HBCU Earns Top Ranking!

I am particularly happy to see that an HBCU is getting credit for something, not to mention that this is my Alma Mater, so I am especially pleased. Like many HBCUs, TSU has fought hard to remain relevant and compete among institutions of Higher Education in Texas and in the South as a leading producer of quality undergraduate, graduate, and professional school education in an urban environment.

http://www.stylemagazine.com/texas-southern-earns-top-ranking-as-%E2%80%9Cdegree-producer%E2%80%9D-among-african-american-hispanic-students/

Texas Southern Earns Top Ranking as “Degree
Producer” Among African American & Hispanic
Students

drjohnrudley 250x300 Texas Southern Earns Top Ranking as “Degree Producer” Among African American & Hispanic Students

Dr. John M. Rudley

In two recent separately released reports, one by the Texas Higher Education Journal and one by Diverse Issues In Higher Education, Texas Southern University was recognized as a leading producer of bachelor’s and graduate degrees among African-American and Hispanic students.

The Texas Higher Education Journal reported that in Texas, TSU ranked first with an 87 percent African-American graduation rate followed by Prairie View with 82 percent, University of Houston-Downtown, 24 percent, Texas A&M University-Central Texas, 23 percent and Lamar University, 23 percent.

In the Diverse Issues in Higher Education survey, Texas Southern ranked fourth out of 100 in African-American conferred graduate degrees. In 2010-2011, TSU had 125 African-American graduates which was 46 percent of the total graduating class. Howard University ranked first with 316 African-American graduates or 73 percent of its total graduates.

“Our mission at Texas Southern University is to become a premier university of urban programming,” said Dr. John Rudley, Texas Southern President. “Our rankings in these two recent studies indicate that we are on the right path of achieving this mission. With continued determination and perseverance we will improve our rankings by increasing our retention and graduation rates.”

TSU also ranked 23rd out of 94 with 46 Hispanics earning graduate degrees which was 17 percent of the total graduating class. In bachelor degrees conferred, TSU ranked 31st in the top 100 of produced African-American bachelor’s degree – all disciplines combined. TSU had 669 African-American graduates which were 89% of the graduating class. University of Phoenix ranked first with 3,124 African-American graduates which was 14 percent of its total graduating class.

Dr. Rasoul Saneifard, Texas Southern Chair, Faculty Senate/Assembly, stated, “It is exciting news to know that Texas Southern has been highly ranked as a top producer of undergraduate and graduate degrees for African-American and Hispanic students. Congratulations are due to each and every faculty member for their dedication and diligence in teaching, advising, and graduating our students.”

In total, minority professional doctoral degrees conferred, TSU ranked 16th with 225 total graduates, 83 percent being minorities.

 

The Declining Black Middle Class

The following are excerpts from The American Prospect on the shrinking of the Black Middle Class:

Two recent reports have highlighted the crippling effects of the subprime mortgage crisis on black families. The first, a Pew study on income and wealth inequality from one generation to the next, showed that only children of the top two quintiles of the wealth distribution—an overwhelmingly white group—had greater wealth than their parents. Half of black children raised in the bottom quintiles stayed there, and blacks on the whole were more likely to be downwardly mobile.”

“A report from The Washington Post, meanwhile, examines the lasting impact on black families’ economic prospects that could stem from their poor credit ratings, which dropped sharply during the recession. With black families more likely to have taken out subprime loans and to have borne the burden of unemployment, their credit scores have suffered, and the black middle class is shrinking as a result.”

So it seems that this recession is having a grave effect on Black America and the Black Middle Class in particular. Sound surprisng? Not to me…not at all. At every turn the GOP/Conservative political agenda has been in my opinion to destroy the middle class in general and widen the gap between the rich and the poor. The issue that this has on Blacks stems from the deeply historical system of racial inequity that always seems to have a greater negative impact on Black people than any other race. This is just another example, and another reason to urge Black Americans to pay close attention to the fine print regarding subprime loans, student loans, and any other sources of potential debt. We are losing the little that we have in the way of homes, property, and other assets, and without the proper understanding of what this means for our future generations, we will continue to suffer and set our children up to start off in bad position with little hope of climbing out and moving forward.

GOP wants you to be be jobless

The following is a quote from an article entitled “Honestly, the Jobs Outlook Is Bleak Because the GOP Wants It That Way” by Imara Jones at colorlines.com, one of our favorite sites.

At every turn, congressional Republicans have stonewalled President Obama on jobs. But if his proposals were fully implemented, our economy would have added 257,000 jobs more in June. That’s three times greater than what we actually added and close to the 300,000-jobs-a-month mark we must hit to put a real dent in joblessness.

Its well worth it to read the entire article, but to sum it up in my own words, if the GOP weren’t such a bunch of self centered dicks who can’t pull their heads out of their asses entitled anti poor asses, then we could make come progress in this country. But they are still so angry about Obama winning that they act like a bunch of 8 year olds who won’t play with the person that is smarter and more popular than them. And because we have so many people out there who are of the same mind set the whole country is mired in a recession, even though the Cheif Executive Officer has a plan, that is at least a plan, as opposed to just being opposed to everything proposed.

Quick Question: Should welfare recipients have to drug test?

In Georgia, it has become law for you to have to take a drug test to get public assistance. Here is a quote,

Georgia advocates and a well-positioned staffer within the of state Department Health and Human Services, the agency tasked with implementing the testing program, all insist that the law was never intended as meaningful policy. Rather, it was purely cynical politics–an effort by Tea Party Republicans to demonize the poor as unworthy of help, atrophy the cash assistance rolls and generally undercut safety net programs in the public discourse.

One might say that if you have money for drugs, then you have money for food, rent and otherwise, but why should you have to prove you are not on drugs to get help? Since when did they become intertwined?

Programming for young ladies

I can’t emphasize enough how enthusiastic I am about black and brown kids learning how to program and actually computer. It is something that is always needed and can help them pave the road to whatever life they need and put them in a pole position when it comes to earning money. With that being said:

By reaching out to the community through workshops and after school programs, BlackGirlsCode introduces computer coding lessons to young girls from underrepresented communities in programming languages such as Scratch or Ruby on Rails.


Pitch in and make this happen, because it needs to happen.