I am deeply honored to be serving as Interim President of Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, the first institution in the nation that was founded to provide "instruction for the descendants of the African race in school learning, in the various branches of the mechanic arts and trades and in agriculture, in order to prepare and fit and qualify them to be teachers."
Founded in 1837 as not far from Philadelphia, Cheyney University celebrated its 179th birthday in February with a wonderful affair. Our keynote speaker, Sen. Vincent Hughes, a member of the Cheyney University Council of Trustees and a member of the Pennsylvania Senate, reminded us of the continuing importance of Cheyney University. While Cheyney still educates teachers, we offer baccalaureate degrees in more than 30 disciplines and the master's degree in education and public administration.
While some in this country feel that Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) like Cheyney, because of program duplication and desegregation should not exist and are no longer needed, the fact is that HBCUs are needed today, and will be needed in the future.
The fastest growing populations in the United States are African Americans, Hispanics and new immigrants. HBCUs have and will continue to demonstrate that they can successfully provide a quality education for all students, particularly these groups, many of whom have come through poorly funded and ineffective K-12 education.
There is abundant evidence that education, K-12 and higher education, public and private, has lost traditional support of state and federal legislators and private businesses.
Higher education, once considered a “sacred cow,” is competing for financial resources along with hundreds of other human service needs. When it comes to HBCUs and Hispanic Serving Colleges and Universities (HSIs), it is even clearer that many of the more than 100 or so institutions, founded to provide quality educational experiences for African Americans and Hispanics, share many common challenges, including threats to their historic missions.
Only a few years ago, students of color could not attend some of the higher education institutions they can attend today.
Today, only about 10 percent of African American students enrolled in college attend HBCUs.
This is a significant challenge for all HBCUs and for the families of students.
Since its inception, Cheyney University students, faculty, staff, trustees, managers, and supporters have had to face challenges and overcome the odds to move the university forward.
Any challenges that we face now as a university are nothing new. And, if our predecessors have faced them and overcome them, then we can, too, as reflected by our university-wide theme for this academic year: “Resilience: Still We Rise.”
The truth is Cheyney University is needed more now than ever given our current conditions in society.
The school’s role in educating educators is the foundational role, however, Cheyney should be known for outstanding academic programs and research that address critical urban issues such as health, education, public administration and urban planning, labor and employment, sociology, psychology, economic development, transportation, and the environment.
In the area of communication arts, Cheyney should be known as a training ground for communications professionals - broadcasters and journalists - who truthfully and faithfully tell the stories of urban America and the African American experience in a way that uplifts rather than denigrates.
Cheyney-trained graphic, dramatic, and visual artists should be known for using their creative skills to also convey the African American experience and the human experience in creative and impactful ways.
In 1837, Charles Comfort Tiffany arrived in New York City with a vision of spectacular beauty that went on to redefine glamour and style around the world.
That same year, Richard Humphries and the members of the Friends Management Committee had a vision of an outstanding institution of higher education that would educate African Americans, a vision that spread to the creation of over 100 more historically black colleges and universities.
Tiffany & Co. has an outstanding and well-known worldwide brand with its well-branded signature blue boxes with the white ribbon, a symbol of quality.
Tiffany’s could rest on its laurels, but it doesn’t. Tiffany’s continues to reinvent itself and its products to stay fresh to their consumers and constituents while at the same time honoring its traditions - the blue and white box.
It changes its designers, adding the latest top designers like Elsa Peretti and Paloma Picasso. It adds new product designs, like the Tiffany locks, the Tiffany keys, the Atlas collection, the Tiffany T.
One thing that Tiffany’s does also is always remind its customers and the public that it has been around since 1837. Its boxes say “New York Since 1837.”
It even has a special line of 1837 jewelry, and it frequently puts just the number “1837” on its jewelry and china.
Just like Tiffany's, Cheyney University must constantly remind its customers - the students - and its community that it has been around since 1837. Staying true to its founding as an institution with a unique and high quality mission, yet responding to changing times by reinventing itself and growing its institution by offering new products, new designs, new programs and new ways of thinking.
Like Tiffany’s, Cheyney must keep what is working and discontinue what is not. Cheyney must continue to strive to continue to reflect its history as a symbol of quality.
And, like Tiffany’s, Cheyney must continue to proudly display its blue and white as a symbol of quality and a rich tradition that constantly reinvents itself so that you never know what you will find inside that blue and white box when it is presented to you, but you know that it will always be something outstanding.
Cheyney University’s future is full of opportunities, new beginnings and renewed hope. My goal as interim president is to work tirelessly to restore Cheyney to its rightful place of historic greatness among our nation’s universities.
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