It is Saturday, July 25, and the National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc., is celebrating a successful conference with a fantastic closing banquet. The keynote speaker, Dr. Niara Sudarkasa, is talking about the seven Rs -- the essential African values that African American people must embrace and rediscover if we are to move smoothly and successfully into the twenty-first century.

There are home truths in her talk, but also phenomenal wisdom, as Sister Sudarkasa runs down the values of respect, responsibility, restraint, reciprocity, reverence, reason, and reconciliation. I could not be more charged up as I listen to my friend, this sister whose work so brilliantly combines study of life on the African continent with study of Black life in these United States.

Let me put it out there, then. I'm biased. I'm a Niara Sudarkasa fan. I've always liked and admired the sister, and when I visited the Lincoln University campus in the fall of 1997, my admiration grew by leaps and bounds. I was delighted to be part of an honors program speaker series, and energized by the focused honors students that I dined with before my talk. I was impressed by the Thurgood Marshall Living and Learning Center, which included a guest wing for visitors. I was even more impressed when I realized that Dr. Sudarkasa was instrumental in garnering the $17 million needed to build the center.

Because of my admiration for Dr. Sudarkasa, I was stunned to learn that she and Lincoln University have been in the Pennsylvania headlines and that accusations swirl around these last few years of her administration. I was also amazed to learn that this wonderful woman has been the target of a vicious, personal attack by a man who was once the university's attorney.

The attack and the charges have cast such a cloud over Lincoln University that the Pennsylvania legislature is withholding its annual appropriation to the university until there is an audit. Dr. Sudarkasa had to issue a press release to reassure students that the university will open on time this fall. She has also had to fight the perception that the university is "endangered" and has had to develop contingency plans in case the legislature's appropriation is too long delayed.