What Leadership Looks Like

Dr. Cynthia Butler-McIntyre '76, president of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., with President Barack Obama.

Bleu Pride Rising Tour

2 weeks ago I made the 16th stop on the Bleu Pride Rising Tour in Birmingham, AL. Over 400 alums have participated in these meetings, which has been a great way to reengage alumni.

The best part has been a renewed commitment by alumni to support the university. For the year we are up at least 50% in alumni giving, which is great. And we will keep working to improve our rate.

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Brazilian teachers at DU

 

 

Late Sunday night we welcomed 25 Brazilian teachers of English. We have a  partnership with the Brazilian Government called the Professional Development Program for Teachers of English Language in the US (PDPI). These K-12 teachers come from all across the country and will spend 6 weeks here improving their English.

 

 

 

 

The teachers are working to strengthen their English as well as learn new teaching techniques. Dillard is the only HBCU serving as a host for this program

 

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More on Dr. Dre

I did an interview today with the Kathleen Wells show in California. You can listen to the interview here.

http://kcaaradio.celestrion.net/kcaa-podcasts/wells/20130619.html

Commencement 2013

The Dillard tradition is for graduates to walk down the Avenue of Oaks. They look forward to this day for their entire career. Well, this year it rained- hard and for days. So we had to decide to find a new location, one indoors that would seat everyone. So we moved to the UNO arena where we had about 3,700 attend. So despite the initial disappointment, the crowd made the graduates forget about the change, as did our powerful speaker, Jeff Johnson. He reminded them that walking down the avenue was not most important, but where they go after Dillard.

I enjoyed my first commencement, and realized that I knew a good number of the graduates. This is simply one of the best days of the year when you talk to families of students and you can see their joy.

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Nothing to Lose

We had a great commencement weekend. It started with the production of Dreamgirls. Simply outstanding!

Last Friday night was the baccalaureate service. Due to rain it was held inside. As you can see, we had a full house to hear our preacher, Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III, senior pastor, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. His title was "Nothing to Lose" from II Kings 7: 3-9.

He challenged us not to be comfortable as captives suffering from self-imposed disenfranchisement, but go into the communities to be a blessing for others. Dr. Moss had us on our feet, challenging us not to be afraid and bless our communities. It was the right message at the right time.

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Dreamgirls

 

Last night we hosted a tremendous pre-commencement production of Dreamgirls. It was awesome! That performance clearly verified that we deserved the Big Easy Award for Best University Production, and most recently nominated for Best Fine Arts program for the 2013 HBCU Awards.

The packed house witnessed perfection. I mean, I really can't adequately describe how great it was. Hats off to Professor Cortheal Clark who leads our theater program.

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