(AfricanBlackCoaliation) Statewide Conference being held at UC Riverside.

Here are the 3 workshops being presented & 1 general meeting. Please arrive 1 hour prior to the workshop you would like to participate in to allow yourself time to park and get to the workshop location.

1) Community Capacity - Building community alliances
2) Obtaining a UC Graduate education
3) Back in the day: Reflections from Alumni on their UC experience

Statewide Alumni Meeting - 12:30-1:30 Find out what is going on Statewide for the Black Alumni Associations.

10:00a - 10:50p SESSION (A)- Back in the day: Reflections from Alumni on their
UC experience INTN 1002
11:00a - 11:50a SESSION (B)- Grad school, HUB 379
1:40p - 2:30p SESSION (C) - UC Statewide Black Alumni Coalition - Strengthening
your capacity through community alliance, HUB 269

Please share your experience and answer questions from
students and alumni. If you would like to make a formal presentation or already have one
prepared based on your graduate research or other experience that pertain to the workshops being presented please let me know and we can incorporate it into the Alumni workshops.

The University of California African Black Coalition is an organization whose function is for black students at all the University of California schools to unite and solve issues concerning academic policy, social atmosphere at the campuses, and matriculation of black students to the University. As Black/African students have formed either an African and/or Black student union on each campus, the name African Black Coalition denotes the unity between both the Black and African student unions that exist throughout the UC system.

For more information please contact:
Krystal Cooper
Chair, UCR Black Alumni Association
http://www.twitter.com/ucrblackalumni
http://www.facebook.com/ucrblackalumni
http://www.ucrblackalumni.org
http://www.ucrblackalumni.blogspot.com
ucrblackalumni@gmail.com
323-393-0278

The Afrikan Student Union at UCLA is hiring a new full-time Project Director

Hello All,

The Afrikan Student Union at UCLA is hiring a new full-time Project
Director for the Academic Supports Program for 2010-2011. Please see
attached flier for details and preferred qualifications. If you are
interested or if you know anyone who may be interested please forward the
email. The applications are due Friday, April 16, 2010 at 5pm.


Thanks,
Leslie



Leslie Schnyder

Director
Academic Supports Program
UCLA Student Retention Center

UCLA Community Programs Office
220 Westwood Plaza, Suite 105
Mailcode: 145406
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1454
310.825.9342 (P)
310.206.3175 (F)

Evangelical Pastors and Obama Election Discussed

April 7 lecture by Jonathan Walton, UCR religious studies professor, will address relationships between evangelical pastors and President Obama’s candidacy.
(March 23, 2010)
NEWS MEDIA CONTACT
Name: Bettye Miller
Tel: (951) 827-7847
E-mail: bettye.miller@ucr.edu


Jonathan L. Walton
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Jonathan L. Walton, assistant professor of religious studies at UC Riverside, will examine varying responses to and relationships between prominent evangelical pastors and the successful candidacy of President Obama in a public lecture on Wednesday, April, 7, at 4:30 p.m. His lecture, “Stationed in the King’s Court: Evangelicals in the Age of Obama,” will be held in Interdisciplinary Building 1113. Admission is free. Parking costs $5.

Walton will pay particular attention to the expanding roles of Texas megachurch pastors Bishop T.D. Jakes and Kirby John Caldwell, juxtaposing their now-consistent role in presidential politics against the protest-oriented evangelicalism that nurtured President Obama’s own faith.

The author of “Watch This! The Ethics and Aesthetics of Black Televangelism” (New York University Press), Walton also is the resident ethicist on “the Tavis Smiley Show” on radio and is a contributing editor to Religion Dispatches, a daily online magazine aimed at advancing progressive conversation regarding religion in the world today. He earned a Ph.D. in religion and society and an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a B.A. in political science from Morehouse College in Atlanta.

The event is part of the Lyceum Lecture series presented by UCR’s Center for Ideas and Society. The series provides an opportunity for the community to hear from a prominent member of the UCR faculty.

UCR Biochemistry student Taylor Booker is a SHERO!

Original Link Here:

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/east_bay&id=7347357
Stroke victim saved by East Bay college student
Tuesday, March 23, 2010


Carolyn Tyler
More: Bio, E-mail, News Team

HERCULES, CA (KGO) -- A wrong number proved to be the right call for an elderly woman who had suffered a stroke at her home in Richmond.

The college student accidentally reached is now being hailed as hero. The young woman's quick thinking saved a life hundreds of miles away.

Annie Turner suffered a stroke. It has left her partially paralyzed and her speech impaired.

She fell in her bedroom last month, grabbed the phone and began to dial. She thought she was calling a friend, but instead her call reached 18-year-old Taylor Booker, who was in a dorm at U.C. Riverside hundreds of miles away.

"At the time I thought, 'Oh, this is was a prank call. It's somebody playing a joke, I'm just going to hang up,'" said Booker. "It is a Friday night. A lot of people play around, especially in college. I just remember the tone of her voice when she said 'help.'"

The 70-year-old former nurse and artist lives alone in Richmond. That misdialed call was the best mistake of her life. She reached a biochemistry major.

When asked if Booker knew Turner was having a stroke, Booker said, "I did, just by the tone of her voice because I've taken classes."

On Tuesday night, Booker received a commendation from the city of Hercules, her hometown. They honored her for having compassion and presence of mind.

The teenager had a friend call 911, while she gathered the basics from Turner like her name, a partial address, and she stayed on the line until paramedics arrived.

"I had her on speaker and I had the police department on the other line and they told me to keep her calm," said Booker.

Turner sent a card to the girl who may have saved her life, expressing some of the words she is not yet able to say.

Taylor may also receive a commendation from the city of Richmond and even the state may honor her.

UC Riverside is cited as a national example of achieving excellence through diversity

Full report here:http://wasc.ucr.edu/

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) -- The Western Association of Schools and Colleges has cited UC Riverside as a national exemplar for achieving excellence through diversity of people, ideas, and programs. WASC also commended UCR for how student affairs and academic affairs work together.

The kudos came during a process of successfully accrediting UCR for another 10 years of operation.

“The campus can be very proud of this positive review and of the commendations by WASC,” said Chancellor Timothy P. White. “I was especially pleased that the Commission’s letter recognized both our strong focus on student learning and success and that ‘UCR lives its stated commitment to diversity.’”

This the sixth time since its founding in 1954 that UCR has earned accreditation from WASC, which measures success of the public schools and universities in the western portion of the United States.

The current cycle of site visits and self-study reports began in 2005, when the campus submitted a proposal that identified three themes for study:
• Learning within a campus culture of diversity
• Growing/improving graduate and professional programs
• Improving undergraduate student engagement, experience, and learning.

The WASC report also identified areas that need more improvement, including completing the strategic plan for the campus; conducting the assessment of student learning in the undergraduate majors and making changes in curricula where appropriate; and focused growth and assessment of graduate and professional programs.

"We should be very proud of the glowing comments made in the Commission Report about UCR's overall effectiveness in achieving its educational mission," said David Fairris, vice provost for undergraduate education and one of many people who worked hard to develop and report ways to measure student outcomes.

Community Call For Support and Participation_Crenshaw To College Day

Dear African-American and Latino UC Alumni:



On behalf of the College and Career Ninth Grade Academy (C2 Academy) at Crenshaw High School, I am writing to solicit your support and participation in C2 Academy’s inaugural “Crenshaw To College Day” on Monday – April 26, 2010 (description attached). Crenshaw To College Day is designed to inspire the youth in our community to develop the autonomy and efficacy to seriously prepare themselves for their post-secondary future. The Los Angeles Urban League really wants to ensure that this is a dynamic opportunity for the youth that we serve, but the only way that can happen is with your support and participation.



As a UC Alumnus (UC Berkeley ’88), I am reaching out to my African-American and Latino comprades to contribute to this effort by coming to Crenshaw High School to make classroom presentations highlighting: 1) your undergraduate or graduate UC experience and 2) your current profession or line of work and how your education prepared you for it.



The schedule for the Crenshaw to College Day (Monday – April 26, 2010) is as follows:






# of UC Alumni Volunteers Needed

Class Period 1


7:55 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.


5-10

Class Period 2


10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.


5-10

Class Period 3


12:15 p.m. – 1:45 p.m.


5-10

After School College Fair


2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.


We do need campus student group representation; alumni associations are also encouraged to participate



Even if you are not personally able to participate, whatever support you can provide with assisting the planning team with identifying and outreaching to other African-American and Latino UC Alums would be greatly appreciated. To that end, we ask that you please distribute this request as widely as you can to your UC Network in the Los Angeles Area (please don’t let USC and Stanford show us up!).

Please note that we want to reach out to any and all African-American and Latino University Alumni – so you don’t have to limit your distribution to UC Schools.



Thank you in advance for your consideration of this support request. For any questions or additional information, please contact Mr. Patrick Wise at patrick.wise@laul.org or (323) 299-9660, Extension 252.



Carlene Davis

Education Deputy

Los Angeles Urban League

At UC Riverside, African-American Students Are Staying and Succeeding

At UC Riverside, African-American Students Are Staying and Succeeding

African-American students at the University of California, Riverside continue beyond their first year and graduate at higher rates than any other ethnic group, according to the latest retention and six-year graduation figures.

A student celebrates success at UC Riverside's commencement
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (www.ucr.edu) -- African-American students at the University of California, Riverside continue beyond their first year and graduate at higher rates than any other ethnic group, according to the latest retention and six-year graduation figures.

African-Americans in the fall 2002 freshman class had a 73.9 percent graduation rate by 2008, while the overall campus graduation rate was 64.3 percent. Their first-year retention rate was 92.8 percent, while the campus persistence rate was 84.9 percent.

Nationwide, about 54 percent of full-time students at four-year public universities graduate in six years, but the rate for African-Americans is 38 percent, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

“I’m delighted to see concrete evidence of what we have known anecdotally – that our African-American students are doing as well, or in many instances, better, than UCR students overall,” said UCR Chancellor Timothy P. White. “However, our goal is to further increase both retention and graduation rates for African-American students as well as for all student groups.”

Campus officials are not entirely sure why African-Americans do so well at UCR, but they believe a critical factor is that African-Americans feel comfortable on the campus, which is the most diverse in the UC system and was ranked fifth most diverse nationally by U.S. News and World Report.

“Critical mass matters,” said White, “and UCR’s undergraduate student body reflects the face of California.” African-Americans are 7 percent of UCR’s student body, not the 1 percent they are on some college campuses.

A 2008 system-wide survey of undergraduate UC students found that a higher percentage of African-Americans on the UCR campus reported that “students of my race/ethnicity are respected on this campus” than their counterparts at any other UC campus

At UCR a total of 71 percent of African-American men responding said this was true as did 83 percent of African-American women. In the overall UC system only 58 percent of male African-Americans and 63 percent of female African-Americans agreed.

In the same survey 91 percent of all UCR undergraduates responding compared to 83 percent of UC system undergraduates agreed that “diversity is important on this campus.”

“We have a campus culture committed to the success of all students, and it shows,” said David Fairris, vice provost for undergraduate education. “For example, our Fast Start summer program for disadvantaged students interested in medical or science careers greatly increases success in the gateway science courses, and our freshmen transition programs have been found to significantly increase first-year retention, especially for women and under-represented minorities.”

African-American students in engineering and the hard sciences have lower retention and graduation rates than those in the social sciences and arts, but this is true for all ethnic groups.

At a recent Board of Regents meeting, White said that eliminating all gaps in gradation rates is a “defining feature of UCR’s commitment to excellence through diversity” and he reported data showing that for the past several years UCR is outperforming peer institutions nationally in this regard.