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Black Collegian News & Views
Spelman to Get $10 Million for Black Women's Program
By Michelle D. Anderson
Black College Wire
Making the largest donation in its 157-year history, Lehman Brothers
Holding Inc. has announced a $10 million gift to Spelman College to
provide opportunities for black women interested in business careers.
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Travis J. Tatum
Spelman president Beverly Daniel Tatum and Lehman Brothers
president and chief operating officer Joseph M. Gregory at
Spelman |
The grant, announced Oct. 17 on Spelman's campus in Atlanta, will be
used to develop the Lehman Brothers Center for Global Finance and
Economic Development. The center will offer an interdisciplinary
curriculum, internships, scholarships, mentoring and a Chinese language
program.
"I cannot imagine a better partner than an industry leader like
Lehman Brothers to help us prepare our students to successfully enter an
arena where they have been historically underrepresented.," Spelman
President Beverly Daniel Tatum said in a press release.
Tatum and Lehman Brothers president and chief operating officer
Joseph M. Gregory held an open discussion and reception on Spelman's
campus on the day of their announcement. During the event, Joseph said
his firm wanted to give back and put Spelman students on an equal-level
playing field.
At the same time the new Lehman Center is set to open, fall 2008,
Spelman is expected to also open its first "green friendly" residence
hall.
"I'm so excited about it because it's really about to take Spelman,
along with the dorm, into a new realm," said senior Marvina Walker, who
is a Lehman Bros. intern.
This year US News & World Report ranked Spelman as the No.1
historically black college and one of the 75 top "Best Liberal Arts
Colleges." The college boasts a 77 percent graduation rate -- the
highest among black colleges, according to The Journal of Blacks in
Higher Education.
According to a 2006 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
report, blacks make up 7 percent of officials and managers in the
banking and credit subsector and 4.4 percent in the securities
subsector. The New York Times reported that women make up an average of
33 percent of analysts, 25 percent of associates and 14 percent of
managing directors.
Walker, who said she would intern with the company for a third time
in 2008, said the firm's president met with a group of Spelman students
and alumnae this summer to discuss changes they wanted to see on campus.
"To see two months later that it was actually put in place is
phenomenal," Walker said.
Spelman sophomore Bethany White said the new program would provide an
opportunity for students who are interested in becoming business majors,
because they will no longer feel compelled to major in economics. "This
will give students a chance to major in what they're interested in,"
White said. Morehouse junior and business-marketing major Brandon Frame
said the new program is a great development for Spelman, yet it might
increase existing tensions among students in other departments that need
more funding.
Frame said he would cross-register at Spelman's Lehman center if the
program offered a course unavailable at Morehouse. As members of the
Atlanta University Center, Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta
University students often enroll in classes at neighboring institutions.
According to a New York Times report, Lehman Brothers, a global
financial firm which offers financial services to corporations,
governments, and high net worth individuals; is one of many Wall Street
companies making large donations to colleges with historically
underrepresented populations. This year Goldman Sachs donated $2 million
to Morehouse College to endow the school's Goldman Sachs Leadership
chair in civil and human rights.
Michelle D. Anderson , a student at Spelman
College, writes for the Maroon Tiger, the Morehouse College student
newspaper. To comment, please e-mail
Black College Wire.
Posted Oct. 18, 2007 |
