Johns Hopkins Gazette: April 10, 1995


Black Staff, Faculty Form Association To Serve As 'Change Agent'

     After months of informal conversations, a handful of black
administrators on the Homewood campus have created a more
structured association to serve as a forum for issues, interests
and concerns facing black faculty and staff. More than 60 people
attended their first meeting on Thursday.

     Vernon Savage, an associate director in the Counseling and
Student Development Center and one of the association's founders,
said that membership in the association is not only for African
Americans, although he noted that those attending the first
meeting all were people of color.

     "This forum was created in the mold of the NAACP, which is
open to anyone who can embrace our mission and support our
goals."

     In the association's draft of its by-laws, it describes
itself as a "visible and viable change agent dedicated to
promoting and enhancing identity, sense of community,
professional welfare and development among black faculty, staff
and students" at Homewood.

     "We are focusing on Homewood because we don't feel we are in
a position to speak for the concerns of East Baltimore," Dr.
Savage said. "We can always expand."

     On the Homewood campus, Dr. Savage hopes the association can
achieve the following eight goals:

1.   Exert influence and participation of the black community,
both in terms of black concerns and the total structure of the
university;

2.   Advocate for the employment of a more representative number
of black faculty and staff, particularly at the senior staff
level. 

3.   Promote professional excellence, scholarship and cooperative
research among black faculty, staff and students;

4.   Urge the university to provide equal educational and career
opportunities for professional growth and upward mobility for all
members of the black community;

5.   Provide Hopkins with a comprehensive and representative
black perspective on institutional, societal and programmatic
development on campus and in the community;

6.   Serve as a resource bureau for Hopkins and the black
community;

7.   Provide both leadership and supportive service on the
administrative and academic levels to facilitate the delivery of
efficient and effective service to all elements of the
university;

8.   Stimulate a sense of social responsibility and cultural
sensitivity to improve communication among black faculty, staff
and students.

     If the current by-laws are accepted by the membership,
students will be admitted only as associate members, meaning they
will not have a vote. Dr. Savage and his co-founders, however, do
expect and intend for the group to "interface with students" in a
variety of ways, he said.
     

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