THE HILLTOPTheHilltopOnline.com The Student Voice of Howard University Vol. 94 No. 11. .Est. 1924

Put it on BlastStudents express frustra-tions about financial aid and validation.

p.3

Splurge in the CityHoward students finds lots of ways to spend money they don’t always have. p.7

Howard v. Morgan Howard competes against Morgan State in New York Urban League football classic. p.15

NEWS....................... p.3

OPINIONS............... p.10 MECCANISMS.......... p.12 SPORTS.................... p.14

INSIDE INDEX WEATHER

Today Tomorrow

High: 89Low: 69

High: 92Low: 68

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Tomorrow is Convocation day, the official opening of the aca-demic year. Morning classes will be cancelled to allow students to hear neurosurgeon Benjamin Carson’s address.

The convocation will begin at 11:00 a.m. But, like many other students, Bianca St. Louis plans to catch up on sleep and homework, then study for an afternoon test.

Louis says Convocation doesn’t mean much to her. Neither does it have much significance to the majority of Howard students.

“When I did go, it was just an assignment for business orienta-tion,” said St. Louis. “I went with my team and probably had to write something about it, but I didn’t go to any other convocations after that.”

The 20 year old international business major could recall only a few positive details about the event in 2008 when President Sidney A. Ribeau introduced himself to the university.

“The ceremony was long, and not very engaging,” Louis said. “The impact of the speech didn’t leave a lasting impression for me,

and I still don’t know why we even have this function on our campus.”

Such is the familiar story of a student who feels that Convocation is not particularly relevant to her student experience. And without a compelling reason to wrench her from bed on a class-free day, she has grown apathetic about observing the ceremony.

Special Assistant to the presi-dent, Valerie Turner, organized a student focus group that recorded opinions about various campus-life activities in 2009.

The students suggested making freshmen understand the impor-tance of the ceremony. They also recommended more upbeat music, better advertisement, and instituting a university rule allowing professors to give extra credit for writing about Convocation.

Turner believes it is positive that student opinions were noted. Meanwhile, St. Louis is still looking for an adequate explanation of the purpose of Convocation to excite her enthusiasm for it.

“I think if we knew the purpose and reasons why we have this event every year, we would start to under-stand its value,” said St. Louis.

Convocation Day Gets Mixed Views

by Saraya WintersmithContributing Writer

African Studies Threatened by Merger Proposalby Michael Tomlin-Crutchfield

Staff Writer

Howard University is known the world over as the Mecca of intellec-tual black thought. To truly master the thought of a people, one must know their history and the univer-sity did not always have that on it’s agenda.

The African studies department at Howard was non-existent before a push from it’s student body in the early 1950s. After the department was established for undergraduates in 1953, campuses across the coun-try began looking into developing their own methods of educating stu-dents on the African Diaspora and its impact on the planet.

However, 57 years later, the de-partment that was created through the administration meeting student demands, is faced with a new threat to it’s future.

The Presidential Committee on Academic Renewal has made it a priority to review several university programs and better develop them to serve students. In efforts to do that, it has been recommended that the Af-rican studies department merge with

other areas of international studies, into an international comparative and area studies program.

The department that has been in the top five for producing Ph.D.s at Howard over the last 20 years is not excited about this recommendation.

Mbye Cham, Ph.D., the chair of African Studies, believes that depart-ment is necessary and should stand-alone.

“The university decided it was best to merge the program because of low enrollment in majors in the undergraduate division,” said Cham. “We currently have 11 stu-dents enrolled as majors in African studies, but have 50 students in the masters and Ph.D. programs.”

Cham believes that the histori-cal presence that the university has added to the field of study should be enough to keep it a Baccalaureate of the Arts.

“Howard has been a leader in research and development of Afri-can studies since it established the department in the 1950s and has continued to play a role in the stud-ies since,” said Cham.

“Even though we have low en-rollment, 95 percent of our majors are in the honors program and we had two Robert McNair scholars. What we lack in quantity we make up for in quality and that is very im-portant.”

The African studies program has produced some dynamic individu-als in the last couple of years that have already made an impact of the Diaspora.

“Robin Pilley is working as the advisor to the President of Liberia, Africa’s first female president; that is extremely significant and she re-cently graduated in 2007, I believe. We also had a student, Brittany An-derson, who is currently stationed in the US Embassy in Kingston, Ja-

Ryan C. Hamilton Staff Photographer

Students meet with recruiters Wednesday from more than 40 of the nation’s law schools at the annual Mid-Atlantic Pre-Law Conference at the Blackburn Center, including representatives from Florida Gulf Coast University, University of Tampa and Florida Southern College. Find more photos on p.4

Conference Briefs Students on Legal Careers

Photo Courtesy of Elective Decisions

Neurosurgeon Ben Carson will be delivering this year’s convocation speech.

CONVOCATION continued on p.2

STUDIES continued on p.2

“The university decided it was best to merge the program be-

cause of low enrollment in majors in the undergraduate division.”

- Mbye Cham, Ph.D.Chair of African Studies