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From: Fernanda Zamudio-Suarez
Subject: Race on Campus: A scholarship honoring a family legacy is canceled
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A university ends a scholarship for financially needy Black students accepted to medical school. The family of Herschell Lee Hamilton established an annual scholarship in 2013 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to help high-achieving Black students who had been accepted to the institution’s medical school. The scholarship honored Hamilton, a surgeon who died in 2003. Hamilton helped heal civil-rights protesters and children who had painful run-ins with police dogs and fire hoses during Birmingham’s civil-rights struggle. He also played an important role in attracting young Black students to the medical field at a time when they were mostly unwelcome. Faced with the prospect of losing federal funds after the Trump administration wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter that race-based scholarships were illegal and discriminatory, the university canceled the scholarship and sent the money back. Our Katherine Mangan spoke with Hamilton’s son, Herschell Lanier Hamilton, about why he thinks the scholarship is still necessary. Read the interview here.
How racially diverse are the faculties at the largest colleges? Chronicle data reporters examined the average annual percentages of full-time faculty members in different racial and ethnic groups and tracked those percentages over time. See how the numbers have changed here. And if you’re curious about how your institution stacks up, search for your college here.
