Dearest family and friends,
Please join us in a memorial to celebrate the life of our loving mother Gail A. Parker. She is survived by 3 sisters, 3 brothers, 2 daughters, 1 son, and 4 grandchildren.
Saturday, August 5, at 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm.
Service Will Be Held At:
California Cremation and Burial
5880 El Cajon Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92115
Lola Ree Tate was born in Forest, Mississippi on April 23, 1920, to Viola and Elijah Denham. She is one of four children. She had three brothers.
She accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior at the age of 12 and was baptized by Rev. J.J. Overstreet, Pastor of Concord Baptist Church. She received her education at the local schools in Forest, Mississippi.
On May 15, 1935, Lola met Robert P. Tate, and on December 4, 1939, they got married in Jasper, Alabama. Lola and Robert resided there until 1942 when Robert was called to active duty in the United States Army. After he was called to active duty, they moved to Indianapolis, Indiana and resided there from 1942 to 1950.
Lola and Robert moved to San Diego, California in 1950 and united with Greater Trinity Missionary Baptist Church under the leadership of Pastor W. L. Gayton. Lola served in various positions in the church. She organized the Visitation Committee, the B Sharp Organ Club, and taught Sunday School and Mission Lessons for the Esther Circle. Lola served as Vice President of the Mission. She served as Membership Clerk and Financial Secretary for twenty-two years. She was the personal Secretary to Pastor Gayton.
Lola was the last living member whose name is on Greater Trinity’s Cornerstone. She served at Greater Trinity Baptist Church faithfully until 2009, when Lola joined her son, Rev. Dr. Donald Owens at Exodus Church. Mother Lola Tate attended faithfully up to the
age of 101, when her health would not permit her to attend. Lola was a charter member of the Agnes Knight Study Charity & Social Club and Honorary Charter Member of Exodus Church.
In 1957, Lola attended Grossmont School of Nursing and was the first African American Nurse at Grossmont Hospital. She spent her entire Nursing Career at Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa, California until she retired in 1981 to care for her husband.
Lola was preceded in death by her husband Robert Paul Tate, her mother
and father Elijah and Viola Denham, and her three brothers. Lola had no biological
children.
She leaves to mourn her adopted son Rev. Dr. Donald (Beverly) Owens,
grandchildren, Monee (Andre) Bell, Tanya Reynolds, Roman Owens (Andrea) and
great-grandchildren; Aarrion Allison, NaJae Reynolds, Grayson Owens, Andre
Bell Jr., and Monet Bell, cousins Rosa Davis (San Diego), Shirley Ann Wilson
(San Diego), John E. Forte (Los Angeles), Henry C. Forte and Gregory Forte (San
Diego), Brenda Pierce and Preston Pierce (San Diego), Danielle Jackson and
Marley Jackson (New York), and a host of adopted children; Pearl (Ed) Andrews, Larry Wilson, Stephanie Wilson, Vermell Cannie, Cynthia Forsythe, Maretta Frierson, Dr. Mary Cannie, Princess (Daniel) Stewart, Donald Flemister, and many other young people who referred to her as Mother Tate. She also leaves behind her special friends, the 5:30 a.m. Gym Friends, her special friend Jackie, who did her nails, special friend
Sis. Delores Caldwell and former landlord Thomas and residents at 415 D Street,
Chula Vista, CA.
By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher, The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint
As we rapidly approach the August 15, 2023 Special Election for the San Diego County’s Board of Supervisors Fourth District seat, early projections say less than 5 percent of the 700,000 residents of that district are expected to vote. This is in spite of the fact that every registered voter in the district received a ballot by mail, with instructions for voting and return mail of said ballot to the County’s Registrar of Voters.
While some just see four candidates seeking a vacant seat, there is much more at stake. Currently, the Board is evenly divided between two Republicans and two Democrats. Nathan Fletcher was a Democrat and therefore created a 3 to 2 majority on the Board. The new Board will have to select a new Chief Administrative Officer for the County and will play a key role in shaping county policy on public health, homelessness, housing and much more. The new Board member will serve until the year 2027 and have tremendous impact on the County’s multi-billion dollar budgets.
Those seeking this vacant position must remember that they will be serving 12 communities within this district, inclusive of Clairemont, Bay Park, Linda Vista, Mission Valley, Hillcrest, City Heights, Lemon Grove, La Mesa, Spring Valley, Rancho San Diego, Encanto and the College Area. This means no one community can assume that their vote will be enough to control the outcome of this election. It is also estimated that no one candidate will get 51 percent of the vote and that the election will go to a November 7th General Election.
What does this mean for you who might or might not bother to vote? It means that if you don’t vote – and the system will know whether you didn’t – you should not have an opinion on what the government does or how you are impacted.
Your vote is your ticket to participation in what the local government does. Will you get your ticket or just wait to see what happens? Let’s get involved and make a difference.
_____
READ MORE LIKE THIS:
Ellis Benjamin “Bull” Love, Jr. was born on January 9, 1943 in El Centro, California to Geraldine Love and Ellis B. Love, Sr.
The Love family moved to San Diego, and he attended Kearny High School.
“Bull” was a gentle giant. He was an athlete who played little league baseball, football, and basketball at the Linda Vista Recreation Center. He loved playing dominoes with the fellas and spending time with his children, as well as his many nieces and nephews.
His favorite saying was “Hey”. He playfully called his buddies “Jack” and was good for flexing his muscles.
“Bull” was called home to be with the Lord on July 14, 2023.
Ellis was preceded in death by his brother Robert Eugene Love, and his nephews; Lafayette and Maurice, all from San Diego, California.
Ellis leaves to cherish his memory, siblings; Etta Faye and David, daughter Mia Danielle, son Benjamin, grandchildren; Elijah, Jeramiah, Breanah, and Aaliyah, nieces; Salani, Ursula, Shasa, and Tamika, nephews; Marcell and Andre, a host of great nieces and nephews, and other relatives and friends.
Barbara Ann Goodlow was born April 12, 1947 in St. Louis, Missouri to Helen Armenta (Williams) Terry and Charles Terry.
The family moved to California, and Barbara attended the San Diego School District. She graduated from Lincoln High School.
Barbara married Willis Edwin Goodlow III and raised two children, Willis Edwin Goodlow IV and Cynthia Michelle Goodlow (Ajani).
Barbara attended Church of Christ on 61st and Division Street, where she was later baptized.
Barbara enjoyed singing, word searches, Kit-Kat chocolate bars, and was a
champion bingo player at her residential home. Affectionately known to her family as “Baba”, she will be remembered for her resilience, kindness, and quick wit.
Barbara was called home on July 20, 2023.
Preceding her in death were her parents and her brother, Daniel Terry.
Barbara leaves to cherish her memory, son Willis E. Goodlow IV, daughter Cynthia
M. Ajani (Erren Lee Ajani), grandchildren; Willis E. Goodlow V, Devon Goodlow, Tamara Nicole Goodlow, Kapri Leechelle Pollard, (Devante) Khea Janae Pollard,
one great-granddaughter, Kalani Aaliyah Gustavis, and two half sisters.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s legal team is characterizing his indictment in the special counsel’s 2020 election interference investigation as an attack on the former president’s right to free speech. But the case is not merely about Trump’s lies but also about the efforts he took to subvert the election, prosecutors say.
The early contours of a potential legal and political defense began to emerge in the hours after the charges were unsealed, with defense lawyer John Lauro accusing the Justice Department of having “criminalized” the First Amendment and asserting that his client had relied on the advice of attorneys around him in 2020. He also indicated he would look to slow the case down despite prosecutors’ pledge of a speedy trial.
But experts say there’s little legal merit to Trump’s First Amendment claims, particularly given the breadth of steps taken by Trump and his allies that prosecutors say transformed mere speech into action in a failed bid to undo the election. Those efforts, prosecutors wrote in the indictment, amounted to a disruption of a “bedrock function of the United States federal government: the nation’s process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.”
“If all that this was about was lies or the alleged lies of President Trump, then he’d have a pretty good legal defense based on the First Amendment,” said Floyd Abrams, a longtime First Amendment attorney. “But the theory of the indictment is that the speech of the president and the falsehoods of the president were part of a general effort to steal the election.”
Lauro said Tuesday night in an interview with CNN that the indictment is an attack on “free speech and political advocacy.”
“And there’s nothing that’s more protected under the First Amendment than political speech,” he said.
The First Amendment does indeed give wide berth for all manner of speech, and it’s well established that lying to the public isn’t itself a crime. Special counsel Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors seemed to have anticipated the First Amendment line of defense, conceding head-on in their indictment that Trump had the right to falsely claim that fraud had cost him the election and to legally challenge the results.
But they also said the conduct of Trump and six co-conspirators he’s alleged to have plotted with went far beyond speech.
“Saying a statement in isolation is one thing. But when you say it to another person and the two of you speak in a way and exchange information in a way that leads to action — that you want to take action to do something with that speech — then arguably it becomes unprotected,” said Mary Anne Franks, a law professor at George Washington University.
Those actions include enlisting slates of fake electors in seven battleground states won by Democrat Joe Biden to sign false certificates representing themselves as legitimate electors; trying to use the investigative power of the Justice Department to launch sham election fraud probes; and badgering his vice president, Mike Pence, to disrupt the ceremonial counting of electoral votes before Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.
That process was indeed disrupted when rioters fueled by Trump’s baseless claims of a stolen election stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent and chaotic clash with police.
“Insofar as he’s giving instructions, and planning to do things that are themselves illegal and involve action, like the signing of false certificates and so forth, that’s not a very good defense,” said Michael Dorf, a constitutional law expert at Cornell Law School.
Trump’s attorney has also suggested that his defense may at least partly focus on the idea that Trump was acting in good faith because he truly believed his bogus election fraud claims. But the indictment is careful to show how Trump was repeatedly told by people close to him that there was no truth to his claims and that his efforts to undermine the election were misguided.
And some of the comments detailed in the indictment suggest that Trump knew he had lost and that his actions were wrong. In one encounter days before the riot, Trump told Pence he was “too honest” after the vice president said he didn’t have the authority to reject electoral votes, the indictment says.
“I can imagine that prosecutors will use that line over and over and over in the trial, in their opening statement and closing argument, to show that he really didn’t believe the things he was saying,” said Brandon Fox, a former federal prosecutor who now works as a defense attorney.
Another challenge for Trump’s defense is that many of the witnesses he would want to call to the stand to say that they told Trump there was election fraud are co-conspirators who will likely be reluctant to testify.
“Typically in federal prosecutions, those unnamed co-conspirators are not that thrilled about testifying for the defense because they are worried about being charged in the future,” Fox said.
The legal proceedings will be presided over by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of President Barack Obama who has stood out as one of the toughest punishers of rioters. She has also ruled against Trump before, refusing in November 2021 to block the release of documents to the House’s Jan. 6 committee by asserting executive privilege.
No matter the legal viability of the First Amendment arguments, Chutkan is nonetheless expected to let the defense lawyers raise those kinds of arguments and let a jury decide the line between permissible speech and illegal action, said John Fishwick, a former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia.
“The worry for a judge will be, ‘Well, if I don’t let this evidence come in, if I don’t let the present former president raise the defense of (the) First Amendment and he’s found guilty, then there’s the risk of another trial,’” Fishwick said.
“So a smart judge,” he added, “is always going to err on giving the defense as many breaks as that judge deems reasonable.”
By Associated Press
FRISCO, Texas (AP) — A Texas police department is apologizing after a typo made while checking a license plate resulted in officers pulling over what they wrongly suspected was a stolen car and then holding an innocent Black family at gunpoint.
Frisco police acknowledged the traffic stop was caused by an officer misreading the car’s license plate. As the officer saw it leaving a hotel in the city north of Dallas, she checked its Arkansas plate as “AZ” for Arizona — but should have run it as “AR.”
The driver of the car, her husband and one of the two children being driven by the Arkansas couple to a youth basketball tournament can all be heard sobbing on body camera video posted online by police in Frisco, Texas, in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
“We made a mistake,” Frisco Police Chief David Shilson said in a statement. “Our department will not hide from its mistakes. Instead, we will learn from them.”
The video shows an officer pointing his handgun toward the Dodge Charger as he orders the driver to get out and walk backward toward officers with her hands raised. Also in the car were the woman’s husband, their son and a nephew.
Police order one of the children to step out and lift his shirt. The driver’s husband and the other child are told to stay inside and raise their hands through the open windows.
“I’ve never been in trouble a day of my life,” the pleading driver says on the video. “This is scaring the hell out of me.”
The officer who initiated the traffic stop told the driver she was pulled over because her license plate was “associated essentially with no vehicle.”
“Normally, when we see things like this, it makes us believe the vehicle was stolen,” the officer tells the crying woman on the body-camera video.
Frisco police said in their statement Friday that all the department’s officers have received guidance stressing the need for accuracy when reporting information. The department said its review will aim to “identify further changes to training, policies and procedures” to prevent future mistakes.
A Frisco police spokesman, officer Joshua Lovell, said the department had no further comment Tuesday, citing the ongoing police review of the traffic stop. He declined to provide a copy of the police incident report to The Associated Press, saying a formal records request would have to be filed for the public information.
On the body-camera video released from the July 23 traffic stop, tensions are heightened briefly when the driver tells police she has a gun locked in her car’s glove compartment.
“Occupants of the car, leave your hands outside the car. We know there is a gun in there,” one of the officers holding a handgun shouts at the passengers. “If you reach in that car, you may get shot.”
Civil rights lawyer David Henderson reviewed a video that showed part of the stop and told the Dallas Morning News he thinks the family was profiled, adding that he believes police violated the family’s constitutional rights.
A Black woman having a firearm in her vehicle also may have played a role, he said.
“In cases I’ve seen involving people of color who have a license to carry, as soon as they alert the police to the fact that they have a weapon, the police change drastically in terms of how they deal with them,” Henderson said.
More than seven minutes pass before officers on the scene holster their weapons after recognizing their mistake and approach the car.
One of the children keeps his hands on the back of the car as the driver’s husband gets out, telling the officers they’re travelers from Arkansas and had just finished breakfast before their car was stopped.
“Listen, bro, we’re just here for a basketball tournament,” the sobbing man tells the officers. One of the children can also be heard crying as the man adds: “Y’all pulled a gun on my son for no reason.”
The officers apologize repeatedly, with one saying they responded with guns drawn because it’s “the normal way we pull people out of a stolen car.” Another assures the family that they were in no danger because they followed the officers’ orders.
“Y’all cooperate, nothing’s going to happen,” the officer says. “No one just randomly shoots somebody for no reason, right?”
The officer who initiated the traffic stop and was among those with guns drawn was also Black. She explains that when she checked the license plate, “I ran it as AZ for Arizona instead of AR” for Arkansas.
“This is all my fault, OK,” the officer says. “I apologize for this. I know it’s very traumatic for you, your nephew and your son. Like I said, it’s on me.”
The driver’s husband is visibly shaken after police explain what happened.
He says that he dropped his phone after the car was pulled over. “If I would have went to reach for my phone, we could’ve all got killed.”
The man then turns away from the officers, walks to the passenger side of the car and bows his head, sobbing loudly.
But other aspects of the job deteriorated, such as growing demands from administrators over what and how to teach. And when she retires in a few weeks, she will join a disproportionately high number of Black and Hispanic teachers in her state who are leaving the profession.
“I enjoy actually teaching, that part I’ve always enjoyed,” said Hicks, 59. “Sometimes it’s a little stressful. Sometimes the kids can be difficult. But it’s the higher-ups: ‘Do it this way or don’t do it at all.’”
Teachers are leaving jobs in growing numbers, state reports show. The turnover in some cases is highest among teachers of color. A major culprit: stress — from pandemic-era burnout, low pay and the intrusion of politics into classrooms. But the burdens can be heavier in schools serving high-poverty communities that also have higher numbers of teachers of color.
In Philadelphia, a city with one of the highest concentrations of Black residents in the U.S., the proportion of Black teachers has been sliding. Two decades ago, it was about one-third. Last fall, it fell to below 23%, according to district figures.
In the school buildings where Hicks taught, most teachers were white. She said she and other teachers of color were expected to give more of themselves in a district where half the students are Black.
“A lot of times when you see teachers that are saving Black and brown kids on TV, it’s always the white ones,” Hicks said. “There are Black teachers and Hispanic teachers out there that do the same thing in real life, all the time.”
Nationally, about 80% of American public school teachers are white, even though white students no longer represent a majority in public schools. Having teachers who reflect the race of their students is important, researchers say, to provide students with role models who have insight into their culture and life experience.
The departures are undoing some recent success that schools have had in bringing on more Black and Hispanic teachers. Turnover is higher among newer teachers. And researchers have found that teachers of color, who tend to have less seniority, often are affected disproportionately by layoffs.
In Pennsylvania, Black teachers were more than twice as likely to leave the profession as white teachers after the 2021-22 school year, according to a data analysis by Ed Fuller, an education professor at Penn State. Hispanic and multiracial teachers had a similar ratio, of around twice as likely.
Black and Hispanic teachers are more likely to be uncertified or teaching in an underfunded district, all of which is associated with someone leaving the profession at a higher rate, Fuller said.
“They’re in more precarious teaching positions, meaning you’re in a position with less resources and worse working conditions, so you’re more likely to quit no matter who you are,” Fuller said.
Sharif El-Mekki, a former Philadelphia teacher who leads the Center for Black Educator Development, said schools around the country come to him seeking help in recruiting teachers of color. But they don’t have plans to retain them, such as providing opportunities to help shape policies and curricula.
To address the problem, schools can start by ensuring students of color have better experiences in school themselves and offering them opportunities to consider teaching, El-Mekki said. Black teachers also are more likely stay on in school systems that have Black leaders, he said, as well as a culture and approaches to teaching that are anti-racist.
“We need to think about, ‘How are they experiencing my school?’” he said. “If they are having a better experience with us, they are more likely to stay.”
Attrition by teachers of color can vary greatly by state or region. Overall, it has been higher compared with white teachers for two decades, since around the time federal policies began encouraging the closure of schools with low test scores, said Travis Bristol, a professor of teacher education and education policy at the University of California-Berkeley.
In underfunded schools with large populations of Black and Hispanic children, teachers say they can expect more responsibilities, fewer resources and more children troubled by poverty and violence.
“I’m still in the classroom because this is my version of resistance and pushing back on a system that was not designed for folks that look like me and kids that look like me,” said Sofia Gonzalez, a 14-year teacher of Puerto Rican heritage in Chicago-area public schools. “We as teachers of color have to find so much inner strength inside of us to sustain our careers in education.”
The last few years have been a trying stretch for teachers everywhere. They’ve had to navigate COVID-19, a pivot to distance learning and the struggles with misbehavior and mental health that accompanied students’ return to classrooms.
Then there’s the pay: Educators’ salaries have been falling behind their college-educated peers in other professions.
Teachers unions have warned of flagging morale, and there are signs lately that more educators are heading for the exits. Data from at least a handful of states — including Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Texas and Washington — is showing an increase in teacher attrition.
Black teachers reported significantly higher rates of burnout and being significantly more likely to leave their job than white teachers, according to research sponsored by two national teachers unions and published in June by the Rand Corp. think tank.
Chantle Simpson, 36, taught her last day of school this spring in Frisco, Texas, ending her 11-year career as a teacher.
She described an exodus of her fellow teachers of color from the profession amid growing expectations from administrators, who put more work on teachers by repeatedly appeasing demands from parents.
Administrators — including those who are Black or Hispanic — put more pressure on Black and Hispanic teachers, she said.
“They believe we can handle more,” Simpson said. “Because we develop relationships better, the kids understand us more, so they’re more likely to behave for us or do what we ask them to. So we get fitted with the children who are more challenging or have more requirements. It’s crazy.”
That leaves those teachers with less time for the rest of their better-behaved students, Simpson said.
“I always was conflicted by it,” Simpson said. “It’s mixed with praise, but it’s a punishment. ‘Oh, you’re so great at building relationships, the kids really appreciate being with you, they respond to you.’ But at the same time, you’re increasing my workload, you’re increasing the amount of attention I have to give to one child versus my whole class.”
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Diversity, equity and inclusion programs were abolished Tuesday from Walt Disney World’s governing district, now controlled by appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an echo of the Florida governor’s agenda which has championed curtailing such programs in higher education and elsewhere.
The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said in a statement that its diversity, equity and inclusion committee would be eliminated, as would any job duties connected to it. Also axed were initiatives left over from when the district was controlled by Disney supporters, which awarded contracts based on goals of achieving racial or gender parity.
Glenton Gilzean, the district’s new administrator who is African American and a former head of the Central Florida Urban League, called such initiatives “illegal and simply un-American.” Gilzean has been a fellow or member at two conservative institutions, the James Madison Institute and the American Enterprise Institute Leadership Network, as well as a DeSantis appointee to the Florida Commission on Ethics.
“Our district will no longer participate in any attempt to divide us by race or advance the notion that we are not created equal,” Gilzean said in a statement. “As the former head of the Central Florida Urban League, a civil rights organization, I can say definitively that our community thrives only when we work together despite our differences.”
An email was sent seeking comment from Disney World.
Last spring, DeSantis, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, signed into law a measure that blocks public colleges from using federal or state funding on diversity programs.
DeSantis also has championed Florida’s so-called “Stop WOKE” law, which bars businesses, colleges and K-12 schools from giving training on certain racial concepts, such as the theory that people of a particular race are inherently racist, privileged or oppressed. A federal judge last November blocked the law’s enforcement in colleges, universities and businesses, calling it “positively dystopian.”
The creation of the district, then known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, was instrumental in Disney’s decision to build a theme park resort near Orlando in the 1960s. Having a separate government allowed the company to provide zoning, fire protection, utilities and infrastructure services on its sprawling property. The district was controlled by Disney supporters for more than five decades.
The DeSantis appointees took control of the renamed district earlier this year following a yearlong feud between the company and DeSantis. The fight began last year after Disney, beset by significant pressure internally and externally, publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades, a policy critics call “Don’t Say Gay.”
As punishment, DeSantis took over the district through legislation passed by Republican lawmakers and appointed a new board of supervisors to oversee municipal services for the sprawling theme parks and hotels. Disney sued DeSantis and his five board appointees in federal court, claiming the Florida governor violated the company’s free speech rights by taking the retaliatory action.
Before the new board came in, Disney made agreements with previous oversight board members who were Disney supporters that stripped the new supervisors of their authority over design and development. The DeSantis-appointed members of the governing district have sued Disney in state court in a second lawsuit stemming from the district’s takeover, seeking to invalidate those agreements.
With pageantry that included balloons, a banner and an outdoor signing ceremony, Texas A&M University celebrated a diverse new chapter in its history with its June hiring of Kathleen McElroy.
McElroy, a Black journalist whose background included decades at the New York Times and a reputation for promoting diversity in the workplace, was a major get for the university with the largest student body in the country. She was headed to her alma mater with a mission to revive its journalism program — and it was all the sweeter for A&M because she had been lured away from its rival, the University of Texas at Austin.
But the celebration didn’t last long. Just days later, McElroy’s tenure offer unraveled after the university buckled under backlash from Texas Scorecard, a conservative website, and an unspecified group of individuals close to the university who opposed her previous diversity initiatives. A new state law will limit that and the discussion of race and inclusion on college campuses next year.
The Republican-backed law, which takes effect in January, prohibits employees at Texas higher education institutions from promoting diversity, equity or inclusion. Institutions that violate the law face financial penalties.
While the law is supposed to exempt academics and admissions, many are concerned it could be broadly applied — chilling free speech in the classroom.
They point to McElroy’s unceremonious departure to show it’s already happening.
“We were supposed to maintain our academic freedom around these issues but the McElroy situation shows that in fact those are not safe either,” said Karma Chavez, a professor and department chair of Mexican American and Latino/a Studies at UT-Austin.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Just days after the signing ceremony at Texas A&M, McElroy was informed of internal pushback on her hiring, according to the Texas Tribune. Opponents who remain unidentified took issue with her experience with the Times and her work on race and diversity.
The Tribune reported that over several weeks, McElroy received three different contract offers — the first included full tenure, the second reduced the offer to a five-year contract without tenure and a final proposal offered a one-year at-will position from which she could be fired at any time. McElroy ultimately rejected the offer and withdrew her resignation from UT-Austin.
Texas A&M president Katherine Banks resigned after the details of McElroy’s hiring process were publicized. The school’s Office of General Counsel is investigating what happened.
McElroy said in a statement that she was “deeply grateful” for the outpouring of support from current and former students, as well as “Aggies of all majors.” “Aggie” is a nickname adopted by Texas A&M for its students, who it referred to as “Farmers” until the 1920s.
McElroy declined to comment further.
The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents met Sunday in an hourslong executive session to approve “potential” negotiations of a settlement with McElroy.
The uproar at Texas A&M is no longer just about McElroy, though. Allegations have emerged that another professor, Joy Alonzo, was put on paid leave after a student accused her of speaking unfavorably about Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick during a lecture about the opioid crisis.
According to The Tribune, John Sharp, the chancellor of Texas A&M System, texted Patrick shortly after the lecture to inform him that Alonzo was placed on leave “pending investigation re firing her.” It remains unclear what Alonzo said that was considered questionable.
Patrick is one of the main proponents of the state’s DEI ban, calling such initiatives “divisive” in previous statement. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
McElroy’s and Alonzo’s situations come at a time when at least a dozen GOP states are targeting DEI efforts in higher education — which were created to increase access and equitable treatment for minority communities. They also come as the U.S. Supreme Court has struck down affirmative action, ruling that race cannot factor into college admissions processes.
AN UNCERTAIN AND GLOOMY FUTURE
Rebecca Hankins, a Texas A&M professor for 20 years, said that though professors have been promised academic freedom, what happens next is unclear. “There is nothing that gives me confidence things are going to get better,” she said.
Hankins, who is Black and Muslim, said she has seen colleagues admonished for their speech in the classroom over the years and cited the school’s history in her pessimism about its capacity for change.
“Am I supposed to think that you care about me knowing that someone who fought to keep us enslaved, you built a statue to?” Hankins said.
Hankins said the school’s archives include photos of former university groups wearing Ku Klux Klan robes, and a campus statue of a Confederate Army general is still revered by students, who drop pennies on it for good luck.
Traditions aside, some alumni have expressed disgust over the university’s handling of McElroy’s hiring.
In a letter sent last week, the Texas A&M Black Former Student Network criticized the school’s leadership for promoting values such as loyalty, respect and self-service while showing that they “don’t have the character nor the courage to follow these Core Values.”
Current students remain concerned about the impact the DEI ban will have on activities, programs and speech on campus next year.
“A lot of the students want clear communication with how that is going to look, especially students in organizations funded through DEI offices,” said Andrew Applewhite, a junior at Texas A&M who leads the student senate.
In a statement Wednesday, Texas A&M interim president Mark A. Walsh said he believed every Aggie should have a voice and be treated with respect. “Just to be clear on where I stand, I believe diversity in all its forms is a strength,” Walsh said.
While Texas A&M has said it embraces diversity, it’s not explicitly among the values the school promotes.
A POTENTIAL EXODUS FROM HIGHER EDUCATION
McElroy’s failed hiring is also driving concerns about the new law’s impact on hiring and retention.
College administrators are so fearful of violating the new law that they are debating this over the qualifications of a candidate, said Pat Heintzelman, president of the Texas Faculty Association.
“They are setting the bar higher because of race now,” Heintzelman said.
Gov. Greg Abbott reinforced that in February when he warned state entities, including universities, to end DEI hiring practices — months before the ban was passed.
Faculty are already feeling the effects, according to Paulette Granberry Russell, president of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. She said she is increasingly learning of faculty members at universities subject to DEI restrictions who are planning to leave their positions because they teach subjects that are “subject to a higher level of scrutiny.”
“Too often it is going to have more of a dramatic impact on faculty of color,” Granberry Russell said.
Northwestern has hired former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch to lead an investigation into the culture of its athletic department and its anti-hazing procedures following allegations of abusive behavior and racism within the football program and other teams.
Lynch, who served as Attorney General from 2015 to 2017 under former President Barack Obama, will begin her review immediately, the school announced Tuesday. She will seek input from faculty, staff, students and alumni. The university announced no timetable for the investigation but said the results will be made public, unlike those of a previous investigation commissioned by the school.
“Hazing has absolutely no place at Northwestern. Period,” Northwestern President Michael Schill said in a statement. “I am determined that with the help of Attorney General Lynch, we will become a leader in combating the practice of hazing in intercollegiate athletics and a model for other universities. We will provide all of our students with the resources and support they need and do whatever is necessary to protect their safety and ensure that our athletics program remains one we can all be proud of.”
Athletic director Derrick Gragg said his department welcomes the investigation, calling it “a critical tool in identifying the additional steps Northwestern can take to eradicate hazing.”
“By making the results of her review public, we hope our entire community will be better informed and guided as we all work to address this critical issue in college athletics,” he said.
Attorneys representing athletes suing Northwestern blasted it as a publicity stunt and questioned whether the previous investigation that led to longtime football coach Pat Fitzgerald’s firing was thorough enough.
“We have to wonder if this is nothing more than an effort to counteract negative press, and more importantly, the growing number of former Northwestern football players filing lawsuits against the University,” attorneys Ben Crump, Steve Levin and Margaret Battersby Black said. “The University’s top priority should have been, and should be, doing right by the victims of these despicable acts and eradicating hazing from their campus. And they can start by being transparent and releasing the full report from the first investigation to the public.”
Lynch, who works for the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, was hired in November by the Boston Bruins to investigate the NHL team’s player-vetting process after it signed prospect Mitchell Miller and then rescinded his contract offer. Miller had his draft rights relinquished by Arizona for bullying a Black classmate with developmental disabilities in middle school.
Lynch is representing the NFL in in Brian Flores’ race discrimination lawsuit. She also oversaw the sprawling investigation of international soccer that was unsealed in 2015 and led to the removal of a generation of soccer leaders in North and South America, and Switzerland-based FIFA and UEFA.
Northwestern is facing lawsuits from multiple former football players as well as one from a former volleyball player who says she was physically harmed during a hazing situation and mistreated by coach Shane Davis. Attorneys representing the former Northwestern athletes have said more lawsuits will be filed.
Fitzgerald — the program’s winningest coach and a star linebacker for the Wildcats in the 1990s — was fired by Schill on July 10 after initially being suspended two weeks following an investigation by attorney Maggie Hickey of law firm ArentFox Schiff that found hazing within the program and “significant opportunities” for the coaching staff to know about it. He was replaced an interim basis by David Braun, who was hired as defensive coordinator six months earlier.
Baseball coach Jim Foster was fired July 13 amid allegations of a toxic culture that included bullying and abusive behavior. Assistant Brian Anderson, a former major leaguer who won a World Series ring with the Chicago White Sox in 2005, took over on an interim basis.
Northwestern said following Hickey’s investigation the football team would no longer hold training camp in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as it did for years and would have someone not affiliated with the program monitor the locker room.
The school said at the time it would require annual anti-hazing training for coaches, staff members and athletes with an emphasis on reporting options and the responsibility to report as well as discipline. Other measures include creating an online tool for athletes to report hazing anonymously.
By K.H. Hamilton, Contributing Writer
On Saturday, July 29, 2023, Dr. LaShae Sharp-Collins announced her candidacy for the 79th Assembly District at the home of her parents, James and Mary Sharp. Family, friends, advocates, community members and mentors, including California Secretary of State, Dr. Shirley Weber were present to show their support of Dr. Sharp-Collins.
An educator who is homegrown in the community, Dr. Sharp-Collins believes it is critical to show her future constituents about her personal connection to the 79th Assembly District. She grew up in Southeastern San Diego, graduated from Lincoln High School and her parents still live in the Southeast community.
Earlier in the day she attended the Annual Backpack Giveaway, hosted in El Cajon by the current California State Assemblymember for District 79, Dr. Akilah Weber. Dr. Weber is currently running for California Senate District 39, which is Senate President pro Tempore Toni Atkin’s seat. Atkins is termed out.
With a commitment to improving education for all of her potential future constituents, Dr. Sharp-Collins and her team are excited about the upcoming months ahead. If you are interested in volunteering, or even donating to Dr. LaShae’s campaign, visit her website at www.lashaeforassembly.com.
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