After Carby Ruckus, Yale Gives Black Studies Department Status
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Yale University officials announced last month that they will give departmental status to their African-American studies program.
The decision comes on the heels a rescinded resignation by the program's chairwoman, Dr. Hazel Carby, who submitted her pink slip early last month. She had said that, among other concerns, she questioned the university's commitment to Black studies in light of the fact that the program had not yet received departmental status. But she announced her resignation just days after the university's president, Dr. Richard C. Levin, had publicly praised Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and the African-American studies program he built at Harvard University (see Black Issues, March 2).
Carby later withdrew her resignation after Levin apologized.
Meanwhile, Yale officials say the move to make the program a department — which means that they now can hire their own faculty — had nothing to do with the Carby brouhaha.
For her part, Carby says she's pleased.
"To be designated a department is to gain university recognition for our substantial scholarly achievements and intellectual leadership in the field," she says. "It will enable us to expand and grow in new and exciting directions. We are delighted."

Ole Miss Elects First Black
Student Body President
JACKSON, Miss. — Nearly 38 years after James Meredith struggled against racism to enter the University of Mississippi, students have elected the school's first Black student body president.
Nic Lott, a political science major, beat his White opponent by more than 100 votes in a campus election last month, says Casey O'Shea, student election commissioner.
Lott, a self-described conservative, says race played no role in the election, which drew an estimated 20 percent of Ole Miss' more than 10,000 students to the polls.
"I haven't made an issue of it (race)," Lott, president of the Mississippi College Republicans, said before the final tally. "I'm running to represent all Ole Miss students."
Ole Miss gained notoriety in 1962 when students rioted in protest of the registration of Meredith, the school's first Black student. The university in Oxford has a Black student population of about 12 percent.
The university lags behind Mississippi State University and the University of Southern Mississippi in electing Black student representatives.
Additionally, a Black female also was chosen as editor-in-chief of the Daily Mississippian, the student newspaper. Pamela Hamilton, a sophomore journalism major, was chosen last month over two other candidates.  
Black student leaders say Lott's election, coupled with Hamilton's appointment, could help mend campus race relations, which became strained recently with a series of racially charged incidents.
Earlier this month, a White dormitory hall director had a brick thrown through his window with a note tied to it containing racial epithets (see Black Issues, March 2).