December 3, 2009
L.A. WATTS TIMES
NOTEBOOK
EDUCATION Report: More Latinos and African Americans Value Higher Education
CSU Campuses to Set Aside Spots for Special Skills
Obama to Honor Young Inventors at Science Fair
FRESNO (AP) — Some California State University campuses will set aside additional slots for athletes, musicians and other special students this fall as the system prepares to turn away more applicants. The 23-campus system is facing a $564 million budget cut this fiscal year, forcing it to cut enrollment by about 40,000 at the same time applications have reached record highs. That has forced many schools to prioritize applications from local students and rank qualified out-ofarea students based on academics. For the first time, some campuses also plan to expand their academic exceptions to ensure sports, band, ROTC-specialized programs such as agriculture and engineering are filled. Jim Blackburn, CSU’s systemwide director of enrollment management, says the group goes far beyond athletes to “all special talents.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he will have a national science fair next year to honor young inventors with the same gusto that college and professional athletes celebrate their victories at the White House. Obama on Nov. 23 said he would have a national science fair at the White House next year. He said he wants to show the country that inventors and engineers deserve the same recognition that athletes and celebrities get. The president made his remarks as he announced his administration was partnering with private companies to boost science and math scores. He said private companies already have pledged $260 million to help move U.S. students to the top of international rankings.
Music Center Extends Deadline for Spotlight Awards Visual Arts Applications The Music Center of Los Angeles County has extended its deadline for students to submit their artwork applications in the Visual Arts categories for the 22nd Annual Music Center Spotlight Awards. Visual Arts applications must be received online or postmarked by no later than Dec. 8. The program is free and open to all students who attend high school in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties at time of deadline. The Visual Arts categories are photography (black/white, color, and digital) and two-dimensional art (works of art with height and width but no depth, using drawing, painting, and computer-generated or mixed media). All visual arts participants will be invited to attend master classes and museum tours. Work by semifinalists will be showcased in a Southern California gallery in the spring 2010. The first grand prize scholarship is $5,000 and the second grand prize scholarship is $4,000. Honorable mentions receive $250 scholarships. Semi-finalists receive $100 scholarships. Information: spotlight@musiccenter.org, musiccenter.org.
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Students Get Schooled on Hip-Hop at Minn. College ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A professional DJ since 1992, Freddy Fresh (real name Fredrick Schmid) is among the new teachers brought in by McNally Smith College of Music for a hip-hop studies program that school officials say is the first in the nation. The private downtown St. Paul college — where rapper-actor Ice Cube already funds a scholarship for music technology studies — began the hip-hop program in September and hopes the first students, after completing a recorded project and a live performance, get their diploma certificates at commencement next summer. College classes on the language of hip-hop or how to work turntables are not new. Berklee College of Music in Boston held its annual Business of Hip-Hop Symposium in October and has had visits from pioneering hip-hop DJ Grandmaster Flash and rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently hosted a semester-long fall lecture series on hip-hop. Marcyliena Morgan, a professor at Harvard University, founded The Hiphop Archive in 2002. But McNally Smith is offering a full, 45-credit, three-semester hip-hop program. The school hopes that hip-hop graduates will then enter McNally Smith’s twoor four-year programs, where those students can apply some of their credits, said Cliff Wittstruck, dean of academic affairs.
BY VIVIAN PO NEW AMERICA MEDIA
A higher percentage of Latinos and African Americans in California value college education as a necessary path to success in today’s work world, compared to their Asian and white counterparts, according to a recent survey. The Public Policy Institute of California recently released its latest report, “Californians & Higher Education,” which reflects a spectrum of perspectives on California’s higher education among different ethnic groups. PPIC polled 2,502 adults in five languages — English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. Eighty-one percent of Latinos and 76 percent of African Americans believe that college education is necessary for a person to become successful, the report found. Only 57 percent of whites and 66 percent of Asians share the same perspective. Kim Thomas-Barrios, executive director of the Neighborhood Academic Initiative Program at University of Southern California,
said she was not surprised by the survey’s findings. “Education (means a) better life for them,” she said. Her program offers college prep for low-income students who are predominantly African American and Latino. Students enrolled in the program receive additional courses in English and mathematics, and extra information on college access, on the campus during weekends. Thomas-Barrios said that historically African American and Latino families who attended college earn better salaries and are often seen by their communities as those “who made it.” While more Latinos and African Americans highly value college education, they are not necessarily receiving one. Their college admission rates remain significantly lower than other major ethnic groups. According to admissions data from the University of California, African Americans and Latinos make up 4 percent and 22.2 percent, respectively, of the fall 2009
admissions to UC campuses; Asian Americans and whites make up 34.9 percent and 33.1 percent, respectively. Michele Siqueiros, executive director of Campaign for College Opportunity in Los Angeles, said the survey figures show there is “a gap between aspiration and actualization” in the Latino and African American communities. Siqueiros said the high cost of higher education is one hurdle for black and Latino students. They typically can’t afford the extras — like SAT prep courses — as well as the four-year tuition and expenses. The survey proves her point. According to the survey, 74 percent of African Americans and 64 percent of Latinos believe qualified students from low-income families, regardless of their ethnic background, have fewer opportunities to receive a college education, compared to nearly 60 percent of Asians and whites. “That is why it is so important to preserve Cal Grants and other grants to low-income students,” Siqueiros said.
Montgomery Bus Boycott, cites a plaque he saw in Soweto, South Africa, as proof of the historic nature of what happened that day in 1969. At a museum dedicated to the struggle against apartheid that Babu visited in 2007, he observed the plaque that was dedicated to the black youth of the United States in the 1960s who helped inspire us (South Africans) to stand up and carry out our struggle.
“That act on Central Avenue had a worldwide effect,” he said. A Dec. 24, 1971, Los Angeles Tribune article detailed the acquittal of all the Panthers involved in the Dec. 8 shootout, according to “The Cointelpro Papers.” “(It was) one of the longest trials in California history, if not the longest at the time,” Freeman said. “That was a highlight of the struggle; it didn’t get much better than that.”
PANTHERS Continued from page 10 in a five-hour shootout with over 300 police officers, including SWAT. It’s SWAT’s first public mission and they break out 16 millimeter film cameras to film the event, no one is murdered, and they (the Panthers) eventually beat the case … this is the climax of the Black Power Movement in America,” Everett said. Talibah Shakir, an 18-year-old member of the party at the time, also described the confrontation as a defining moment. “We were like, ‘We’re tired of turning the other cheek.’ We were tired of seeing our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, shot down in the street by the local police agencies, the occupying force, and then it being classified as justifiable homicide time and time again,” she said. Babu, who described the incident as a victory that should be celebrated in the same way as the
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