Ram Magazine SUMMER 07 V8
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INSIDE: >>> ‘A Good Job’ or College … page 5 >>> Jackie Robinson’s Impact on the World … page 9 >>> President’s MASKED Ball … page 22 >>> J.L. Dickey Legacy Revived … page 27 LEARN MORE. I SUMMER / FALL 2007 The Ram Magazine is published by the Huston-Tillotson University Office of Institutional Advancement, 900 Chicon Street, Inside: Austin, TX 78702, 512.505.3073. From the President............................................................................................................................4 Unsolicited articles and pictures may be submitted to [email protected]. Alumni news >>>FEATURE ARTICLES and milestones should be ‘A Good Job’ or College: Real Choices for Two HT Students ................................................5 addressed to the Director of Alumni Affairs, [email protected]. Anniversary Celebrated with the Grand Opening of an Historic Building ........................6 Jackie Robinson’s Lasting Impact on the World and HT..........................................................9 Editor Thunder™ Rolls On the Campus Landscape............................................................................12 Linda Y. Jackson Huston-Tillotson University Receives Its Largest Collection of African Art ......................14 Alumni Section Editor La Juana R. Napier J.L. Dickey Legacy Revived in 2007 ............................................................................................27 Magazine Design Alumnus Among Capital Hill’s High Profile Players ............................................................32 Bella Graphic Design, Inc Printing >>>EVENTS Horizon Printing Commencement 2007........................................................................................................................8 Photography credits: Austin Black History Month Celebration ................................................................................................10 American-Statesman, David Adam, Actress Sheryl Lee Ralph Performs to Sold Out Audience ....................................................11 Jonathan Evans, Jose L. Garcia, Rodney W. Jackson, General G. Najee Makes his Saxophone Sing at Fourth Annual President’s MASKED Ball ..............22 Marshall, Damien Spencer, and Williamson County Historical >>>DEPARTMENTS AND MORE Museum Contributions and Grants ..............................................................................................................13 Arts and Culture ..............................................................................................................................15 On the cover: The Melissa and Faculty and Staff New Hires ........................................................................................................16 Kevin Katz Board of Trustees News..................................................................................................................17 Collection Community ..................................................................................................................................20 of African artifacts. Student News ............................................................................................................................24 Sports ..........................................................................................................................................28 Alumni News ............................................................................................................................31 MISSION STATEMENT Huston-Tillotson University is an historically black University affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, and the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). The mission of the University is to provide its increasingly diverse student body with an exemplary education that is grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, balanced with professional development, and directed to public service and leadership. The University prepares students with the integrity and civility to thrive in a diverse society, fosters spiritual development, preserves and promotes interest in the accomplishments and experiences of the University’s historic constituents and evolving population, and creates and sustains supportive relationships which advance the Huston-Tillotson University community. LEARN MORE. I www.htu.edu I Huston-Tillotson University I Summer / Fall 2007 I Ram Magazine [ 3 ] >>>from the PRESIDENT The Impact of a Quality Education on First Generation Students at Huston-Tillotson University or more than a century, hundreds of students structured access to academic and educational experience we offer to our students have arrived at Huston- social support throughout the year. Under students. We continually seek opportunities F Tillotson University to begin their the guidance of faculty, peer mentors, and to develop this supportive role through journey toward the goal and rewards of a staff, PASSAGES students receive academic mentoring programs, academic enrichment, college education. Many, but fewer than in advising, personal and career counseling, speakers, social scholarship, and performing earlier days, are first-generation college intellectual opportunities, and skill-building. arts events. The PASS program allows the students. For more than 132 years, dedicated University to live up to its promise. professors have challenged eager HT Huston-Tillotson provides diverse students students to see in themselves the talent and a proven environment for academic success. potential for success. Since 1875, the sons In the fall of 2007, the ethnicity of the and daughters of HT have made a dramatic student body was 73% African American, difference in the quality of life for the 13% Hispanic, 7% Asian/Pacific Islander, communities and people they touch. 4% White, and 3% Other. The University provides access to an affordable higher First generation students are often faced education. Ninety-four percent of HT’s with academic challenges. Having met little undergraduate students receive some success in their academic careers, these form of financial aid. students are often easily intimated and overwhelmed when faced with new True to its roots, Huston-Tillotson embraces academic demands. the responsibility of intellectually challenging well-prepared students while Huston-Tillotson implemented the Pathways offering the less prepared an opportunity to Academic Success and Socialization to reach their full potential. This sweeping (PASS) in August 2004. PASS is an commitment leads us to recruit across the intervention system that helps students spectrum of ability. If that young person has assimilate into the academic and social life of the aptitude to succeed, we want to be the University. A cohort of 50 first generation a vehicle for their success. students was included in the initial program. The PASS program is supported by the The composition of the University’s PASSAGES learning experience – designed academic disciplines and the quality of as a continuation of the PASS program-offers our faculty are the cornerstones of the [ 4 ] Ram Magazine I Summer / Fall 2007 I Huston-Tillotson University I www.htu.edu I LEARN MORE. FEATURE<<< ‘A Good Job’or College: Real Choices for Two HT Students By Linda Y. Jackson what seemed like insurmountable odds. representative in the international call Born into a hard-working blue collar center. The excitement around the new family in one of the nation’s largest cities, international long-distance product, the a child of divorced parents, with a mother team, concept, and job assignments made who got caught up in drugs, and it the dream job. She also found herself in educated in a state with the nation’s worst a fight with her conscience after enrolling high school graduation rate, Orr had to at Texas A&M University in College make some choices. Work or college? Station upon graduating from high Between Orr’s mother, father, and school in 1976 and dropping out. She stepparents, there are ten children. Orr is later enrolled at St. Phillip’s College in the youngest and one of only two children San Antonio to ease the gnawing of her enrolled in college. She hears a familiar conscience. Miss Alpha Phi Alpha Sweetheart, Maxine Harris refrain when she looks back to her family (center), shared many college stories with her of firemen, medical assistants, database The number of Napier family members daughter, La Juana. operators, and domestic workers, “Get a who graduated from Samuel Huston, hen the choice is between taking good job!” However, one family matriarch Tillotson College, Huston-Tillotson is a “good paying job” or enrolling told a story repeatedly that stuck with her. extensive and impressive. Napier’s W in college at a rate of more than Her grandmother was serving dinner at a choices made her one of the first in her $280 per credit hour, the decision is easy. gathering in the home in which she family not to finish college. “Cousins, first Or is it? worked as a domestic and was called a cousins...they all have degrees,” said derogatory name in front of the guests. Napier. Her Aunt Helen, graduated La Juana Napier found herself in a place The word hurt and stuck. “My CONTINUED…See Real Choices, page 38 that many small town Seguin high school grandmother told me to be better. Don’t students find themselves. Located in be like my mom or dad. Get an education, South Central Texas, Seguin, with its because no one can take it away from 22,000 population, is close to Austin, San you.” Orr listened. She also had the Antonio, and Houston,