Cross Country Season has begun!

Our cross country team participated in their first meet on Friday. We were at City Park with fellow Gulf Coast Conference teams Xavier and Edward Waters.

Our strength is track and field (speed events), so cross country is harder for us. But definitely a great conditioning program for our sprinters.

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Brain Food coming up!

 

 

I'm excited about the upcoming Brain Food lectures. With this being an election year, Michael Steele is a great person to set the stage with these big midterm elections (including Louisiana Senate). Maggie Anderson's emphasis is supporting Black businesses and she will discuss her work in that area. I recently saw an ABC News Person of the Week featuring Misty Copeland, who has a phenomenal story about becoming a ballerina. And while Mike Brown is on everyone's mind, Benjamin Crump will be here in December to talk about him, Trayvon Martin, and the other issues facing Black men and women with regards to Civil Rights.

 

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Daughters of Charity Health Center

On Wednesday the official opening of the Daughters of Charity Health Center in Gentilly occurred on campus. After Katrina, the university developed an idea to open a student union that would also house a community health center. The overall concept was to bring health care to the community, and then also have a facility where members of the community could stay healthy.

So after about 5 years this center became a reality. Lots of people worked on it (I really came in at the end trying to close the loop). A key person is Michael Griffin, Dillard alum who is the CEO of Daughters. He was a driving force in this new facility, which is accessible to Dillard students, faculty and staff.

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Prayer for the Michael Brown family

 

Yesterday around the time of the funeral for Michael Brown, our campus NAACP hosted a prayer vigil for his family. It was good for our students and the community to have a time to reflect and this about how we move forward in all of the Fergusons that exist across the nation.

 

We also had a nice story done by WDSU where a St. Louis native was interviewed as he has family in the area. Hopefully our students will be part of local solutions here in New Orleans to ensure that there is fairness and justice for all citizens so that we lessen incidents like this in the future.

 

To see the news story click HERE.

 

 

 

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Parting Ceremony

Tomorrow students start classes. New students started arriving last Monday and by Wednesday they all arrived. Part of that process was a formal program to allow families their last moments before leaving their children to begin this new journey.

After a good message from our AD, good music and prayers, we had parents leave their children. One of the most powerful days in the academic year.

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2014 Faculty-Staff Institute

Last week we kicked off the year with our faculty-staff institute. This is our annual gathering to address current issues (like Title IX), as well as get a state of the university address (which I do). Last year we began doing a service recognition luncheon based on years of service. This year we recognized people with at least 20 years of service.

Our guest speaker was Dr. Jeff Gardere. You've seen him on something- Good Morning America, Today Show, CNN, or Love and Hip Hop to name a few. He helped us begin conversations about how to help people resolve conflict. We invited 100 student leaders to participate in this discussion and he did a fantastic job relating to all ages. He already has an invite for a January command performance!

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Lauren & Marcel

 

This past weekend we were in Little Rock as two of my former students were married. Lauren is a former Miss Philander Smith College (who graduated in 3 years then finished law school), and Marcel is a former SGA president (now working on a doctorate). I don't know if I ever saw this coming (I always keep my ears open about who is dating who), but it was a great ceremony.

 

(Y'all started late though and you know I like to be on time!)

I am very proud of them, as well as many of their friends who were in the wedding or came back. This group was part of the Renaissance era of PSC. Their performance as students, and now as young professionals, is what lifted the institution into new levels in terms of alumni giving, foundation support, and even rankings. What they did during those years was amazing. Glad to have played a small role in their development.

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