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Clarion University hosts delegation from Howard University

The Howard University delegation inspects Clarion University’s Frederick Douglass Collection. Front from left are: Laura Straughn, Truman Ryan Keys, and Iyelli Ichile; and back from left are: Dr. Kimberly Moffitt, Rhonda L. Smith, Kesha Morant, and Tehani Finch.

A budding relationship between Clarion University and Howard University, Washington, D.C., was further enhanced by a visit of a delegation from Howard to campus.

“This collaboration is a long-time coming,” said Dr. Kimberly Moffitt, coordinator of the Preparing Future Faculty Program at Howard University during the Clarion visit. “Dr. Gant had a long correspondence with my late predecessor in this position, Dr. Tim Riley. It broke off after his death, but she contacted me in 2007 to try and reconnect.

“We invited Clarion to visit our campus and get a sense of what we do and what the Preparing Future Faculty Program means for graduate students. This visit gave them an opportunity to talk about the Frederick Douglass Program at Clarion University.”

Two Howard doctoral students, Kesha Morant and Tehani Finch, participated in the summer 2007 Frederick Douglas Scholars Program at Clarion and returned to Clarion as part of the delegation. The Frederick Douglass Scholars program provides university experience for doctoral candidates primarily from historic black colleges and universities. The presence of these teaching fellows diversifies the summer session faculty.

“This was a move ahead for exposing our students to an environment like Clarion’s, which is very unlike Howard’s,” said Moffitt. “They need this exposure to understand their role as faculty members. I hope this visit spearheads a growing relationship.”

Moffitt said the next step would be to see if Clarion University could become a participating institution in Howard’s “Preparing Future Faculty” internship program. Ten institutions from throughout the United States are currently part of the program which allows Howard students to serve as junior faculty members, receiving classroom experience in a college setting while finishing their dissertation for their doctorate degree.

“This has worked wonderfully for most students,” said Moffitt. “Ninety percent of them have completed their dissertations and 50 percent of them have decided to stay at the institutions where they were assigned. We want this program to be mutually beneficial to both institutions.”

During the Clarion visit, the Howard delegation had dinner with President Joseph Grunenwald; attended a breakfast with academic deans where Dr. Greg Goodman, professor of education at Clarion University, and current Frederick Douglass Graduate Assistant Amil Cook of Randolph, Mass., presented a program, “Values of Multicultural Education”; attended a luncheon with university faculty, staff and students; toured Carlson Library and its Frederick Douglass Collection; and toured student housing at Reinhard Villages and Clarion’s campus.

Clarion University’s Frederick Douglass Summer Scholars program is one of the three components of the Frederick Douglass Institute at Clarion University, which also includes the growing Frederick Douglas Collection in Carlson Library, which contains 7450 titles, and the Frederick Douglass Graduate Assistantship program.

Howard’s Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) program is intended to add value to the doctoral degree by providing experience and professional training outside of the graduate curriculum of academic disciplines.

Frederick Douglass (1818-95) was an escaped slave, fiery abolitionist, revolutionary journalist, dedicated defender of women’s rights, a spellbinding orator, prolific writer, advisor to President Abraham Lincoln, and a public official.

Howard University originated in Nov. 1866, shortly after the end of the Civil War, when members of the First Congregational Society of Washington considered establishing a theological seminary for the education of African-American clergymen. Within a few weeks, the concept expanded to include a provision for establishing a University. Within two years, the University consisted of the colleges of Liberal Arts and Medicine. The new institution was named for General Oliver O. Howard, a Civil War hero who was both a founder of the University and, at the same time, commissioner of the Freedman’s Bureau. The University charter as enacted by Congress and subsequently approved by President Andrew Johnson on March 2, 1867, designated Howard University as “a University for the education of youth in the liberal arts and sciences.”

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