Morgan Magazine 2009 Issue

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A Remarkable Journey

MSU President Earl S. Richardson

VOLUME I 2009

MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2009

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Fellow Morganites,

MESSAGE FROM THE

SGA STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION

J

asmine and I are profoundly grateful for the opportunity we have been given to serve Morgan State University as Student Government Association president and vice president for the 2009–2010 academic year. Morgan pride has flowed through our veins for quite some time. My brother graduated from Morgan in 2005, and Jasmine’s parents graduated from the University in the 1980s. We entered Morgan in the fall of 2006 ready to succeed and build on the legacy of our families.

From the beginning, Jasmine and I have been very active in extracurricular activities. However, we always dreamed of a better Morgan, one where students were put first and students’ concerns were tackled with diligence and tenacity. Morgan State University was once known as a place where students held their heads high, simply glad to be a part of the rich orange and blue legacy.

We want to get Morgan back to what it once was. We want today’s students to be able to reflect many years from now on their Morgan experience and remember the Bear Pride expressed at the Saturday football games, the chanting of the Live Squad, participating in the Homecoming Parade and letting loose on I Love Morgan Day. Another important goal of ours is to spread the Morgan spirit throughout the city of Baltimore. Unfortunately, Morgan students have become out of touch with our surrounding community. We often forget that Baltimore is our home and that community outreach only enhances one’s college experience. For this reason, we plan to implement various community service initiatives during our term. We are going into the community, the community that desperately needs our support! As the SGA president and vice president, we will work diligently to educate the Morgan community about the history of historically black colleges and about black history in general.

On behalf of the students of Morgan, we thank our retiring president, Dr. Earl S. Richardson, for his 25 years of faithful service, and we wish him and First Lady Dr. Sheila B. Richardson all the best in their new endeavors. We hope that you, the alumni, will continue to support the students during the University’s next era of greatness. We are your future and hope to make you proud.

When you come back for Homecoming or Alumni Day, please stop by our office located in the University Student Center, Room 203. Jasmine and I are well aware that the support of the entire Morgan family is vital to our success as student leaders and are extremely grateful for each Morganite’s contribution to making Morgan State University great!

Sincerely, Melissa Longley SGA President, 2009–2010 MSU Student Government leaders Jasmine Curry (L) and Melissa Longley (R).

Jasmine T. Curry SGA Vice President, 2009–2010

Ta b l e

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Contents

Morgan State University Magazine

Morgan Magazine is published by the Division of Institutional Advancement of MSU for alumni, parents, faculty, students, prospective students and friends. Morgan Magazine is designed and edited by the Office of Public Relations and Communications. Opinions expressed in Morgan Magazine are those of the individual authors and are not necessarily those of the University. Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs are welcome but will be returned only if accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Letters are also welcome.

Correspondence should be directed to: Morgan Magazine Morgan State University, 1700 E. Cold Spring Lane, Truth Hall, #109, Baltimore, MD 21251 443-885-3022 office • 443-885-8297 fax • public_relations@morgan.edu

Volume I 2009

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Letter from the President

Remarkable Journey

Commencement Highlights Activism, Change

Honda All-Star Challenge

The Richardson Era

Dr. Earl S. Richardson

Morgan’s 133rd Graduation

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The Bernard Osher Re-Entry Scholarship Program

The Goldseker Fellows Program

Home-Grown Success

Perfect Exposure

Graduate Student Grants

Writer and Actor Samm-Art Williams, MSU ’68

Photojournalist for Ebony and Jet Began His Career at Morgan

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History Lives in 'The City of the Dead'

Winners!

Improving Health in Urban America

Center for Continuing and Professional Studies Morgan Magazine, Volume II 2008, winner of the 2009 APEX Award for Publication Excellence

Mount Auburn Cemetery

MORGAN

MAGAZINE

Vice President for Institutional Advancement

Strong Coach, New Culture Bring Success to Morgan Basketball

MSU’s School of Community Health and Policy

STAFF Publications Manager

Photographer (Magazine Cover)

Contributing Editor Eric Addison

Cheryl Y. Hitchcock

Ferdinand Mehlinger

P. A. Greene

cheryl.hitchcock@morgan.edu

ferdinand.mehlinger@morgan.edu

paul.greene@morgan.edu

Director of Public Relations and Communications

Art Director (Magazine Design)

Communications Assistant

Clinton R. Coleman

David E. Ricardo

Kevin Nash

clinton.coleman@morgan.edu

david.ricardo@morgan.edu

kevin.nash@morgan.edu

Assistant Director of Public Relations and Communications

Sr. Graphic Designer

Contributing Photographer

Kelvin Jenkins

andre.barnett@morgan.edu

kelvin.jenkins@morgan.edu

Golden Bears Shine in Academic Competition

Andre Barnett

Contributing Writers Hope Ambush Chambers Adrienne Gibbs Wiley A. Hall 3rd Brenda Thompson Henderson Christina Royster-Hemby

Ferdinand Mehlinger

MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2009

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Office of th e President

Alumni and Friends, Those in oth er areas of en deavor often some educa tors to use o express frust verlong sen ration with course, thes tences, arca the languag e faults are ne, multisyll e of academ far from un a b ia: the tend ic iv er w sal. Consider ords, and te “I could no ency of rms used no t believe the the elegance where else. jo of the academ urney and ex pinching m Of yself perience ha ic term “co d ended unti mmencemen home, Morg , giving thanks and pra l I was up o t.” ise for a pu an State Un n stage at co rpose and a iversity!” mmencemen new journey These are w t, . Thanks to ords from a my home aw Morgan gra in this maga ay from duate, Angel zine. To my a Riley, MS mind, they the accomp U Class of 2 capture per lishment, jo 009, and yo fectly the es y at a new b your home. u will find th sence of the eginning an em later experience d knowledg of graduatio e that the p As I prepare n : la d ce isbelief at y ou are leavin for my own g will alway commencem December, I s be en feel Ms. Ril ey’s words in t, with my retirement fr om the presi my heart.

I reflect on dency of th my 25 years is great inst of service to have worked itution in Morgan wit to make the h the profoun U and develop dest gratitu ing in its aca niversity what it is tod de toward a ay: a magnif demic and re infrastructu ll those with icent work search offer re. who in progress, ings, in its st o ne that is gro m I udent succes As you will wing se s a read in thes nd in its ph e pages, Mo ysical the arts, wit rg a h renowned n’s influence alu in the broad Dudley M. er commun Brooks; in th mni such as playwrigh ity also con t and actor e public poli Public Healt tinues to gro S a cy m h and Policy m-Art Willi arena, with w— ams and ph ; in athletics innovative p in historical otojournalist in , ro a preservation s exemplified grams such , with the U as those of

by Morgan other areas.

M niversity’s ro ’s champion le in the rest ship perform SU’s School of o a ra nce in bask ti My greatest on of Mt. A etball; uburn Cem desire, as alw et ery, and in m a that outcom ys, is to see any e, as I have Morgan’s le for the past gacy expan d, and I wil quarter-cen I look forw l continue to tury. ard to work do all I can ing with yo back to you toward u shoulder r alma mate to sh r with this is oulder for th sue of Morg e good of th an Magazin e University e. , and I welco me you Sincerely,

Earl S. Richards on President

1700 E. Col d Spring La ne • Truth (443) 885-32 Hall, Room 403 • Bal timore, MD 00 • Fax (4 21251 43) 885-3107

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MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2009

Remarkable Journey The Richardson Era

By Eric Addison

Dr. Earl S. Richardson’s

25-Year Presidency

MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2009

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“HIS ARE ‘SHOES OF SUCCESS’ THAT WILL BE DIFFICULT, AND IN REALITY NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE, TO FILL…. DR. RICHARDSON HAS BEEN BOTH EXPERT MANAGER AND INSPIRING LEADER.” — Dr. Burney J. Hollis, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, MSU

Burney J. Hollis, Ph.D.

Burney J. Hollis, Ph.D. has deep roots in Morgan State University. An outstanding scholar who graduated summa cum laude from Morgan in 1968, Dr. Hollis has been dean of the University’s College of Liberal Arts for the past 10 years.

By his own account, he was educated at Morgan by some of the ablest scholars in American higher education, some of whom, themselves, were educated at Morgan. After getting his doctorate, Dr. Hollis returned to his alma mater as an assistant professor of English in 1970. He’s been a member of the faculty ever since.

“In this sense,” he says,” I am a very proud graduate of Morgan and one who has a great deal vested in its progress and its future.”

After that full disclosure, Dean Hollis goes on to label his early days at Morgan as the tail end of the University’s “Second Era of Great Progress.”

“The first of the eras was under the leadership of Dr. John Oakley Spencer (1902–1936), Morgan’s first leader with academic credentials, when Morgan reached a level of prominence as a liberal arts institution and won its first accreditation by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools,” Dr. Hollis writes.

“The second era of prosperity was under Dr. Martin D. Jenkins (1948–1970), when Morgan earned distinction from Middle States and was designated a model liberal arts institution,” he continues.

Dr. Hollis calls the period between 1984 and the present Morgan’s “Third Era of Great Progress,” when it became “Maryland’s public urban research university…not only in name but also in fact.” He has another name for this time, also: the “Era of Dr. Earl S. Richardson.”

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Earl S. Richa rdson, Ed.D .—Mid-198 0s

E

arl S. Richardson came to

Morgan as interim president in February 1984. By that time, at age 41, he’d acquired a wealth of experience over 19 years in educational administration — with the University of Maryland System as assistant to the president and at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) as assistant to the chancellor, then as director of Career Planning and Placement, then as acting director of Admissions and Registration. His educational credentials were just as solid: a bachelor’s degree in social science from UMES, and master’s and doctoral degrees in education administration from the University of Pennsylvania.

After eight months, his job at Morgan became permanent: Dr. Richardson was appointed the University’s 11th president on Nov. 1, 1984. Since then, Morgan has experienced tremendous growth and development — in the credentials of its faculty, in its academic programs, in its learning and living facilities, in the qualifications of its incoming students, in its impact on

the diversity of the nation’s work force, in research dollars attracted to the University, in funds raised for the University, and in many other areas.

“Dr. Richardson has really implemented the vision as reflected in the University’s enhancement plan.

He has moved the University forward significantly,” says Dallas R. Evans, chairman of MSU’s Board of Regents. “For example, one of the goals has always been to have the University as a doctoral-granting research institution, and we achieved that two years ago. He has taken the University to a pinnacle where it had not been previously in its history.”

On Dec. 31, with Dr. Richardson’s retirement, Morgan will close the door on another era. For now, for many Morganites, the question is how and in what direction their institution will continue to progress.

But that’s getting ahead of the story.

Rough Landscape In November of 1984, there were many in Morgan’s family who did not envy the new president.

“DR. RICHARDSON HAS REALLY IMPLEMENTED THE VISION AS REFLECTED IN THE UNIVERSITY’S ENHANCEMENT PLAN. HE HAS MOVED THE UNIVERSITY FORWARD SIGNIFICANTLY.” — Dallas R. Evans, Chairman of the Board of Regents, MSU

Dallas R. Evans

“Now that you mention it, the beginning of his tenure was somewhat like the beginning of Obama’s tenure,” says Ruthe T. Sheffey, Ph.D., MSU Class of ’47, a longtime professor of English at Morgan and one of the scholars Dr. Hollis praises for training him well.

“Deeply, deeply troubled, with major, major problems that had to be solved.”

Between Dr. Jenkins’ resignation in 1970 and Dr. Richardson’s arrival, Morgan had had two presidents — King Vergil Cheek, J.D. and Andrew Billingsley, Ph.D. Thomas P. Fraser, Ed.D. had served twice as interim president.

By the end of Dr. Billingsley’s tenure, by many accounts, the institution was in turmoil. The faculty’s and students’ dissatisfaction with the University administration was high, infighting among faculty and staff was rampant, enrollment was declining, and many Morganites feared the school was on the verge of collapse.

Clara Adams, Ph.D., now special assistant to the president of Morgan State, was vice president for Academic Affairs for the University then. She joined Morgan’s faculty in 1959, during the Jenkins administration, after earning three degrees in chemistry, including a bachelor’s from Morgan.

“The problems weren’t with Morgan.

The problems were with our external environment,” Dr. Adams says. “When Dr. Jenkins was here, we got what we got primarily because of his dogged persistence. He would go down to the state legislature, and he would pretty much demand what he should have (for) his programs at the college.

“In the late ’60s, the state started to expand public higher education,” she continues. “All of the state teachers colleges were made state colleges, and Morgan was forced under the Board of Trustees of State Colleges of Maryland with them. After that, whenever Dr. Jenkins would ask for anything, the

answer was, ‘Morgan is already an established liberal arts college. We have to develop these other schools.’

“So, I feel that between the time that (Dr. Jenkins) left and during the five years Cheek was the president and the almost 10 years following that Dr. Billingsley was the president, Morgan went through 15 years of benign neglect.”

And, help was not forthcoming from the federal level, says Kweisi Mfume, MSU Class of 1976 and a current member of Morgan’s Board of Regents.

When Dr. Richardson took on Morgan’s presidency, Mfume was a member of the Baltimore City Council. Three years later, Maryland’s 7th District sent the councilman to the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Basically, historically black colleges were viewed by the majority in Congress as entities to be rolled into larger college and university campuses,” Mfume says. “Congress as a whole just did not step up with the kind of leadership that was required, because HBCUs just were not a top agenda item.”

It was onto this hazardous political landscape that Dr. Richardson made his entrance, determined to launch a Renaissance of Morgan State University.

at the ara Adams on and Dr. Cl efer EngiDr. Richards ha Sc ’s SU ing of M ground-break ing neering Build

Challenge and Character One of the new president’s first challenges was convincing a dispirited, mistrustful faculty that he had the University’s best interest at heart. “…One of the things that the faculty was a little upset about is we raised admission standards,” Dr. Adams says. “(The previous administrations) didn’t call it open admissions, but that’s essentially what they were doing. And we decided that, no, if we wanted to attract some of the best students, we had to revise our admission standards.

“A lot of the faculty were against Dr. Richardson, also, because they thought he had been appointed to merge us with the University of Maryland. They thought there was some ulterior motive,” Dr. Adams continues.

“To add insult to injury, in Dr. Richardson’s very first legislative session, that following January, 1985, he was told that he had to retrench 40 faculty,” she recalls. “They wanted 40 faculty members to go in one fell swoop (because) Morgan’s enrollment had declined. Well, Dr. Richardson had sufficient political savvy that he was able to convince them to let him do that over two years. He came up with an early retirement package for those that were at a certain age and had given a certain number of years of service. So, some of them that were most upset about the retrenchment cooled right down.

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“HE REALLY BROUGHT US TO TRUE UNIVERSITY STATUS.” — Dr. Clara Adams, Special Assistant to the President, MSU

Clara Adams, Ph.D.

MSU’s Richard N. Dixon Building, during construction

ction s constru dson view t Center en Dr. Richar ud St at the MSU progress

“Within five years, I would say, the faculty was clear that he was here to build the University,” Dr. Adams says.

Dr. Sheffey finds deep significance in Dr. Richardson’s handling of the faculty retrenchment situation.

“I think his administration can be characterized by an attempt to take on difficult issues and sometimes unpleasant ones but to do it as humanely and as compassionately as possible,” she says. “This year, we had the same problem, the problem of doing something about cutting back the salaries and the budget, and here again, he did what he’s characterized by doing…. You can say that’s a characteristic when it holds over 25 years.”

Linda Farrar, administrative assistant to Dr. Richardson, concurs. She has been a member of the president’s staff at Morgan since she graduated from the University in 1972.

“I have worked under several presidents, and each has brought his own unique set of talents. None, however, has been more considerate, compassionate, committed or productive than Dr. Richardson,” Farrar says.

“I have often said to him that leading the University is his mission; it is his ministry given him by God,” Farrar says.

“When Dr. Jenkins was president, he used to talk about going the ‘second mile.’ That’s what Dr. Richardson does.

He gives his all, plus more.”

Evans of the Board of Regents

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MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2009

describes Dr. Richardson as “very secure” and “very thoughtful.”

“And he does his homework,” Evans adds. “That’s why he has been successful and why the University has been successful.”

“The other thing he does very well is listen,” Evans continues. “He listens to all of the various points of view. Then he comes back with the facts and thinks through what the position of the institution should be.”

“He went prepared and made a convincing argument” to the lawmakers in Annapolis, Dr. Adams relates. “(He) would go to the budget hearings with all of his charts and tables; he took students to have them speak on some of the things they were doing and where they were going when they graduated.”

“He really brought us to true university status,” she says. “…(Dr. Richardson) was young, a brand new president, had had no experience in being a president, and I think Morgan’s opponents thought that we were going to just self-destruct, that it was just a matter of time,” Dr. Adams says. “(But) it didn’t happen. He came in and turned this place around.”

Engineering a Future Dr. Richardson also helped build things from scratch at Morgan, when it was called for, as in the case of the School of Engineering.

Morgan’s engineering school opened in May 1984, the result of planning by

The William Donald Scha efer Engineering Building

the Billingsley administration. A state committee and MSU’s top administrators had determined the school was necessary to address the lack of minorities in a critical field.

“Dr. Richardson realized that the School of Engineering was a critical piece of the puzzle for Morgan moving forward,” recalls Eugene M. DeLoatch, Ph.D., Morgan’s dean of engineering. “As a result, he made that an essential part of his early platform.”

As Morgan’s interim president, Dr. Richardson interviewed Dr. DeLoatch and hired him in July 1984, but not before the interviewee had also sized up his future boss.

“I wasn’t exactly seeking this job when I was recruited,” Dr. DeLoatch admits. “I had a firm impression of Dr. Richardson because he had a vision, and he was persistent. And he knew that he wanted to establish a quality effort at Morgan, as well as at the engineering school at Morgan. He was someone who was committed to working as hard as the people he chose to work with him.”

It was Dr. Richardson’s commitment to give the engineering school the resources and the support of his administration that convinced Dr. DeLoatch to move from Howard University to Morgan, he says.

“He is a fighter,” Dr. DeLoatch says. “…We worked as a team. I was to be the one with some vision for engineering, and he would be the one to put his best

“HE IS A FIGHTER…. WE WORKED AS A TEAM. I WAS TO BE THE ONE WITH SOME VISION FOR ENGINEERING, AND HE WOULD BE THE ONE TO PUT HIS BEST EFFORT FORWARD TO MAKE SURE THE RESOURCES WERE HERE TO REACH THOSE GOALS.” — Dr. Eugene M. DeLoatch, Dean of the School of Engineering, MSU Eugene M. DeLoatch, Ph.D.

Dr. Richardson (second from right), with (left to right) Morgan alumnus the late James H. Gilliam Jr., ’67; Vice President (then-U.S. Sen.) Joseph Biden; Linda G.J. Gilliam, now MSU Regent and Chair of the Gilliam Foundation; and U.S. Sen. Paul Sarbanes, at the opening of the Murphy Fine Arts Center in 2001

effort forward to make sure the resources were here to reach those goals.”

The results of their teamwork are now apparent, in the impressive physical infrastructure of the school, including two state-of-the-art buildings; in the $10–12 million per year in research dollars the School of Engineering brings to the University; and, most important, in the human resources the school has developed. In the past 25 years, the engineering school faculty has grown from one member to 40, and Morgan State has produced 1,600 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree holders in four engineering specialties. Before the School of Engineering opened, “the State of Maryland hardly produced more than 50 African-American engineering graduates a year,” Dr. DeLoatch says.

“Now we’re steadily in the 180, 190 output range, and typically 50 percent or better of those students come off the campus here at Morgan State University.”

All of this growth and accomplishment, Dr. DeLoatch says, “has a lot to do with the president. The president does the final arbitration or fights the battles in Annapolis. We also have great support from our surrounding businesses. The president is a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to helping to make the sell.”

Master Teamworker Engineering is hardly the only area where Dr. Richardson’s relationship-

building and teamworking skills have been critical. His colleagues on campus describe him as a likeable but powerful advocate for the University.

“Dr Richardson filled the bill. He has more of the steel fist in the velvet glove kind of approach,” says Dr. Adams. “Dr. Jenkins would romp and stomp. Dr. Richardson is more smooth and gives the impression of being easygoing, but he doesn’t back down.”

Says Dr. Sheffey: “Over these past 25 years, Dr. Richardson has had to fight, like a demon, the opponents in Annapolis. Fortunately, he has had on his side people like (the late) Howard Rawlings — though he and Dr. Richardson locked horns sometimes — (the late) Clarence Blount, Nathaniel McFadden, other Morgan graduates down there.

“Dr. Richardson had the personality to cultivate the friends who were willing to help us and (the personality) to speak truth to the powers who stood against us. That’s an unusual combination,” Dr. Sheffey says.

Mfume names the MSU Board of Regents, Maryland State Senators Joan Carter Conway and Ulysses Currie, and former NAACP President Enolia McMillan (now deceased) as some of the others who have worked well with Dr. Richardson over the years to bring about Morgan’s growth.

And, “I think a good deal of it is directly attributable to Dr. Richardson’s

leadership….” Mfume says. “I have to give him credit for bringing the University out of a bad period that was very troubled and into a period of growth and of competitiveness.”

‘A Very Rare Thing’ His colleagues also say their president will be very difficult to replace.

“I’m nervous. I’m really nervous” about Dr. Richardson’s departure, Dr. Adams admits, “unless we get someone who is really strong.” Morgan’s opponents “haven’t been able to control Dr. Richardson,” she says.

“One certainly wonders what will become of Morgan State University in its post-Richardson years, mainly because what Morgan has achieved in the last 25 years is due, in large measure, to Dr. Richardson’s leadership,” Dr. Hollis says. “His are ‘shoes of success’ that will be difficult, and in reality nearly impossible, to fill. He is such a rare educational leader who balances the two faces of leadership remarkably well — realizing that ‘Things are managed, but people are led.’ Dr. Richardson has been both expert manager and inspiring leader.”

Dr. Richardson’s departure “comes at a very interesting time in the country,” says Dr. DeLoatch. “Financially, the country is not sound…. But I think there’s enough strength in the foundation that he’s laid that the future for Morgan is very bright.”

“He has put the University on a very MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2009

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“I THINK HIS ADMINISTRATION CAN BE CHARACTERIZED BY AN ATTEMPT TO TAKE ON DIFFICULT ISSUES AND SOMETIMES UNPLEASANT ONES BUT TO DO IT AS HUMANELY AND AS COMPASSIONATELY AS POSSIBLE.” — Dr. Ruthe T. Sheffey, Professor of English, MSU

Ruthe T. Sheffey, Ph.D.

Nearly 25,000 students have graduated from Morgan during Dr. Richardson’s tenure.

solid footing, as far as the infrastructure, the programs, the delivery of education,” Dallas Evans concurs.

“He’s put it on a very solid foundation for growth.”

“It’s been a remarkable journey....”

Dr. DeLoatch adds. “Five to six years is about the average for deans across the country, in terms of their time in office. And that’s usually the average time for a president. This is a very rare thing, that a dean or a president would spend 25 years in that role. As a result, I think you can see the infrastructure has changed dramatically, the enrollment has more than doubled. A lot of things like that have been the result of Dr. Richardson’s persistence and hard work over the past 25 years.”

Dr. Sheffey sees Morgan’s 11th president as a leader for the ages.

She has written a poetic tribute that compares him to great warriors of history and literature — Frederick Douglass, the Trojan hero Aeneas, Roland of the French national epic.

“That ability to keep calm in the worst kind of storms, where you think all is lost, to keep an even keel...to not give up,” she says. “All of those stories about those heroic leaders give us some substance for talking about Earl Richardson’s career.”

Dr. Richardson with President Bill Clinton

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MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2009

A Villanelle

In Praise of Earl S. Richardson’s

Remarkable Journey

The Villanelle is a traditional form of poetry. Villanelles, with their frequent refrains and complex rhyming, have been written for at least 300 years. The name derives from the Italian “villa,” or country house. The form may have grown out of native songs.

By Ruthe T. Sheffey, Ph.D., MSU Professor of English • Presented at the Faculty Institute, Morgan State University, Aug. 12, 2009

For this strong man the journey does not end The path, like Paul’s, found him an advocate.

He saw a challenge there, where the road bends.

Equity and parity in funding found a friend In speaking truth to power, stern, articulate.

For this wise man the journey does not end.

Like Odysseus, breasting Aegean seas, or Douglass, contending with the Chesapeake’s winds.

His vision was to build and renovate.

He loved the victories, there where the road bends.

A greater joy, distinguished graduates, the school’s life blood to send Out, in twenty-five years seems much too short a date.

For this just man the journey does not end.

A tireless leader whom even foes commend, New programs, structures, once done, more to anticipate He raised a monument there, where the road bends.

Firm on the threshing ground, where truth and honor blend A happy warrior clad in helmet, armor, and breastplate For this brave man, the journey does not end.

He seizes a new mission there, where the road bends.

MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2009

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The Journey

MSU’S GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT, 1984–2009 • Improved credentialing of faculty — tenure-track faculty holding terminal degrees increased to more than 90 percent • Thirty-eight new academic programs • Accreditation and reaccreditation of all qualified academic programs • Designation as a doctoral research institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching • Renovation of 17 living and learning facilities and construction of 12 new facilities and facilities replacements, totaling more than $500 million • Increase in enrollment of more than 75 percent • Dramatic increase in SAT scores of incoming freshmen • Growth of more than 1,000 percent in dollar amount of external grants and research funding • Successful completion of a capital campaign that exceeded its goal of $25 million in record time • High state and national rankings in the production of AfricanAmerican graduates • Outstanding success for graduates, including three of the five African-American four-star Army generals commissioned in the nation’s history • Graduation of more Fulbright Scholars than any institution of comparable size in the U.S. • Worldwide acclaim for the Morgan State University Choir MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2009

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Commencement Highlights Activism, Change

By Hope Ambush Chambers, ’68

“My experience at Morgan, after many years of being out of school, at first was overwhelming,” says Riley. “I could not believe the journey and experience had ended until I was up on the stage at Commencement, pinching myself, giving thanks and praise for a purpose and a new journey. Thanks to my home away from home, Morgan State University!”

M

organ State University held its 133rd Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 16, 2009, in W.A.C. Hughes Memorial Stadium.

Thirteen hundred candidates from the U.S., as well as from nations in Africa, the Caribbean and elsewhere, received bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degrees. For many, the celebration was tempered by the knowledge that Dr. Earl S. Richardson was attending his final Morgan Commencement in his role as University president.

Retired MSU professor Dr. Clayton T. Stansbury Jr. served as chief university marshal at the event for the 35th consecutive year.

The candidates, their families and other guests were addressed by longtime civil rights activist and current NAACP President Benjamin Jealous, who praised the graduates for their political activism.

“Congratulations to the Class of 2009.

You will forever carry the badge of honor as the generation that changed the world before it graduated,” he said, referring to young peoples’ role in the election of the nation’s first African-American president.

Highlights of the ceremony included the awarding of an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree to Jealous. The Honorable Nathaniel J. McFadden, ’68,

The Honorable Nathaniel J. McFadden, ’68

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MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2009

Morgan’s 133rd Commencement speaker, NAACP President Benjamin Jealous

was also recognized. McFadden, president pro tempore of the Maryland State Senate, was named Morgan Alumnus of the Year in February, for his tireless efforts in the political arena and as a community leader in Maryland’s 45th District.

All of Morgan’s commencements have been unique, and few can match this year’s tales of triumph.

Zenia Wilson, a philosophy/pre-law bachelor’s degree recipient, and her mother, Angela Riley, recipient of a master’s in social work, made the pursuit of higher education a family achievement. Wilson, who graduated with a 3.9 GPA, states, “My departure from Morgan was bittersweet. I am grateful that I was able to graduate in three years but sad that I will miss out on spending another year with the people whom I have grown to love.”

Zenia Wilson, ‘09

Public relations bachelor’s degree recipient Akeem Croft received the prestigious Second Mile Award during Commencement, for his exemplary campus service and leadership. Croft recalls that he was denied admission to Morgan initially, but he did not give up.

“There were a lot of opportunities at Morgan. The hard work was worth it,” he says. “But most of all, I was grateful for the opportunity to walk across the stage to shake hands with President Richardson.”

University honors program graduates, as well as recipients of ROTC commissions and class and special awards, were acknowledged. And, of course, Commencement would not have been complete without the performances of the MSU Band and MSU Choir.

University Honors Program graduates

Morgan’s 2009 Honda AllStar Challenge Team: (left to right) junior Richard T. Bowling, from Forestville, Md.; freshman Virgo T. Morrison, team captain, from Lancaster, Pa.; sophomore Andre A. Greene, from Paterson, N.J., and senior Lesley C. Osuala, from Queens, N.Y. Not pictured: senior Olawale Williams Jr., from Washington, D.C.

Golden Bears Shine in the Honda All-Star Challenge

By Christina Royster-Hemby, ’93

T

hink ‘Jeopardy’ on a College Bowl scale,” says Dr. Oluwatosin Adegbola, as she describes the 2009 Honda All-Star Challenge. The assistant professor in Morgan State University’s Department of Communication Studies coached five MSU students to semifinalist status in the academic competition, which took place in Orlando, Fla., in March. In her first time out as a coach, Dr. Adegbola’s team was one of eight to make the semifinals, out of 64 schools entered.

Morgan brought back $7,500 in grant money, and a trophy.

“I am very proud of the young people we had on our team this year,” says MSU President Dr. Earl S. Richardson.

“They certainly proved that they are among the best and the brightest that Morgan and Maryland have to offer. I am grateful to the students and coach, Dr. Adegbola, for their hard work.”

Twenty years old this year, the Honda All-Star Challenge is a quiz bowl tournament for historically black colleges and universities. The event is administered by the College Bowl Company and sponsored by American Honda Motor Company, Inc. To make the grade, Morgan’s team had to give up holiday breaks for study, compete in a campus tournament and other tournaments regionally, and become masters of trivia in fields such as art, politics, geography and African-American history. They also had to make the grade in working well with others.

“Having a high GPA doesn’t necessarily qualify you to be a member of a team,” Dr. Adegbola says. “I knew that I could prepare the right competitors academically, but it’s more difficult to teach someone how to be a team player.”

The MSU Honda All-Star Challenge Team with their coach, Dr. Oluwatosin Adegbola (far right), Assistant Professor of Communication Studies

This year’s good run has left the Bears hungrier for victory in 2010. The team is already soaking up facts for the next Honda All-Star Challenge.

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The Bernard Osher Re-Entry Scholarship Program Center for Continuing and Professional Studies

T

he Bernard Osher Foundation, based in San Francisco, Calif., was founded in 1977 by Bernard Osher.

Sometimes referred to as the “quiet philanthropist,” he is well respected as a businessman and community leader.

The mission of the Foundation is “to improve the quality of life through the support for higher education and the arts.”

The Foundation provides postsecondary scholarship funds to colleges and universities across the nation. Approximately 80 percent of Osher Foundation grants have gone to support educational programs with particular emphasis on reentry students, one of the Bernard Osher Foundation Programs. The Osher Reentry Scholarship Program, launched in the summer of 2005, provides scholarship support for nontraditional students, aged 25–50, who are returning to a four-year institution after a significant interruption in their education of five

years or more to complete their bachelor’s degree. Presently, this program has been funded at 70 institutions including Morgan State University.

The first Morgan State University (MSU) Osher Reentry Scholarship program was funded by the Bernard Osher Foundation in June 2008. Now operating in the Center for Continuing and Professional Studies (CCPS), the scholarship program supports nontraditional adult learners enrolled in baccalaureate degree programs. The Osher Reentry Scholarship fits with Morgan’s other Continuing and Professional Studies programs and with the mission of the University.

“The partnership with the Bernard Osher Foundation aids in Morgan’s ability to meet the needs of its growing diverse population of adult learners,” says Willie A. Bragg, Ph.D., assistant dean of Morgan’s School of Graduate Studies and director of the MSU Center for Con-

tinuing and Professional Studies.

Osher Reentry Scholarship recipients represent several disciplines, including Architecture, Business Administration, Elementary Education, Engineering, English, Family and Consumer Sciences, Finance, Information Science and Systems, Physics, Social Work, Sociology and Anthropology.

Eligibility Requirements: • Currently enrolled at Morgan State University as a part-time or full-time student pursuing first bachelor's degree.

• Between the ages 25 and 50.

• Has experienced a gap in education of five or more years.

• Meets a minimum 2.5 grade point average.

• Demonstrates financial need.

• U.S. citizen and Maryland resident.

MSU Osher Scholarship Recipients: Back Row (L-R): Christine Southall, Robert Headen, Cordelia Jones, Tahisa Hamwright, Dealia Jones Front Row (L-R): Raymond Carter, Sheena Black, Ernest Stewart, Robin Harris

Willie A. Bragg, Ph.D.

For further information, please contact Dr. Willie A. Bragg (443.885.3155).

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The Goldseker Fellows Program T

hroughout her nine-year career as an educator, Christine Graham had wanted to continue her own education in gradChristine Graham uate school, but because of the cost, she didn’t think doing so was possible. A visit to Morgan State University’s School of Graduate Studies changed her mind about that.

“The warmth, the encouragement that I received just talking to faculty members, and the program that Morgan offers immediately grabbed my attention,” she recalls.

Graham is now a full-time doctoral student in her second year of MSU’s Urban Education Leadership Program.

A large part of her financial aid package consists of a fellowship that covers her tuition, courtesy of the Morris Goldseker Foundation.

“I’d applied to other places, but they did not offer a scholarship like this.

So there was no other place for me,” she says.

Graham is one of the hundreds of students who have received help in funding their graduate education from the Morgan State University Goldseker Fellows Program.

Morgan’s Goldseker Fellowship was launched in the late 1970s, after the death of prominent Baltimore businessman Morris Goldseker. Clara Adams, Ph.D., special assistant to MSU President Dr. Earl S. Richardson, explains that in his will, Goldseker left the University 5 percent of the interest from his investment portfolio.

Dr. Adams was dean of MSU’s School of Graduate Studies then and was well aware that Morgan had a scarcity of financial aid for graduate students.

So she suggested to Dr. Andrew Billingsley, then University president, that the Goldseker Foundation funds be used to provide help in that area.

“The initial grant was about $28,000, which for us was still a lot of money,” says Dr. Adams.

The program has grown considerably since then. For the 2008–09 academic year, the Goldseker Foundation grant to MSU was $250,000. The lion’s share of that amount, $230,000, provided tuition fellowships for 74 full-time and part-time graduate students. And, as always, a small portion of the Goldseker grant — $20,000 last year — went to a discretionary fund administered by Morgan’s president. In recent years, Dr. Richardson has used some of the discretionary funds to pay the tuition for students from Lake Clifton High School who take collegelevel finance courses at Morgan.

The Goldseker Foundation was created through the generosity and foresight of Morris Goldseker (1898–1973). Mr. Goldseker directed in his will that the Foundation be formed to support programs that directly benefit the people of the metropolitan area of Baltimore.

The Goldseker Fellows Program is Morgan’s largest privately sponsored grant program for graduate students, says Crystol Heidelberg, financial manager for the School of Graduate Studies. The fellowships pay for six credits per semester for part-time students or nine credits per semester for those attending full time. For many Goldseker Fellowship recipients over the past 30 years, the tuition grants have made the difference between being able to get a graduate education and having to postpone it or do it at a slower pace, says Dr. Adams.

Christine Graham is a witness.

“I believe God led me here. I was extremely ecstatic to receive the fellowship,” Graham says, “very, very happy, because it shows support. It shows that Morgan is serious and that they have done what is necessary to try to maintain the students that they have.”

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“The Montford Point Marine,” the newest play by Morgan grad Samm-Art Williams, ’68, was staged at the Intersections Play Festival, June 5– 6, 2009, at CENTERSTAGE in Baltimore, Md. The play is about Williams’ father, who was a member of the legendary Montford Point Marines of Camp Lejeune, N.C. This unit, which served from 1942 to 1949, was the first group of African Americans permitted to serve as U.S. Marines.

Home-Grown Success Writer and Actor Samm-Art Williams, MSU ’68

By Brenda Thompson Henderson, ’65

W

hat do “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” Tony and Emmy Awards, a Guggenheim Fellowship and Morgan State University have in common? His name is SammArt Williams, a 1968 graduate of Morgan who has made a big name for himself as a playwright, scriptwriter, producer, screenwriter, actor and teacher.

Williams, who was born in Philadelphia, Pa., is better known by his MSU classmates as Samuel Arthur Williams, a political science/psychology major. His parents took him to the small farming town of Burgaw, N.C., when he was an infant.

When his parents divorced, he remained in Burgaw with his mother and visited his father in Philadelphia during the summers.

A big kid, well over six feet by the time he was in high school, Williams was expected to be an athlete. “But I never did care much for sports,” he says. To keep him out of trouble, his mother, a high school English and drama teacher, “had me read the poetry of Langston Hughes and Edgar Allan Poe, and that was really what changed me,” Williams told Signature Edition. “I must have been about 15 years old when I read ‘The Raven.’

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AlumniProfile

(Left to right) Dr. Burney Hollis, Dean of MSU’s College of Liberal Arts; Samm-Art Williams and Dr. Clara Adams, then-Vice President for Academic Affairs, at a luncheon hosted by MSU President Dr. Earl S. Richardson and other Morgan dignitaries, on the first day of Williams’ residency at Morgan in 2005

When I finished that poem, I was so scared of that bird. I said, ‘Wait a minute. How can I be afraid of something when I don’t even know what the hell it is? Which led me to believe he was a wonderful writer. I said, ‘Hmm, I would like to do something like that!’ ” Fame and Acclaim Poe hooked Williams on a career in writing, but college is where he was exposed to the theater. At Morgan, Williams fit well into campus life, was motivated to keep his grades up by his Omega Psi Phi line brothers and got involved in the theater department.

After graduation, he was accepted to law school but decided not to go. He got married and moved to Philadelphia, where he supported himself as a salesman and worked during off hours at the Freedom Theater. But, soon the urge to write became too much, and he went North, determined to try his hand at the craft.

“Nobody down where I lived had ever been a writer,” Williams recalls, “so there was a lot of peer pressure not to go that way. Shoot. Going to the office, well, that just wasn’t for me. I wanted other people to see the world the way I saw it.”

In New York, he joined the Negro Ensemble Company (NEC), which allowed him to join as a playwright, and his creativity “took off,” he says.

It was “Home” — an NEC play that Williams began writing while riding a Greyhound bus from New York City to Burgaw — that earned him a 1980 Tony Award nomination and an NAACP Image Award. The next year, he received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For Williams, “Home,” was “a celebration of the rural South. Usually people there are shown with huge drawls and long, loping walks, so I decided to show the South I knew.” The threeperson play concerns a young man who moves from his country home to the big city, where he encounters many adventures and meets many characters, all played by two women.

Williams left Los Angeles and returned to Burgaw 12 years ago, to care for his ailing mother. For the past two years, he has been an artist-in-residence at North Carolina Central University (NCCU), teaching playwriting and comedy writing. His residency ended this summer. While at NCCU, he learned his father had been a student there and a trained opera singer.

‘Brighter Day Ahead’ After the Broadway run and national tour of “Home,” Williams moved to Los Angeles, where he continued to act and write for TV — “to pay the rent,” he says — so he could afford to pursue his real love, playwriting. He has appeared in “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” “The Women of Brewster Place” and numerous other shows, and has a long list of writing credits that include two Emmy-nominated programs: “Frank’s Place” and “Motown Returns to the Apollo.” He has also worked as an actor on stage and in films (“A Rage in Harlem” and “Dressed to Kill,” among others) and has produced shows for television.

Now 63, Williams plans to focus on an organization he has founded: TEE Theater — Teach, Educate & Entertain — which will take plays to colleges and local theater groups.

“Home” was the 10th of Williams’ 25 plays, many of which have been produced by theaters throughout the U.S. and internationally. One of his early works, “Panty Raid,” “was influenced by some fun (that) friends and I had our freshman year,” Williams says with a laugh. “The play is about four old guys who have been out of school 10 years and decide to return to the college for one last panty raid, only to discover the dorms are all coed. It’s a play about changing values.”

“One of the things we are missing is teaching our young people theater,” he says.

Williams is a lifetime member of the MSU National Alumni Association and has received several awards for his service to the University, including the 2005 Distinguished Achievement Award. From Oct. 11–13, 2005, he was artist-in-residence at Morgan, meeting with MSU administrators and faculty, conducting workshops with theatre arts majors and other interested students, and directing the premiere of his thenlatest play, “Last of the Line.”

He credits Morgan with teaching him patience and perseverance — both keys to his success as an artist.

“I never met a professor at Morgan who did not encourage me and assure me that no matter how dark things appeared,” he says, “there was a brighter day ahead.”

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Perfect Exposure Photojournalist for Ebony and Jet Began His Career at Morgan

By Adrienne Gibbs

Dudley M. Broo ks, ’80, is seni or photo edito Ebony and Je r of t magazines

That one moment, sitting in the audience and watching how the University embraced a black man and allowed him to come into his own, has guided Brooks to this day.

“I was coming in on the tail end of the movement,” says Brooks, who, for over a decade, took photos for The Washington Post and later led the photo team at The Baltimore Sun. “We were like the little kids, but we wanted to carry (the movement) on. And that was very significant for my point of view artistically, socially and politically.”

Brooks’ point of view, and the views he shared with his friends at MSU, ultimately created the unique way in which he sees things through the lens of a camera.

He is now known for being able to zero in on a subject before the subject even knows he is there. He can get deep into a story, hanging out with everyone from students running scared at Tiananmen Square in China, to Catholic and Santerían Afro-Cubans in Havana. He’s not afraid to mix and mingle or to gently teach and mentor. His quick wit and open attitude have led to Brooks’ being one of the popular guys in journalism today.

S

tudent government president Robert Thompson stood at the podium, wearing a big afro, a dashiki and the attitude of a black man who knew exactly where he was headed. Next to Thompson stood the SGA vice president, wearing a side-cocked beret and dark sunglasses. The year was 1975.

Incoming freshman Dudley M. Brooks sat in the crowd, mesmerized. He’d grown up in a military household right there in Baltimore, and both of his sisters had attended Morgan State, as had his father — the late Brig. Gen. George M. Brooks — and his godfather. But he’d never seen up close the exuberance of students in the black power movement.

“I thought that they were just so freaking cool,” says Brooks, now 51, a father of three and the senior photo editor of Ebony and Jet magazines. “What they had on, the attitude of defiance, how they worked within the white power structure....”

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AlumniProfile

The Wonder Years Brooks majored in business administration, but he came into photography by the end of his sophomore year, after randomly taking a class called Photographic Media. Sophomore year is also when Brooks found his MSU family, discovered jazz and worked with fellow artists to rent out a house that doubled as an art studio. While the painters painted, Brooks took pictures. He developed an eye for portraiture and for knowing just how to capture a beautiful photo in the setting sun.

Brooks finally discovered he had artistic juice when he entered an art show during his sophomore year.

He only put in four prints, but three of them got written up in The Sun. “So, I got known around campus as the photographer,” he says.

Brooks became president of the student art organization in his junior year. He even saw his future wife, Diane Dyson, while trolling the campus. But she hadn’t yet noticed him.

“WE WANTED TO CARRY (THE MOVEMENT) ON. AND THAT WAS VERY SIGNIFICANT FOR MY POINT OF VIEW ARTISTICALLY, SOCIALLY AND POLITICALLY.”

a killed by who was , ) n s o k s o r ro e .B sh an mourn hoto by Dudley M m o w n a gu . (P A Nicara their rural village in e d li s mud

— Dudley M. Brooks, ’80

Brooks graduated in 1980 and, at the recommendation of MSU art professor James E. Lewis, became a professor of photography at Bowie State University. At the same time, a short stint covering fashion photography for a now-defunct magazine led him to create a portfolio that landed him his first full-time photography job at the Rockford Register Star newspaper in central Illinois. Lewis also recommended that Brooks speak to a photo department head, Matthew Lewis, at The Washington Post, who eventually brought Brooks to work for the newspaper.

Fate and Love Brooks ran into Dyson again in 1983, at his apartment building in Silver Spring, Md. It turned out they lived in the same building. They married three years later, after he offered a rather romantic proposal at a restaurant in D.C. After 21 years at The Post, Brooks went to The Sun, where he was assistant managing editor for photographs, for two years. He also found time to codirect the book A woman st rokes her sle eping child Afghanistan “Songs of My People.” In that project, he arranged for 50 photographers in . (Photo by Dudley M. B to document black life and publish their pictures in what became a critrooks) ically acclaimed book.

Brooks moved his family to Chicago after accepting a job with Ebony magazine in 2007. The family now lives in a South Chicago suburb and is proud to say that son Dorian is matriculating through Morgan State. And just like his father, Dorian didn’t have to be convinced that MSU was the best place for him.

“My grandfather, the brigadier general, George Brooks, before he passed away, he said he wanted one of us to go to Morgan State,” says Dorian, a public relations major who has also fallen in love with photography. “I remember going to the homecomings with my dad, and it seemed like a homey and nurturing environment. There was no pressure; it just felt attending Morgan was the right decision.”

Dorian Brooks has already published photos in both Ebony and Jet magazines.

“When I was little, I would see my dad travel all over the globe. And that’s what really got me into photography, because of where it can take you,” he says. “That’s why I like being behind the camera.”

Looks like the Morgan State fruit doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

To view pictures from Dudley Brooks’ online photo studio, visit http://www.ebonyjet.com/multimedia/gallery/DudleyBrooks/index.html.

Adrienne Gibbs is senior editor of Ebony magazine.

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I

n 1872, four years after the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, the Rev. James Peck and the trustees of Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church secured 33 acres of land overlooking Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. The plot, being the same size as King Solomon’s Jerusalem, was a promised land of sorts for a people of hard labor and faith: the only cemetery in Baltimore City not forbidden by law from burying African Americans. It became known as “The City of the Dead for Colored People,” a title it kept until 1894, when it was renamed Mount Auburn Cemetery.

With Peck’s purchase of a “legitimate” and honorable burial ground for his people, the histories of Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church and Mt. Auburn Cemetery became intertwined, forming a living, historic legacy of African-American culture, politics and education.

Many of the citizens buried at Mt. Auburn register high on the scale of greatness because of their contributions to the city, the state, and the nation. And it was from Sharp Street Memorial United Methodist Church that the Centenary Biblical Institute, predecessor of Morgan State University, was established.

Today, Sharp Street Church is led by two Morgan graduates: Dellyne I. Hinton, senior pastor, and her father, the Rev. Douglas B. Sands Sr., chairman of the Board of Directors of Mt. Auburn Cemetery. By the beginning of their tenure, the cemetery had fallen into a state of disrepair — overrun with vegetation and inaccessible by visitors. But the church has now partnered with its historic progeny, Morgan State University, to help revive it and return it to its rightful place of honor, as an historical visitor’s center. (continued on page 22)

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History Lives in ‘THE CITY OF THE DEAD’

By Ferdinand Mehlinger

“In bringing to life the true stories of some of the people who are laid to rest at Mt. Auburn, the students gained a greater appreciation for their own family history. This project also reinforced the sacredness of the hallowed grounds.”

— MSU professor Jan Short

Alexis Taylor plays the jimbe as the libation bearer in “Into the Future from Our Past.”

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Father and daughter visionaries for the revitalization of Mt. Auburn Cemetery: Senior Pastor Dellyne I. Hinton, ’80, and the Rev. Douglas B. Sands Sr., ’56, both political science graduates of Morgan. They gravitated toward the ministry with the guiding principle that “We have to have faith in something bigger than ourselves.”

“When I found the condition of the cemetery, I thought that, while we are looking to the future, we really need to honor our past,” says Senior Pastor Hinton, the first female pastor in Sharp Street Church’s 200year history.

“The cemetery, even in its present condition, has this kind of spiritual sense. It has this ambience that has to be respected,” says Diane Jones, assistant professor of the graduate program in Landscape Architecture at Morgan State. Students in the program have worked at Mt. Auburn, planning the landscape and digitizing topographical and physical data for input to a Geographic Information System (GIS).

With the partnership between Morgan State and Sharp Street Church, Mt. Auburn is turning to a new page in its history. One highlight of the new chapter was the staging of “Into the Future from Our Past,” an onsite theater performance given by Morgan State theatre arts students who reenacted the lives and times of famous people laid to rest at Mt. Auburn; people such as “Baby” Joe Gans, who reigned as world lightweight champion from 1902 to 1908 and was “the first African American in Baltimore to own an automobile,” according to the late Eubie Blake, Baltimore native and celebrated jazz pioneer.

“By coming together in the performance venue, which was the actual cemetery, we were able to live side by side with the people whose lives were highlighted in the performance,” says Morgan State playwright and theatre arts professor Jan Short. “One of the most powerful moments for me was watching one of the students just prior to the beginning of the performance. Amongst all of the movement and conversation, he stood quietly in front of the headstone of his character with his head bowed reverently.”

(continued from page 20)

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The performers: (l–r) Playwright and MSU professor Jan Short; dance major Ashley Chapman, ’11; theatre arts major Grant E. Harvey, ’11; theatre arts major Alexis Taylor, ’11; theatre arts major Donine Gladden, ’11; theatre arts major Keisha Rosend Holmes, ’09; and MSU Coordinator of Theatre Arts Shirley Basfield-Dunlap.

“The goal of the departments at Morgan, (including) the Center for Museums and Historical Preservation, School of Architecture and the School of Business, is to create a connection between the community and their history as it relates to Mt. Auburn Cemetery,” says Robin Howard, MSU associate director for Museums and Historical Preservation, “and to create an awareness of the significance of AfricanAmerican cemeteries across the nation.

“The staff and students at Morgan State University have paved a way using the cemetery as a laboratory and teaching tool, which is the ultimate goal of Sharp Street Church’s senior pastor, Rev. Dellyne Hinton,” Howard adds.

Realizing the church’s vision for Mt. Auburn remains vital to the senior pastor’s mission.

“I was called to the ministry of the church and became pastor of the church that has the primary responsibility for Mt. Auburn,” Hinton says. “Morgan was instrumental in nurturing that belief and making me know that I could be skilled enough to make a difference in my life and the lives of other people.”

‘Here rest former slaves, clergy, professionals, business owners and thousands of African-American families.’

Winners!

Strong Coach, New Culture Bring Success to Morgan Basketball

By Wiley A. Hall 3rd

Rodney Stokes #42

THE VICTORY OVER MARYLAND TURNED OUT TO BE JUST ONE MILESTONE IN AN EXTRAORDINARY SEASON.

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Men’s basketball coach Todd Bozeman notes with pride that his players played it cool after they beat the mighty Maryland Terrapins 66-65 on Jan. 8.

The upset marked Morgan’s first-ever victory over Maryland, or any Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) opponent, and provoked an agony of soulsearching and finger-pointing at College Park.

But the Bears handled the victory with aplomb.

“You didn’t see my guys doing a lot of jumping up and down and dancing after the game,” Bozeman says. “Why? Because they believed they could win coming in.

“Don’t get me wrong; it was a significant victory,” Bozeman continues. “Most of my guys are from Maryland. They grew up watching the Terps on television. Playing them on their home court was significant enough; it was like playing your big brother. But then you beat him, too? That was pretty amazing.”

The victory over Maryland, the 2002 national champions and a perennial powerhouse, put Morgan on the map. But it turned out to be just one milestone in an extraordinary season.

The Bears finished the season with 23 wins and 12 losses, for the most wins since becoming a Division I school. They won their second straight regular season Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) title and then beat Norfolk State for the tournament championship. They set a school record for threepoint shots and fell just one short of the record for steals.

They ranked 23rd among mid-major schools and enjoyed high profile wins against non-conference teams such as DePaul, Marshall and Towson. They are believed to be the first historically black school to beat an ACC team (Maryland) and a Big East team (DePaul) in the same season. And the team gave a good account of itself in a heartbreaking 82-54 loss to secondranked Oklahoma in the NCAA tournament South Regionals.

Reggie Holmes #11

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Rogers Barnes #21 goes up against Oklahoma

Inevitable Success For Bozeman, the formula for success included hard work, preparation and, most important, getting his players to believe that they could be winners.

“When I first got here, my goal was to establish a winning attitude, a winning culture,” says Bozeman, who signed a fiveyear contract extension in April after winning 58 percent of his games over his first three years at Morgan. “I’m not cocky. But I’m a firm believer that if you work hard and (are) prepared, success will be inevitable.”

The players not only came to believe in themselves; they believed in their coach, says Morgan student Ryan Marshall, who got to see the team up close as a reporter for The Spokesman.

“Honestly, I think he was successful because of his past,” Marshall says. “Many tend to focus on what happened as a result of him being banned from coaching. However, you could see that the players immediately bought what he was selling.

They understood that he has been successful on many different levels with NBA-caliber players. And honestly, he let the players be men but held them accountable for their actions as men.”

New Priorities Morgan brought Bozeman in from a 10-year exile imposed by the NCAA, after he was forced to resign as head coach at the University of California, Berkeley. The issue back then: alleged improper payments to the parents of a player, Jelani Gardner, and charges that the coach had given false and misleading information during the NCAA investigation of the payments.

It was a precipitous fall for a man whose other Golden Bears — the ones at UC Berkeley — upset Duke University in the 1993 NCAA tournament and who, at 29, had become the youngest coach to lead a team to the NCAA tournament’s round of 16.

Bozeman told The Washington Post he used the 10-year ban to rearrange his priorities.

“I spent more time with my children. I spent more time with my dad,” he told the paper after signing a three-year contract with Morgan in 2006. “I was a workaholic then. I worked nonstop. And when you do that, you put yourself in situations where work becomes life and death. And it’s not.”

Today, he acknowledges that moving from a giant Pac-10 school to the much smaller Morgan was a culture shock, like moving from a major corporation to a family-owned business. But, he adds that he finds several positives in his current environment, positives he uses when recruiting.

Bozeman says that when he first met with Morgan’s president, they agreed the goal would be to build a solid, mid-major program.

“I can’t say we’ve achieved that, yet. You have to put one foot in front of the other, one step at a time,” he says. “But we’re moving in that direction. I think the campus is beginning to see that it’s an achievable goal.”

“I look for people who are self-motivated, looking for opportunities, believe in themselves and are looking for the challenge of building something unique,” he says. “I’ve been really appreciative to have found guys that shared that vision.”

Goal in Reach Bozeman’s arrival at Morgan was the crowning touch on a decades-long transformation of the athletic program and the University, says Morgan Athletic Director Floyd Kerr.

Jermaine “Itchy” Bolden #3

“Dr. Richardson had a vision 25 years ago that if you build a good-looking campus, you will attract quality people, and although it took some time, that’s where we are,” says Kerr. “Right now, our facilities are among the best in the conference. Coach Bozeman has helped restore our competitive edge. We’re attracting a lot of national attention. And morale in the department among both staff and students couldn’t be higher. Hopefully, that will translate to our fans and our alumni.”

Morgan Bear

Todd Bozeman giving direction to Marquise Kately #32

Coach Todd Bozeman

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Bill Rhoden, ‘73

Coach Todd Bozeman

A New Yorker Writes…

As a highly respected sports columnist for The New York Times, Morgan alumnus Bill Rhoden has covered his share of dream seasons, both in the college ranks and the pros.

But the success of his alma mater this year has given him particular pleasure.

“I was so proud of what Morgan accomplished under Todd — this year, obviously, but really for the last three,” says Rhoden. “He put life back into the program. The irony is that our success coincided with the death of Marvin Webster, ‘the Human Eraser,’ who carried Morgan basketball to its glory days.”

Bozeman’s Honors For Morgan Head Coach Todd Bozeman, winning the 2009 Hugh Durham Award was more than just a personal victory. Voted on by a 20-member national selection panel that includes current and former head coaches, the award is presented annually at the NCAA Final Four to the top mid-major coach in the country.

Rhoden, a columnist with The New York Times since 1983, is the author of “Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete,” and “Third and a Mile: From Fritz Pollard to Michael Vick — an Oral History of the Trials, Tears and Triumphs of the Black Quarterback.”

Implied in the honor, Bozeman notes, is recognition that Morgan is a mid-major school.

The Chicago native attended Morgan from 1968 to 1973 and played on the 1968 Bears football squad that beat the Grambling Tigers in Yankee Stadium. The annual match later became the Whitney Young Classic.

“This was a world of intercollegiate athletics few outside the circle knew existed,” Rhoden remembered in a 2007 column written after Grambling coach Eddie Robinson died, “a world of high-stepping bands and hard-hitting football at a time when many of the best black athletes were concentrated in black colleges.”

Before joining The Times, Rhoden wrote for The Baltimore Sun and Ebony magazine.

“Of course, there’s a double edge to Morgan’s success: ‘Will we be able to keep Todd?’ ” he says. But, he adds, “even if he leaves, Morgan will have served the role that HBCUs often serve: (providing) opportunity and compassion to those who might not have otherwise received it.”

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“That they said we were a mid-major, when for so long we were viewed as a low-major or a no-major, was significant,” says Bozeman, whose goal was to build a nationally recognized program when he arrived at Morgan three years ago. “First of all, I’m humbled and honored. But also, I see the award as a reflection of the team and the staff and their willingness and commitment to do the work.”

“Coach Bozeman did a phenomenal job,” says Joe Dwyer, cofounder of CollegeInsider.com and member of the Durham

MSU Cheerleaders

Remembering Marvin Webster Marvin Webster, a Baltimore native who starred in the NBA and ranks as one of the greatest basketball players in Morgan history, was laid to rest April 17 at Greater Hope Baptist Church in West Baltimore. He was found dead April 6 in a hotel in Tulsa, Okla., of coronary artery disease. He was 56.

Marvin Webster

Award selection committee. “He lost the MEAC Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year and his starting point guard, and he was still able to repeat as conference champion.”

“The job Coach Bozeman did this season went largely unnoticed,” says committee chairman Hugh Durham, who saw the CollegeInsider.com Coach of the Year award named in his honor in 2005. “There were a lot of coaches that did great jobs this season, but nobody did a better job than Todd.”

Bozeman was also named Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in March, for the second consecutive season, with a 13-3 MEAC record and a 23-12 record overall. In three seasons at Morgan, Bozeman has compiled 58 wins against 41 losses, including a 37-13 record in the conference. His team has won the last two MEAC season titles, went to the National Invitational Tournament last year and made its first-ever NCAA Division I tournament this year. Bozeman has a 121-76 career record, including four seasons and three NCAA tournament appearances at the University of California, Berkeley.

Gentle, good-natured and loving, Webster was known on the court as “The Human Eraser” and “Marvin the Magnificent.” Off the court, he was remembered as a man who never cursed and often carried a Bible during his 10year professional career with the Seattle SuperSonics, the New York Knicks and the Denver Nuggets.

The son of a Baptist minister, Webster attended Baltimore’s Edmondson High School and played four years at Morgan, leading the Bears to the NCAA Division II championship in 1974, during his junior year.

He holds eight school records: 1,990 points, 2,267 rebounds, 19.5 rebounds per game, 785 field goals made, 424 free throws made, 644 free throws attempted, 722 blocks and 110 games started. He was named to the NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball 50th Anniversary All-Elite Eight Team in 2006.

His best year in the NBA was 1978, when he led the SuperSonics to the NBA Finals, averaging 14 points and 12.6 rebounds a game, before the team fell to the Washington Bullets in seven games.

“He had a great career,” says MSU Athletic Director Floyd Kerr. “He was a great player, a great person, and he leaves a great legacy.”

Support Our Defending Champion Morgan Bears at the 2010 MEAC Basketball Tournament Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum Winston Salem, N.C. • March 8–13

Alumni and friends, please book your hotel rooms early! This yearʼs MEAC Tournament coincides with the ACC Basketball Tournament in Greensboro, N.C. Hotel rooms will be scarce.

For hotel information, please contact: MSU Office of Alumni Relations, 443.885.3015

Improving Health in Urban America MSU’s School of Community Health and Policy

By Brenda Thompson Henderson, ’65

Recognizing the devastating impacts of these severe health disparities on Maryland communities, the university initiated its public health program in 1999.

Formerly the School of Public Health and Policy, the school began operating under its new name in the 2006–07 academic year, with three departments: Behavioral Health Sciences; Public Health Analysis; and Health, Policy and Management.

Specifically, the school has: • Worked to increase the pool of minority public health professionals and leaders who have master’s and doctorate degrees.

• Collaborated with other organizations that are helping underserved communities address health disparities and other health problems.

• Initiated a nursing education program to respond to the serious shortage of nurses in minority communities.

• Worked to attract and maintain faculty members with doctorates to n average, Americans born today can expect to live more than teach and mentor graduate stu30 years longer than those born in 1900, primarily because of advancedents pursuing master’s degrees ments in public health. However, the quality of life for many urban dwellers is diminin public health and to assist in ishing, as environmental and social forces create increased risks of disease, disability mentoring candidates for docand premature death. torates in public health.

To turn things around in these urban communities, Morgan State University’s School “We plan for the school to grow of Community Health and Policy has taken steps to realize its vision of community into a major resource for Baltipartnership and to lead the way to optimal health for the underserved, through edumore and all urban communication, research, service and practice. ties addressing the prevention

O

“Our students must be made aware of the tremendous need for black, Latino and Native American health professionals in our cities, if we are to eliminate the health disparities due to ethnicity, poverty and social injustice,” says Allan S. Noonan, M.D., Ph.D., dean of Morgan State University’s School of Community Health and Policy.

of early death and disability in communities of color,” Dr. Noonan says.

Public health practice is the cornerstone of Morgan’s School of Community Health and Policy. Faculty and students work almost daily with community organizations — such as Communities Organized to Improve Life, Inc., a Southwest Baltimore-based not-for-profit — addressing issues such as nutrition and obesity, diabetes, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS and the health problems of individuals recently released from correctional facilities and their families. The school’s public health program, which is accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health, has awarded 61 master of public health and 33 doctorate of public health degrees since its inception. The school now has 75 students pursuing master’s and doctorates in public health, 140 in nursing and 47 enrolled in the nutrition sciences baccalaureate program.

Morgan now ranks 14th in the nation in number of doctorates in health professions awarded to African Americans and is the first doctorate-granting, urban practice-based public health program at an historically black college or university.

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“WE PLAN FOR THE SCHOOL TO GROW INTO A MAJOR RESOURCE FOR BALTIMORE AND ALL URBAN COMMUNITIES ADDRESSING THE PREVENTION OF EARLY DEATH AND DISABILITY IN COMMUNITIES OF COLOR.” — Allan S. Noonan, M.D., Ph.D., School of Community Health and Policy

Dean Noonan says that “support of the school’s programs is critical to the future good health of the people of our state. Our graduates are promoting health improvement, especially for poor and underserved people at the local, city, state, national and international levels. They are experts in the research necessary to determine how blacks, Latinos and other communities of color can best prevent illness, disability and early death. They are working at all levels to develop health policies which will support the elimination of health disparities due to ethnicity, poverty and social injustice. They are working with community organizations in the Baltimore region to make health improvement a reality for those who need it most.

“And, finally, they are teaching other health professionals and community stakeholders how to provide the best preventive health services possible.”

Since its creation, the school, which works closely with the University’s Prevention Sciences Research Center, has been awarded more than $24 million to conduct research into substance abuse and mental health.

Other major research areas include HIV prevention and control, complementary and alternative medicine and disaster preparedness.

SCHOOL OF COMMUNITY HEALTH AND POLICY HIGHLIGHTS • Research and policy efforts in HIV/AIDS resulted in the State of Maryland’s declaration of a state of emergency in Baltimore City, thus directing the deployment of additional financial resources in the city.

• One of 12 institutions in the country selected to participate in the Kellogg Foundation’s Engaged Institutions Community Initiative.

• One of seven institutions funded competitively by the Corporation for National and Community Service to support development and enhancement of health strategies that are effective in urban communities.

• One of four institutions — including The Johns Hopkins University, the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill and the University of Michigan — selected as sites for the Kellogg Foundation’s Scholars in Health Disparities Community-Based Participatory Track.

• Has established internships as part of its core curriculum.

PUBLIC HEALTH WORK FORCE FACTS • The U.S. now has an estimated 450,000 public health professionals.

• 50 percent of the federal public health work force will retire in the next five years.1 • 25 percent of the state public health workers in the U.S. will retire in the next five years.1 • 80 percent of public health workers lack specific public health training.2 • Only 22 percent of chief executives of local health departments have graduate degrees in public health.2 (1) American Public Health Association; (2) Institute of Medicine, 2003 MORGAN MAGAZINE VOLUME I 2009

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