Week ending February 28th

Lots of stuff going on this week!

Big win for the guys vs Xavier- split the season series. Ladies lost which also splits the season. Looks like we're headed for rematches with both in the tournament.

On Friday we had our Hobley scholarship gala. One of the honorees was Dillard alum George Johnson '70 who was on the Golden State Warriors championship team 40 years ago.

I was traveling Friday so I missed the inauguration of new Xavier president Reynold Verret. But Livestream allowed me to hear his speech while waiting to change planes in Atlanta.

I was coming back from Pittsburgh speaking at the Northeast Greek Leadership conference. I am guessing about 1,000 college students attended, and I had the keynote Friday morning.

My point is that as Greek we say LOTS of great things, but our actions are in conflict with those ideas. I showed the just the news in one week: a suspected hazing related death, pledges being forced to act like slaves, one school with seven chapters being investigated, etc.

Looking forward to this week as I will see my presidential colleagues at the annual meeting of UNCF.

The Prez

Highlights from the week ending February 21st

I'm on a social media fast during Lent, so decided for the blog that I would share some highlights for the week.

I was the Black History Month speaker at Northwestern State University. The SGA invited me and about 200 students came to hear me talk about "The Day Beyoncé Turned Black!" I got the title from the hilarious Saturday Night Live skit. I essentially argued that the song and video for Formation is about affiliation, appropriation and affirmation. Had a great time.

My freshman ambassadors, called PODUS, had a great session with upperclass student leaders to get tips about planning their involvement for next year. We have some awesome student leaders and they gave these freshmen leaders wise advice.

 

In my class (Hip Hop, sex, gender and ethical behavior) we had a chance to discuss Kanye's SNL performance that was choreographed by Derek "Fonzworth Bentley" Watkins. And then we Skyped in with Fonzworth to talk about religion and hip hop. He really gave some good life advice as well- but we got some great insight from someone who helped produce the new Yeezy LP.

 

And we hosted a forum on the Flint water crisis featuring Lt General Honore. A huge issue that has interdisciplinary implications.

 

 

So a lot is always happening at Dillard. One of the highlights this week is Lawrence Ross, author of the new book which is extremely timely- campus racism. People can knock HBCUs all they want, but there are some real issues happening on many college campuses today. We'll get into that on Tuesday night.

 

The Prez