enjoy this period of flexibility.


Sincerely,

Marvalene Hughes, Ph.D.
President

Dillard University Flexible Work Schedules Summer 2011

Morehouse College News: Oprah Scholars Pay it Forward With "Sons of Oprah" Campaign

Oprah Scholars Pay it Forward With “Sons of Oprah” Campaign
By Vickie G. Hampton

Beyonce’s tribute to the power of girls had her beaming.

Maya Angelou’s original poem that painted in words a portrait of her life had her entranced.

A rousing rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Josh Groban and Patti LaBelle wowed her.

But it was 300 Morehouse Men filing onto stage that moved her.

And Oprah Winfrey cried.

To be fair, tears had welled in the media mogul’s eyes several times. But they dropped and marred meticulously applied mascara when Morehouse Men just kept coming and coming…. from the left and right, the front and back. And
13,000 of Oprah’s friends and admirers in Chicago’s United Center stood and applauded.

Part of its “Surprise Spectacular” show, the penultimate farewell to “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” the sheer magnitude of queues of Morehouse Oprah stunned the woman who has seen it all, done it all.

“You got me,” she said during a commercial break in the deep, melodic voice that for the past 25 years has entertained, encouraged and enlightened the world. “This is newsworthy.”

Winfrey is currently the College’s top donor, having given a total of $12 million since 1989. It was during that year’s Commencement that she declared she wanted to help educate black men.

“When you empower a black man, you light up the world. When you empower a black man, you empower families. You empower his wife. You empower sons. You empower daughters … You light up the world.”

In 1989, then President Leroy Keith ‘61 invited Oprah to Morehouse as the Commencement speaker. After her address, she whispered to him, “Is it okay if my assistant brings my purse to the stage.”

The rest, as they say, is history. She wrote a personal check for $1 million. “I want to help educate black men,” she said.

To date, she has helped educate 415 Morehouse Men, transforming them from financially strapped students who worked extra jobs or contemplated leaving the College altogether to successful businessmen, bankers, lawyers, entrepreneurs, physicians and entertainers.

Oprah Scholars

In 1990, seven young men, each experiencing financial pangs that threatened their education, were chosen as inaugural Oprah Scholars.

Shaka Ameen Amir Rasheed ’93 was a sophomore at the time, working two summer jobs and conducting a letter-writing campaign to try to pay his way through college. But he was still coming up short.

Then, nothing short of a “miracle” happened, he said, when he was one of the chosen.

“To be honest, I cried,” said Rasheed, who now manages a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund. “That’s when I knew I could achieve my goal without worrying about survival and paying bills. It changed my life and the possibilities.”

Brandon L. Douglas ’09 says the summons to appear on one of the final episodes of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” was just another step in a lifelong calling to service, which for him, began when he became an Oprah Scholar.

“It continues to solidify the Morehouse experience and that we are still called for excellence,” he said. “It’s as though we’re stamped for life, to have an excellent life helping others live a purpose-led life.”

Douglas has heeded the call. After Hurricane Katrina, he helped build six homes in Meridian, Miss. And in 2007, while traveling to South Africa as one of the Oprah Winfrey Global Leadership Scholars, he and Mauri Robinson ’09 founded Bridging the Gap, a scholarship fund that has helped 45 South African students pay their $150 yearly tuition.

He plans to revive the Bridging the Gap scholarship. The opportunity to be a part of Oprah’s Surprise Spectacular reignited his passion.

Oluwabusayo “Tope” Folarin ’04 was grateful that perseverance and Oprah’s philanthropy paid off.

In his senior year, he had a grade point average of 4.0. He was only months from being named the College’s third Rhodes Scholar, which allowed him to pursue two master’s degrees at England’s Oxford University and eventually work in Google’s London office for two years.

None of it would have happened save for the Oprah Scholarship. Technical reasons had caused him to lose a previous scholarship, and, though he was working 40 hours a week to pay bills, it was not enough.

“I was persevering,” he said.

Paying It Forward

Imar Hutchins ’92, an attorney in New York, along with Rasheed and E. Robbie Robinson ’98, a Chicago investment firm executive, made up the small band of brothers who spearheaded the “Sons of Oprah” Campaign. Within three weeks of the Surprise Spectacular airing, the scholars raised more than $300,000.

“It’s not just the amount, it’s the intention behind it that gives the blessing,” he said.

That intention is to ensure that promising students receive the funds they need to complete their Morehouse education.

“I keep thinking that $1,400 almost kept me from staying at Morehouse,” said Shaka Rasheed. “I want other alumni to know that little gifts matter, and big gifts help; that we can help provide a life-changing experience in young men’s lives.”

Speaking before a smaller gathering of scholars in Chicago’s Navy Pier just hours before the taping of the show, President Robert M. Franklin ’75 commended the men for passing on Oprah’s gift.

“You are doing something extraordinary with your presence and generosity to another scholarship fund inspired by Oprah,” he said. “This is a ‘generative’ form of philanthropy. Oprah has educated more than 400 Morehouse Men, and now you will help educate a new generation of men.”

Henry Goodgame ‘84, director of Alumni Relations, reminded the scholars that philanthropy must start at home.

“It’s on us to take care of our own,” he said. “We’re Morehouse Men. We’re Sons of Oprah. If Sons of Oprah can’t do it, who can?”



SANDRA M. PHOENIX
Program Director
HBCU Library Alliance
sphoenix@hbculibraries.org
www.hbculibraries.org
404.592.4820
Skype:sandra.phoenix1

1438 West Peachtree Street NW
Suite 200
Atlanta, GA 30309
Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis)
Fax: 404.892.7879
www.lyrasis.org
Honor the ancestors, honor the children.

Morehouse College News: Oprah Scholars Pay it Forward With "Sons of Oprah" Campaign

Academic Impressions: Student Engagement and Web 2.0 in Blended Learning

Academic Impressions: Student Engagement and Web 2.0 in Blended Learning

Funeral Services for Mrs. Martha King (Mother of Tony King)

It is with deep regret to your inform of the passing of Tony King’s mother, Mrs. Martha King.


Services will be held:
Friday, June 3
11:00 am
Pleasant Grove CME Church
1141 Highway 541 S.
Magee, MS 39111


Funeral Home in charge:
Reeves Funeral Home
1167 Rock Hill Rd, US Hwy 49
Mount Olive, MS 39119
601) 797-3921

We extend our deepest sympathy and prayers to Tony and his family.



Cynthia M. Carter

Administrative Specialist

Office of Academic Affairs

Dillard University

504.816.4662 (ph)

504.816.4144 (fax)

ccarter@dillard.edu

www.dillard.edu

Funeral Services for Mrs. Martha King (Mother of Tony King)

Turnitin Best Practices: Technology in Education - Give Students Meaningful Feedback (without increasing your workload)

Although educators recognize that writing is an essential skill, students tend to struggle with written assignments because they fail to see writing as a recursive process of prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing.

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Take your students beyond editing! Download your free copy of Engaging Students in the Writing Process with Turnitin today. Or, request a quote to get Turnitin at your school.

Regards,
Krystal Carrillo
Account Manager - Higher Education, Southwest
kcarrillo@turnitin.com
866-816-5046 x223

www.turnitin.com

Turnitin Best Practices: Technology in Education - Give Students Meaningful Feedback (without increasing your workload)

Campus Technology Resources: How to Engage Your Classroom with Revolutionary Visuals

Most students learn more with visual aids to illustrate the lesson. Whether used for enhancing views of a science experiment, closing in on details of a map, or explaining the anatomy of a live plant, document cameras can provide the visuals that help make teaching and learning more dynamic.

When connected to a computer, projector, or TV, a document camera displays live and captured images and videos of 3D objects. Most of them can even be connected to microscopes so that the tiniest of specimens can be displayed, and they also come with software tools that allow for annotation, creation of time-lapse videos, and more.

Visit the document cameras product directory for the complete guide to document cameras as well as a list of hand-picked models that will equip you with the ability to engage your classroom like you've only dreamed of.

Product Focus: The Complete Guide to Document Cameras @: http://campustechnology.com/directory/list/document-cameras/document-cameras-home.aspx?pc=e251em10&utm_source=webmktg&utm_medium=E-Mail&utm_campaign=e251em10

Campus Technology and GovConnection

Campus Technology Resources: How to Engage Your Classroom with Revolutionary Visuals

Campus Technology IT Trends: Higher Ed Optimistic About Cloud Use

By Dian Schaffhauser06/01/11
Higher education may have a long way to go before it's fully ready to exploit cloud computing because it doesn't fully understand it. Despite this, colleges and universities are still fairly optimistic about cloud prospects on campus.

IT leaders and staff from a representative 63 percent of institutions confessed at least a moderate level of confusion within their organizations regarding the differences between cloud computing and virtualization. At the same time, 61 percent of participants said they believe that a national cloud for higher education created by the federal government would be of benefit to their institutions and the same number believe cloud computing could drive more intra-institutional collaboration. Only slightly more than a quarter of higher ed institutions aren't pursuing cloud computing at all.

These results come out of a wide-ranging survey performed for Quest Software by Norwich University, School of Graduate and Continuing Studies. Quest sells products and services that help organizations migrate their data and applications from on premise physical environments to virtual or cloud environments. The survey is free to download with registration.

In March 2011 the survey queried three major segments of IT professionals: higher education as well as federal, and state and local governments. The higher ed segment included 211 respondents, correlating to a margin of error of 7 percent. (Disclosure: the survey used lists of names supplied by 1105 Media, the parent company of Campus Technology.)

A third of institutions cited potential cost savings as the biggest incentive for adopting cloud computing. About a third stated that the biggest barrier to public cloud adoption is vulnerability to security breaches. At the same time an equivalent number of institutions indicated that the vulnerability of cloud computing and on-campus hosting are about equal.

The hybrid model of cloud computing is more attractive to institutions for future cloud-based work than either public or private models (43 percent versus 7 percent and 18 percent, respectively). Just about half of schools are "somewhat optimistic" about the prospects of cloud computing. A comparable number among colleges and universities that have cloud work underway also report that they have no exit strategy in place should they need to move their operations to a different cloud.

Paul Christman, vice president of sales for Quest's Public Sector division, isn't surprised that so many institutions are confused by the differences between virtualization and cloud computing. He pointed out that NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, is publishing multiple draft standards for public comment to address confusion in the marketplace. Those include publications 800-145 and 800-146. The first provides a definition of cloud computing; the second offers a cloud computing synopsis and recommendations.

Christman expressed concern for those cloud customers that are "diving in without an understanding of how to get back out." "They don't know how they're going to get out if the outfit providing the service is not living up to their contracted service levels," he said. Comparing the lack of an exit strategy to "Columbus burning the ships," he noted, "That shows how immature the planning cycle is, where people believe in the hype, and they're optimistic, but they don’t know how they can get back out if the public cloud provider is no longer useful. Every week you see press about another public cloud that has gone by the wayside or that has been acquired by somebody else or has done something that's surprising to their clients."

He said those perceived service provider vulnerabilities will expand interest among customers in hybrid clouds, where some information is put into the public cloud and other information--such as data for authentication--is kept private.

Another option he said higher ed may be drawn to is that of private clouds, wherein the IT organization would deliver cloud services to its own constituents inside the institution, but run its server farms using the same approaches applied by public cloud providers.

Christman offered several recommendations for campuses evaluating cloud services. First, get a solid governance model in place. "You can't expect an external provider--whether it's another portion of a university or an external contractor, a public cloud provider--to live up to expectations if you haven't articulated them," he said.

Second, get it in writing. Have contracts reviewed by people who "speak English rather than people who speak only technology." For schools that want to develop their own contract, he recommended searching for "cloud" and "cloud security" on the Educause site. "You'll find 30 or 40 sample contracts posted to start from."

Third, get a breakdown of deliverables. "I consume electricity. Would I be willing to blindly pay the bill if I didn't get the number of kilowatts I used?" he asked. That should come from the service provider, he added, but it's often very hard to obtain. If a customer doesn't know what the baseline is now, it won't know if service is getting better or worse. "The current state is usually so messed up, they're trying to throw it over the fence at somebody else. They haven't measured the cost, the [service level agreements], the throughput. If that's the case you're really setting yourself up for mixed expectations, because expectations weren't defined or measured."

Ultimately, Christman said, he advises his higher ed clients to stay optimistic. "There are some challenges around security, funding, and around access. But all those things can be tackled," he observed. "But of the three market segments in this survey, the feds are driven by mandates, the states by cost savings. But education is really driven by what this can do, what this can accomplish, and what this can't accomplish in some other way. The search for the positive [aspects of cloud computing] is really borne out in the academic side."

Campus Technology IT Trends: Higher Ed Optimistic About Cloud Use