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- Category: Campus News
Keynote Speaker is Dr. N. Joyce Payne, Director, Office for the Advancement of Public Black Colleges, National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges
Lincoln University, which has earned a national reputation for its distinguished role in higher education, will recognize its undergraduate students for their high academic achievements at the annual Student Honors Convocation, on Wednesday, March 13, 2002, at 11 a.m., in the main Gymnasium of Manuel Rivero Hall, on the campus in southern Chester County.
The keynote speaker is Dr. N. Joyce Payne, director of the Office for the Advancement of Public Black Colleges of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. The organization operates in cooperation with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
The Honors Convocation at Lincoln – America's first Historically Black University – is being presented as a formal occasion with full academic regalia. A reception for honored students, members of their family, and donors will be held at the hall immediately following the convocation. Students earning a grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 and above during the spring 2001 and fall 2001 semesters are being recognized.
Students with 3.3 and above GPAs during the spring 2001 and fall 2001 semesters will be given certificates and in some cases cash awards. Special recognition – the prestigious President's Award – is being given to sixteen students who achieved a cumulative GPA of 4.0 and above. In addition, fifteen Dean's Awards will be presented, five from each of the University's three academic Schools: Humanities, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and Social Sciences and Behavioral Studies. Also, students on the spring 2001 and fall 2001 Dean's List are being honored for their academic achievements.
Dr. Payne's organization, the Office for the Advancement of Public Black Colleges, is an information and advocacy office that represents 35 of the largest and most prestigious historically Black public colleges and universities in the nation. She formerly served as president of Global Systems, Inc. and as a senior staff member under the Carter administration with the President's Advisory Committee for Women; President's National Advisory Council on Women's Educational Programs and the White House Conference on Families. In 1987, she created the nationally recognized Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, a merit scholarship program that is designed exclusively for exceptional students at public Black colleges and universities.
Dr. Payne is an authority on women's issues in relation to higher education and labor force participation. She has published and presented a number of papers, including "Women in Administration in Higher Education;" "Women in Urban School Systems;" "Men, Women, & the Consequences of Power;" "Maintaining the Competitive Tradition" in Minorities in Higher Education; "Hidden Messages in the Pursuit of Equality" in Academe; and "Black Colleges in an Expanding Economy" in the American Council on Education's Educational Record.
Dr. Payne recently completed Strategically Approaching the Future -- 1890 Land-Grant System -- A Strategic Plan, and is primarily responsible for coordinating implementation of the plan for 18 Black land-grant universities. She also played a major role in developing the "Revitalization Plan" for Coppin State College and continues to work with the University of the District of Columbia Coalition to advance the land-grant mission in Washington, DC.
Dr. Payne is one of the founders of the D.C. Chapter of the Coalition of 100 Black Women, Inc. and a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority. She has received awards from the Ford Foundation, Hall of Fame for the District of Columbia, Spencer Foundation, and the U.S. Air Force, and serves on the Foreign Service Performance Evaluation Board, U.S. Department of State.
An alumna of the District of Columbia Teachers Colleges, where she received the bachelor of science degree, Dr. Payne earned her master's and doctorate degrees from Atlanta University. She taught at the former Federal City College and at George Washington University. She served on the board of trustees of the University of the District of Columbia for nine years and was elected chair of the board from 1985 to 1988. She has traveled extensively throughout the world, including to Cuba, the Caribbean, Germany, Mexico, Nigeria, Paris and South Africa.
Founded in 1854, Lincoln University provides the best elements of a liberal arts and sciences-based undergraduate core curriculum and selected graduate programs to meet the needs of students living in a highly technological and global society.
Besides its main campus in southern Chester County, Lincoln also operates the Center for Graduate and Continuing Education in Philadelphia.
The University enrolls 1,871 undergraduate and graduate students. Lincoln has achieved several recent national distinctions.
The University is:
- ranked 2nd in the nation in graduating African Americans with baccalaureate degrees in the physical sciences.
- ranked 12th in the nation in graduating all minorities with baccalaureate degrees in the physical sciences.
- ranked in the top 2% in the nation in graduating African Americans with baccalaureate degrees in computer and information sciences.
- ranked in the top 2% in the nation in graduating African Americans with baccalaureate degrees in biological and life sciences.
- ranked in the top 3% in the nation in graduating African Americans in all academic disciplines.
- one of 20 universities nationwide where 40% or more of its physics graduates are women.
- noted for graduating 7% of African American physics majors in the U.S. in 1999.
- ranked first in Pennsylvania in graduating African Americans with baccalaureate degrees in the physical sciences.
These national distinctions are continuations of the Lincoln University tradition of educating an impressive list of African Americans who have distinguished themselves as doctors, lawyers, educators, businesspersons, theologians and heads of state.
The University is led by President Ivory V. Nelson, Ph.D., who has achieved a national reputation for his distinguished leadership in higher education and as a scientist. Under President Nelson's leadership, the University is being restored as the Institution of Choice for students seeking a world-class higher education.