The Honorable Tammy Cox Stokes to deliver address at 179th SSU commencement ceremony  10 December 2011
 

The Honorable Tammy Cox Stokes, Chatham County Recorder's Court Judge, will deliver the keynote address at the 179th commencement ceremony to be held at 10 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 10 at Tiger Arena.
 

A graduate of Beach High School and the University of Georgia School of Law, Stokes has been a prosecutor and trial attorney for Dekalb County Juvenile Court and the Dekalb County Solicitors Office.  She was also prosecutor and trial attorney for the Fulton County District Attorney's Office, and litigator for State Farm Insurance Company and Moran and Boyle in Atlanta before returning to her native Savannah to open her own practice.

The first African-American female judge in Chatham County, Stokes is active on several community boards and organizations. 


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Enrollment at SSU grows by more than 400 students from 2010 to 2011

Enrollment at Savannah State increased by more than 400 students from fall 2010 to fall 2011, according to data released this month by the University System of Georgia (USG).

Fall 2011 enrollment at SSU topped the charts at 4,552 students, up from 4,080 the previous year — an 11.6 percent increase.  SSU was one of only three USG universities to see a double-digit increase.

Click here for the latest system-wide enrollment numbers.


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Six inducted into SSU 2011 Hall of Fame

North Carolina Central and Savannah
State Become Full Members
of MEAC

NORFOLK, Va., September 8, 2011 – The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
(MEAC) confirmed today that North Carolina Central University and
Savannah State University have met the criteria to become full
members of the conference effective September 1, 2011. 

“We are elated to have North Carolina Central and Savannah State to
become full members of the MEAC family,” said Commissioner
Dennis Thomas.  “I am pleased to announce that both institutions
have done a great job at meeting detailed criteria to be confirmed for
full membership.”

 Thomas added, “Their additions sustain our long range and strategic
plan of adding up to 14 members. Adding these outstanding academic
institutions completes the geographical footprint that bridges our South
Carolina and Florida institutions. ” 

 As a full member, North Carolina Central and Savannah State are
immediately eligible to participate in all conference championships
and earn the conference’s automatic berth to NCAA postseason
competition in all sponsored sports. 

 The additions give the MEAC a total of 13 conference members with
11 football playing institutions.  The conference is in its 42^nd year
of operation heading into the 2011-12 academic school year. The
MEAC sponsors 15 Division I (FCS) sports with automatic qualifying
bids for NCAA postseason competition in baseball, bowling, men’s
and women’s basketball,  men’s and women’s cross country, football,
men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s track and field,
softball, and volleyball.

 Today’s announcement reaffirms the provisional membership status
North Carolina Central received in 2009 and Savannah State
received in 2010.

 North Carolina Central recently received approval from the NCAA to
reclassify from Division II to active Division I status.  NCCU is one
of seven founding member institutions of the MEAC.

 Savannah State, which previously competed as a Division I
independent, is the only institution in the MEAC from the state
of Georgia. 

 Located in Norfolk, Va., the MEAC is made up of 13 outstanding
historically black institutions across the Atlantic coastline:
Bethune-Cookman University, Coppin State University, Delaware
State University, Florida A&M University, Hampton University,
Howard University, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, Morgan
State University, Norfolk State University, North Carolina A&T
State University, North Carolina Central University, Savannah State
University and South Carolina State University.

For more information on the MEAC and its sponsored sports, log
on to www.MEACsports.com. 


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• Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are defined as institutions that were established before 1964 with the principal mission of educating African Americans. They were created to address racism, a segregated society, poverty and illiteracy.
• The Supreme Court’s 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education declaring unconstitutional the doctrine of separate but equal and ending de jure racial segregation in public schools, also impacted higher education as states were required to dismantle dual systems of higher education; predominately white institutions were required to admit black students who prior to this time could not attend these institutions.
• Georgia is home to ten HBCUs of which three (Albany State University, Fort Valley State University and Savannah State University) are public institutions. Albany State University was founded in 1903 as the Albany Bible and Manual Training Institution; Fort Valley State University was founded in 1895 as Fort Valley High and Industrial School. It was consolidated in 1939 with the State Teachers and Agricultural College; and the Georgia General Assembly created Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth, now Savannah State University, in November 1980 pursuant to the Second Morrill Land Grant Acct, which promised more funding for the states but mandated the development of black land-grant colleges in southern states or risk loss of the federal funds.
• The State of Georgia in preference to its white citizens created two-year institutions within the same city with existing public HBCUs: Darton College (a two-year institution) located in Albany, GA was founded in 1963, eight years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Armstrong Junior College was founded in Savannah, GA in 1935; the institution became a two-year unit of the University System of Georgia in 1959, four years after the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education. The institution became a four-year college in 1964, the same year of a landmark piece of legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
• The Legal Defense Coalition for the Preservation of Public HBCUs is a Georgia non-profit corporation organized on August 16, 2007. The following issues have been identified:
  1. None of Georgia’s State HBCUs are either classified as Research or Regional Universities, and those with missions that would theoretically encompass objectives in furtherance of programs to attract a wide and diverse population are not adequately supported as State Universities.
  2. Certain programs offered by State HBCUs are duplicated in majority universities located in the same geographic area as State HBCUs without adequate demand to enable the State HBCUs’ programs to thrive.
  3. Where duplication of educational programs is warranted by demand and would improve the variety of offerings at State HBCUs if duplicated there, duplication of educational programs does not take place.
  4. Facility improvements at the State HBCUs are desperately needed but are not sufficiently funded and, when funded at all are slow to materialize.
  5. The Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia provides funding to the State HBCUs in amounts significantly less than the provision of funding to majority-White universities.
  6. None of the State HBCUs offer professional degree programs.