Fayetteville State University announced Monday the hiring of a provost, a position considered vitally important by the school’s new chancellor.
Monica Terrell Leach will serve as FSU’s provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs starting June 1, according to a statement released by the university. She is currently senior associate vice chancellor for enrollment management and academic affairs at North Carolina Central University.
The FSU board of trustees met in closed session for about 14 minutes during a special meeting on Friday to discuss a personnel matter. The board took no action in open session, and a university spokesman said the board is not required to announce what it discussed in closed session.
Harold Valentine/AP Global Citizen LifeDemand Equity
Global Citizen Book Club: Soul City Tells the Story of a Black Utopia That Almost Was
In 1969, civil rights leader Floyd McKissick tried to build a new city.
Why Global Citizens Should Care
Understanding the history of civil rights can help us overcome ongoing racial injustices. The United Nations calls on countries to champion racial justice in all its forms. You can join us in taking action on this issue here.
Imagine you had the resources to build a new community from scratch new infrastructure, new government, new social relations.
Now imagine you didn’t have the necessary resources, lived in a hostile society, and still tried to build a new community. At the end of the 1960s, the civil rights leader Floyd McKissick tried to do just that, hatching a plan to build Soul City, a place where Black people could thrive and have an opportunity to experience the elusive “American Dream,” free f
Robert F. Bukaty / AP
The Biden administration says addressing climate change and health inequities are among its top priorities, and it will need to lean heavily on federal scientists to achieve ambitious goals. But decades of underfunding, political interference and systemic race and gender bias have undercut trust among many government scientists and led to a disproportionately white, male workforce.
Recent reports by the Government Accountability Office and House Committee on Science, Space and Technology found that the federal government has not done enough to recruit and retain scientists who are women and people of color. Moreover, opaque hiring practices coupled with successive government shutdowns, hiring freezes and outright political censorship have damaged the federal government s reputation among scientists, according to the GAO.
Climate and health policies rely on scientific expertise. But the federal science workforce has been shaped by decades of political interference, underfunding and race and gender bias.
“Disgusting” and “embarrassing,” said commenters on social media, who identified themselves as Elizabeth City State students, parents and alumni and students at other HBCUs.
Some people noted the painful relationship between Black communities and police throughout American history and particularly over the last year, in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many other Black Americans, including Andrew Brown Jr., a Black Elizabeth City resident, who was shot and killed by a county sheriff’s deputy on April 21. Protesters have been peacefully marching in the city ever since and calling for the release of body camera footage from deputies who executed a search warrant on Brown and killed him, and more transparency from police and county officials about the shooting.