The Gazette

Issue date: 5/6/09 Section: Opinion

Dr. Leonard Haynes III, executive director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), once stated, "If Black colleges didn't exist, we would have to create them. They are meeting an unmet need. It's just that simple."

Former U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Condolezza Rice, whose parents were both HBCU alumni, said, "HBCUs are preparing a new generation of Americans to succeed in the 21st century." Dr. Rice called for continued investment of resources in these institutions during the 2008 National HBCU Week Conference, sponsored by the White House Initiative on HBCUs in our nations capitol.

My dear Langstonites, I dedicate my 241st edition of Chapy's Corner to our sagacious John Mercer Langston University 2009 graduating class and to all those elated people who have invested in their academic pilgrimage and spiritual epic while student-learners upon the "hill."

Now that you supplicants have fought the good fight and succeeded in this stage of your pilgrimage and human (life-span) development with a first-class education. Now what? I mean, you have successfully taken on either for better or for worse:

--My rigorous and intellectually stimulating humanities study guides;

--The misplacements or delays of your financial aid money;

--The drama of the Registrar's Office concerning your transcripts, grades, and academic records;

--The over-due Library books;

--The Cafeteria food;

--The late-papers and deadlines;

--The cramming for tests;

--All the procrastinations and plagiarisms that you turned into an art-form;

--The run-a-rounds they sent you on when you tried to register or when you asked the monumental question: "Where is My Refund Check?";

--T he yearly housing issues in dorm life, as well as, the yearning for hot clear water;

--The sensual aroma of our beautiful USDA goats and other farm life animal's on a brisk winter night;

Continued...

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