Volume III, Issue I | Fall 2003 - Spring 2004 The Dean’s Corner by Dr. Judith A.W. Thomas
Following Dr. Spencer’s lecture was that of Dr. Ivory V. Nelson, Lincoln University’s President, who talked to a capacity crowd of students, faculty and administrators on “From Louisiana to Lincoln University, Pennsylvania.” During his lecture, he shared with the audience how he earned success in the Air Force at the age of 17 to becoming a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry six years after he entered college. He fielded questions from students and faculty about his experience as a college president at four different colleges and/or universities. Additional Sesquicentennial Brown Bag Lecture Series presentations scheduled will include the Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Grant D. Venerable, II, a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Chicago, discussing “The Unity of Knowledge and the Lincoln University Core Curriculum;” and Dr. Lenetta Lee, Associate Professor of Education, presenting “Erin Dudley Forbes Charter School as a Protective Factor;” as well as presentations by Dr. Ellen Smith, Dr. Zizwe Poe, Dr. Emmanuel Babatunde, and Dr. Christian Filostrat. In May of 2003 the Education Department, headed by Dr. Helen Oliver, graduated 41 students; Economics and Business Administration, led by Dr. Oswald Richards, graduated 32 students; Health, Physical Education and Recreation chaired by Dr. James L. DeBoy, graduated 18 students; Psychology Department, led by Dr. Kevin Favor, graduated 17 students; Sociology Department, headed by Dr. Patricia Joseph, graduated 27 students; the History and Political Science Department, led by Dr. Levi Nwachuku, graduated 18 majors; thus, a total of 142 students from the School of Social Sciences and Behavioral Studies, 63% of the total 2003 graduates. Thirty-two of the 60 University ’03 Honors graduates or 53% are from the School of Social Sciences and Behavioral Studies; 18 of the 34 University’s Cum Laude graduates or 59% are from the School of Social Sciences and Behavioral Studies; 7 of the University’s 14 Magna Cum Laude graduates or 50% are from the School of Social Sciences and Behavioral Studies; 6 of the 12 Summa Cum Laude graduates or 50% are from the School of Social Sciences and Behavioral Studies. The valedictorian, Mr. Ralph L. Curry, History/Education major, earned a 4.3 average. Congratulations are in order for Dr. Patricia Joseph who was promoted to full professorship in Sociology, Dr. Lenetta R. Lee who was promoted to Associate Professor of Education and Dr. Terrance Johnson who was promoted to Assistant Professor of Sociology/Criminal Justice. A special “hats off” to Dr. Delroy Louden who is responsible for gaining internships for ten Lincoln University students and being the professor who has brought in $299,033 to the University for his HIV/AIDS Project and $248,200 for his Extramural Associates Research Development Award from the National Institutes of Health (a total of $547,233). Look who’s publishing! Dr. Levi Nwachuku recently published Troubled Journey: Nigeria Since the Civil War. Dr. Zizwe Poe’s Kwame Nkrumah’s Contribution to Pan Africanism – An Afrocentric Analysis is on the shelves as I write. Of course, Dr. Anthony DiFilippo, a prolific writer of articles on the relationship between Japan and America, recently published “The Troubled Relationship: What Normalized Relations Would Do For Japan and North Korea” as a chapter in Japan and Northeast Asian International Relations Involving North Korea. To date it is only available in Japanese; the English version is forthcoming. Look out for Dr. Robert E. Millette’s book, Academic Leadership and Shared Governance at HBCU’s, which will be officially published in the spring of 2004. A special welcome to Dr. Christian Filostrat, a former diplomat who, during this academic year, is serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the History and Political Science Department. We were so fortunate to get two MBA/CPA’s in the Economics and Business Administration Department in the names of Mrs. Susan Muzorewa and Mrs. Beatrice Rolland. Dr. DeBoy and the HPER students speak glowingly of Mr. Paul Murata, the new Lecturer /Athletic Trainer. We are pleased to announce that Dr. Kwabena Nuamah returned to the History/Political Science Department as a Lecturer for the 03-04 Academic Year. Kudos to Dr. Ganga Ramdas, Professor of Economics, for being the recipient of an $86,500 grant from the Summer Transportation Institute; Dr. Oswald Richards, the recipient of a $50,000 grant from BASE (Building and Supporting Entrepreneurship), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Community Services; Dr. James L. DeBoy who received $9,228 from a Division III Initiatives Grant – the National Collegiate Athletic Association; and Dr. Emmanuel Babatunde, who received a $200,000 three-year grant from the United Negro College Fund for a partnership between Lincoln University and the University of the Autonomous Regions of the Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua. Dr. Judith A.W. Thomas and Sheilah Vance, Esquire, received a $500,000 grant for a 5-year period: $100,000 per year, for a Pre-Law Undergraduate Scholars’ Program (PLUS) from the Law School Admissions Council from which Lincoln University pre-law students benefited for six weeks during the months of May and June, 2003. The second year of the PLUS Program begins on May 17, 2004 to June 24, 2004. Encourage sophomores and juniors with a 3.0 or above average to apply for participation. Applications may be obtained in Dean Thomas' office, Room 316-317 Vail Hall NOW! All applications are due by March 22, 2004. Dr. Helen Oliver, Chair of Education, received a mini research grant from the USF Laser Research Mini Grant Program for the purpose of studying “Teacher Attitudes Toward Cooperative Learning and Its Effects on High Achievers in Middle and High School Heterogeneous Groups.” I can’t forget to tell you that Lincoln University now has an honors speech group on campus – Pi Kappa Delta. Initiation took place on November 13, 2003. Tracey Martinborough is the 2003-04 President. Don’t forget the Sesquicentennial Oratorical, Poetry, Performing and Creative Arts contests to be held in February. The precise dates for such are forthcoming. Prizes in the amount of $1,000 (first prize); $500 (second prize); $250 (third prize) will be awarded in each category. Get your students to participate. Winners will be announced at the Sesquicentennial Honors Convocation on April 15, 2004. On February 28, 2004, the Pennsylvania Black Conference on Higher Education awarded nine $1000 scholarships (two per region: East, West, Central), one graduate scholarship and one scholarship for an international student (The Esther-Jafari Haymon International Student Scholarship) for the first time ever. Lincoln University junior Afeez Hazzan, 4.16 GPA, biology major, won this scholarship, and Lincoln University sophomore Renée Peterkin, pre-med/biology major, 3.62 GPA, was selected as a $1,000 winner of the K. Leroy Irvis PBCOHE scholarship. L.U. is representin’! Finally, a special thanks to Drs. Zizwe Poe and Linda Stine for putting our newsletter together and getting it published. They deserve “mucho” praise for their exemplary efforts. Our newsletter, Social Affairs, makes a serious statement about the significant involvement of the faculty in the Affairs of Lincoln University! Don’t forget to subscribe to the School’s Journal of Social and Political Thought, Vol. II, No. 1. See the Editor, Dr. Levi Nwachuku, for information (extension 1226 or 1224). Grantsmanship Efforts Flourish at Lincoln
You can read more about this innovative partnership in “Lincoln and BASE—An Entrepreneurial Community Development Partnership.”
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Dr. Ozzie Richards (Economics and Business) spent part of his summer visiting with executives at the American Business School in Paris to institute a student study-abroad program as part of the School of Social Sciences and Behavioral Studies curricular internationalization initiative.
Dr. Helen Oliver (Education) spent two weeks in London and Leicester, England, during the summer visiting schools and interviewing school officials. The module to be infused into EDU 202 and EDU 203 courses has been written. The objective is to allow students the opportunity to compare and contrast educational systems to obtain a diverse understanding of the teaching-learning dynamics. England has a centralized educational system. Many of the schools in Inner London are facing security, language diversity, literacy and numeracy challenges. This project is ongoing; the Education Department will collaborate with International Studies to encourage student study abroad for education majors.
********************* Research, Publications And Presentations: Social Science and Behavioral Studies faculty have clearly been spending many of their non-teaching hours out in the field, working in libraries, or sitting at their computers, judging from the amount of scholarly activity described below and in Dean Thomas’s remarks.
Dr. Robert Millette has recently completed his book entitled Academic Leadership and Shared Governance at Historically Black Schools, chapters 1-7. Dr. Terrance Johnson wrote two articles for ACJS Today. They
were entitled "Police Accountability: A European Perspective"
(Jan/Feb 2003) and "The Good and Bad Factors of Police Culture
and Subculture" (May/June 2003).
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Psychology Club Reports Active Year
In conjunction with the Men’s Health Center, the Psychology Club also sponsored Blood Pressure Day at Lincoln last March. The morning session alone saw over 100 students, faculty and staff tested, and the evening session was equally successful. Pictured above is psychology major and 2003 graduate Danielle Jolly with His Excellency Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary General during Lincoln’s General Honors Program trip to the United Nations last spring. *********************************
During the conference, Dr. Oliver had the chance to meet and interact with other chairs and deans at various institution of higher learning. As part of the conference, all the attendees were taken on a tour to an ancient American Indian reservation “Sandia Pueblo” within Albuquerque Township and to the beautiful town of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The following day, the conference was moved from our Sheraton hotel to the University of New Mexico, where we were formally introduced to the university faculty and scheduled lectures on critical issues in special education were delivered by Dr Leonard Baca (University of Colorado, Boulder), Dr Valerie Cook Morales (San Diego State University), Dr Francisco Rios (University of Wyoming), Dr Vivian Correa (University of Florida) and Dr Geneva Gay (University of Washington, Seattle). Unfortunately, the conference came to an end on the third day, with a quick meeting and collaborative feedback by all the attendees. But the experience of the trip will forever remain invaluable to me because it gave me an opportunity to meet like minds and exchange information. I am truly humbled to be a part of “Research Think Tank V.” ********************************* Lincoln Students Help Community Needy
The students were given a tour of the facility and learned firsthand
about how this agency has expanded over the past 30 years and worked
to assess and meet the needs of the members of the Oxford community
in a multitude of ways. After completing the project and visiting the
center, one student noted, "It is refreshing to know that in this
21st century world, where joining the rat race seems to be all that
matters, there are still some people who dedicate their lives to caring
for those around them. And such people in such establishments are our
inspiration at the Sociology and Human Services Club." ********************************* Joining the Lincoln Family:
Reflections on my Year to Date by Christian Filostrat  I am
privileged to be spending a year as a visiting lecturer in the field of
diplomacy and foreign relations at Lincoln University. It’s an absolute
treat to be under the wise and good-humored leadership of Levi Nwachuku
— that by itself is worth the price of admission. How, I still ask, does
Africa produce such men and still disappoint so much?
Being at Lincoln University is, in my eyes, the logical culmination of a 22-year career in the Department of State where I served as a Foreign Service officer engaged throughout the world (except in Asia) in various diplomatic assignments, ending with the position of Diplomat in Residence Program Director in Washington. It is in fact while in that post that I became familiar with Lincoln. Unable to assign a Diplomat in Residence to this school, I offered to brief the Global Studies Institute students Dr. Millette and Miss Lundy had brought to the Department in the summer of 2001. Although my year at Lincoln will not be that of a Diplomat in Residence as such, my time spent here might remedy to some extent the Department’s reluctance to send one of its ambassadors to distinguished, but smaller universities. I find Lincoln University a fascinating community, if only because of the way the students plunge headlong into activities that no doubt enhance their comprehensive understanding of the world they are about to inherit. My four, Carolyn Simon, Frank Smart, Clayton McGill and Dwight Gray, who debated US actions in Iraq the evening of November 4th, surprised me by the single-minded dedication with which they went about their task. Then, too, I was impressed that Dean Thomas spent a great deal of time on this exercise, working with the students in her office in the early evenings -- her guidance was particularly useful. Dr. Zizwe Poe involved himself fully as well in the project. And in an auditorium full of students, the debaters sparkled! While watching the performance, I thought back, nostalgically, to my time spent in sterile meeting rooms deliberating the same issues and wished that had a Washington policy maker been in Dickey Hall auditorium that evening, he would have learned something, especially when a student in the audience questioned the negative side of the debating team about the US posture vis-ŕ-vis Rwanda and Liberia. So that they can ask such questions directly to the Secretary of State, or better still change as well as make our policies, I am particularly eager to interest Lincoln students in becoming American diplomats. It is not an easy task. African Americans do not take readily to the Foreign Service. The entrance written exam is just one reason for this lack of appeal. A comprehensive multiple-choice test crowned by an essay, the exam assesses the knowledge of Americana in all its facets. When I took the exam so many years ago, there were no questions about African Americans in the test. Today, there are many. I personally had professors at Howard University (my alma mater, where I served as the Diplomat in Residence in 1999-2001) write questions for the exam. Great emphasis is put on writing skills; this eliminates minority applicants disproportionately--one way the system has of weeding out the unwanted. If one ever needs a master lesson in the pathology of keeping minorities out of the State Department, a look at the Foreign Service exam is a good place to start. When Colin Powell became the Secretary of State from his tenure at Howard as a member of the board of trustees, I had hoped that he would exert his immense and unquestioned authority at State to do away with the written exam, an archaic remnant of another era. But Powell is not a boat rocker; he did not want to appear too forward and give the sense that he was favoring minorities by doing away with the written part of the exam. This certainly would have been implied had he followed recommendations regarding the elimination of the written exam. But there are other foreign affair agencies, which have progressed with the times. Let me add that passing the written part of the Foreign Service exam is not an indication that one will be an outstanding US diplomat and end up in the Senior Foreign Service, the top echelon of the State Department. Often, people who score the highest in that exam are found to have an emotional-intelligence deficit when they show up to take the oral part of the exam. Long ago, the CIA, for one, made practical use of that fact and did away with a written FS exam. And not surprisingly, African Americans occupy positions there comparable to that of Dr Condoleeza Rice at the NSC.
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Much
took place in the School of Social Sciences and Behavioral Studies
during the Fall 2003 Semester. Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer, Endowed
Board of Overseers Chair and Director of the W.E.B. DuBois Research
Center at the University of Pennsylvania, initiated the School of Social
Sciences and Behavioral Studies’ 03-04 Academic Year’s Sesquicentennial
Brown Bag Lecture Series with a riveting presentation on “Challenges
and Achievements: African-American Students in Higher Education” in
the Dickey Hall Auditorium on September 24th to more than 175 students,
faculty and administrators. The questions posed by both faculty and
students targeted her theme of resiliency in African American
boys and the protective factors available to young men
and women at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
As
Dean Thomas has noted in her column, 2003-2004 has been a year filled
with grant-related activity throughout the School of Social Science
and Behavioral Studies. In addition to those achievements summarized
in “The Dean’s Corner,” the following projects were reported to Social
Affairs.
Dr.
Szabi Ishtai-Zee, Professor Frank Worts and Dr. Virginia Smith (Master
of Human Services Program) collaborated with faculty from University
of Pennsylvania on a 5-year $3.6 million grant project entitled “Reducing
Disparity for Severely Mentally Ill African Americans,” funded from
Pennsylvania’s share of the National Tobacco Settlement. Lincoln’s share
of the grant will be approximately $100,000 per year over the period
of the grant, the goal of which is to develop an infrastructure to reduce
health disparities in treatment and improve the quality of care of patients
with serious mental illness who are served by the Philadelphia Behavioral
Health System. 
Lincoln’s unofficial “publisher in residence” Dr. Anthony DiFilippo
(Sociology and Anthropology), completed a number of articles in
addition to that mentioned above by Dean Thomas, including "Japan's
Anti-Nuclear Weapons Policy Misses Its Target, Even in the War on Terrorism,"
Medicine, Conflict and Survival, vol. 19, no. 3, July-September
2003, pp. 235-247; “North Korea is Asking for Too Much in the Nuclear
Crisis—Or Is It?” Foreign Policy in Focus: A Think Tank Without
Walls, November 14, 2002; “A New Dynamic in Japan’s Security Policy,”
East Asia: An International Quarterly; “Nuclear Weapons Unconstitutional
for Japan,” The Korea Times, Op-Ed, November 28, 2002; “No Wars
Are Humanitarian,” Daily Local Times, Op-Ed, April 16, 2003;
and “Time to Resolve NK Nuke Crisis,” The Korea Times, Op-Ed,
May 15, 2003.
Professor Denise Gaither (Psychology) spent a busy summer, attending
the 5th Annual National Institute of Health Small Business
Innovative Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Research (SBIR/STTR)
Conference in June, serving as statistical consultant to conduct a statistical
data analysis of the Nigerian HIV/AIDS/KAP survey during the month of
July, and receiving her American Red Cross HIV/AIDS Instructor Certification
in August. 
Dr.
Helen Oliver (Education) has demonstrated the breadth of her talents
and interests in a variety of scholarly activities over the past year.
She wrote and submitted the Preface for Volume II of an edited book
on Personality Assessment and Culture edited by Dr. Delroy
Louden (Psychology). It will be published by HBCU Publications.
She is editing the final draft of a book chapter entitled: Repositioning
the Soul in the Heart of the Academy: An Agenda for Self-empowerment
for One British-Caribbean-American Woman. The chapter is part
of a book entitled Immigrant Women in the Academy: Negotiating Borders,
Crossing Boundaries in Higher Education, by Mary Alfred & Swami
Nathan (Eds.) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Dr. Oliver’s
contribution to the book, which will be published by Nova Publishers
in New York, is a narrative of the psychosocial challenges faced by
a British-Caribbean-American woman as she journeys to the American academy.
It argues from an understanding of a “sense of place” moving beyond
the cliché “Home is where the heart is” to a discussion of survival
strategies for building a self-concept for empowerment that propels
her across cultural borders, geographic intersections and political
agendas in the ivory tower. 
In
addition, Dr. Oliver has completed a booklet draft of
six poems entitled Journeying and Reflections, supported by a
faculty development grant; she presented on a course module at Lincoln’s
MSEIP meeting “So This Is England: A Pictorial and Textual Description
of Black Students in British Schools, ” of which a videotape (and
later, a CD/PowerPoint/WebCT ) is currently being edited; and presented
a paper on her research at the meeting of the Association for the Advancement
of Educational Research (AAER) in Ponte Verda, Florida, in December.
Finally, Dr. Oliver, Mr. Roy Chikwem (Lincoln Student Intern),
and Dr. Patrick Grant of Slippery Rock University (Research Mentor),
attended the LASER Research Think Tank V in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
in September, where Dr. Oliver presented on her research topic:
Teacher Attitudes Toward Cooperative Learning and Its Effects on
High Achieving Students. For more information on this faculty/student
think tank experience, see “
Dr.
Linda Stine (Master of Human Services Program) will describe her
experiences teaching a WebCT-enhanced writing course in the MHS Pre-master’s
Program in a paper entitled “The Best of Both Worlds: Teaching Basic
Writers in a Hybrid Face-to-Face and Online Environment” at the March
2004 Conference on College Composition and Communication in San Antonio,
TX. 
Professor
Jean White-Butler (Education) attended the Pennsylvania Conference
of Teacher Educators on October 29-31,2003 in Grantville, PA. PAC-TE
is an influential group whose conferences disseminate the latest information
regarding regulations for teacher certification, teacher training and
Act 48 workshops for teachers. Professor White-Butler also spoke for the
NASA MASTAP workshop at the Urban Center on July 26, 2003, on the subject
of teaching math and science to students with special needs. Her presentation
included websites that could be accessed to find special methods and
materials for teaching these important subjects.
Congratulations
to Coach Cyrus Jones (HPER) who led Lincoln’s track
squad to 2nd place honors on national and regional levels.
The
Psychology Club of Lincoln University had a successful program on March
6, 2003. The guest speaker for the program was Dr. Yolanda Edwards,
Assistant Professor from the University of Maryland at College Park.
Dr. Edwards discussed a broad number of topics relating to successful
preparation for graduate school. Later, she specifically talked about
her particular program at the University of Maryland, the Department
of Counseling and Personnel Services. She discussed qualities needed
to excel in graduate school as well as funding opportunities. After
discussing what the University of Maryland had to offer, Dr. Edwards
conducted a Q & A session. The event was a complete success with
over 50 students in attendance from a variety of majors. 
Between
September 21st – 23rd, 2003, Dr Helen Oliver,
the Chair, Department of Education, and I embarked on a trip to Albuquerque,
New Mexico, for a three-day conference sponsored by the LASER program
of the University of South Florida. The theme of the conference was
“Research Think Tank V” and its objectives were to enhance the urban
special education research capacity of faculty and graduate students
in minority institutions to impact children from minority or low-income
backgrounds. The conference was hosted by Dr Brenda Townsend, Director,
Project LASER, University of South Florida, and as part of the conference
agenda, Dr Helen Oliver as a mini grant recipient presented her project
“Teacher Attitudes towards Cooperative Learning and its Effects on High
Achieving Students in Middle and High School Heterogeneous Groups” to
the forum of diverse faculty and Ph.D. students. 
In
November 2003, the Sociology and Human Services Club conducted a food
drive on campus. A penny drive was also conducted in order to raise
money for paper goods. On Friday, December 5, Ms. Rae Haskins, Ms. Shaneya
Smith, and Ms. LaTonya Saxon, along with Dr. Patricia Joseph and Ms.
Marguerite Hoberg, visited the Neighborhood Services Center in order
to present the collected items to the Director, Mrs. Connie Winchester.
Mrs. Winchester noted that food needs are substantial and thanked the
students for their efforts to assist the community.