• A Band of Noble Women: Racial Politics in the Women’s Peace Movement by Melinda Plastas (Syracuse University Press)
• Abandoned in the Heartland: Work, Family, and Living in East St. Louis by Jennifer F. Hamer (University of California Press)
• African Media and Democratization: Public Opinion, Ownership, and Rule of Law by Yusuf Kalyango Jr. (Peter Lang Publishing)
• American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era by David W. Blight (Harvard University Press)
• Changing Inequality by Rebecca M. Blank (University of California Press)
• Class Dismissed: Why We Cannot Teach or Learn Our Way Out of Inequality by John Marsh (Monthly Review Press)
• Outcast to Ambassador: The Musical Odyssey of Salif Keita by Cheick M. Cherif Keita (Mogoya Books)
• Oversight: Representing the Interests of Blacks and Latinos in Congress by Michael D. Minta (Princeton University Press)
• Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry by Evie Shockley (University of Iowa Press)
• Representation and Black Womanhood: The Legacy of Sarah Baartman edited by Natasha Gordon-Chipembere (Palgrave Macmillan)
• Sites Unseen: Architecture, Race, and American Literature by William A. Gleason (New York University Press)
• Sixty Years a Que: Greek Letter Societies and the African American Community by Gordon D. Morgan (New Academia Publishing)
• Slavery and the Culture of Taste by Simon Gikandi (Princeton University Press)
• Social Justice, Poverty, and Race: Normative and Empirical Points of View edited by Paul Kriese and Randall E. Osborne (Rodopi Publications)
• Sold Down the River: Slavery in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley of Alabama and Georgia by Anthony Gene Carey (University of Alabama Press)
• The Anatomy of Blackness: Science and Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment by Andrew S. Curran (Johns Hopkins University Press)
• The Sugar Barons: Family, Corruption, Empire, and War in the West Indies by Matthew Parker (Walker & Company)
• The Trouble with Sauling Around: Conversion in Ethnic American Autobiography, 1965-2002 by Madeline Ruth Walker (University of Iowa Press)
• Transatlantic Literary Exchanges, 1790-1870: Gender, Race, and Nation by Kevin Hutchings and Julia M. Wright (Ashgate Publishing Company)
• Women of Color in Higher Education: Turbulent Past, Promising Future edited by Gaetane Jean-Marie and Brenda Lloyd-Jones (Emerald Books)

The mean score for blacks on the combined critical reading and mathematical portions of the SAT was 855. This was a two-point decline from a year ago.

The mean score for whites on the reading and mathematics sections of the SAT was 1063, 208 points higher than the mean score for blacks.

The long-term trend in the racial scoring gap on the SAT is not encouraging. Since 1988, the racial gap on the reading and mathematics sections of the SAT has increased from 189 points to 208 points.

Furthermore, the racial gap is widening. From 2009 to 2010 the black poverty rate increase by 1.6 percentage points. The rate for non-Hispanic white American rose by only 0.5 percentage points. There were 731,000 more blacks living in poverty in 2010 than was the case in 2009.

• In 2008, the University of Wisconsin at Madison admitted 71.8 percent of black applicants and 59.3 percent of white applicants.

• The median combined SAT score (math plus verbal) for black admittees was roughly 150 points lower than the median score for whites.

•  In 2007 and 2008, blacks and Hispanic applicants with the same ACT score and high school rank as the average black admittee had a 100 percent chance of admission. In 2007 whites with similar ACT scores and high school rank were admitted at a rate of 27 percent. In 2008 whites with similar characteristics were admitted 38 percent of the time.

The university issued a statement in response to the CEO report. In the statement the university wrote, “When it comes to admissions, UW–Madison employs a holistic, competitive and selective process for undergraduate, graduate and professional schools. That process takes into account a range of factors, including grades, standardized test scores, recommendations, extracurricular activities, leadership and written statements. UW–Madison’s approach is consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisions in the Michigan affirmative action cases that say race is a permissible factor in consideration of holistic admissions.”

David Ward, interim chancellor of the University of Wisconsin at Madison added, “Any student who is accepted at UW-Madison is here because he or she has the potential and the capacity to succeed. No matter what a student’s class rank or test scores were, students who are accepted qualify for a spot at this university. No one is admitted solely because of race or ethnicity.”

Adele Brumfield, director or admissions, stated, “While holistic in our admissions, there are certain parameters and high standards that must be met. We stand behind our process, which is continually refined and enhanced, to admit classes that are both diverse and meritorious.”

- President Barack Obama, proclaiming September 18-24 as National Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week

In a recent statement, Peter Lepage, the Howard Tanner Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said that in the search for someone to replace Dr. Harris he was unable to find “a faculty member who was willing to serve and was acceptable to a substantial majority of the Africana faculty, and we believe faculty enthusiasm is critical to long-term leadership.” A member of the faculty at Cornell told JBHE that a slim majority of the Africana studies faculty proposed a new director but that choice was apparently not acceptable to the dean.

David R. Harris

Now Dean Lepage, has named two senior associate deans of the College of Arts and Sciences as co-directors of the center for at least the 2011-12 academic year. Elizabeth Adkins Reagan, a professor of psychology, and David R. Harris, a professor of sociology, will direct the center in addition to their other roles.

Dean Lepage stated that he is looking to hire three to five additional faculty members in Africana studies. He also affirmed his commitment to establishing a Ph.D. program in the field. Dr. Lepage said, “Once we have made substantial progress in hiring and curriculum development, we will begin the process of identifying future departmental leadership.”

A group of alumni of the center issued a statement calling the actions taken as “regressive and colonial in nature.” The statement said that the current leadership was placing “the Africana Center under an externally appointed administrative regime.”

The organization has moved its headquarters from the University of Delaware to the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. The move was made, in part, because of the reputation of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee’s reputation in the urban studies field. The university offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in urban studies.

The Confucius Institute is a collaborative initiative between North Carolina State University, Nanjing Normal University and Hanban, the executive body of the Chinese Language Council International.

Since the program’s inception in 2009, 38 scholars from Africa have spent a semester on the Ann Arbor campus. The latest group includes 14 academics in such diverse fields as child development, renewable energy, and aircraft design.

The accompanying video includes some African Presidential Scholars discussing their experiences at the University of Michigan.