Education
Bloomberg Donates $600 Million to Endow Four Black Medical Schools
NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Bloomberg’s Bloomberg Philanthropies organization announced it’ll make a $600 million gift to the foundations of 4 historically black medical schools.
Bloomberg, a former New York mayor and the billionaire founding father of Bloomberg LP, will make the announcement Tuesday in New York throughout the annual convention of the National Medical Association, an advocacy group for African-American doctors.
“This gift will empower new generations of black doctors to create a healthier and more equitable future for our country,” Bloomberg said in a press release.
African Americans fare worse in health than white Americans, an Associated Press series reported last yr. Experts say increasing physician representation is one solution that might reverse these long-standing inequities. In 2022, only 6% of U.S. doctors were black, although African Americans make up 13% of the population.
The gifts are amongst the most important private donations to historically black colleges or universities, with $175 million going to Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College and Morehouse School of Medicine. Charles Drew University of Medicine & Science will receive $75 million. Xavier University of Louisiana, which is opening a brand new medical school, may even receive a $5 million grant.
The gifts will greater than double the dimensions of the three medical schools’ endowments, Bloomberg Philanthropies reports.
The pledge follows a $1 billion pledge Bloomberg made in July to Johns Hopkins University, which suggests most medical students will now not pay tuition. The 4 historically black medical schools are still working with Bloomberg Philanthropies to determine how the most recent donations to their foundations shall be used, said Garnesha Ezediaro, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Greenwood Initiative.
The initiative, named for the community that was devastated within the Tulsa, Oklahoma, race massacre greater than 100 years ago, was originally a part of Bloomberg’s campaign because the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate. After dropping out of the race, he asked his philanthropy to tackle efforts to reduce the racial wealth gap, and $896 million has been given to this point, including this latest gift to medical schools, Ezediaro said.
In 2020, Bloomberg awarded the identical medical schools a complete of $100 million, which was primarily intended to reduce debt burden for enrolled students who the colleges said were at serious risk of losing the power to proceed their education due to financial burdens exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When we talked about helping to ensure the safety and support of the next generation of Black physicians, we meant it literally,” Ezediaro said.
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Valerie Montgomery Rice, president of Morehouse School of Medicine, said the gift reduced a mean of $100,000 in debt for enrolled medical students. She said the gift helped her school significantly increase fundraising.
“But our fund and its size were still a challenge, and we were very vocal about that. And he heard us,” she said of Bloomberg and the most recent donation.
In January, the Lilly Endowment donated $100 million to The United Negro College Fund to pool funds for 37 HBCUs. That same month, Spelman College, a historically black women’s college in Atlanta, received a $100 million gift from Ronda Stryker and her husband, William Johnston, chairman of the Greenleaf Trust.
Denise Smith, deputy director of upper education policy and senior fellow at The Century Foundation, said the gift to Spelman is the most important single donation to an HBCU she knows of, making the comment before Bloomberg Philanthropies’ announcement Tuesday.
Smith is the writer of a 2021 report on the financial disparity between HBCUs and other higher education institutions, including the failure of many states to fulfill guarantees to fund historically black land-grant colleges. As a result, she said philanthropic giving has played a serious role in sustaining HBCUs and pointed to billionaire writer MacKenzie Scott’s donations to HBCUs in 2020 and 2021 as the start of a brand new chain response of support from other major donors.
“These following donations are the kind of boost and support that these institutions need at this time,” Smith said.
Dr. Yolanda Lawson, president of the National Medical Association, said she was “relieved” to hear in regards to the donations to the 4 medical schools. After the Supreme Court decision last yr invalidating affirmative motion and attacks on programs designed to foster inclusivity and equity at schools, she predicts the 4 schools will play an excellent larger role in training and increasing the variety of black doctors.
“This opportunity and this investment not only impacts these four institutions, but it impacts our country. It impacts the health of the nation,” she said.
Utibe Essien, a physician and assistant professor on the David Geffen School of Medicine on the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies racial disparities in treatment, said greater investment, including in earlier educational support before highschool and college, could impact the variety of black students who resolve to go to medical school.
He added that he believes the Supreme Court’s decision on positive discrimination and opposition to efforts to end historic racial discrimination and inequality are influencing the alternatives students make.
“Some trainees who are thinking about entering this space have a hard time seeing some of that backlash and continuing it,” he said. “Again, I think we’re in a spiral where in five to 10 years we’re going to see a troubling decline in the number of diverse people in our field.”
Education
Mississippi College changes name and eliminates football program
Mississippi College embraces its Christian ideology with a name change.
Mississippi College, a non-public institution, is changing its name to Mississippi Christian College. The decision was approved by the Mississippi Board of Supervisors on November 18.
The university can be eliminating its Division 1 football team in an effort to prioritize academic offerings. In an announcement, the university cited the upcoming bicentenary because the inspiration for the changes.
Mississippi Christian College wants to construct on its Christian ideology, in line with President Bake Thompson.
“These transformational and necessary changes are critically important to the future of this institution. As we look ahead to the institution’s bicentennial in 2026, we want to ensure that MC is a university recognized for academic excellence and commitment to Christ for another 200 years.”
The college is rededicated to making a space where Christian education stays a priority.
“The institution may even undergo restructuring. A brand new structure will likely be introduced, which can mix the College of Christianity and Art with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the College of Pedagogy will change its name to the College of Pedagogy and Human Sciences. The chancellor was charged with evaluating the potential consolidation of a limited number of educational departments on campus.
Mississippi Christian Athletic Director Kenny Bizott reaffirmed his commitment to former student-athletes.
“We will support our current student-athletes who wish to continue their education at MC, as well as those who wish to transfer,” Bizott added.
Many may view these changes as extreme, but Mississippi Christian believes that every latest organizational change will help the institution fulfill its core functions.
Another Mississippi institution can be within the news for its failures on the legislative level. reported the Mississippi State Senate no payment Legislative Services Office (LSO) attorney Kristie Metcalfe is paid commensurate along with her peers.
The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the Mississippi LSO on Metcalfe’s behalf. An office investigation found that Metcalfe was earning half the salary of white LSO lawyers. The investigation also found that Metcalfe is the one non-white worker employed within the office’s 34 years of operation. Race discrimination violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Education
Florida education officials report hundreds of books pulled from school libraries, including Toni Morrison, Richard Wright and Maya Angelou
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.” “Forever” by Judi Blume. “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut.
According to the newest information, all of them have been withdrawn from the shelves of some Florida schools list developed by the Florida Department of Education and containing books removed by local school districts.
Recent changes in state law have made it possible for fogeys and residents to take this motion challenge books to school libraries and required districts to submit an annual report to the state detailing which books were restricted of their schools. Florida continues to steer the nation in withdrawing books from school libraries, in accordance with an evaluation by the American Library Association and the advocacy group PEN America.
“Restricting access means limiting the freedom to read,” said Kasey Meehan of PEN America. “Students are losing the opportunity to access books that reflect their own life experiences, to access books that help them learn and to empathize with people who… have different life experiences.”
The list, published for the 2023-2024 school yr, includes titles by American literary icons similar to Maya Angelou, Flannery O’Connor and Richard Wright, in addition to books which have turn into top targets for censorship across the country as a consequence of LGBTQ+ characters, discussions about gender and sexuality and descriptions of sexual encounters, e.g. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Johnson and “Gender Queer” by Maja Kobabe. Supporters of conservatism have described such content as “pornographic.”
The list of books removed from libraries also includes Holocaust accounts similar to “The Diary of Anne Frank: A Graphic Adaptation” and “Sophie’s Choice.” It’s an analogous story with the graphic novel, an adaptation of “1984,” George Orwell’s groundbreaking work on censorship and surveillance.
“Everywhere from Toni Morrison to Alice Walker to Slaughterhouse-Five to George Orwell,” said Stephana Farrell, co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, which tracks book challenges within the state. “If you take the time to look through this list, you will see that there is a problem with… this movement.”
In an announcement to the Associated Press, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Education maintained that no books have been banned in Florida and defended the state’s efforts to remove “sexually explicit material” from schools.
“Once again, far-left activists are promoting the book ban scam to Floridians. “The better question is why these activists continue to fight to expose children to sexually explicit material,” spokeswoman Sydney Booker said.
The list shows that the number of book withdrawals varies widely across the state, with some districts reporting no restrictions and others reporting hundreds of titles pulled from shelves. Farrell of the Florida Freedom to Read Project said that based on the group’s evaluation of public records, the department’s report is an undercount since it doesn’t include books removed in consequence of an internal staff review, only those withdrawn in consequence of a grievance filed by a parent or resident.
Farrell believes that almost all Florida parents want their children to have broad access to literature.
“We live in a country where parental rights should be recognized, heard and taken into account,” Farrell said. “We are asking for accountability and an accurate record of the impact of these laws on our children and what is available to them.”
Schools have restricted access to dozens of books by Stephen King, a master of the horror genre known for bestsellers similar to “It” and “Pet Sematary.” Clay County officials also found his book, “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,” inappropriate for college kids.
King, who spends part of the yr in Florida, talked about attempting to get his books out of students’ hands, urging readers to run to the closest library or bookstore.
“What the hell?” In August, King posted on social media reacting to the choice of some Florida schools to drag his books from shelves.
Multiple school districts in Florida have filed legal challenges for restricting students’ access to books, including Escambia County, which is being sued by PEN America and Random penguin housethe biggest publisher within the country.
Nassau County School District in September settled lawsuit brought by the authors of “And Tango Makes Three,” an image book based on the true story of two male penguins who raised a chick together at New York’s Central Park Zoo. Under the terms of the settlement, the district needed to return three dozen books to the shelves.
Education
Issa Rae meets with Georgia law students
Rae will speak to students about legal issues related to her success.
Georgia State University College of Law announced that Issa Rae will meet with students to debate the legal elements of her successful profession as a part of the course “The Legal Life of Issa Rae.”
On November 7, the producer-actress will hold a hearing at Rialto Art Center. The visit is the culmination of a course exploring Rae’s decades-long profession within the entertainment industry. Rae’s profession provides a wealth of legal diversity to explore as her profession extends beyond visual entertainment.
The classes are held as a part of the “Legal Life…” series. The series was created by George State University law professor Moraima “Mo” Ivory.
As a professor at Georgia State College of Law, Ivory curated a series that examined the legality of maintaining a prestigious profession. As reported, Rae is a course subject this semester BLACK ENTERPRISES.
The creator’s team worked with Ivory to take an in depth take a look at the contracts that helped Rae secure her deals.
“With the support of her team, we will also have the unique opportunity to analyze her real-world deals and discuss how her approach to deals is shaping today’s entertainment landscape. We are incredibly fortunate to have this opportunity,” Ivory told .
It was classy access for 10 years value of contractual agreements to be analyzed.
“This is the first class where every contract was an actual contract with the artist,” Ivory said. “Students can see how real deals actually happen and what real entertainment lawyer Issa Rae has been doing over the last 10 years.”
Ivory, a professor and Fulton County commissioner, believes that the language of the law is vital and that the power to see the language in connection with a noteworthy product allows students to beat the barrier of unfamiliarity.
“You have to look at what people are actually doing and what is happening at the moment. The more familiar they become with the language, the faster they will be able to master it and start representing clients.”
According to Ivory, Rae’s family and business partners were instrumental in checking out the complicated details of her business. The course was attended by “Rae’s mother, siblings, network executives and members of her staff.”
The longtime artist began her profession on YouTube with “The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl.” The show’s success led to a collaboration with host Larry Wilmore and a multi-show deal with HBO. Outside of television, Rae is a successful actress and producer of many shows including (2022). She also created her own media company HooRae media and music label Raedio.
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