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An Institution That's Lost Its Way. What to do about the (Philadelphia) African American Museum?

On-Campus Events Exclusively for Current College Students Launches September 8 at Alcorn State University with Stops Planned at 13 Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Washington, DC - For the third consecutive year, BET is going back to school. Alongside some of its key marketing partners, BET will be providing entertainment, games, contests, and product samples/information for students at 13 historically Black colleges and universities this fall. Starting at Alcorn State University in Mississippi, the events are staged on camp us and target college students presently enrolled in the host institutions. Festivities will be hosted by BET's on-air talent and feature live performances from Universal Motown recording artists.

"It's a fantastic brand-building opportunity for us and an excellent way to continue to deliver our corporate and brand messages to consumers." noted Susan Mboya, Associate Director of African American Marketing for Procter & Gamble. "We're very glad to be involved with the BET Black College Tour." Pontiac, Pepsi, Playstation, Southwest Airlines, the U.S. Air Force, Verizon Wireless, Foot Locker and Universal Motown Records, are all associate sponsors, many for a second or third year.

New to the Black College Tour this season, RAP CITY Top 10 Countdown will be taping from the schools each Friday with host Mad Linx. "I'm not sure what we look forward to most; recreating all the exciting things we bring to the schools or pushing ahead with new elements of this project," said Michelle Garner, BET's Vice President of Advertising Sales Special Projects and Event Marketing.

As in previous years, the tour will also include basketball tournaments, freestyle rap and singing contests, video game competitions, product sampling and resume collection for potential employment opportunities with sponsor companies. The endeavor is part of BET's continual effort to support historically Black colleges and universities. "We are so pleased that - with the help of our sponsors - BET can offer the Black College Tour to students for another year," said Garner. "This will be our best yet."

The following are the dates and schools BET is scheduled to visit during the Black College Tour:

2004 BET Black College Tour Schedule
September 8 - Alcorn State University - Alcorn State, MS
September 10 - Jackson State University - Jackson, MS
September 17 - Central State University - Wilberforce, OH
September 24 - Clark Atlanta University - Atlanta, GA
September 29 - Tuskegee University - Tuskegee, AL
October 1 - Alabama State University - Montgomery, AL
October 8 - Florida A&M University - Tallahassee, FL
October 15 - Norfolk State University - Norfolk, VA
October 20 - Fayetteville State University - Fayetteville, NC
October 22 - North Carolina A&T - Greensboro, NC
October 29 - Prairie View A&M University - Prairie View, TX
November 5 - Southern University - Baton Rouge, LA
November 12 - Bethune Cookman College - Daytona Beach, FL

Black admissions drop at UC Berkeley: " Sometimes, Adia Harrison looks around her classes at the University of California, Berkeley and is slightly surprised at the reminder: Just about no one else looks like her." Asked for comment, Ward Connerly did the cabbage patch and opined: "Party over here, y'all!"

What's Google's Secret Weapon? An Army of Ph.D.'s. "Hey, it's not rocket science. And it's not brain surgery. But if your background is in either, you're welcome to take a shot and apply at Google. The company's employees include a former rocket scientist and a former brain surgeon.

Mostly, Google has concentrated on recruiting those with a background in what you would expect: computer science. Founded by two near-Ph.D.'s who have purposely placed Ph.D.'s throughout the company, Google encourages all employees to act as researchers, by spending 20 percent of their time on new projects of their own choosing."

"T. Rex Found in Montana—Dig Goes Interactive. by John Roach
for National Geographic News. Dinosaur hunters often regale the world with news of their exotic discoveries after the fact—bones of ancient giants pulled from a hillside in Madagascar, chipped from the ice in Antarctica, dug from the pampas of Patagonia. Now the world is invited along as a team of paleontologists excavate a Tyrannosaurus rex from the siltstone at a ranch in eastern Montana. All they need to do is log on to Unearthing T. rex."

The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) today announced that Dr. Michael L. Lomax will succeed William H. Gray, III as president & CEO of UNCF. Dr. Lomax, who currently serves as president of Dillard University in New Orleans, will officially join UNCF on June 1, 2004. [Does this mean Lou Rawls will be replaced, too?]

Liberia's Ruth Sando Perry named new Balfour African President-in-Residence at Boston University.

Citadel Launches Black Studies Program. (Yup, you read that write. Not exactly known as the home of enlightened thinking heretofore, they even found the 'kente cloth' button on their computers to fancy up the departmental home page.)

Emory University acquires Carter G. Woodson's archives.

PACE UNIVERSITY SCHOLAR JEAN FAGAN YELLIN WINS $100,000 FORD FOUNDATION GRANT TO FINISH EDITING PAPERS BY FUGITIVE SLAVE
WHOSE BOOK SHE HELPED MAKE A CLASSIC. Compilation on Harriet Jacobs
is expected to advance teaching and scholarship, help rescue personal voice of slave women from oblivion. Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897), the fugitive slave who wrote the landmark memoir “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself,” is the only African-American woman held in slavery whose papers are known to exist.

Joint Center President to Step Down: Organization seeks new leader as Eddie Williams plans to end tenure in December as president of African American think tank.

Eddie N. Williams, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, is not the headline grabbing kind of leader we've grown accustomed to reading about lately. In his quiet way, however, he has built an organization that generates a great deal of attention on the world stage as the go-to place for anybody who has questions about issues related to African Americans and other underserved populations.

Letter from Togo: What follows runs far longer than the normal Africana story, but we enjoyed the observations of Murphy, a Harvard graduate student in African American Studies, who studied in Togo and traveled throughout West Africa last summer. From Africana.com.