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Monday, November 28, 2011

Diverse Issues in Higher Education: Black-owned Newspapers Join HBCUs, Black Churches in HIV/AIDS Fight



November 21, 2011
by B. Denise Hawkins


Saying that “we have been silent for too long,” a group of African-American newspaper publishers have enlisted the support of Black colleges and churches as they prepare to wage a war against HIV/AIDS using their own media outlets to inform readers, advocate for prevention, and hopefully save lives.


By next January, the publishers of more than 50 Black newspapers, most of them weeklies, in Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi say they plan to start regularly carrying advertising, running columns, publishing news stories, and posting video on their official websites that address the AIDS crisis and what their readers can do to protect themselves against the disease.


The region these papers represent—the southeast—is where more than 41 percent of those living with AIDS in the United States reside and where the highest number of new AIDS cases is reported, a 2010 report from the Southern AIDS Coalition found.


Meharry Medical College, NIMHD/Health Disparities Research Center in Nashville, Tenn., was the co-sponsor of the annual meeting of publishers and owners, representing the southeast region of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA). Their annual meeting in Orlando, 17-18 November, was devoted to education about HIV/AIDS and the escalation in rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The Southeast Region Publishers’ HIV/AIDS Awareness Conference: Caring for Communities of Color brought together more than 80 Black college students and their advisers, HIV/AIDS scientists, faculty, clergy and members of the Black Press to heighten awareness and begin a dialogue around a disease that’s now in its 30th year.


“We are committed to telling these stories and educating our communities,” said the Rev. Dr. R.B. Holmes Jr., president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) Southeast Region and publisher of the Capital Outlook in Tallahassee, Fla.


“The strategy for our papers is going to be to write about it (HIV/AIDS), tweet about it, blog about it, teach it, and preach it. No longer will the Black Press be silent when it comes to HIV/AIDS,” Holmes added.


About a dozen HBCUs were in attendance. During the conference, the publishers also began discussions about extending NNPA membership to Black college newspapers.


Holmes said the HIV/AIDS “movement” being launched by the NNPA will include working with HBCU campus newspapers, radio and television stations, fraternities and sororities, and administrators, all necessary resources for delivering important HIV/AIDS prevention and education messages to college students who account for about 55 percent of all HIV infections among those ages 13 to 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).


Participants also heard about another troubling young population group at high risk for contracting HIV—African-American men (13-29) who have sex with men or MSMs. These males accounted for 14 percent of new infections in 2009, said Dr. Donald Alcendor, an HIV scientist with the Center for AIDS Health Disparities Research at Meharry Medical College, who described his presentation, “An Overview of HIV/AIDS,” as scientifically based and often “hard-hitting.”


Locally in Nashville, teens, their parents and teachers have been a special focus of Meharry’s HIV/AIDS education outreach in the community, added Alcendor, who regularly brings these students to the campus and into his research.


“We are prepared to share the outreach model that we developed at Meharry with the NNPA. The model doesn’t have to be focused on teens, but, when you see the number of new infections among 13- to 29-year-old Black youth and men having sex with men, they may want to use it,” Alcendor said.


Holmes said the publishers are also looking to Meharry for models and resources that can help HBCU students make healthy life choices, including being tested for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases.


Melva Lisa McDonald-McGee, M.Ed., who directs the HBCU Wellness Project/CoverKids Initiative at Meharry, and Dr. Wilbert C. Jordan, an associate professor of internal medicine at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles, also led conference workshops.


“This was truly an exciting marriage,” said Dr. Pat Matthews-Juarez, a professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Meharry Medical College of the first-ever gathering that brought together those she said who are not often at the same table when it comes to mobilizing around HIV/AIDS in the Black community—religious leaders, academics, students, researchers and the media.


Matthews-Juarez, a conference organizer and presenter, said “we provided them with plain talk about HIV/AIDS as well as scientific talk that got translated in a way that everyone could understand, take back with them, and use.”


As African-Americans, who account for more than 50 percent of all new cases of HIV, continue to bear the most severe burden of the disease, Matthews-Juarez said stepped-up education is needed to “eliminate and reduce the number of new cases we are seeing in the Black community and among our college students.”



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CMHDRE's Fifth Health Disparities Conference


 http://xula.the1joshuagroup.com/Support_Files/Flyer.pdf

Achieving Health Equity through Access, Advocacy, Treatment, and Policy Development



March 6-8, 2012 :: New Orleans, Louisiana


Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy's Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education (CMHDRE) will host its Fifth Health Disparities Conference March 6-8, 2012 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Conference participants will include clinicians (pharmacists, nurses, physician assistants, and other allied health professionals), health policy makers, health educators, and public and community health leaders whose work incorporates the use of mid-level providers to build partnerships to eliminate health disparities and improve health equity.



This conference titled, Achieving Health Equity through Access, Advocacy, Treatment, and Policy Development, will include discussions on successful multidisciplinary models for improved health systems outcomes. Previous conference attendee evaluations indicated that the abstract podium presentations enhanced the effectiveness of the conference and helped to stimulate discussions surrounding effective clinical strategies, basic science, health policy and research disciplines, and most importantly, the significant role of mid-level providers and interdisciplinary collaborations. Our planning committee will continue to build on this momentum as we develop content for the 2012 Conference.


We invite your submission of abstracts to be considered for poster and podium presentations. Abstracts should be submitted no later than Friday, January 13, 2012. >>more information on abstract submissions<<


We look forward to your continued support of programming from the CMHDRE!


Sincerely,


Kathleen B. Kennedy, PharmD - Program Chair

About CMHDRE

The mission of the Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education (CMHDRE) is to provide the infrastructure required to conduct research. In addition, the center is charged with providing basic, clinical, and behavioral experiential training and community outreach education aimed at eliminating health disparities. The overarching goals of the CMHDRE are to: a) provide an environment to support and strengthen research interest and activities of current and new faculty members related to health disparities with a focus on diabetes and cancer; b) develop student-oriented programs to support and promote student involvement in research activities; and c) integrate health promotion, education, and disease prevention into primary care services. Accomplishing these goals will increase the ability of the College to produce a pool of well-educated health professionals and biomedical researchers attuned to the issues of disparities research.


Funding for this conference was made possible [in part] by Grant Number 5 S21 MD 000100-11 from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The views expressed in written conference materials or publications and by speakers and moderators do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services; nor does mention of trade names, commercial practices, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.


Leonard Jack, Jr., PhD, MSc - Program Co-Chair
Anne R. Barbre, PhD - Planning Committee Chair


http://xula.the1joshuagroup.com/

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The Chronicle of Higher Education: Overpayments on Pell Grants Have Dropped by Millions of Dollars, White House Says


November 15, 2011
By Kelly Field


Changes in the Free Application for Federal Student Aid that let applicants import information directly from their federal income-tax returns have reduced Pell Grant overpayments by $300-million since 2010, the White House announced on Tuesday.


The news was part of a broader announcement by the Obama administration that it had cut improper payments by more than $20-billion, largely in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. A statement from the White House attributed the improvements to "more robust audits," new technologies, and better partnerships with states.


Over the last two years, the government wide payment-error rate has fallen from 5.4 percent to 4.7 percent, according to the statement. The administration is on pace to prevent $50-billion in improper payments by 2012, it said.


Allowing students to import tax information into the student-aid form, known as the Fafsa, can reduce the transcription errors that occur when parents and students copy the information by hand. It also eases the process for first-generation students and others unfamiliar with applying for student aid.


Tuesday's announcement came less than a month after the Education Department sent a letter to colleges urging them to help protect the federal student-aid programs from fraud. The department is expected to announce steps that it will take to crack down on "fraud rings" soon.
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