Saundra Tomlinson-Clarke promoted to Provost at Rutgers University

Saundra Tomlinson-Clarke, a veteran faculty member and administrator, has been promoted as Rutgers–New Brunswick’s provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs.

Chancellor Francine Conway appointed Tomlinson-Clarke to the new role, following Tomlinson-Clarke’s service for two years as senior vice provost for academic and faculty affairs.

“With my direct knowledge of her professionalism, character and commitment to the success of our faculty and students, I have no doubt that Provost Tomlinson-Clarke will help lead Rutgers–New Brunswick to ever greater levels of success,” Conway said.

As provost, Tomlinson-Clarke will continue to support the chancellor in providing support to all academic areas related to research, growth in academic program development aligned with the Academic Master Plan and faculty. This appointment sharpens Rutgers–New Brunswick’s focus on supporting academic excellence across its academic units, residential colleges and institutes.

Tomlinson-Clarke also will oversee initiatives that help faculty members advance in their careers through recruitment, mentoring and leadership development.

“It takes thriving, fulfilled and successful faculty members to produce thriving, fulfilled and successful students – and student success is, of course, our highest goal,” Tomlinson-Clarke said. “I am grateful for this opportunity and proud to continue supporting our academic mission.”

Tomlinson-Clarke, a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the Graduate School of Education, has served on the Rutgers–New Brunswick faculty for more than three decades. She also is a licensed psychologist and fellow of the American Psychological Association whose research focuses on the development of culturally responsive interventions to enhance learning.

Conway, who led Rutgers–New Brunswick under the hybrid title of “chancellor-provost” for two years, was appointed as chancellor by Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway earlier this summer.

Rutgers University is named for a slave owner: School’s first Black president says the name will stay

Jonathan Holloway, who last week became the first Black president in Rutgers University’s 254 year history, said he has no plans to change the school’s name, which honors a man who owned slaves.

But he did use his first press conference, which took place indoors on the school’s New Brunswick campus Monday, to say he hopes to increase diversity among faculty and have conversations about race and inclusion on campus as the nation grapples with racism and police brutality.

“We are not going to change the name of the university,” Holloway said, after speaking about plans keep the school mostly remote this fall as the coronavirus outbreak continues. “That does not mean I’m opposed to having a conversation about it.

Rutgers, founded as Queen’s College in 1766, has three halls named for former presidents who were slave owners and anti-abolitionists. And the university’s namesake, Revolutionary War hero and philanthropist from New York City, Henry Rutgers, owned slaves, too.

Holloway said many of the initial attempts to diversify Rutgers will likely include back office changes, particularly with most students staying off campus this fall. He said he hopes to have conversations with students about the campus’s past, but does not see the name as one that determines the school’s legacy.

“The reason we’re not going to change the name is that names have value that exceed someone’s existence,” Holloway said.

“If I were to walk around feeing bludgeoned by every name I see, I couldn’t get out of bed.”

Rutgers University will name its first black president

Rutgers University is set to name its first black president, Jonathan Holloway, provost of Northwestern University and a former Stanford football player, NJ Advance Media has learned.

Holloway will be named president on Tuesday, pending formal approval by the university’s Board of Governors, according to four sources who have knowledge of the selection but were not authorized to speak on the record.

According to his official Northwestern University biography, Holloway received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University, where he played on the football team alongside Sen. Cory Booker. He received his Ph. D. in history from Yale University, whose faculty he joined in 1999. Before being named provost of Northwestern in August 2017, he served as the Dean of Yale College.

[Source: NJ.COM]

Rutgers University Dedicates Plaza to Paul Robeson

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the graduation of its most acclaimed alumnus, Rutgers University dedicated a plaza named for Paul Robeson on Friday to honor his legacy as distinguished a scholar, athlete, actor and global activist for civil rights and social justice.

The open-air plaza, which features eight black granite panels detailing the story of Robeson’s life, stands in a prominent location next to the Voorhees Mall on the College Avenue campus at Rutgers–New Brunswick. The Paul Robeson Plaza was unveiled Friday during a ceremony that attracted hundreds of students, alumni and community members.

“There’s no question, as you’ve heard, that Paul Robeson is among the greatest of the hundreds of thousands of Rutgers alumni – simply one of the greatest,” Rutgers President Robert Barchi said. “In fact, we may never see again so many talents combined in one person – a superior scholar, an all-American athlete, a world-renowned singer and actor, a spellbinding orator and a passionate activist and humanitarian.”

Robeson’s granddaughter, Susan Robeson, said “what was so extraordinary about my grandfather was that the more successful, the more wealthy, the more famous, the more accomplished he became as a singer and an actor, the less focused he was on himself and the more attuned he became to the suffering of others. To him, all the success in the world was meaningless if it didn’t benefit someone else.”

“My greatest hope is that students today strive to become global citizens who transcend boundaries and engage with the issues of peace and social justice in every corner of the globe and, like Paul, never fear to speak truth to power,” she added. “My grandfather often said, ‘I’m not free until we’re all free,’ and he wasn’t just talking about black folks. He was talking about every single person who walks on the planet Earth.”

The plaza was envisioned and championed by the Class of 1971 for its 45th anniversary, with strong support from the Rutgers African-American Alumni Alliance, Inc.

“President Barchi, this is our milestone gift and it is the hope of the Class of 1971 that the Paul Robeson Plaza will stand as a public and lasting tribute to the extraordinary life and legacy of Paul Leroy Robeson and will serve to inspire future generations to stand up, to speak out (on) social injustice and human rights with Paul Robeson as their model and their mentor,” said Claude White, president of the Rutgers College Class of 1971.

In the 20th century, Robeson was a quintessential Renaissance man who championed equal rights. Globally recognized at the time, his name faded from public consciousness even though the issues of justice and equity have flared anew, from Black Lives Matter to the #MeToo movement.

Black Lives Matter cofounder Opal Tometi recently told a Rutgers audience that today's civil rights movement wouldn’t be possible without Robeson and Martin Luther King Jr. “Robeson is so important because he paved the way for us to have a global perspective on our movements," she said.

Robeson, a native of Princeton, attended Rutgers College in New Brunswick on an academic scholarship, becoming the university’s third African-American student. He soon became a star scholar with a consistently high grade point average. In his junior year he became one of only four classmates admitted to Phi Beta Kappa and, in his senior year, was one of four men chosen to join the Cap and Skull Honor Society.

He earned acclaim as an orator and singer while at Rutgers, and won oratorical competitions each of his four years.  At his 1919 graduation he gave the valedictory speech titled “The New Idealism,” which called upon his audience to fight for a government where “character shall be the standard of excellence.”

Robeson also excelled as a Rutgers athlete. He was the university’s first black football player and was named an All-American in 1917 and 1918. He won 15 varsity letters in football, baseball, basketball and track.

He persevered at Rutgers despite the racism he faced. On one occasion, the football coach benched Robeson when an opposing team refused to take the field against a black man – though the coach regretted that decision and refused to give in the next time such a request was made.

After Rutgers, Robeson earned a law degree at Columbia Law School and then launched a successful career as a performing artist. Robeson’s deep baritone led to fame as a singer. He starred in films and plays and, as Othello, led the longest-running Shakespeare play in Broadway history.

Robeson used his fame to advocate for the rights and dignity of African Americans and oppressed people throughout the world. He spoke out for the rights of miners and other workers; for India’s independence; and for the anti-fascist cause during the Spanish Civil War.  His relationship with the Soviet Union generated controversy and attention from the House Un-American Activities Committee.

But, as shown in his song “Ballad for Americans,” he expressed a view of the common humanity of all Americans and belief in America’s promise: “Our country’s strong, our country’s young, and her greatest songs are still unsung.”

Why Black History Month Matters

Rutgers Today talked to Khadijah White about why Black History Month is important as the university plans a series of events in observance. White, an assistant professor of journalism and media studies in the School of Communication and Information, researches race, gender and politics in media. She has written about race, social movements, media, and politics for The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Root, Huffington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Los Angeles Times, Quartz and other publications. White is also a regular contributor to the online magazine, Role/Reboot.

Why is Black History Month relevant?

There has long been a contention among student and teacher activists that educators in this country, who are predominantly white, would not teach about black history at all if it weren’t for people explicitly setting aside space and time for it. Now, at least for this month, students can learn about how African Americans quite literally built this society and provided its foundation in so many ways. American history has been shaped around the marginalization and exclusion of African Americans in many arenas. As a result, there are lots of obstacles that have kept African Americans from being fully integrated or recognized in American history. Their accomplishments have often been occluded. Take technological invention, for instance. Black inventors often didn’t get credit for their inventions, and when they did manage to get patents, white inventors often tried to steal them. Granville Woods, for instance, an engineer and inventor with more than 50 patents to his name, often had to fight off attempts by white inventors to steal his patents. Woods is often called “the black Edison,” which I think is really a shame.

What are the most important issues Americans should be discussing during Black History Month?

We should reflect on how far we’ve come – and we’re really good at that – but also on how short we’ve fallen. One of the reasons for the recent popularity of the movie Selma, one of the reasons it strikes a chord with so many Americans, is that it reminds us that the issues that people were fighting for back in 1965 are still relevant now – voting rights, in particular. Some parts of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have been cut back, and the “voter ID” laws being proposed and passed in many states are a new way to make it more difficult for people to vote. Incarceration is another – there are now more black men in prison today than were enslaved in 1850. And the decline of public education, another major issue during the civil rights movement, has turned these sacred institutions into school-to-prison pipelines.

What’s the most important thing African Americans are saying that the rest of America should hear?

I think lots of African Americans are saying, look, it’s good that we have a black president, and, yes, we have come a long way. But African Americans are falling behind and discriminated against in all kinds of measures – housing, employment, health care, the justice system, education, police killings of black citizens. The decline of public education in this country disproportionately affects African Americans and people are fighting for access to water in Detroit. People should really check out what’s happening with #BlackLivesMatter, which has been trending on social media in recent months. People born after the sixties so often say they wish they were born at a time when a movement was rising up, and here’s a movement that’s happening right now.

Condoleezza Rice pulls out of giving Rutgers commencement speech

[ SOURCE ] Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice backed out of giving Rutgers University's commencement speech today amid growing opposition among the school's students and faculty.

In a statement, Rice said she informed Rutgers President Robert Barchi that she has decided not to give the May 18 address.

“Commencement should be a time of joyous celebration for the graduates and their families. Rutgers' invitation to me to speak has become a distraction for the university community at this very special time," Rice said.

"I am honored to have served my country. I have defended America's belief in free speech and the exchange of ideas. These values are essential to the health of our democracy. But that is not what is at issue here," she said. "As a Professor for thirty years at Stanford University and as (its) former Provost and Chief academic officer, I understand and embrace the purpose of the commencement ceremony and I am simply unwilling to detract from it in any way."

Rice wished good luck to the Rutgers graduates.