UD to host McNair Conference, Oct. 3-4

3:29 p.m., Sept. 26, 2003--More than 150 students from 25 colleges and universities across the country will participate in the National McNair Scholars Research Conference, to be held on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 3-4, in Clayton Hall.

UD’s Ronald E. McNair Post Baccalaureate Achievement program, one of 156 nationwide, honors physicist Dr. Ronald E. McNair, the second African-American astronaut in space, who was among those who died aboard the space shuttle “Challenger” in 1986.

Held this year for the first time at UD, the conference will feature student research presentations, a graduate school fair and workshop, as well as a premier showing of works from the Paul R. Jones collection, hosted by honorary McNair Scholar Paul R. Jones.

Free public events scheduled as part of the conference include:

More than 100 oral presentations by student participants from visiting McNair Scholar universities and colleges will be given from 9 a.m.-noon, and 2-4 p.m., Friday, Oct 3; and from 11 a.m.-noon and 3-4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 4. Each presentation panel will feature three 15-minute presentations on subjects representing a variety of academic disciplines, including the fine arts, humanities, social sciences, education and engineering. Each oral presentation panel will conclude with a single 10-minute question-and-answer period.

Poster presentations on subjects including a comparison of Type 2 diabetes in black and white males, health information processing in older adults, and student’s views on how diversity strengthens high school communities, will be held 9-11 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 4. The poster presentations are designed to foster one-on-one interaction while providing participating McNair Scholars with an opportunity to share the results of their research.

A graduate school fair will take place from 4-6 p.m., Friday, Oct. 3. The event provides participants an opportunity to meet with graduate school representatives from UD and other schools, including the Universities of Akron, Central Florida, Massachusetts and Pittsburgh, as well as Boston College, Catholic University of America and Emory University. Other participating schools include the New Jersey Institute of Technology, as well as Pennsylvania State, Thomas Jefferson, Tufts, Villanova, Virginia Commonwealth and William Patterson universities.

Honorary McNair Scholar, art collector, public servant and entrepreneur Paul R. Jones, will host the premier showing of “Circles of Culture,” from 4:30-6 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 4. The exhibit features works from the 1,500-piece Paul R. Jones Collection, one of the oldest, largest and most complete holdings of African-American art in the world.

Now showcased in Jones’ Atlanta home and in exhibitions across America, the collection includes works by such noted artists as Charles White, Herman “Kofi” Bailey, David Driskell, P.H. Polk and Selma Burke, who created the image of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that appears on the dime.

The Paul R. Jones Collection was officially received by UD in 2001, and will have a permanent home, complete with a study space, collection storage area and office space, in Mechanical Hall, formerly home to the Army ROTC.

In August 2002, Jones, who has been named one of the Top 100 Collectors in America by the magazine Art & Antiques, also was named an honorary McNair Scholar in recognition of the collector’s generosity in establishing the Paul R. Jones Collection at UD and in furthering the goals of the McNair Program, including engendering in students an understanding of the value of culture and the importance of making a commitment to service and change.

UD’s McNair Program was awarded the University’s 2003 Louis Lorenzo Redding Diversity Award. Named for the late civil rights attorney and the first African-American to be admitted to the Delaware bar, the award is given annually to a UD individual, unit, department or organization that promotes, enhances and implements diversity that results in a significant change in the campus climate and/or the composition within the University community.

The McNair program at UD recently received a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education in recognition of its past success, including a 100 percent success rate of participants who have applied to and been accepted at the graduate programs of their choice—the highest success rate in the country.

The McNair Program also is the model for the newly created University Undergraduate Scholars Program, a UD initiative that uses the McNair program model to provide services to a larger number and even more diversified body of qualified scholars.

For more information, call 831-4396.

Article by Jerry Rhodes

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