Keynote speaker John L. Taylor (left) speaks with Black Issues in Higher Education Conference attendees. Photo by UGA Photographic Services.

BIHE Speakers: Students Must Be Resourceful, Persevere More than 150 graduate students and young faculty, attending the Black Issues in Higher Education Conference, heard voices of experience, including those of four past deans. Catharin Shephard | Feb 21, 2008

Speakers at the recent 2008 Black Issues in Higher Education Conference at the University of Georgia emphasized the need to support the next generation of African-American educators and academic leaders, and encouraged students to be persevering and resourceful in climbing the academic ladder.

Panelists Louis Castenell and June G. Hopps shared their experiences from more than 50 collective years of serving as deans. Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker.

About 150 graduate students, faculty, staff and administrators from across the Southeast attended the February 1 conference at the Georgia Center for Continuing Education. The speakers and panelists included the experienced voices of four past deans, including former UGA College of Education Dean Louis A. Castenell, Jr.

Keynote speaker John L. Taylor, professor and former dean in the College of Education at Arizona State University, discussed the need to develop stronger coalitions among minorities in higher education, close the divide between middle-class and poor blacks, and questioned why blacks are often perceived as being to the political left of functions at liberal research institutions.

“We can be challengers and bargainers. We must close the gap and study the problems together,” said Taylor.

Panelists Castenell and June G. Hopps, Parham Professor of Social Policy at UGA and former dean of the school of social work at Boston College, shared their experiences from more than 50 collective years of serving as deans.

“No one does it alone,” Hopps emphasized. “We all stand on the backs of others.”

“Always look out for those without a voice,” said Castenell. “Don’t forget about the little people as you move forward. You are only as good as the people around you.”

This year’s theme of creating a legacy for future scholars through community building helped to further fulfill the principles and goals conference coordinators Juanita Johnson-Bailey and Bettye P. Smith set out to achieve when they developed the conference in 2006.

Keynote speaker Penny Ralston is a professor, former dean of the College of Human Sciences, and director of the Center on Better Health and Life for Under-Served Populations at Florida State University. Photo by Andrew Davis Tucker.

“We consider this conference a form of mentoring for graduate students who are interested in joining the professoria,” said Johnson-Bailey, a professor in the Institute for Women’s Studies and the Department of Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy. “We encourage all of our students in the College of Education to come because this is the kind of mentoring that you don’t get that often, having people who are new to the professoria and at the end of their careers, giving insight that’s invaluable.”

The coordinators plan to continue developing the BIHE Conference, now in its third year, and hope to attract attendees from outside the social sciences fields and especially from areas where minorities are traditionally under-represented.

“Teaching and research are always issues of concern for faculty in a research institution and will remain part of the conference,” said Smith, an associate professor in the College of Education’s Department of Workforce Education, Leadership, and Social Foundations. “However, we plan to expand by including issues related to areas of study in which few women and faculty of color participate, such as math, science and technology.”

Penny Ralston, professor, former dean of the College of Human Sciences, and director of the Center on Better Health and Life for Under-Served Populations at Florida State University, presented a keynote address during the luncheon that followed the morning sessions.

A dozen UGA faculty members and students served as facilitators and panel members for a series of afternoon discussions on establishing and maintaining a research agenda, the art of teaching at a research university, and grant writing and dissemination of results.

© 2006 University of Georgia