Difference between revisions of "Howard University" - New World Encyclopedia

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Howard University offers its students a variety of social activities, including clubs and athletics. Howard is a member of the [[National Collegiate Athletics Association]] Division I for men and women's [[basketball]], men and women's [[Cross country]], men's [[football]], women's [[Lacrosse]], men and women's [[soccer]], women's [[softball]], men and women's [[swimming]], [[tennis]], [[track and field]] and men's [[wrestling]].<ref>(2009) Collegeboard.com [http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=789&profileId=4"Howard University"] Retrieved January 19, 2009</ref> The school also offers these sports intramurally, as well as [[badminton]], [[bowling]] and [[table tennis]]. The Pulse is the main facility for students to pursue their exercise and health related activities.
 
Howard University offers its students a variety of social activities, including clubs and athletics. Howard is a member of the [[National Collegiate Athletics Association]] Division I for men and women's [[basketball]], men and women's [[Cross country]], men's [[football]], women's [[Lacrosse]], men and women's [[soccer]], women's [[softball]], men and women's [[swimming]], [[tennis]], [[track and field]] and men's [[wrestling]].<ref>(2009) Collegeboard.com [http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=789&profileId=4"Howard University"] Retrieved January 19, 2009</ref> The school also offers these sports intramurally, as well as [[badminton]], [[bowling]] and [[table tennis]]. The Pulse is the main facility for students to pursue their exercise and health related activities.
  
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Howard has over 50 student clubs and organizations. The most numerous are the academic and professional organizations, which include the '''American Association of Women Dentists''', '''American Medical Association''', '''Intellectual Property Students Association''', '''Sports & Entertainment Law Student Association''' and '''Supply Chain Management Student Association'''. Arts clubs include '''HU Bisonette Dance Ensemble''' and '''HU Film Organization'''. The University hosts several civil and political groups, including [[Amnesty International]], [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]], and '''Students Advocating for Youth'''. There are several [[Christianity|Christian]] and [[Islam|Islamic]] groups on campus, as well social clubs such as the '''African Students Association''' and the '''Ladies of the Quad Social Club'''. Howard University is also home of all nine [[National Pan-Hellenic Council]] organizations. Other Greek letter organizations registered on campus include [[Alpha Phi Omega]], [[Gamma Iota Sigma]], [[Phi Mu Alpha]], [[Sigma Alpha Iota]], [[Delta Sigma Pi]], [[Phi Sigma Pi]], [[Gamma Sigma Sigma]], [[Kappa Kappa Psi]], and [[Tau Beta Sigma]].<ref>(2008) Howard University [http://www.howard.edu/currentstudents/studentlifeactivities/StudentActivities/ActiveStudentOrganizationsandClubs.htm"Academic and Professional Organizations"] Retrieved January 19, 2009</ref>
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Howard has over 50 student clubs and organizations. The most numerous are the academic and professional organizations, which include the '''American Association of Women Dentists''', '''American Medical Association''', '''Intellectual Property Students Association''', '''Sports & Entertainment Law Student Association''' and '''Supply Chain Management Student Association'''. Arts clubs include '''HU Bisonette Dance Ensemble''' and '''HU Film Organization'''. The University hosts several civil and political groups, including [[Amnesty International]], [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]], and '''Students Advocating for Youth'''. There are several [[Christianity|Christian]] and [[Islam|Islamic]] groups on campus, as well social clubs such as the '''African Students Association''' and the '''Ladies of the Quad Social Club'''. Howard University is also home of all nine [[National Pan-Hellenic Council]] organizations. Other Greek letter organizations registered on campus include [[Alpha Phi Omega]], [[Gamma Iota Sigma]], [[Phi Mu Alpha]], [[Sigma Alpha Iota]], [[Delta Sigma Pi]], [[Phi Sigma Pi]], [[Gamma Sigma Sigma]], [[Kappa Kappa Psi]], and [[Tau Beta Sigma]].<ref>Akinyele, Deborah. ''Howard University'' (College Prowler, 2006. ISBN 1427402442)</ref>
  
 
Student publications include the '''Bison Yearbook''' and the '''Hilltop''', the student run daily newspaper. WHBC 830 AM, the student run radio station, is operated from the school of communication and was recently ranked as one of the most advanced college radio stations among Historical Black Schools.<ref>(2008) Howard University [http://www.howard.edu/schoolcommunications/RTVF/WHBC830.htm"WHBC 30th Anniversary Reunion"] Retrieved January 19, 2009</ref>
 
Student publications include the '''Bison Yearbook''' and the '''Hilltop''', the student run daily newspaper. WHBC 830 AM, the student run radio station, is operated from the school of communication and was recently ranked as one of the most advanced college radio stations among Historical Black Schools.<ref>(2008) Howard University [http://www.howard.edu/schoolcommunications/RTVF/WHBC830.htm"WHBC 30th Anniversary Reunion"] Retrieved January 19, 2009</ref>

Revision as of 22:31, 19 January 2009


Howard University
Founders Library, Howard University.jpg
Latin: Howard Universitas
Motto Veritas et Utilitas
(Truth and Service)
Established 1867
Type Private, HBCU
Location Washington, D.C.,
United States
Website www.howard.edu

Howard University is a private, coeducational, university located in Washington, D.C., United States. One of several Historical Black Colleges in the United States, Howard University's location and history has often made the school a central participant in many of the significant racial issues and moments in the United States. The school continues to maintain and outstanding reputation and attract and teach a large number of students, particularly successful African Americans.

Mission and Reputation

According to the mission statement posted on the school's web site, Howard's central emphasis is placed upon "providing an educational experience of exceptional quality to students of high academic potential with particular emphasis upon the provision of educational opportunities to promising Black students."[1] The special emphasis on attracting African American and other minority students comes from Howard's tradition as a Historical Black College, providing a free and encouraging environment of learning and intellectual pursuit to minorities. In correlation to its focus on its students, Howard University also places emphasis on developing a faculty that are "through their teaching and research, committed to the development of distinguished and compassionate graduates and to the quest for solutions to human and social problems in the United States and throughout the world."[2]


Often thought of as one of the best Historically Black Colleges, Howard has a strong reputation in the United States. In 2009, the school was ranked 102nd among national universities in the U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges 2009" rankings.[3] Howard University has often been calculated as the the number-one producer of African American Ph.D.s in the United States,[4] earning it the reputation as being the Black Harvard.[5]

History

Main building of Howard University c. 1900

Established on March 2, 1867 under a charter enacted by Congress and approved by President Andrew Johnson, the college was named after General Oliver O. Howard who was commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau and the college's third president.[6] From its outset, it was nonsectarian and open to people of both sexes and all races.[7]

Howard after the American Civil War

While the school held large enrollments for its first 50 years, the school was not nationally accredited, nor did have a reputation for excellence until major changes during the first part of the twentieth century. In 1918, all the secondary schools of the university were abolished and the whole plan of undergraduate work changed. The four-year college course was divided into two periods of two years each, the Junior College, and the Senior Schools. The semester system was abolished in 1919 and the quarter system substituted. Twenty-three new members were added to the faculty between the reorganization of 1918 and 1923. A dining hall building with class rooms for the department of home economics was built in 1921; a greenhouse was erected in 1919; and Howard Hall was renovated and made a dormitory for girls[8] In 1926, the University's first Black President, Dr. Mordecai Wyatt Johnson was appointed and helped continue the campus expansion and improve the universities reputation. In 1955, Howard established a PhD granting program.[9]

Main Hall and Miner Hall in 1868. Miner Hall is located to the left.

Howard University played an important role in American history and the Civil Rights Movement on a number of occasions. Alain Locke, Chair of the Department of Philosophy and first African American Rhodes Scholar, authored The New Negro, which helped to usher in the Harlem Renaissance.[10] Ralph Bunche, the first Nobel Peace Prize winner of African descent, served as chair of the Department of Political Science.[11] Stokely Carmichael, also known as Kwame Toure, a student in the Department of Philosophy and the Howard University School of Divinity coined the term "Black Power" and worked in Lowndes County, Alabama as a voting rights activist.[12] Historian Rayford Logan served as chair of the Department of History.[13] E. Franklin Frazier served as chair of the Department of Sociology.[14] After being refused admission to the then-white-only University of Maryland School of Law, a young Lincoln University graduate Thurgood Marshall enrolled at Howard University School of Law instead. There he studied under Charles Hamilton Houston, a Harvard Law School graduate and leading civil rights lawyer who at the time was the dean of Howard's law school. Houston took Marshall under his wing, and the two forged a friendship that would last for the remainder of Houston's life. Howard University was the site where Marshall and his team of legal scholars from around the nation prepared to argue the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case.[15] In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered a speech to the graduating class at Howard, where he outlined his plans for civil rights legislation and endorsed aggressive affirmative action to combat the effects of years of segregation of blacks from the nation's economic opportunities.[16]

In 1989, Howard gained national attention when students rose up in protest against the appointment of then-Republican National Committee Chairman Lee Atwater as a new member of the university's Board of Trustees. Student activists disrupted Howard's 122nd anniversary celebrations, and eventually occupied the university's Administration building.[17] Within days, both Atwater and Howard's President, James E. Cheek, resigned. In April 2007 the head of the faculty senate called for the ouster of Howard University President H. Patrick Swygert, saying that the school was in a state of crisis, prompted by a National Science Foundation audit which condemned Howard’s management of several federal research grants.[18] The Division of Nursing faced losing its accreditation and being placed on probation for a second time because of the program's deficiencies. The Division of Allied Health Science, Physical Therapy and Physician Assistant program are also on probational accreditation status.[19] In addition, the residency programs at Howard University Hospital received a much-publicized unfavorable assessment by the Accrediting Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).[20] Swygert announced in May 2007 he would retire from Howard in June 2008.[21]

Despite these setbacks, Howard University continues to look forward, striving to achieve its stated goals and continues to live up to its National reputation.

Facilities

Howard University is an urban campus located in Washington, D.C. Many of the structures on campus are historic and copy the masonry style of many of Washington, D.C.'s government buildings.[22] The school offers a number of different housing options for its students, including Coed dormitories, apartments and even "wellness" apartments that ban all forms of alcohol, drugs and cigarette smoking.[23] The The Mordecai Johnson Administration Building is the central administrative building on campus, housing the offices of President, Provost and other administrative heads. Blackburn Center is the main dining and student activities center located on campus.[24] The main quad area of the university is called the Yard and is the main center point of the campus.

Howard University has an extensive Library System, organized into a central Library known as the Founder's Library with 4 specialized branches of Libraries: Architecture, Social Work, Business and Divinity. Also contained in the Library system are the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, the Louis Stokes Health Sciences Library, the Law Library, the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center Library, and the Afro-American Studies Resource Center.[25] The Library system's collection includes 2.4 million volumes, historical manuscripts and rare works.[26]

The University's Gallery of Art hosts Howard's collection of African American art, European and other cultural and period art and artifacts.[27] The Ira Aldridge Theatre is the main performing arts venue of the campus, while Cramton Auditorium is the university's main space of large events, lectures and even convocation.

Greene's Stadium is the main athletic field for Howard University's soccer, lacrosse and football team's games. Burr Gymnasium houses the university's basketball team, while The Pulse is the central exercise and health facility for students and staff on campus.[28]

Colleges

Undergraduate Schools

Graduate Schools

Research Centers

Programs

Howard University offers over 120 academic programs. The Arts and Sciences school of undergraduate school offers many of the staple disciplines of Liberal Arts and Sciences, including Art, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History, Psychology, Music and some specialized fields, such as African Studies, Afro-American Studies, and Military Sciences. Programs in such fields as Communications, Business, Engineering, Computer Science and Education are all divided into sub-disciplines for the undergraduate level, such as Accounting and Marketing (Business); Journalism and Television, Radio and Film (Communications); Curriculum and Instruction and Human Development & Psychoeducational Studies (Education); Chemical and Civil Engineering, (Engineering and Computer Science).

Howard offers many graduate and post-graduate level programs. The university offers programs in Law, Medicine, Divinity, Pharmacology, Social Work and Dentistry. The Graduate School offers numerous graduate and post-graduate level degrees in nearly all areas of the Liberal Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Business, Education and Communications that are offered in the undergraduate school.


Student Life

Howard University offers its students a variety of social activities, including clubs and athletics. Howard is a member of the National Collegiate Athletics Association Division I for men and women's basketball, men and women's Cross country, men's football, women's Lacrosse, men and women's soccer, women's softball, men and women's swimming, tennis, track and field and men's wrestling.[29] The school also offers these sports intramurally, as well as badminton, bowling and table tennis. The Pulse is the main facility for students to pursue their exercise and health related activities.

Howard has over 50 student clubs and organizations. The most numerous are the academic and professional organizations, which include the American Association of Women Dentists, American Medical Association, Intellectual Property Students Association, Sports & Entertainment Law Student Association and Supply Chain Management Student Association. Arts clubs include HU Bisonette Dance Ensemble and HU Film Organization. The University hosts several civil and political groups, including Amnesty International, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Students Advocating for Youth. There are several Christian and Islamic groups on campus, as well social clubs such as the African Students Association and the Ladies of the Quad Social Club. Howard University is also home of all nine National Pan-Hellenic Council organizations. Other Greek letter organizations registered on campus include Alpha Phi Omega, Gamma Iota Sigma, Phi Mu Alpha, Sigma Alpha Iota, Delta Sigma Pi, Phi Sigma Pi, Gamma Sigma Sigma, Kappa Kappa Psi, and Tau Beta Sigma.[30]

Student publications include the Bison Yearbook and the Hilltop, the student run daily newspaper. WHBC 830 AM, the student run radio station, is operated from the school of communication and was recently ranked as one of the most advanced college radio stations among Historical Black Schools.[31]

Located in the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C. offers students numerous cultural, political and social opportunities.

Traditions

Howard University has several notable traditions. Resfest is the annual athletic competition amongst the residence halls; representatives are chosen from each dorm and residency to participate in different sporting competitions.[32] The Bison Ball is another annual tradition in which individual and group achievements are recognized by University Student Association. In the Spring, there is the Spring Black arts Festival, a week long celebration of dance, music, fine arts, drama and literature from African American students and artists.[33]

Notable Alumni

  • Nnamdi Azikwe - First President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1960-66)
  • Dr.Patricia Bath - ophthalmologist, the first African-American woman doctor to receive a patent for a medical invention.
  • Dr.David Blackwell - first African-American elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
  • Edward Brooke - first African-American elected to the United States Senate
  • Claude Brown - author
  • Mary Ann Shadd Cary - publisher, abolitionist and suffragist, founded the first racially-integrated school in Canada, first female newspaper editor in Canada, second woman to graduate as a lawyer in the United States, first black woman to cast a vote in a national election
  • Benjamin O. Davis, Sr. - Brigadier General, first African-American general in the U.S. Army
  • Ossie Davis - Actor
  • Roberta Flack - Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and musician
  • Shaka Hislop - former professional football goalkeeper
  • Zora Neale Hurston - anthropologist and author
  • Lillian Lincoln Lambert - Founder, Former President & Chief Executive Officer Centennial One, Inc.; first African-American woman to earn an MBA at Harvard Business School
  • Thurgood Marshall - Supreme Court Justice
  • Toni Morrison - Author and Nobel Laureate
  • Tracie Thoms - Actress
  • Richard Smallwood - Gospel music artist

Notes

  1. ↑ (2008) Howard University "Office of the President" Retrieved January 18, 2009
  2. ↑ (2008) Howard University "Office of the President" Retrieved January 18, 2009
  3. ↑ (2009) U.S. News and World Report "Best College: Howard University" Retrieved January 18, 2009
  4. ↑ (2005) The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education [http://www.jbhe.com/news_views/46_blacks_doctoraldegrees.html" Good News! A Record Number of Doctoral Degrees Awarded to African Americans"] Retrieved January 18, 2009
  5. ↑ (1999) Black Excel "10 Best Historically Black Colleges" Retrieved January 18, 2009
  6. ↑ (2008) Howard University "A Brief History of Howard University" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  7. ↑ (2008) UShistory.org "American Anti-Slavery and Civil Rights Timeline" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  8. ↑ (2008) Howard University "A Brief History of Howard University" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  9. ↑ (2008) Howard University "A Brief History of Howard University" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  10. ↑ (2001) Biography Resource Center "Alain Locke" Retrieved January 18, 2009
  11. ↑ (1950) The Nobel Foundation "Ralph Bunche - Biography" Retrieved January 18, 2009
  12. ↑ (2000) TriniView.com "Stokely Carmichael or Kwame Ture" Retrieved January 18, 2009
  13. ↑ Kenneth R. Janken. Rayford Logan: The Golden Years. Negro History Bulletin [1]
  14. ↑ (2009) National Association of Social Workers "Edward Franklin Frazier (1894-1962)" Retrieved January 18, 2009
  15. ↑ (2008) Thurgood Marshall College. "Thurgood Marshall, Supreme Court Justice" Retrieved January 18, 2009
  16. ↑ (2007) Lyndon B. Johnson Memorial Library "President Lyndon B. Johnson's Commencement Address at Howard University: "To Fulfill These Rights" Retrieved January 18, 2009
  17. ↑ Alessandra Stanley and Jacob V. Lamar "Saying No to Lee Atwater" Time Magazine. March 20, 1989. [2]
  18. ↑ (2007) Washingtonpost.com "Howard University" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  19. ↑ Dianne Hayes "Howard faculty demand new president: faculty Senate Council says fiscal mismanagement is hurting the academic quality of the university" BNet April 19, 2007 [3]
  20. ↑ Cheryl D. Fields "Criticism of Howard University Hospital residency programs raises questions - Noteworthy news: the latest news from across the country - Statistical Data Included" BNet June 20, 2002 [4]
  21. ↑ (2007) Washingtonpost.com "Howard University" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  22. ↑ Akinyele, Deborah. Howard University (College Prowler, 2006. ISBN 1427402442)
  23. ↑ (2009) Collegeboard.com "Howard University" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  24. ↑ (2008) Howard University "Campus Tours" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  25. ↑ (2008) Howard University "Library System" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  26. ↑ (2008) Howard University "Library System" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  27. ↑ (2008) Howard University "Campus Tours" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  28. ↑ Akinyele, Deborah. Howard University (College Prowler, 2006. ISBN 1427402442)
  29. ↑ (2009) Collegeboard.com "Howard University" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  30. ↑ Akinyele, Deborah. Howard University (College Prowler, 2006. ISBN 1427402442)
  31. ↑ (2008) Howard University "WHBC 30th Anniversary Reunion" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  32. ↑ (2009) eNotes.com "Howard University: Traditions" Retrieved January 19, 2009
  33. ↑ (2009) eNotes.com "Howard University: Traditions" Retrieved January 19, 2009


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