SENIOR LIFESTYLE

By Marian Wright Edelman FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT EMERITA | CHILDRENSDEFENSE.ORG

Harvard University recently announced exciting news: Dr. Claudine Gay, who is currently the dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, was introduced as the University’s 30th president-elect.

Dr. Gay earned an undergraduate degree in economics from Stanford University, where she was awarded the prize for best undergraduate thesis, and a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard, where she won the prize for the best dissertation in political science.

She then served as a tenured faculty member at Stanford before returning to Harvard and becoming dean of Social Sciences and then of the full Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Now Dr. Gay, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, will be the first African American and first person of color to be Harvard University’s president.

Dr. Gay joins an ever-growing list of illustrious Black women at the top of American colleges and universities. Some of the early trailblazers include the incomparable Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, who founded and led Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls and later merged her school into what is now Bethune-Cookman University, and pioneering scholar, writer, and activist Dr. Anna Julia Cooper, who served as president of Frelinghuysen University.

Decades later historian and legal scholar Dr. Mary Frances Berry became the first Black woman to head a major research university as chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Gay’s current peers include Dr. Ruth Simmons, outgoing president of Prairie View A&M University, who also served as president of Smith College before becoming the first Black president of an Ivy League institution at Brown University.

My own alma mater, Spelman College, has had five Black women leaders in a row since 1987, beginning with Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole and extending through Dr. Helene D. Gayle, a pediatrician and public health physician who became president of Spelman last year after serving as president and CEO of the Chicago Community Trust and the international humanitarian organization CARE and spending 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control and leading the Gates Foundation’s programs on HIV/AIDS and other global health issues.

Dr. Gay will also have new peers in Dr. Nemat “Minouche” Shafik, who has just been named as the first woman president-elect of Columbia University, and Dr. Sian Leah Beilock, the first woman president-elect of Dartmouth College, when all three begin their administrations later this year, joining women presidents already serving at Brown University, Cornell University, and the University of Pennsylvania within the Ivy League. Each of these leaders sets an important example for the students at her own school and beyond.

When Dr. Gay spoke after being introduced as Harvard’s next president, she paid tribute to the example set for her by her parents: “They came to the U.S. with very little and put themselves through college while raising our family. My mom became a registered nurse and my dad a civil engineer, and it was the City College of New York that made those careers possible. … My parents believed that education opens every door.”

Now she is committed to opening those doors for others. Dr. Gay will take over at a time when Harvard and other peer universities are grappling with their responsibilities for their institutions’ histories, including the ways in which they profited from the slave trade and enslaved people’s labor, and with the path forward for continuing to welcome diverse student bodies and scholarship as academia moves into the increasingly diverse future with affirmative action and certain modes of critical thinking under attack. It is a pivotal moment in higher education, and I join many others who will be cheering her on.

You can’t be what you can’t see – and I know many young people will now see themselves in President Gay and be inspired to set new goals of their own. Harvard University photo by Marco Carrasco

Shooting

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Asian male.

After fleeing the scene of the shooting in Monterey Park, Tan was later located in Torrance where he eventually took his own life from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“I am shocked and heartsick over the news of the mass shooting in Monterey Park at that community’s Lunar New Year celebration and my prayers are with the victims and their families,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a released statement.

Tran allegedly used an assault pistol in the killings, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna, who has held multiple press conferences with the media since the deadly rampage. All the victims that have been pronounced dead are 50 and over. The shooting took place at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in the heavily populated Asian American community.

U.S. Congresswoman Judy Chu, who represents Monterey Park in her 28th District was left bewildered and shocked by the stunning act of violence. Chu appeared at the press conference in which Luna announced that the alleged suspect (Tran) took his own life.

“I still have questions in my mind, which is what was the motive of the shooter? Did he have mental illness? Was he a domestic violence abuser? How did he get these guns and was it through legal means or not? Well, those questions have to be answered in the future.” Chu remarked. “What I want to say to the community is feel safe. You are no longer in danger because this shooter is gone.”

Luna talked about how it all the events unfolded as law enforcement closed in on Tran.

“The suspect sustained a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was pronounced dead at the scene,” Luna said. “Investigators conducted a search of the vehicle and determined that the male inside the van was the mask shooting suspect. During the search, several pieces of evidence were found inside the van, linking the suspect to both locations in Monterey Park and Alhambra.”

Luna continued, “In addition, a handgun was discovered inside the van. The suspect has been identified as Huu Can Tran. He is a 72, male Asian. I can confirm that there are no outstanding suspects from the mass shooting incident that occurred in the city of Monterey Park.”

Tan may be gone, but the avenue of mass shootings continues. The state of California has had a mass shooting in three straight days.

After Monterey Park, two more mass shootings in Northern California have taken place.