It is easy to see only the superficial achievements of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities---the number of graduates, the various courses of study---and miss the significant contributions these institutions and their graduates make to our country and to the world. Last year, HBCUs not only graduated 33 percent of all Black engineers, but their graduates were also at the forefront of some of 2005's biggest news stories about national infrastructure, national security, disaster relief, global technical assistance, and research.
HBCU Alums Answer Katrina’s Call
One of the biggest headlines of the year was Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of Gulf Coast communities was painful for Blacks to watch. The destruction of homes and businesses jeopardized the lives of thousands, and ailments spread by contaminated water.
Some images on the TV showed lines of Black evacuees, not looting or shooting at police, but holding on as best they could, waiting for the emergency help their government had rushed to other disaster victims in America or halfway around the world. Unfortunately, other images of Black looters and criminals were shown often, whereas images of Black leaders driving the recovery efforts were minimized. But in the midst of it all, several HBCUs made major contributions before, during, and after the event.
Before Katrina, Retired Army Lt. General Joe Ballard---a Southern University graduate, a Louisianan, and the first Black commander of the Army Corps of Engineers---made the most painful point of all: This disaster, predicted by “every Corps of Engineers commander since 1927,” did not have to happen.
Gen. Ballard, for his part, put forward a plan that Congress denounced as wasteful in the extreme. The Southern University graduate wanted to spend more than $100 million to build up the levees to withstand a “100-year storm,” but was excoriated as a would-be big spender, and retired after that. Now that the 100-year storm has proved his point, Congress has targeted $68 billion for a cleanup many experts believe will cost $150 billion.
During the event, Brig. Gen. Robert Crear, a Jackson State alumnus, cleared up in days a problem armchair experts said would take weeks: blocking the gaps in two levees whose failure let Lake Pontchartrain flood the whole of the New Orleans basin.
And both during and after Katrina, Lt. Gen. Russell Honoré, a graduate of Southern University, took charge as soon as he was sent, changing the dynamic on the streets as he ordered soldiers and civilian police to point their guns toward the ground: “This is not Iraq,” he told them.
Prairie View Alum Vice Admiral David Brewer also played a major role. In the heat of the crisis, Admiral Brewer, USN, Commander, Military Sealift Command, issued the following statement: "In the wake of one of the most devastating disasters in the history of our country, I want to reassure all Americans that your Navy, and my command, the Navy's Military Sealift Command, are on station, providing compassionate relief to our fellow Americans in despair on the Gulf Coast. MSC ships have been at the forefront."
Rebuilding America
Nature and hurricanes can’t be controlled, but experts agree that disaster response can make a huge difference. Last year, Tuskegee University was the host of a national conference discussing the aftermath of Katrina and how the region would rebuild and enhance preparedness methods for future disasters.
According to Dr. Legand Burge, Dean of the College of Engineering, “Almost five months after the most destructive and expensive storm in the history of the United States, Hurricane Katrina, devastated the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast, academicians; corporate America; industry leaders; and city, state, and federal officials are convening at Tuskegee University to talk about how to rebuild communities destroyed by the storm.”
During the three-day conference, funded with the support of a $100,000-planning grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Tuskegee University, through its College of Engineering, Architecture, and Physical Sciences, provided the leadership for the National Conference on Rebuilding the South in the Aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Dr. Burge said the conferees did not spend time “pointing fingers and discussing what went on in the aftermath." He said the conference emphasized both making communities more sustainable in the likelihood of future storms, as well as presenting technology that is currently available to rebuild the already destroyed communities.
Giving Hands
North Carolina A&T State University faculty, staff, and students are assisting the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
“More than 30 of our students and 139 alumni and their families have been affected by this major disaster,” said A&T Chancellor James C. Renick. “We will be doing all we can to help them and others in need through AGGIES CARE, our North Carolina A&T Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund.”
A&T Provost Carolyn Meyers added, “There are no quick fixes or overnight solutions for these victims. They need ongoing support, and we are planning to offer our assistance on a long-term basis.”
The Tsunami
Across the world in late December 2004, the tsunami claimed some 221,000 lives in 11 countries, from Africa to Asia, within four weeks.
The growing intensification of storms and coast disasters was not lost on Jackson State. The University is meeting the challenge, and is now one of two HBCUs offering a program in marine science. According to the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, it is also the only university in Mississippi to offer the program, and the only HBCU offering a doctorate in environmental science. Jackson State had the first undergraduate program in meteorology among the nation's HBCUs, and has the only undergraduate program in professional meteorology in Mississippi.
In September 2005, USBE&IT Director of Content Lango Deen wrote that the tsunami opened the hearts and pocketbooks of the world. The U.S. Department of State, the lead U.S. foreign affairs agency, reports that more than 90 countries and organizations have made offers of assistance for those affected by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, and that the agency is in the process of accepting a number of other offers from different countries.
Also, countless numbers of HBCU students contributed. At Florida A&M University, engineering students participated in “Lend a Hand to Help a Land,” a program that resulted in a donation to the tsunami relief effort through the Red Cross.
Iraq
The current war in Iraq is producing combat technology only imagined in the first Gulf War just a little more than a decade ago. Less than a decade from now, by the year 2010, the military will be even more dramatically transformed in the way it uses weapons and technology.
Engineering computer systems for advanced military capabilities has long been the thrust of Dr. William Neal's research. Today, he is leading the efforts of The MITRE Corporation to transform the U.S. Army. He applies war games and modeling techniques to identify enhanced capabilities for the Army's chief scientists.
Dr. Neal grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended public schools there. His parents were both college graduates, and it was always assumed he would go to college, perhaps to become a doctor or a teacher. While he was still in high school, he found that he liked science and engineering. Then, he said, some volunteers in the community changed his life.
"A turning point in my life was participating in a high school evening program where IBM employees, working on their own time, taught students to repair computers," he said.
That experience led him to study electrical engineering at Howard University, where he received his B.S.E.E. in 1976. He went on to earn his master's degree from Stanford University in 1978, and his Ph.D. from Howard in 1984.
Joining a small firm after receiving his Ph.D., he served as senior vice president for research and development and chief scientist, working in support of Department of Defense IT, modeling, and simulations projects. He designed a critical computer architecture used during Desert Storm, and this attention resulted in his nomination to the Army Science Board.
Shuttle Makes Descent to Earth
The Shuttle Discovery, NASA’s oldest shuttle remaining in service, safely landed at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on August 9, 2005. Discovery was the first mission since the 2003 Columbia disaster.
A little-known fact is that sisters Yolanda Harris and Amanda Goodson, both Black engineers, contributed to the shuttle's safety. Some of the nation's brightest engineers support and oversee NASA's technology development, demonstration programs, and propulsion systems at the Space Station at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), including the sisters. They are both Tuskegee engineering graduates.
"The most exciting thing about my job is the knowledge that I help get people into space," Amanda Goodson said. "I have a wonderful piece of NASA's program. My work is based on the efforts of a team of people that monitor day-to-day operations and carry out reviews of hardware that have been built and assessed."
Nine minutes before a shuttle goes off, Goodson and others get calls from the control center: "NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center Safety Emission Assurance, are you go for launch?"
Responsibility for the propulsion systems, which generate a total thrust of more than one million pounds and provide power for the eight and a half minutes of launch, gives Goodson the opportunity to say that propulsion systems are safe and mission success is expected.
Yolanda Harris, NASA engineer turned lawyer, served as team lead of the Systems Engineering group in Marshall's Shuttle Integration office until last year, when she started a temporary assignment at the Office of Space Flight at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., working with the space shuttle office as liaison to Marshall's Space Shuttle Project Office. She also handles U.S. congressional actions on launch and legislative issues, including safety.
"I enjoy working with a diverse group of people with many great talents and a passion for what they do," Harris says.
Another HBCU faculty member had links to Space Shuttle Discovery. Dr. James M. Russell III, from Hampton University in Hampton, served as principal investigator on the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE). HALOE has been collecting profiles of atmosphere composition and temperature since its launch from Discovery on September 12, 1991.
Bill Gates, Time Magazine Person of the Year
Time magazine named Microsoft’s Bill Gates as one of 2005's People of the Year. The Gates Foundation has donated billions of dollars to fight disease in Africa and other poor nations, and over $900 million has gone to fight tuberculosis. Still, Gates found time to visit Howard University in 2005.
According to Engineering Dean Jim Johnson, “The visit to Howard wraps up the second year Mr. Gates has conducted a three-day national college tour where he sits down with students from some of the best computer science and engineering departments in the U.S. and Canada."
Johnson also said, "This is Mr. Gates' second visit to the Howard University campus. His first visit was in 1989," after being invited by Mitchell Duncan, who at the time was an electrical engineering junior and a summer intern at Microsoft. "In late October 1988," Johnson continued, "Mitch received a message from Mr. Gates' office advising him that Mr. Gates would be in the Washington, D.C. area, and would like to take Mitch up on his offer. The event was hosted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Student Association; Mitch, now a senior, was President, and Professor Gary Harris was the faculty advisor.”
Africa
Africa is again one of 2005’s top stories. HIV/AIDS and other diseases, as well as conflicts, continue to kill hundreds of thousands of people each year. The United States is finally increasing its involvement.
Historically Black Colleges and Universities have a rich history with Africa. The Council of Engineering Deans of the HBCUs, a group representing the ABET-accredited HBCU engineering programs, also recognizes the value of a greater U.S. engagement with Africa.
During a recent panel discussion hosted by the deans, former director of Military Programs for the Army Corps of Engineers, William A. Brown Sr., P.E.---now executive vice president for Page Southerland Page---commented, "[Africa] is a vast territory that's rich in minerals and human resources, yet the nations of Africa are among the poorest countries in the world. Lack of education, clean water, adequate health care, regional cooperation, jobs, and sufficient financial resources are just some of the causes for the widespread poverty on the continent." Brown went on to observe that because so many Africans do not have a decent quality of life, "Africa is starting to become a Mecca for terrorist organizations."
Several council deans are doing something about that. About 10 years ago, Southern University's president established a link between the college and several African countries and signed educational memorandums of understanding with Ghana, South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria. Howard University has been working with South Africa to facilitate a long-distance education model, and the university is using satellite interfaces and wireless transmission to help South African colleges.
Said Robert W. Whalin, associate dean of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology at historically Black Jackson State University, "It's pretty obvious that we can add the knowledge, we can add a lot of help, and a lot of assistance. I think we have an extremely positive effect on those working in the African continent."
